Steffeln


Steffeln is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Gerolstein, whose seat is in the municipality of Gerolstein.

Geography

Location

The municipality lies in 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.

Constituent communities

Steffeln's Ortsteile are, besides the main centre, also called Steffeln, Auel and Lehnerath.

Climate

Yearly precipitation in Steffeln amounts to 946 mm, which is very high, falling into the highest fourth of the precipitation chart for all Germany. At 81% of the German Weather Service's weather stations, lower figures are recorded. The driest month is April. The most rainfall comes in December. In that month, precipitation is 1.6 times what it is in April. Precipitation varies moderately. At 65% of the weather stations, lower seasonal :File:STEFFELN nieder.svg|swings are recorded.

History

Traces of Roman settlement can be found in the rural cadastral area “Ringmauer” not far from the village beside today's “Römerhof”. The tuff quarry below the church was already in use in ancient times. In 943, Steffeln had its first documentary mention as villa stephelin. In 1222, steffele was listed in Prüm Abbey’s directory of holdings, the Prümer Urbar: The Count of Hochstaden held Steffeln as a fief. From the Hochstadens, Steffeln passed to the Lords of Jünkerath, and from them by marriage to the Schleidens. In 1282, Konrad von Schleiden sold Steffeln to Gerhard von Blankenheim. In 1489, 1501 and 1562, the Counts of Nassau and Vianden were the feudal lords. From the 16th century until 1794, the lesser lordship of Steffeln belonged to the lordship of Kronenburg under Luxembourgish Imperial territorial superiority. Between 1488 and 1593, the Counts of Manderscheid-Schleiden were enfeoffed with Steffeln. Through sale it found its way into Manderscheid-Gerolstein hands in 1617. After this line died out, Steffeln was held from 1693 to 1719 by the Manderscheid-Blankenheim line.
The castle, mentioned in 1282, on the tuff crags overlooking the village was converted in the 15th or 16th century into a compulsory-labour and toll estate for the Manderscheid toll station on the long-distance trade road running from Liège by way of Malmedy to Koblenz, and into a seat for the comital Schultheißen. Part of the residential house is preserved. There was trade in “oven stones” from the Küllenberg and millstones from the Steffelberg. After a years-long lawsuit against the landlord, Count Karl of Manderscheid, a compromise was reached in 1638 before the High Court in Luxembourg, which secured what is today the extensive municipal forest for the dwellers of Steffeln.
After the occupation of the lands on the Rhine’s left bank by French Revolutionary troops in 1794 and the French annexation of the Austrian Netherlands between 1795 and 1797, Steffeln became the seat of a mairie in the Canton of Kronenburg, the Arrondissement of Malmedy and the Department of Ourthe, whose seat was in Liège. In the course of the sweeping political changes in Europe in the wake of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Steffeln passed as the seat of a Bürgermeisterei to the Prüm district in Prussia’s new Rhine Province. In the course of administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate on 7 November 1970, Steffeln was grouped into the Daun district, which has since been given the name Vulkaneifel. Amalgamated with Steffeln that same year were Auel and Lehnerath.
Auel had its first documentary mention in 983. It and Lehnerath were held in the Middle Ages by the Counts of Manderscheid-Gerolstein.

Population development

In 1632, twenty families lived in Steffeln. In 1687, however, there were already 87 houses. In the 19th century, the population figure rose steeply, reaching 229 in 1818 and 415 in 1871. Since the beginning of the 20th century, only slight changes in the figure have been observed, although the number of households has shrunk: in 1939, 445 inhabitants, in 1970, 424 inhabitants, in 1987, 447 inhabitants, in 2001, 493 inhabitants. Since the 1970s, it has become a commuter community with a pronounced rural character.

Politics

Municipal council

The council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected by majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.

Mayor

Steffeln’s mayor is Werner Schweisthal, and his deputies are Heinrich Lentz and Roland Schlösser.

Coat of arms

The German blazon reads: In Silber eine blaue, von je einem sechsstrahligen blauen Stern flankierte Spitze; in der Spitze ein aufrechtes, silbernes Flammenschwert mit goldenem Griff.
The municipality’s arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Argent two mullets azure in chief flanking a pile transposed of the same charged with a sword raguly of the field hilted Or.
The landscape of Steffeln was until 1968 defined by the 600 m-high Steffelskopf, which has now mostly been quarried away. The “pile transposed” stands for this now vanished, cone-shaped mountain. The sword with the flame-shaped blade is Saint Michael's attribute, thus representing the municipality's and the church's patron saint. The two mullets come from another saintly attribute, the halo of stars associated with John of Nepomuk, who is venerated in the outlying centre of Auel.

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings