Citizens for Europe Aktionsgemeinschaft Bobenthal - St. Germanshof e.V. Table of contents The Western Palatinate has been a border area for many centuries. Introduction Topics I. History of the border region St. Germanshof II. Student demonstration in 1950 III. New capital for Europa Aktionsgemeinschaft Bobenthal - St. Germanshof e.V. I 2019 3 Englisch Foreword The fact that the Palatinate is generally considered and French, found an impressively courageous way English the home of the early German nation-building and to formulate their visionary idea of peaceful Euro- democratic movement is particularly evident from pean unification-without shedding a drop of blood. the Hambach Festival in 1832 and the March Revo- Anglaise lution in 1848. Far less well known, however, is the Today, more than seventy years later, the demands storm of students on August 6th, 1950 at St. Ger- of the past have long since been overtaken by rea- manshof – less than 50 kilometers from Hambach lity and yet Europe no longer seems to be able to Castle-which represents a significant date for the get out of its crisis mode and is finding it difficult to European movement and is in no way inferior in its define its own role. The action group Bobenthal-St. symbolic power to the events mentioned above. Germanshof has set itself the goal of conveying the spirit of the storm of students to the European youth Shaped by the bitter experiences from the wars bet- and thereby re-inspiring the European movement. ween Germany and France, but also by the econo- There is hardly a place that can better explain the mic disadvantage due to its peripheral location, the need to overcome national differences than St. Ger- Palatinate became a pioneer of Franco-German re- manshof and hardly a generation can present these conciliation and European integration after the Se- ideas more convincingly than our young European cond World War. Against this background, the storm generation. The time is ripe for new courageous of students was a milestone in European history steps. only five years after the end of the darkest chapter of German history. Around three hundred students from several countries, but mainly young Germans - Dr. Norbert Herhammer, Chairman Aktionsgemeinschaft Bobenthal - St. Germanshof e.V. I 2019 4 5 of the brothers Christoph and Hans Haug von Stein- devastations, not only during the Battle of Wissem- kallenfels. Then Wolfgang von Breiten acquired the bourg on 26.12.1793. Around 1803, Father Oberlé of buildings and possessions of the St. Germanshof, it Wissembourg had the chapel restored. After Napo- followed change of ownership and in 1592 it was leon‘s defeat, St. Germanshof was assigned to the completely in ruins. A Romanesque cellar under the Bavarian Palatinate in the Congress of Vienna with southeast wing of the St. Germanshof 9/10 courty- the entire canton of Dahn. On the map of the Bavari- ard has been preserved from the fortress. an National Recording from 1837 the church is called I. History of the border region St. Germanshof „St. Germain“. After the confusions of the Thirty Years‘ War (1618- 1648), the records show that there was still a esta- In 1856 Weiler received its own church community From the one Europe to the European Union: 1215 south and east, which became more and more secu- te in 1675, which was bought by the Vitztum family. and the chapel became a communal church. After years of border history at St. Germanshof. St. Ger- red over time. In the Wissembourg War - also known During the campaigns of Louis XIV against right and the sale of the Germanshof by the Vitztum family in manshof has about 40 inhabitants and is part of the as the „Wissembourger Stiftsfehde“ - when the Elec- left Rhine areas (so-called Palatine War of Succes- 1859, there were various changes of ownership. municipality of Bobenthal in the Western Palatinate tor Friedrich I was fighting the abbey and city of sion) (24.9.1688 - 20.9.1697) he not only destroyed region. If you look at this district, which is located di- Wissembourg, some of these provosts were severely the towns on the Rhine, but also, on the advice of his rectly on the French-German border, a cross-border damaged between 1469 and 1471. general Louvois, all the castles, palaces, towns and The time of the Great Wars (1870-1945) perspective is essential in order to understand its villages of the Palatinate. Only the neighbouring Ber- origins and long history. The nucleus for the develop- The chapel was destroyed at the end of the 15th wartstein was left out, as it had burned out years be- The Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 