|
|
A Brief History of the Village ofHarle |
An ancient stone axe, found in the ``Old Churchyard", points to an even earlier settlement. The first known written mention of Harle dates from 1196 AD. The archives of the monastery of Hardehausen in Westphalia mention property in ``Harleve". Newer readings suggest ``Harlere" (in that case it would be the same word ending as in Fritzlar, Brunslar, Hesslar). The archives of the monastery of Breitenau mention property in ``Harlon" in 1253; in documents of Altenburg from 1404 our village is called ``Harlon", and in land registers of Felsberg of 1555 the place name ``Harle" occurs for the first time. The archives of Holzheim mention in 1358 that Harle was a place under the jurisdiction of a Landgraf (4), and that in 1380 it had its own court of law. In 1404 it was mortgaged to the house of Altenburg, and in the 16th century it was under the jurisdiction of Felsberg.
Between 1200 and 1250 (others think, around 1370) the Wehrkirche (fortified church) was built on top of the old sacred rock, surrounded by a sturdy and high wall, some remnants of which still remind us of the might of the installation. The entrance gate, surrounded by a high wall, was located at today's entrance to the church yard. The tower was crowned by battlements which were altered when in the 16th century the pointed steeple was added to the tower. The church yard served as cemetery until the 1880's. The ground floor of the tower was used for church services. The old and at that time only entrance to the tower is now walled up. To the right of it one can still see the old holy-water font which is, however, rapidly deteriorating, as are all the sandstones of the church, as a result of air pollution brought about by the power station in Borken (5). This Wehrkirche behind high walls was for the people of Harle a place of worship and at the same time a place of refuge in case of threats from the outside. These threats were mainly results of quarrels between the Landgraf of Hessia and the rulers of Mainz who owned Fritzlar (6).
Documents of 1275--1292 often mention men of Harla (i.e., ``von Harla") as buyers or as witnesses. Some historians concluded from this that there had been a house of the ``von Harla's". This is definitely not true. For one thing, in the 13th century only the first names of the men and their places of origin were mentioned (e.g., Johannes von Harla). The place of origin was used to distinguish between men with the same first name, as surnames were not yet in use. They developed slowly out of professions, peculiarities or places of origin. And second, there is no later mention of any ``von Harla" nobility, while the surname ``Harle" is not uncommon today. Still in the first Harle church register, started after the 30-year war (7), in 1657, by the Pfarrer of the time (Eckhard Siedelmann), among the 46 heads of family two were listed under this name: A Curt Harlo and his son Curt Harlo. This name is last mentioned in 1706; after that the Harlo family left Harle.
We are lucky in that the church records since 1657 have been completely preserved, although the valuable old ones, evacuated to Felsberg (8) in 1943, ended up swimming in the floods of the Eder river after the Edertalsperre (Eder Dam) was destroyed by British forces in 1943 (9). Through expensive restoration done by the State Archives in Marburg, these documents have been saved.
One reads again and again that Harle was destroyed in an act of revenge by the Sterner in 1372. The Sterner were an alliance of free knights under the leadership of the Count of Ziegenhain. During a conflict the Hessian Landgraf Heinrich II (1328--1376) destroyed one of the Sterner castles in the Knüll mountains (10). In revenge the Sterner fell into the Landgraf's territory and destroyed several villages. It is still not documented whether Harle was among these. If this was the case and Harle was destroyed in 1372, then it would indeed be likely that the tower was built afterwards. The robber-baron problem, which was on the rise in those years, had its origins in the economic decline of the 14th century. After a brief period of flourishing agriculture and rapid settlement also in our area, a period in which many villages were founded (many of them with the suffix ...rode (11), there were several failed harvests around 1317-1320. In the following decades up to 40% of the population was lost to the Black Death. The cereal production following this led to a price decay. The feudal lords (the knights) fell into poverty because of reduced payments which they tried to compensate by robbery. The field name ``Hahnewinkel" (12) reminds of these times of hardship.
In 1499 the Pfarrer and the Presbytery of Harle are accused of robbery of some field crops on several fields belonging to the monastery of Eppenberg (the Kartause near Gensungen). The Harler lost this legal battle against the ``Kartäuser".
By the 15th century the small village of Harle had grown so much that the church became too small. Thus the Harler began the work of adding a nave to the tower; the corner stone was laid on the evening of June 5, 1492 (St. Boniface's Day). A stone placque in the second pillar recorded this event in small Gothic letters. The date of consecration is not known (this event would have given rise to the Kirmes (13)).
