The Town Hall of Hefersweiler

The Town Hall of Hefersweiler
(Die Gemeindeverwaltung ab 1798)
Detlef Uhrig & John Best
Like the homeland, the new French national territory was very
quickly arranged into Départements. The Palatinate and the today's
Rhine Hesse formed the governmental district of Donnersberg
(Département Mont Tonnère) with Mainz the capital, led from the
Prefecture. The section was divided for its head - le Sous Préfect
(the Under Prefect) - into Arrondissements 1 . The Kaiserslautern
Arrondissement was responsible for our area, comparable perhaps
to the role of a district administration. The Kurpfaelzer
administration of Wolfstein, renamed now as the Canton
Administration, was responsible for the new - today we would call
it - Community-Convention (Verbandsgemeinde) of Hefersweiler.
It was control -, permission -, supervisory authority. The
Hefersweiler mayoralty adopted very quickly the French, strictly
herarchical administration system. The wily fox Johannes (Jean)
Bacher was Mayor. The first town clerk up to August 1802 was
Jacob Geib, at the same time provisional Mayor of Seelen. His
successor was a Frenchman, recognizable today by the modern,
roman-style of writing. The Hefersweiler administration was also
responsible for the surrounding villages of Berzweiler, Relsberg,
Seelen, Rathskirchen, Reichsthal, Rudolfskirchen and the
farmyards falling within the district (Boessodenbach etc. etc..). I
was surprised 2 , as I gradually and unexpectedly discovered the five
valuable volumes of records for the years September 1800 to
December 1811 in the archives of the Community-Convention of
Rockenhausen. The beautiful, almost painted handwriting of the
French-speaking municipality secretary (starting from September
1802) is identical to our current script and therefore easily readable
by everyone! The (whether in German or French) writers adopted
all civil procedures following a fixed template with great accuracy
and an affection for family detail. There is no comparison to the
earlier, often very poor, church book entries. So some gaps could be
closed retrospectively nevertheless. Thus we discover also that in
18 th . Century three Jewish families that had lived in Hefersweiler
were those of David, Hirsch and Rosenzweig and the Jewish family
Loew 3 Moses, a retailer in Berzweiler. Initially the office language
was still German and starting from September 1802 documentation
1 The head was the Sous Préfect, his representative was called Koller
2 The Record Book is erroneously categorized on its cover as “Seelen” and arrived therefore
per Rockenhausen with the establishment of the Verbandsgemeinde - “Community-
Convention ” instead of per Wolfstein,
3 In 1806 the Loew/Loeb family accepted the name Rosenzweig!

was conducted in French only. Mayor Johannes/Jean Bacher was at
the same time also Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths and
therefore signed with “faisant les fonctions more d'officier public de
l'état civil”.
Since the Jewish families in Europe obviously had no fixed
surnames and children were named alternately after the father and
then after the mother, the national administrations was often times
confused. The French ministry of the Interior issued therefore on
July 20 th , 1806 an Imperial Decree with reference to the Jews who
did not have certain family and first names. The citizens of our
realm who profess themselves to be of the Hebrew culture must
accept a surname within three months, - the Biblical first name was
not to be reused as a surname but another city name may be used.
The Loebs (Loew) took the name >Rosenzweig< (branch of a rose)
and the former Isaak family took the name >Felsenthal< (valley of
the rocks).
The municipal office (mayoralty and school) of Hefersweiler was
accommodated in the old building of 1696 4 , in which the maître
d'école (schoolmaster) Mohr 5 also taught and lived and starting
from 1803/4 the schoolmaster Heinrich Steinebrey 6 . For the
population a French first name could require some getting used to.
But in any case it was easier stamping SAM, than our Germans
Johannes changed to Jean, Ludwig became Louis, Elisabetha was
now called Lisette. This custom may have continued in existence up
to the Secessionist Period of 1922/23.
This introduction of the modern, National Register Office resulted
in correct and comprehensive entries, a condition of every
efficiently-working administration. Now there were no more
coincidental entries, dependent on the wishes and moods of the
respective religious gentlemen! Thank God religion no longer
played a role. Now everyone’s details were captured, no matter
whether they were Catholic, Jewish or Reform. Also the language
became like light verse. No more bad words about illegitimate
children and their mothers. If a wife (e.g. Madame Barbe Theiss)
bore her second illegitimate child, then the writer noted this without
4 Nevertheless you should visit sometime the old Hefersweiler bell of 1696, which is located
now in the school hall of Berzweiler, first OG!
5 See Family Chronicle, volume 2
6 Heinrich Steinebrey, Born 1 st . May1763 in Relsberg, was - starting in 1804 and up to his
death in 13 March 1835 - a teacher in Hefersweiler. He was thus still instructing as 72-year
old. His successor was a teacher from Essweiler – „Barthelmae“