did not direct- ment of the St. Germanshof was a chapel, today clo- century by the lord of the castle Berwartsein, bandit fore after a lightning strike. As a result of the Peace ly affect the St. Germanshof, but the neighbouring se to the border, at the community of Weiler, based Johann von Drodt („Hans Trapp“ - who in Alsace folk of Rijswijk in 1697, the areas bordering to the north Wissembourg. The losses of the battles were enor- on an initiative of the monastery in Wissembourg. tradition is regarded as a child scare). But he destroy- were incorporated into the French kingdom and this mous. At the battle of Wissembourg on 3.8.1870 In essence, it was always about this chapel, a castle ed not only the chapel. What had happened? In 1480 remained so until the end of Napoleon‘s era (1815), 1.000 German and 700 French soldiers died. The complex and - in its place - the yard complex. The Philip II employed his Marshal Johann von Drodt as so that there was no border at St. Germanshof at Battle of Woerth on 6.8.1870, with even more los- restaurant, cemetery, customs houses, sawmill, and lord of Berwartstein Castle, which until then had be- that time. ses, ended with 25,000 dead and wounded. A sym- so on were added only in the 20th century. longed to the Abbey of Wissembourg. This was the bolic date, which celebrated its 80th anniversary on trigger for a dispute that lasted a quarter of a cen- A new chapel was built in 1725 at the command of the day of the so-called „Studentensturm“ - student Origins and conflicts in the medieval times tury. Johann von Drodt frightened the inhabitants the Polish king Stanislas Leszcynski, who lived in exile demonstration - in 1950. With the Peace of Frankfurt of Wissembourg and the neighbouring villages. He in Wissembourg. He lived there with his wife Cathe- in 1871, Alsace, Wissembourg and Lorraine were in- At the place of today‘s town Wissembourg there was forbid the townsfolk to hunt in their own forests and rine and especially with his daughter Maria, who be- corporated into the newly founded German Empire. only the monastery Wissembourg founded around prevented the poor from gathering wood or picking came Queen of France after her marriage to Louis XV In 1918 the area became French again. the middle of the 7th century, which then was a Be- wild berries. He blackmailed travelers and traders or on the 15th of August 1725 in the cathedral of Stras- nedictine monastery starting from the 8th century. robbed the farmers who came to pay their dimes to bourg. The chapel, dedicated to the „Notre-Dame de During the First World War, a sawmill was set up at In 760 Pippin, the father of Charlemagne, granted the abbot. To ruin the people of Wissembourg, he l‘Assemption“, came under the care of the Capuchins St. Germanshof. Since 1911 a restaurant has been immunity to the monastery and its estates. The had the river Lauter dammed up to prevent wood of the monastery in Wissembourg, who had come known there. In 1915, the mayor of the then Ger- chapel, which was built in 803 on the site of today‘s from drifting downstream. Then he ordered the di- from Switzerland. man town of Wissembourg established a priso- pilgrimage chapel „Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs“ kes to be torn down, flooding the lower quarters ner-of-war camp with a military hospital near Weiler („Mother of God of Seven Sorrows“) and was dedi- of the city and everything that had been planted. In 1756, St. Germanshof was transferred to France not far from the chapel. Here came those prisoners cated to the Holy Cross and the Virgin Mary, dates At the head of his power, he took possession of St. by an exchange of territory between Louis XV and who were too weak to work in the pits of the Saar. from the time of Charlemagne, in a time of a few Rémi Castle and plundered the villages of the „Mun- the Speyer Imperial Monastery. Until 1815 it be- They were used for work in the fields and in the vi- empires in the middle of Europe. With the collapse dat inférieur“ (Lower Mandate) region. Although he longed to the Alsatian town of Weiler (today part neyards. 165 of them did not survive this period and of the Carolingian Empire and in particular the Ag- had been prosecuted in Rome and excommunicated of Wissembourg), which is situated on the road to their names can be found today on the crosses and reement of Verdun between 843 and 870, a border by Pope Innocent VIII, he went on plundering until Wissembourg. During the French Revolution the stelae of the national cemetery, which was built the- was established in this area for the first time, at that his death in 1503.