Meisburg (in Eifel dialect: Mesbuasch) is an Ortsgemeinde â a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality â in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Daun, whose seat is in the like-named town. In Meisburg, a Moselle Franconian dialect is spoken.
The municipality lies on BundesstraÃÂe 257 between Daun (19 km) and Bitburg (24 km) in the middle of the Vulkaneifel, a part of the Eifel known for its volcanic history, geographical and geological features, and even ongoing activity today, including gases that sometimes well up from the earth.
The German Volcano Route, which opened in September 2006, runs past the village.
The village sits in the valley of the Dümpelbach at a mean elevation of 480 m above sea level. The highest elevations in the area are the Daxelberg at 589 m above sea level and Rackenbach at 522 m above sea level. The Schafbach, which empties into the Lohsalm, rises in the Salmwald (forest), a water-rich area with a waterworks. From here, great parts of the Bernkastel-Wittlich district are supplied with drinking water.
All the following are MeisburgâÂÂs immediate neighbours:
The EifelâÂÂs settlement history gives clues as to when the village of Meisburg might have arisen. Finds from the New Stone Age from about 4500 to 1800 BC and clues to Roman settlement about AD 300 in what is now MeisburgâÂÂs municipal area bear witness to human habitation here quite early on. The municipality owns a collection of Stone-Age stone hatchets, blades, scraping tools and arrowheads.
Following the Celts were the Romans. The Roman road known as the WeinstraÃÂe (âÂÂWine RoadâÂÂ) also came through the Meisburg area, running from Kirn in the Hunsrück by way of Wittlich, and then on the Rackenbacher WiesâÂÂchen (a âÂÂlittle meadowâÂÂ) past nearby Meisburg to Prüm and Malmedy. The Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier has confirmed an ancient settlement in the rural cadastral area âÂÂIn der Deltâ from the 2nd and 3rd centuries, presumably a Roman farm.
The Romans were driven out by Germanic tribes, and later in the course of the Migration Period came the Franks. In Meisburg, a Moselle Franconian dialect is still spoken today.
Although the municipality marked 750 years of existence in 1979, but it is quite a bit older than that. Meisburg was first mentioned (as âÂÂMeisbrethâÂÂ) in a document of Pope Innocent II in 1140 as property of the abbey Saint Maximin in Trier. The village probably existed around 1116, when the monks of Saint Maximin forged several charters, wherein Meisburg is mentioned as âÂÂMeisbrathâÂÂ.
In 1229, Theoderich and his wife Clarissa, the Lord and Lady of Bruch, donated the patronage and two shares of the tithes at Meisburg to Saint ThomasâÂÂs Monastery. In 1330, a church was already listed in the village and Meisburg belonged to the Electoral-Trier Amt of Kyllburg. Saint ThomasâÂÂs Monastery was in the centuries that followed MeisburgâÂÂs landholder.
When an end was put to the monasteryâÂÂs landholding rights in 1794, the Amt of Kyllburg also ceased to be in force as the lands on the RhineâÂÂs left bank were annexed by France. Under Napoleonic rule, Meisburg belonged to the Department of Sarre, and more locally to the canton of Prüm. At the Congress of Vienna in 1814 and 1815, this area was assigned to Prussia. The district of Daun was formed and Meisburg belonged to the Bürgermeisterei (âÂÂMayoraltyâÂÂ) of Weidenbach, later being reassigned to the Bürgermeisterei of Niederstadtfeld. Since 1947, it has been part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and the former administration in Niederstadtfeld was absorbed into the Verbandsgemeinde of Daun.
The centralized water supply came to the village in 1920, and electricity in 1924. The provincial road, now known as BundesstraÃÂe 257, between Daun and Kyllburg was built in the 1930s.
There is one ghost village near Meisburg, named Rackenbach, and there is also a vanished village, which was called Bradscheid.
As early as 1522, a mill was mentioned. The sawmill on the river Lohsalm is the only working, water-driven sawmill left in the Rhineland. About 2 km up the dale, the remnants of a further mill together with a millrace may still be found.
The Schafbrück, today a hotel, already existed in the 19th century. In the early 1950s, three outlying farms were established at Rackenbach and three more at Rascheid; all are still going concerns.
A school was first mentioned in Meisburg in 1721. This was closed in the course of school reform in 1978. The Wallenborn primary school and the Niederstadtfeld Hauptschule are now the schools for the municipality. A Gymnasium and a Realschule are to be found in Daun and Gerolstein. The former school building in Meisburg now houses the kindergarten for Deudesfeld, Meisburg, Wallenborn and Weidenbach.
The council is made up of 6 council members, who were elected at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.
MeisburgâÂÂs mayor is Anja Rieker.
The German blazon reads: Von silber über schwarz geteilt, oben das kurtrierische Kreuz, unten ein rot-silber geschachtelter Schrägrechtsbalken.
The municipalityâÂÂs arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Per fess argent a cross gules and sable a bend countercompony of the first and second.
The cross above the line of partition is Electoral TrierâÂÂs old armorial bearing and represents MeisburgâÂÂs allegiance to Trier in feudal times. The bend countercompony (that is, slanted stripe chequered in two rows) is the charge borne by the Cistercians. This stands for the villageâÂÂs former landholder, Saint ThomasâÂÂs Monastery, which held Meisburg from 1229 to 1794.
Meisburg fosters partnerships with the following places:
Schoppen is a village within the municipality of Amel (or Amblève in French), and it lies in BelgiumâÂÂs eastern German-speaking region.
Meisburg has an old sawmill, which is driven by an overshot waterwheel seven metres in diameter. The Schneidemühle (âÂÂcutting millâÂÂ), as it is known locally, is the RhinelandâÂÂs, and the EifelâÂÂs, last preserved sawmill. The energy needed to drive it is afforded by a 350 m-long millpond.
Notable structures in Meisburg include the following:
A significant portion of the local economy derives from the local American Spangdahlem Air Base.