When in 1526 the Reformation swept through Hessia, Harle became Protestant as a village under the Hessian Landgraf Phillip. Already in 1525 it was said of the then priest Paul Winther that he ``preached in a reformist spirit". Paul Winther is the first minister known by name, and at the same time he was the last Catholic and first Protestant clergyman in Harle. The Harle resident Justus Winther was also involved in the Hessian reformation.
The two bells of the Harle church were cast in 1520 and 1521 in the Homberg foundry of Hans Kortrock. The larger one (The ``Harler Glocke" (14)) is 107 cm high and has a diameter of 128 cm. The inscription in small Gothic script reads
The smaller bell of 1521 measures 94 cm by 115 cm. Its crown carries ornaments, and its neck shows the following inscription:
Both bells survived the 30-year war and both world wars unscathed in the steeple and were not - as was the case with many other bells - cast into cannons.
The importance of Harle was partly based on the economic power of the Harler Mühle. Several villages were dependent on this mill. From 1560 on the mill was in possession of the Metz family (15), and at times it had as many as three wheels, plus an oil mill with two wheels.
Harle kept growing. Around 1584 it counted 65 households, corresponding to about 400 inhabitants. The church therefore had to be enlarged. This was done by the installation of benches (before that there were no seats in the church) and the construction of a first, richly ornamented balcony in 1589. Probably at that time the back entrance was walled up and the new entrance to the South-East was broken. Two more balconies were installed in 1680 and in 1783. During the installation of the last balcony two small windows were installed in the South-East wall.
A list of subservient farmers in Harle (the payments went, among other places, to the Kartause near Gensungen, to Homberg, Gudensberg and Neuenstein) mentions 54 names, among them the still existing names of Heimel, Ebert, Schmidt and Metz. During this time there are many Kötner in Harle (small farmers who lived in a Kate, i.e., cottage) and few Hubner (farmers who owned more than one Hufe of land, a Hufe measuring about 7.5 hectares). In the year 1609 about 50 heads of households are mentioned by name.
In the ``year of the Croats", 1637, Harle was probably destroyed for the second time. In addition to one other house (which was subsequently demolished in 1911), only the ``alte Pfarrhaus", built in 1614, and the church escaped destruction. In 1639 there were no cows, oxen, pigs or sheep left in Harle; only 8 horses. Slowly Harle was rebuilt. In the beginning of the Harle church records Pfarrer Siedelmann lists 46 heads of households in 1657, while 61 were listed by Pfarrer Braun in 1693.
Good times and bad times kept alternating. But it was always typical for the villagers that they met hard times with perseverance. It was again a war, this time the 7-year war (1757-1763) under which innocent people had to suffer. Also, church records mention two Harler who participated in the American war of independence (1776-1783). This was in reality the selling off of soldiers - inhabitants of Hessia - by the Elector of Hessia-Kassel to the English: They paid well for each soldier. And those weren't asked, they were just sold.
The ``Stein reforms" (16) presented the farmers of Harle with property of their own (in 1810) for which, however, they still had to pay rent until the 1860's. For many farmers this land-ownership led to poverty because they were unable to meet the payments. In the years 1890-1900 the numerous small and very small pieces of land were consolidated, and proper tracks across the fields were built.
In 1892 the first credit union far and wide was founded in Harle. In 1910 Harle got a central water supply, and in 1919 the village was connected to the electricity grid. Those were also the years when the goat breeders' association (17) (1909), the choir (1910), the athletic club (1919) and the volunteer fire department (1928) were founded.
And again war brought sorrow to the families of Harle. 22 Harler did not return from WWI (18). The following years brought recovery, then hyperinflation and mass unemployment (more than 6 million in Germany), and the Third Reich the politics of which split not only our village. During the ``Reichskristallnacht" of November, 1938, members of the SA destroyed also the synagogue in neighbouring Falkenberg and expelled the Jewish community there (19). 37 Harler did not return from WWII (20).
After the war the influx of refugees (21) changed the village: At times more than 1100 people lived in Harle. The Harler Kirche was now also used for Catholic services (until 1983). Marriages between Protestants and Catholics required more open attitudes among the population. Members of both denominations have come closer to each other in a positive and helpful way.
In August, 1970, the Volksschule (elemtary school) of Harle was closed (22); this ended a 240-year long schooling tradition. In 1892 the new school had been opened, and in 1902 a second teacher's position had been established. The old school house had been built in 1728 under Pfarrer Johann Peter Caul right beside the church; until 1922 the village Pfarrer had final authority over the school.
