Gries
Gries
Location of Gries within Kusel district
Coordinates	49°25′9″N 7°24′2″E / 49.41917°N 7.40056°E / 49.41917; 7.40056Coordinates: 49°25′9″N 7°24′2″E / 49.41917°N 7.40056°E / 49.41917; 7.40056
Administration
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Kusel
Municipal assoc.	Schönenberg-Kübelberg
Mayor	Gerd Heinz (SPD)
Basic statistics
Area	4.04 km2 (1.56 sq mi)
Elevation	280 m  (919 ft)
Population	982 (31 December 2010)[1]
- Density	243 /km2 (630 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate	KUS
Postal code	66903
Area code	06373
Website	www.gries-pfalz.de

Gries is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Schönenberg-Kübelberg, whose seat is in the like-named municipality.

Geography [link]

Location [link]

The municipality lies at the edge of the North Palatine Uplands (part of the Saar-Nahe Uplands), on the south slope of the 314 m-high Schlossberg in the Western Palatinate. To the south lies the Ohmbach valley with its 10-18 ha Ohmbach Reservoir, and to the east, the river Glan has carved a prominent bend into the uplands.

Neighbouring municipalities [link]

Gries borders in the north on the municipality of Börsborn, in the northeast on the municipality of Nanzdietschweiler, in the east on the municipality of Hütschenhausen, in the southeast on the municipality of Bruchmühlbach-Miesau (outlying centre of Elschbach, in the Kaiserslautern district), in the south on the municipality of Schönenberg-Kübelberg (outlying centre of Sand) and in the west on the municipality of Brücken.

History [link]

Middle Ages [link]

In 1383, Gries had its first documentary mention in the Breidenborn Cartulary. By the entry in this book, the municipalities of the Münchweiler Tal (an administrative entity belonging to Hornbach Monastery near Zweibrücken) swore an oath of loyalty to their new lady, Agnes von Neuenbaumberg. The village is, however, roughly 300 years older.

Gries likely arose sometime around 1100. The name zuom ’griß (as it was originally recorded) meant in Middle High German “gravelly, sandy ground”; the Modern High German word Grieß – pronounced the same way as “Gries” – still means “grit”, and is cognate with that English word^[2]. The addition of zuom (Modern High German: zum; meaning: “at the”) may be taken to mean that the locality was an outlying rural area belonging to another municipality. These were split apart from each other, perhaps in the course of the introduction of three-field crop rotation. As the nearest place that already existed at the time, it seems likely that zuom ’griß once belonged to Kübelberg. Thought to have arisen at the same time as Gries are Sand (zuom sand, “at the sand”, nowadays an outlying centre of Schönenberg-Kübelberg) and Miesau, even if different founding dates are given for each (these rest mainly on first documentary mentions, though).

The overlord in the Münchweiler Tal or the Amt of Münchweiler was Hornbach Monastery. This Benedictine monastery, the most important one east of the Rhine and south of the Nahe, did not administer its far-flung holdings all by itself. Rather, it enfeoffed various vassals with them. After the Raugraves of Altenbaumburg and Neuenbaumburg came the Breidenborns, and then the Mauchenheims. Finally, in the 15th century, the Counts of Leyen came into partial, and later full, ownership of Gries and the other villages in the Amt of Münchweiler (Glan-Münchweiler, Nanzweiler, Dietschweiler, Börsborn, Steinbach and Haschbach) through marriage. Jörg von der Leyen wed a daughter from the patriarchal Zweibrücken noble family of Mauchenheim. Since this house had a share in the ownership of Castle Blieskastel, Gries and the other villages in the Amt became part of the Oberamt of Blieskastel, and remained so for roughly 300 years, until the French Revolution.

The overlordship, however, changed hands. It was taken over by the Dukes of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, who until this time had been Lord Protectors of Hornbach Monastery. Thereafter, the monastery itself was slowly forsaken by the monks in the course of the Reformation, until in the end, the last abbot, Johann Kinthausen, went as far as to get married and become Protestant. Because the Leyens retained the old beliefs – that is, Catholicism (after all, the family, whose roots were in Gondorf on the Moselle, had produced several Archbishops of both Trier and Mainz) – religious matters were very problematic, with disputes breaking out several times between them and the Dukes of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, who had embraced Protestantism. Often enough, these disagreements ended up before the Reichskammergericht in either Speyer or Wetzlar.

