Bruttig-Fankel on the Moselle; constituent community of Fankel with the Moselle lockBruttig-Fankel, view to the villageBruttig: Moselle riverfrontBruttig, church
The municipality lies on the river Moselle (kilometres 57–59; Lower Moselle) and, as the name suggests, is made up of the two constituent communities of Bruttig and Fankel.
Climate
Yearly precipitation in Bruttig-Fankel amounts to 716 mm, which falls into the middle third of the precipitation chart for all Germany. Only at 43% of the German Weather Service'sweather stations are lower figures recorded. The driest month is February. The most rainfall comes in June. In that month, precipitation is 1.8 times what it is in February. Precipitation varies moderately. At 46% of the weather stations, lower seasonal swings are recorded.
History
The oldest evidence of settlers in the area is the very well preserved barrows on the Bruttig-Fankeler Berg (the local mountain) along the so-called Rennweg, an old linking road between the Roman long-distance roads, over which today runs the “Archaeological Hiking Trail” (Archäologischer Wanderweg). According to information from the State Office for Care of Monuments in Koblenz, some of these barrows date back to the Bronze Age.
Bruttig-Fankel has both Celtic-Roman and Merovingian-Frankish beginnings, with the constituent community of Bruttig likely being the older of the two. It had its first documentary mention on 4 June 898 as Pruteca im Mayengau in a donation document from the Lotharingian king Zwentibold, whose beneficiary was the Imperially immediate, free-noble convent in Essen. Besides many holdings in the Cologne and Bergheim area, the king transferred to the convent “…in pago magnensi in villa pruteca terra arabilis cum curtile et vineis…” (roughly translated: “…in the Mayen country in the village of Bruttig an estate with associated arable earth and vineyards…”). This document establishes that the village is at least 1,100 years old, likely even older, for there was already an estate with vineyards. A further clue as to the village's Celtic beginnings can be found in the name “Bruttig” itself. Language scholars derive the modern name from the Celtic Brutiacum (“Brut’s Dwelling”) through the LatinProteca (AD 898) and Prodecha (1250) to today's Bruttig (or variant Pruttig)
The other constituent community, Fankel, had its first documentary mention about 1100. The name derived from the Celticfank, meaning “wetlands”. Ownership arrangements in the Middle Ages were governed in both Bruttig and Fankel by several so-called Weistümer (a Weistum – cognate with Englishwisdom – was a legal pronouncement issued by men learned in law in the Middle Ages and early modern times). In the time of French occupation, beginning in 1794, both centres were assigned to the Mairie (“Mayoralty”) of Beilstein, which itself belonged to the Canton of Zell. Administration nevertheless lay with the Canton of Treis, and as of 1816, when Bruttig and Fankel were assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna, it lay with the former Cochem district. Since 1946, the two centres have been part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
In the course of administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate, the two formerly administratively separate municipalities of Bruttig and Fankel were amalgamated into one, named Bruttig-Fankel.
Politics
Municipal council
The council is made up of 16 council members, who were elected by majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.[3]
The municipality's arms might be described thus: Per pale argent a fess wavy vert, the whole surmounted by a key palewise gules, the wards to chief and turned to sinister, and vert a fleur-de-lis Or.
Bruttig-Fankel has an impaled coat of arms, meaning that it is composed of two other coats united in one field and separated by a vertical line of partition (“per pale”). The former coats belonged to the two constituent communities when they were separate municipalities.
Town partnerships
Bruttig-Fankel fosters partnerships with the following places:
The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:
Bruttig
Saint Margaret’s Catholic Parish Church (Pfarrkirche St. Margaretha), Hauptstraße – late mediaeval west tower from 1507, sculpture early 16th century, Romanesque Revival quarrystone aisleless church, 1845-1847; in the churchyard wall: cross, 19th century, grave cross from 1504, two grave crosses from 1807 and 1833, gravestone from 1555, 11 grave crosses from, among other years, 1567, 1572, 1598, 1600 and 1614; niche with Crucifixion group from 1599, renovated in 1905, Mary and Joseph, 18th century; whole complex with graveyard and rectory
Am Moselufer (no number) – town hall, three-floor plastered building, outdoor staircase, from 1619
Am Moselufer 6 – Schunck’sches Haus, former courthouse and residence, Late Renaissance plastered building from 1652, corner figure of Saint Margaret, 17th/18th century; in the yard the so-called Hinterhaus (“Back House”), partly timber-frame, from 1529, with five-sided oriel, partly timber-frame, from earlier half of 17th century; whole complex
Am Moselufer 7 – inn, Alte Winzerschenke, timber-frame house, partly solid, from 1667
Am Moselufer 9 – three-floor plastered timber-frame house, early 16th century
Am Moselufer 10 – timber-frame house, partly solid, sided, half-hipped roof, 18th century
Am Moselufer 23 – plastered timber-frame house, partly solid, half-hipped roof, from 1606
Fausenburg 4/6 – timber-frame house, partly solid, from 1665, timber-frame expansion and roof addition 18th century, timber-frame wing 19th century
Gobeliusstraße 6 – plastered timber-frame house, partly solid or sided, half-hipped roof, from 17th century
Kirchstraße 2 – three-floor timber-frame house, partly solid, half-hipped roof, from 1510 to 1511, timber framing in middle floor newer
Kirchstraße 6 – timber-frame house, about 1910 (?)
