Desloch
Desloch is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Meisenheim, whose seat is in the like-named town. Desloch is a farming and winegrowing village.
Geography
Location
Desloch is a linear village lying 3 km northwest of Meisenheim on the Glan at the north edge of the North Palatine Uplands, Germany. The municipal area measures 637 ha, of which 129 ha is wooded. Desloch lies on an old Roman road between the Nahe and the Glan.Neighbouring municipalities
Clockwise from the north, Desloch's neighbours are the municipality of Lauschied, the municipality of Abtweiler, the municipality of Raumbach, the town of Meisenheim, the municipality of Breitenheim and the municipality of Jeckenbach.Constituent communities
Also belonging to Desloch is the outlying homestead of Neuwieser Hof.History
The village's name is of Celtic origin, meaning “pool at the mountain”. As long ago as 400 BC, Celts were living on the heights around what is now Desloch. Over the centuries that followed, these Celts were supplanted by Germanic peoples who thrust their way from the Rhine’s right bank into the lands on the left bank only sporadically. From 50 BC to AD 450 – fully 500 years – the Romans held sway in the region, for a time even under Emperor Augustus. With the onset of the Migration Period and Rome’s downfall, the Romans vanished from the land. For a short time, Germanic tribes dwelt in the region before having to give way to the Franks, who founded new villages and farms, worked very hard, and were the lords at all the estates. It was in Frankish times, the time of the widespread woodland clearing, that the name Desloch – earlier called Tageslach, and then Denslach – arose. In 1184, Desloch had its first documentary mention. It had its beginnings in a monastic complex that was a branch of Disibodenberg Abbey. Desloch was in the Early Middle Ages the seat of a high court of the Waldgraves and the Counts Palatine. Even today, the local speech refers to the place before the church as Auf der Linde. This was where the court sat. An old stone still recalls this today. In the Thirty Years' War, Desloch was laid waste together with its church, which stood on the same spot as today's church. The wooden chapel that had stood in the beginning was replaced with a sturdier church in 1570. This was the one that was destroyed, and a new one arose in its stead only in 1751. It still looms over the village today. In the 16th century, Desloch, which hitherto had belonged to the Waldgraves and Rhinegraves at Kyrburg since 1128, was acquired through marriage by the Counts Palatine of Zweibrücken, who then annexed it to Meisenheim. After the Thirty Years' War, the Count Palatine of Zweibrücken organized some immigration for the now depopulated region, bringing people from the Tyrol, Switzerland, Italy, France and Holland to settle the land. Under King Louis XIV, the region was French from 1684 to 1697, and later became French a second time in French Revolutionary times and the Napoleonic Era that followed, from 1795 to 1815. In Frederick the Great’s time, many peasants emigrated to Pomerania and Lithuania. In 1823, many people emigrated to Brazil, whereas from 1837 to 1860 the destination was North America. From 1782 to 1785, there was a mass emigration to Galicia and Bačka in the Kingdom of Hungary. After the German campaign in the Napoleonic Wars, Desloch, together with the rest of the region south of the Nahe, passed as the Oberamt of Meisenheim to the Landgraves of Hesse-Homburg, to whom the village and region belonged for 50 years before passing in 1866 first to the Grand Duchy of Hesse and then, later that same year, to the Kingdom of Prussia. Thereafter, the village lived through the glory of the German Empire’s rise in 1870 and 1871 and the ignominy of defeat in both the First World War and the Second World War. Both world wars exacted their toll on Desloch: in all, 55 men fell. Since the Second World War, the villagers have been working hard to beautify their village, winning several distinctions in the contest Unser Dorf soll schöner werden : first place at the district level in 1962; the same in both 1963 and 1964 but in the special class; first place at the regional level in 1964, and also the silver badge at the state level.Religion
As at 31 August 2013, there are 363 full-time residents in Desloch, and of those, 292 are Evangelical, 28 are Catholic, 1 belongs to another religious group and 42 either have no religion or will not reveal their religious affiliation.Politics
Municipal council
The council is made up of 8 council members, who were elected by majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.Mayor
Desloch's mayor is Udo Reidenbach.Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: Gespalten von Schwarz und Gold über einem Dreiberg in vertauschten Farben, darin vorne ein schwarzer, hinten ein goldener fünffstrahliger Stern. Oben zwei einander zugewandte Löwen, einen fünfstrahligen Stern in der mitte in vertauschten Farben haltend. Vorne der Löwe gold, rotbewehrt und gekrönt, hinten der Löwe rot, blaubewehrt und gekrönt.The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Per pale sable and Or a trimount counterchanged charged with two mullets of five in fess, each of the field, and upon which lions combatant, the dexter of the second armed, langued and crowned gules, the sinister of the third armed, langued and crowned azure, between their paws a mullet of five counterchanged.
Known to history are two former local lordships: the Waldgraves and Palatinate-Zweibrücken. Both bore the lion as an heraldic device, the Waldgraves a red one on a gold field, seen in Desloch's arms as the charge on the sinister side, and the Counts Palatine of Zweibrücken a gold one on a black field, seen here as the charge on the dexter side, although in Desloch's arms, he has been turned round to become “sinister” so that the two lion charges in the arms are “combatant”. There was a happy circumstance with these arms insofar as, unlike many other coats of arms, this one actually obeys the rule of tincture. To distinguish Desloch's arms from Alsenz’s, which are similar, the village’s location was also considered. Desloch lies in a high dale, and at night can only be seen by stars. Thus, the two lions in the arms hold a star, while two others appear on the trimount to fill in what would otherwise be empty space. The tinctures used in Desloch's arms are drawn from those formerly borne by the Waldgraves and the Counts Palatine of Zweibrücken. The arms have been borne since 2003.
Culture and sightseeing
Buildings
The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:- Evangelical church, Hauptstraße – Baroque aisleless church, marked 1751, tower made taller in 1857
- Hauptstraße 43 – former school, Late Classicist plastered building, mid 19th century
- Neuwieser Straße 6 – Baroque timber-frame house, plastered, 18th century
- Schulstraße 9 – Late Classicist house with single roof ridge, quarrystone, marked 1869
More about the church