Fehl-Ritzhausen
| Fehl-Ritzhausen | ||
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 Fehl-Ritzhausen
Location of Fehl-Ritzhausen within Westerwaldkreis district
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| Coordinates: 50°38′42″N 8°00′11″E / 50.64500°N 8.00306°ECoordinates: 50°38′42″N 8°00′11″E / 50.64500°N 8.00306°E | ||
| Country | Germany | |
| State | Rhineland-Palatinate | |
| District | Westerwaldkreis | |
| Municipal assoc. | Bad Marienberg (Westerwald) | |
| Government | ||
| • Mayor | Volker Uhr | |
| Area | ||
| • Total | 4.02 km2 (1.55 sq mi) | |
| Elevation | 498 m (1,634 ft) | |
| Population (2015-12-31) | ||
| • Total | 793 | |
| • Density | 200/km2 (510/sq mi) | |
| Time zone | CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) | |
| Postal codes | 56472 | |
| Dialling codes | 02661 | |
| Vehicle registration | WW | |
| Website | Fehl-Ritzhausen | |
Fehl-Ritzhausen is an Ortsgemeinde – a community belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde – in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
The community lies in the Westerwald between Limburg and Siegen. The river Nister, which is within the Sieg’s drainage basin, flows from east to west through the municipal area. Fehl-Ritzhausen belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Bad Marienberg, a kind of collective municipality. Its seat is in the like-named town.
Fehl-Ritzhausen celebrated the 700th jubilee of its existence from 27 to 29 April 2007. The constituent community of Fehl had its first documentary mention on 6 January 1307 when Count Heinrich III of Nassau-Siegen and his wife Adelheid confirmed the existing revenue for the abbot and convent of the Marienstatt Cistercian Monastery in Velde (=Fehl) and Graynsiven (=Großseifen). The first mention by name of Roitzhusen comes from 27 October 1340; in his will, the knight Eberhard Daube von Selbach bequeathed to his widow Sophia a pension out of the village tithes that were owed him.
Both communities’ origins stretch, if anything, much further back into time, as the namings in the documents suggest. The placename ending –hausen hints at a possible founding in the 9th or 10th century. The Ritz – earlier also Roitz – part of the name most likely comes from Rode (“clearing” in German), which was often used as a word from the 9th to 12th centuries to describe settlements established on cleared woodland. Even older is Fehl. The name comes from the German word Feld (“field”), a word customarily used in the 6th century to describe settlements built on open land (“Gefilde”) or next to waterways. Indeed, Fehl’s inhabitants did settle on a waterway – the river Nister – whereas to the north, the Ritzhauseners lived under the Scheidchen castle’s protection, which shielded them from, among other things, the northwest wind which brought snow.
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Wikipedia