On January 1, 1974, Harle lost its independence and became part of the town of Wabern (23).
2.Pronounced "Vah-bern"; the "e" in "bern" more like in "bear".
[Back to text]
3.A Germanic tribe, forerunners of the Hessians. Pronounced close to
"cuttin'".
[Back to text]
4.A landgrave.
[Back to text]
5.About 7 km to the South of Harle. There were low-grade brown coal
deposits, now exhausted, in the area. The power station has been
closed for a few years now.
[Back to text]
6.Picturesque medieval town about 10 km to the West of Harle. Traditionally
a Catholic enclave in this predominantly Lutheran region. St. Boniface
christianized the region in the early 700's by cutting down a sacred
oak (Wotanseiche) near Fritzlar.
[Back to text]
7.1618-1648; probably the most disastrous period in Central European history.
[Back to text]
8.A town 5 km to the North of Harle.
[Back to text]
9.This is rather ironic since not a shot was fired in Harle. The destruction
of the Eder Dam is retold in the old British movie "The Dam Busters" (1954,
with Michael Redgrave). The lower parts of Harle were also flooded, but
without loss of life. My grandfather Heinrich's chicken coop ended up
in a tree, and his house painting business was drowned out. (He never
rebuilt it; he made his living as a shopkeeper. The grocery store,
still referred to as "Dilchers", is closing for good this month, Sept.,
'95; it has been owned by Heinrich's daughter and son-in-law Erika and
Georg Bergmann). The Dilcher farm, on higher ground, was unaffected by
the flooding.
[Back to text]
10.About 30 km to the South.
[Back to text]
11."Roden" means to clear land.
[Back to text]
12."Corner of the Hahnen", where an old trade route enters the woods.
Probably named after a gang of robber-barons. A good portion of the
Dilcher land is located in this area, about a mile from the village.
[Back to text]
13."Kermesse"; the main village festival, usually in November.
[Back to text]
14."The Harler Glocke" is a well-known legend. Well-known in the region,
that is; I have been unable to find it, in English or in German, in
any library in Halifax. This legend may have saved the bells from their
usual war-time fate.
[Back to text]
15.Until the 1950's. The last Metz miller turned the mill and its
substantial land holdings into "liquid assets" (i.e., alcohol) and was
forced to sell it to an energetic young refugee from East Prussia.
It is no longer a working mill but a prosperous farm; the weir and mill
building are used for small-scale electrical power generation.
It is interesting to note that a branch of the Metz family built a bread
factory somewhere in the US; many others emigrated and did rather well.
My great-grandmother Maria (wife of Johann Georg) comes from a farming
branch of the Metz family.
[Back to text]
16.After Baron Karl vom Stein; sweeping social and administrative reforms
(with the ultimate aim, however, of keeping the `ruling class' in
power), among them the abolition of any remnants of the feudal system.
[Back to text]
17.Goats were called "poor men's cows"; they were absolutely essential for
the (poorer) majority of villagers, until the late 1950's. From about
1960 on, this previously so important association lived on as "Kultur-
verein" (culture club). There hasn't been a goat in Harle in decades.
[Back to text]
18.Both my grandfather Heinrich and his older brother Arnold fought in
WWI. Arnold was in a "dirigible" battalion (he had been to an
engineering school before the war) in a safe distance from the front,
while Heinrich fought as a front soldier. But he was lucky enough to
spend the worst months of the war, uninjured, in an American POW camp
in France. He fondly remembered the kindness especially of the black and
native American soldiers. Farmer Karl was exempt from military duty,
as were most (principal) farmers.
[Back to text]
19.There was no Jewish population in Harle, but the Falkenberg Jews were
known to all. No questions were ever asked about their disappearance.
Grandfather Heinrich was a minor party official, and as such spent a
short time in an American internment camp, until he was cleared of any
wrongdoings.
[Back to text]
20.Both my father Helmut and his older brother Karl fought on the Eastern
front. Karl was killed in the Caucasus, while Helmut survived the war
and Russian POW camps, although he returned half-starved and sick.
[Back to text]
21.Most of them "Sudetendeutsche", ethnic Germans from the former Czecho-
slovakia.
[Back to text]
22.The children were then bused first to a consolidated school in Gensungen
(5 km away), and later to Wabern
[Back to text].
23.But Harle retained, and will continue to keep, its own identity.
[Back to text]