Nine Years’ War to 1945 [link]

As a result of the Nine Years' War (known in Germany as the Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg, or War of the Palatine Succession), the French under King Louis XIV occupied not only Electoral Palatinate territories but also the Palatinate’s many microstates, so that they were effectively the authority. For their part, the Dukes of Palatinate-Zweibrücken had married into the Swedish royal family, with their duchy consequently being ruled from Sweden for a time. The oldest map on which Gries appears (compiled in 1564 by the geometer Tilemann Stella), for instance, is to be found at the Swedish Imperial Archive in Stockholm. Over the centuries, the power structure would change often, with only Gries’s local lords, the Counts (later Imperial Counts) of Leyen remaining the same, each holding the fief under his respective overlord.

A few decades after the House of Leyen had moved its main residence from Koblenz to Blieskastel and expanded this town on the Blies in its representative style, French Revolutionary troops came marching in. The last countess, who was both legendary and popular, Countess Marianne von der Leyen, had to flee by way of Karlsberg Castle and Glan-Münchweiler to kin in the Grand Duchy of Hesse over on the Rhine’s right bank. The French stayed until Napoleon’s final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815).

Under the terms of the Congress of Vienna, the Palatinate passed in the end, after several intermediate phases – for example, a time under the Imperial and Royal Austrian and Royal Bavarian State Administration Commission (Kaiserliche und königliche österreichische und königliche bairische Landesadministrationskommision) – to the Kingdom of Bavaria. The French Revolution’s achievements in freedom of trade and the press, independent courts, modern governance and equality of all citizens among others, were retained especially for the Palatinate. Gries was part of the State Commissariat of Homburg (then in the Palatinate, today in the Saarland), whose first supreme leader was Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer. At that time still a loyal supporter of the Bavarian king (all of whom were descendants of the Palatine Wittelsbachs, after all; the Bavarian cousins had died out in the mid 18th century), he was in 1832 one of the main initiators of the Hambach Festival, the most important demonstration for democracy – albeit disguised as a folk festival – in Vormärz Germany.

In 1848, the municipalities of Sand and Gries split away from the Bürgermeisterei (“Mayoralty”) of Schönenberg, and until 1954 stood as a single municipality in their own right. Until 1920, Gries was part of the Bezirksamt of Homburg, as the State Commissariat was later called. Then, in 1919, the harmonious administrative structure was disrupted by a new line drawn right through its middle. After the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles stipulated, among other things, that 26 of the Sankt Wendel district’s 94 municipalities had to be ceded to the British- and French-occupied Saarland. The remaining 68 municipalities then bore the designation “Restkreis St. Wendel-Baumholder”, with the first syllable of Restkreis having the same meaning as in English, in the sense of “left over”. Gries was left in Weimar Germany, while the coalmines and ironworking industry, in which the majority of workers in Gries had been earning their livelihoods, suddenly found themselves on the other side of the Treaty line. Even the regional seat of Homburg was grouped into this new Saarland. The canton of Waldmohr was likewise split, like the whole Bezirksamt. Even the Bürgermeisterei of Waldmohr with Waldmohr and Jägersburg was torn asunder.

After the Second World War [link]

After the war, Gries belonged to the Bezirksamt of Kusel. However, even today, relations between Gries and Homburg are better developed than those with the current district seat, Kusel, not least of all because most workers from Gries commute to jobs in Homburg, and this even though Kusel lies no farther away than Homburg.

The merged administration with Sand ended in 1954. Sand became part of the municipal administration of Schönenberg, while Gries remained an independent municipality (and has ever since). Administration was assumed in 1972 by the Verbandsgemeinde of Schönenberg-Kübelberg

When the Second World War ended and the state of Rhineland-Palatinate was founded, Gries ceased to be part of Bavaria and its 8th Regierungsbezirk.

In 1978, work was completed on the Ohmbachsee, a reservoir on the Ohmbach on the municipality's southern limit.

Beginning in 1972, large new-building areas were opened up, and as recently as 2011, yet another one was to have been ready.

Politics [link]

Municipal council [link]

The council is made up of 16 council members, who were elected by proportional representation at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.

The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:^[3]

“FWG” is the “Free Voters’ Group of Rhineland-Palatinate”.

Mayors [link]

• 1848–1874 Jakob Pflüger, Sand
• 1874–1887 Nikolaus Ulrich, Sand
• 1887–1918 Philipp Vollmar
• 1918–1933 Jakob Christmann
• 1933–1937 Ernst Gortner (NSDAP)
• 1937–1939 Ernst Scheck (NSDAP)
• 1939–1945 Otto Fuhrmann
• 1945 Reinhard Rubly, Sand
• 1946 August Bauer, Sand
• 1946 Eduard Müller, Sand
• 1946–1947 Eduard Spieß, Sand
• 1947–1952 August Bauer, Sand
• 1953–1967 Karl Kallenbach (Kallenbach Karl voters’ group)
• 1967–1977 Eugen Bernd (SPD)
• 1977–1999 Ludwig Jung (SPD)
• 1999–2004 Gunther Jung, (SPD)
• 2004–2009 Manfred Perschke, (“Bürgernah” free voters’ group)
• 2009–0000 Gerd Heinz (SPD)

Gries’s mayor is Gerd Heinz, and his deputies are Olaf Klein and Frank Heil^[4].

Coat of arms [link]

The municipality’s arms might be described thus: Per pale Or issuant from base an abbot’s staff gules and azure a pale argent.

Town partnerships [link]

Gries fosters partnerships with the following places:

• Gries, Bas-Rhin, France since 20 May 1979.

This other Gries lies in the north of Alsace about 6 km from Haguenau and 12 km from Strasbourg. Since the 1979 establishment of the partnership, it has been well developed. The relatively short distance between Gries and Gries – only about 110 km – has made private contacts easy. Even a Palatine-Alsatian marriage, complete with children, has sprung from this partnership. There are regular visits back and forth by each municipality’s councils.

Economy and infrastructure [link]

Transport [link]

Southeast of Gries runs the Autobahn A 6 (Saarbrücken–Mannheim), and to the northeast is the Autobahn A 62 (Kaiserslautern–Trier). Autobahn interchanges are to be found in Bruchmühlbach-Miesau and between Waldmohr and Homburg-Bruchhof, both serving the A 6.

Serving Glan-Münchweiler is a railway station on the Glantalbahn. The nearest railway station, however, is the one in Bruchmühlbach-Miesau, 6 km away, and the most heavily used one locally is in Homburg, which has ICE connections.

References [link]

External links [link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gries

• Municipality’s official webpage (German)

This article incorporates information from the German Wikipedia.

This Kusel district location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

v t e Towns and municipalities in Kusel (district) Adenbach Albessen Altenglan Altenkirchen Aschbach Bedesbach Blaubach Börsborn Bosenbach Breitenbach Brücken Buborn Cronenberg Deimberg Dennweiler-Frohnbach Dittweiler Dunzweiler Ehweiler Einöllen Elzweiler Erdesbach Eßweiler Etschberg Föckelberg Frohnhofen Ginsweiler Glan-Münchweiler Glanbrücken Gries Grumbach Haschbach am Remigiusberg Hausweiler Hefersweiler Heinzenhausen Henschtal Herchweiler Herren-Sulzbach Herschweiler-Pettersheim Hinzweiler Hohenöllen Homberg Hoppstädten Horschbach Hüffler Jettenbach Kappeln Kirrweiler Konken Körborn Kreimbach-Kaulbach Krottelbach Kusel Langenbach Langweiler Lauterecken Lohnweiler Matzenbach Medard Merzweiler Nanzdietschweiler Nerzweiler Neunkirchen am Potzberg Niederalben Niederstaufenbach Nußbach Oberalben Oberstaufenbach Oberweiler im Tal Oberweiler-Tiefenbach Odenbach Offenbach-Hundheim Ohmbach Pfeffelbach Quirnbach Rammelsbach Rathsweiler Rehweiler Reichweiler Reipoltskirchen Relsberg Rothselberg Ruthweiler Rutsweiler am Glan Rutsweiler an der Lauter Sankt Julian Schellweiler Schönenberg-Kübelberg Selchenbach Steinbach am Glan Thallichtenberg Theisbergstegen Ulmet Unterjeckenbach Wahnwegen Waldmohr Welchweiler Wiesweiler Wolfstein