comment. Also the introduction of civil marriage began
progressively from September 1798. Weddings were on Sundays,
probably starting from 11 o'clock. At noon, the Mayor Bacher
announced, with a loud voice, the completed marriage ceremony to
the citizenry assembled at the outer door of the community center.
Initially the pair who were present before the Registrar of Births,
Marriages and Deaths had to have two - then starting from 1802 -
four witnesses to their consent to marriage. In the German Reich,
this progressive law was not used until1876!
Johann Friedrich Daberkow 7 probably came to Hefersweiler in
1809. He was single and fell in love with pretty Maria Elisabetha
Bayer. Christmas 1809 was probably the engagement and the bride
and groom visited Jean Bacher, the mayor. He explained the
difficulties to him, particularly since Daberkow originated from the
far-off Kingdom of Prussia. Jean Bacher immediately wrote to the
local administration of his place of residence (Massow in
Pommern). The required excerpt from the Birth Register, which
had been issued on 20 May 1810 by the Municipality of Massow 8 ,
arrived nearly 10 months later. Mayor Bacher’s report was
celebrated, and he then let the Mayor of Niederkirchen examine the
birth entry for Maria Elisabetha Bayer – the birth had taken place
on 3 October 1810 9 . Finally, on 20 th and 27 th of January the notice
of an intended marriage were hung up on the outer door 10 and the
marriage ceremony took place on February 5 th , 1811. By the way
at that time the beautiful custom arose of decorating the official
announcement box with seasonal flowers. The mother Charlotta
Bayer gave her agreement to the wedding to the notary of Wolfstein
Charles Jaques Schuler, because she would certainly have been
7) Johann Friedrich Daberkow was born 2 October 1782 in Massow / Pommern, his
parents were Christoph Daberkow and Dorothea Schmid. By occupation he was butcher, in
other documents he was also designated as “Bader”. According to wedding document N° 3
from 1811 he lived legally in Hefersweiler, married Maria Elisabetha Bayer (born 17
March 1789, died 20 June 1861 in Niki) daughter of Charlotta Bayer and Johann Peter
Steinhauer on 5 February 1811 in the community centre in Hefersweiler.
8) As at March 1813 The Kingdom of Prussia still belonged to friendly, but dependent
states of France. Only in 1813 did Prussia separate itself from Napoleonic clutches and
followed Russia!
9) The Lutheran-Evangelist Church book lay in the Mayor’s Office of Niederkirchen. As for
Hefersweiler above, representation of Berzweiler and Relsberg belonged to the Niki
Kirchenspiel.
10 ) Witnesses at the marriage were Jakob Römer, 41 J. farmer of Hefersweiler, Michael
Kopp, 45, butcher in Hefersweiler, Heinrich Steinebrei, schoolmaster, 49 J. and Friedrich
Philipp Simon Schwartz, (born 13 December 1782 in Rudolfskirchen - see family album).
tailor from Hefersweiler! On 10 March 1807 Schwartz had married Catharina Bayer, a
cousin Maria Elisabetha Bayer!

mocked by some people, if she had appeared at the wedding in
Hefersweiler 11 !
11 ) As a 25-year old Charlotta Bayer had already had 1780 illegitimate child. And that at a
time before revolutionary era, was a serious misdemeanour. Her second illegitimate child
came when she was 34 years’ old. The father was (as the minister Vollmar wrote) the
“stupid, lascivious very old man Johann Peter Steinhauer, the proud master father of many
people in Hefersweiler and Berzweiler. Even if a pot would call Charlotta Bayer the black
kettle, Charlotta must nevertheless from today's more objective viewpoint , be judged a
success in bringing up, largely alone, her children Johann Nickel and Maria Elisabetha in
that arduous time. One must conclude that she was a great person, who took life what life
handed out while receiving nothing from her relationship to the Steinhauers.