Hollnich near Kastellaun is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kastellaun, whose seat is in the like-named town.
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The municipality lies in the Hunsrück about 2 km east of Kastellaun. The countryside is hilly with many fields, meadows and woods.
Hollnich’s Ortsteile are the main centre – also called Hollnich – Rothenbusch and Gammelshausen.
The municipality’s name has varied in spelling over time, with the forms Hohlonich, Holonich, Hohlemich, Hohlnich, Kollnig, Holineych, Hulnich and finally Hollnich all known to history. What is not clear to history, however, is the name’s origin. Interpretations range from the designation of a settlement bei der hohlen Eiche (“by the hollow oak”) with unreliable secretaries then corrupting the spelling, to a Germanic–Celtic placename with a typical —ig ending.[3]
In 1310, Hollnich had its first documentary mention, along with several local fiefs, in the Sponheimisches Gefälleregister, a taxation register kept by the County of Sponheim. About 1360, Heinrich the Elder, Lord at Ehrenberg, indicated that he had been enfeoffed with the village of Hollnich by Count Wilhelm von Katzenelnbogen. In the time that followed, Hollnich was mentioned several times in documents in connection with the Ehrenbergs’ ownership matters and taxation obligations, until in 1492, Landgrave Wilhelm of Hesse enfeoffed Johann, Vogt of Hunolstein, with the taxes in oats, chickens and money at Hollnich.
The Landgraves of Hesse held high court jurisdiction in Hollnich while the Counts of Sponheim held the low jurisdiction. Beginning in the 16th century, the two lordships repeatedly found themselves at odds with each other over serfdom rights and taxes. The disagreements were settled lastingly and bindingly only in 1788 by the Reichskammergericht.
From October 1794 to 1 January 1814, Hollnich belonged to the Department of Rhin-et-Moselle, the Arrondissement of Simmern, the Canton of Kastellaun and the Mairie (“Mayoralty”) of Gödenroth. On 20 November 1815, Hollnich became Prussian and was assigned to the Bürgermeisterei (“Mayoralty”) of Kastellaun and the district of Simmern. The administrative arrangements have changed since then only insofar as a new district has been created by merging the former district of Simmern with that of Sankt Goar to form the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis, and also the Amt of Kastellaun has become the Verbandsgemeinde of Kastellaun. This administrative reform came about after the Second World War, in 1969, in the newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Hollnich remained, as it had been before, a self-administering municipality.[4]
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