Traben-Trarbach

Aacher Hof, plaque inscription: “Urkundlich 830 erwähnt als Lehen an das Aachener Marienstift durch Ludwig den Frommen.” (see main text)

As early as 830, the Aacher Hof (estate) had a documentary mention. Emperor Louis the Pious, Charlemagne’s son, donated Traben with all its rights and privileges, and its appurtenances, namely Litzig, Rißbach, Irmenach and Beuren, to the minster at Aachen (Aachen Foundation of Mary), where German kings were crowned.

In the 17th century, the town was part of what was then known as Rhenish Franconia, a strategic area fought over by France and the Holy Roman Empire. Seized by France in the 1683-1684 War of the Reunions, Traben was the location for the new fortress of Mont-Royal, constructed by Vauban, the leading military engineer of the period.[3] The main ramparts were 30 metres high and three kilometres long, with space for 12,000 troops; despite the enormous cost, it was demolished when the French withdrew following the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick and only the lower foundations are visible today.[4]

County of Sponheim (c. 1804)

All today’s Stadtteile – with the exception of a part of Kautenbach – belonged to the Hintere (English: rear, back, i.e. hinterland; Upper) County of Sponheim, whose main centre was Trarbach. After the comital family of Sponheim died out, the inheriting landholders formed the County into a Palatine-Badish condominium and had their residences elsewhere in the County, namely in Birkenfeld and Kastellaun. Trarbach was also the seat of a Palatine oberamt, the Oberamt Trarbach.

In 1816, the area around Trarbach was annexed to Prussia, with Trarbach itself becoming the seat of a Bürgermeisterei (“Mayoralty”). Against expectations, however, Zell, rather than Trarbach, was made the district seat, even though the latter was the biggest place in the new District of Zell. The Bürgermeisterei of Trarbach was dissolved in 1884, and Trarbach no longer belonged to any Bürgermeisterei. It was, rather, administered thereafter in personal union with the new Bürgermeisterei of Traben. In 1898, the first bridge was built between the two centres, one built to plans drawn up by Bruno Möhring. This bridge, which was blown up in the dying days of the Second World War in 1945, was at the same time also the first roadbridge between Bernkastel and Koblenz. The next bridges were built only in 1924, in Cochem, and between 1951 and 1953 in Zell. In the late 19th century, Traben and Trarbach were also, together with Reichenhall, the first municipalities in Germany that, instead of having gaslamps, installed electric street lighting from the Edison Company (today AEG), although the odd stretch of street in Berlin had already been outfitted with electric lighting. In 1904, the municipality of Traben and the town of Trarbach merged to become the town of Traben-Trarbach. The next changes came on 7 June 1969, when the municipalities of Kautenbach and Wolf were amalgamated with Traben-Trarbach. One year later, the Verbandsgemeinde of Traben-Trarbach was newly formed. It has its administrative seat in the town; Traben-Trarbach is a member municipality of the Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality.

Because they belonged to the “Hinder” County of Sponheim, the Reformation was introduced into Traben and Trarbach, with the town remaining even today mainly Evangelical, even though newcomers, particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries, have raised the Catholic share of the population markedly. The Evangelical Church's leadership in the Hinder County of Sponheim was at first exercised from the Birkenfeld chancellery. Then, in 1672, a Hinder-Sponheim Lutheran consistory was instituted, whose duties were transferred to the consistory in Zweibrücken in 1776.

In 1818, the Synod of Trarbach was established, whose seat remained in Trarbach until 1972. Because of its size – the synod encompassed the districts of Bernkastel, Zell and Trier – this was divided in 1825. Curiously, the outlying centre of Wolf belonged until 1892 to the Synod of Trier, which itself, until 1843, bore the name “Synod of Wolf” because that was the superintendent's home.

Traben-Trarbach is home to a large number of wineries including Robert Heuser, F. W. Langguth Erben, Richard Böcking, Ulrich Langguth, Martin Müllen, Weiser-Künstler and Daniel Vollenweider.

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  View of Traben from the bridge to Trarbach
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  View of Trarbach on the Moselle's right bank
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  View from the landing stage
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  The town of Traben-Trarbach and the Grevenburg on the Moselle. Aquatint by Karl Bodmer 1841.
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  Outlying centre of Wolf
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  Trarbach – town and palace. Copper engraving by G. Bodenehr 1704.
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• Johann von Trarbach, Renaissance sculptor
• Jost Maurer (fl. 1498, 1518), German mason, architect and construction entrepreneur
• Nikolaus Elffen (1626–1706), Jesuit from Protestant Traben (panis coeli)
• Philipp Adam Storck (1778–1822), teacher, 1810 principal of the trade school in Hagen, from 1817 professor in Bremen (Perspectives on the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen)
• Heinrich Böcking (1785–1865), mining adviser and mayor in Saarbrücken
• Eduard Boecking (1802–1870), Law professor in Bonn and Berlin (Roman civil law; translation of Ausonius's Mosella)
• Paul Emanuel Spieker (1826–1896), German architect (Berlin University Library)
• Marc Mitscher (1887–1947), US admiral, grandson of Andreas Mitscher (1821–1905) from Traben
• Dennis Wheatley (1897-1977), novelist, lived in Trarbach and worked at the Julius Kayser Winery in 1913.
• Werner Beumelburg (1899–1963), one of the best known authors of National Socialist times, honorary citizen of Traben-Trarbach
• Hans-Willi Ellermeier, sportsman, waterskier, German champion in slalom 1967, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1980, 1981
• Oliver Lucas (b. 1966), sportsman, motorboat racer, twice world and four times European champion
• Martin Molz (b. 1971), former professional footballer (1. FC Nürnberg and 1. FC Saarbrücken)
• Yvonne Burbach (b. 1975), actress (Verbotene Liebe)
• Stefan Bockelmann (b. 1976), actor (Unter uns)
• Pete Namlook (1960-2012), ambient and electronic-music producer and composer, and founder of Fax Records (FAX +49-69/450464) music label
• Maik Zirbes (b. 1990), professional basketball player (KK Crvena Zvezda)

• Dietmar Flach, Günter Böse (publisher): Traben-Trarbach. Geschichte einer Doppelstadt. Traben-Trarbach 1984.
• Johann Hofmann: Trorbachische Ehren-Säul. Faks.-Nachdr. der Ausg. Stuttgart 1669. Cäsar, Traben-Trarbach 1968.
• Arne Houben (publisher): Mit Carl Bodmer von Trier nach Koblenz. Eine Moselreise um das Jahr 1830; Alf/Mosel: Rhein-Mosel-Verlag, 2006; ISBN 978-3-89801-033-7 (The book contains 31 colour reproductions of coloured aquatints by Karl Bodmer, whose originals can be seen at the Mittelmoselmuseum Traben-Trarbach).
• Ernst Schütz: Trarbach in alter Zeit. Bilder aus der Geschichte der Stadt von der Reformation bis zur Niederlegung der Grevenburg; Traben-Trarbach, 1909
• Albert Rosenkranz (publisher): Das Evangelische Rheinland. Ein rheinisches Gemeinde- und Pfarrerbuch, Band 1: Die Gemeinden; Schriftenreihe des Vereins für Rheinische Kirchengeschichte, 3; Düsseldorf: Kirche in der Zeit, 1956.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Traben-Trarbach.

• Traben-Trarbach travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Official website (in German)
• Verbandsgemeinde of Traben-Trarbach (in German)
• History and stories from Traben-Trarbach (in German)