Zehnhausen Bei Rennerod - History

History

The placename with the ending –hausen would seem to indicate that the community arose at the time of the greatest wave of Frankish settlement in the Westerwald from the 6th century to the 11th.

Zehnhausen has for uncounted years belonged to the parish of Emmerichenhain, which since the Reformation has been Evangelical.

For centuries the community belonged to the House of Nassau.

In 1335, Zehnhausen had its first documentary mention, when the community was called Zhenhusen. It is believed that in the field known as Altzehnhausen – alt is German for “old” – which lies roughly 1.2 km southwest of today’s community, is where the community’s core was once to be found. Wall remains unearthed there, however, might have been field walls. The place once known as Königshub – or about 1440 Konigshuse – roughly 1 km to the north, formed along with Zehnhausen one community until 1738. The field name Kindschue still shows today where the now forsaken village lay.

In 1635 there were only two utterly impoverished households left in Zehnhausen, and in 1643 there were 16 inhabitants. In the summer of 1658, sixteen houses burnt to the ground within one hour. In 1660, 36 people in 6 families were counted in the community; in 1782 it was 169, and in 1807, 33 families with all together 168 people lived in the community. In 1736, a branch school was first mentioned and in 1784, the first schoolhouse of the community’s own was built. This schoolhouse was used until the late 1960s. All eight grades were taught in one classroom.

In June 1796, the inhabitants fled Zehnhausen for Nenderoth into the Kreuzberg Forest by way of Johannisburg before advancing French soldiers, who were moving forth from Hachenburg into the Westerwald to Emmerichenhain. There, a few children were even born.