Klosterstraße 1 – timber-frame house, partly solid, 1472–1473; whole complex of buildings with quarrystone building adjoining
Klosterstraße 5 – timber-frame house on top of high pedestal, 16th century, two-floor timber-frame oriel from 1652; towards the back a quarrystone building from the time of building
Klosterstraße 12 – solid building with gable integrated into wall, 16th century
Mühlenbachstraße 8 – timber-frame house, partly solid or sided, 17th century (?), hearth heating plates
Next to Mühlenbachstraße 10 – former synagogue, quarrystone building with half-hipped roof, about 1840; next to it a quarrystone building with mansard roof, 18th century
Petrus-Mosellanus-Straße 2 – three-floor solid building, latter half of 16th century
Petrus-Mosellanus-Straße 3 – Moselle-style quarrystone building from about 1900
Poststraße 2 – two-winged building, back wing possibly from 16th/17th century, front wing from 19th century
Schunck’sche Straße 7 – two solid buildings, front one essentially mediaeval (?), back one from 16th century
Kreuzkirche (“Cross Church”), east of the village on Kreisstraße 36 – aisleless church, about 1720, Way of the Cross to the chapel, 7 prostrations, Bildstock-type
Fankel
Catholic Church of the Assumption of Mary (Kirche Mariä Himmelfahrt), Brunnenstraße 31 – Romanesque tower, 13th century, quire about 1385, Late Gothic aisleless church, mid 15th century; whole complex of buildings with graveyard: 4 gravestones from 1617, 1685, 1728 and the 17th century; 13 grave crosses from, among other years, 1598, 1610, 1617 and 1750; missionary cross from 17th/18th century; Crucifixion group from 19th century
Brunnenstraße – fountain made with two basalt basins
Brunnenstraße (no number) – daycare centre and town hall, well, solid building with church gate from the old fortifications, partly timber-frame, half-hipped roof, dendrochronologically dated to 1559, well
Brunnenstraße 11 – timber-frame house, partly solid, cellar portal from 1618, half-hipped roof, 18th century
Brunnenstraße 13 – timber-frame house, partly solid, balloon frame, from 1524, solid building behind, roof dated to 1425
Brunnenstraße 17 – tithe house, Late Gothic house with crow-stepped gable, about 1425
Brunnenstraße 19 – timber-frame house from 1517, balloon frame, roof dated to 1575
Brunnenstraße 20 – timber-frame house, partly solid, balloon frame, roof dated to 1481 and 1532
Behind Brunnenstraße 22 – timber-frame house, partly solid, from 18th century
Brunnenstraße 22 – estate of the Stetzgis of Treis, three-sided enclosed late mediaeval solid building, partly timber-frame, on quarrystone pedestal, 1467; hearth heating plate
Brunnenstraße 24/26 – timber-frame house, partly solid or plastered, 16th/17th century
Brunnenstraße 11, 13, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 24/26, 25, 27, Brunnenstraße 29/Rathausstraße 11/13 (monumental zone) – Brunnenstraße beginning with no. 11 and no. 16 on the other side, with town hall, Engelport Convent's estate, church and graveyard
Christophorusweg 2 – Late Gothic detached manor house, 1377–1378, partly timber-frame from about 1550
Nikolausstraße 4 – timber-frame house, partly solid, from 18th century
Rathausstraße 4 – timber-frame house, partly solid, mansard roof, from 18th century
Rathausstraße 6 – timber-frame house, partly solid, from 16th century (?)
Rathausstraße 7 – timber-frame house, partly solid, plastered, 17th century
FZM GIB GAS tournament, always three weeks after Whitsun
Weingelage (“Wine Revelry”)
Economy and infrastructure
Fankel Weir: construction of a second lock basin, 2009
Winegrowing and tourism characterize the village and belong inseparably together. In the constituent community of Bruttig, on the second weekend in August each year, the great Winemakers’ Festival is held. Well known steep-slope vineyards are Pfarrgarten, Götterlay, Rathausberg, Layenberg and Rosenberg. Raised here mainly is Riesling, although there are also Elbling and various other grape varieties, including some red.
In Fankel is found, besides the Fankel Weir, also the RWE Power AG main control centre, from which all hydroelectric stations at weirs on the German section of the Moselle are controlled.
Famous people
Sons and daughters of the town
Petrus Mosellanus (birth name: Peter Schade), b. 1493 in Bruttig, d. 19 April 1524 in Leipzig; Moselle humanist, philologist, theologist and church teacher
Further reading
Heimes, Ernst, Ich habe immer nur den Zaun gesehen. Suche nach dem KZ-Außenlager Cochem, Koblenz: Fölbach, 4. Aufl. 1999, ISBN3-923532-39-3
Schommers, Reinhold, Gemeinde Bruttig-Fankel an der Mosel. - Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Landschaftsschutz e.V. Kunststättenheft Nr. 371, Köln: Verlag des Rheinischen Vereins für Denkmalpflege und Landschaftsschutz 1. Aufl. 1992, ISBN3-88094-675-2
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