Dörth

Dörth 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 Emmelshausen, whose seat is in the like-named town.GeographyLocationThe municipality lies in the Hunsrück about 2.5 km east of Emmelshausen on the Autobahn A 61. Sankt Goar lies roughly 8 km to the east, and the river Rhine’s nearest approach to Dörth is at Hirzenach, an outlying centre of Boppard, roughly 5 km to the northeast.HistoryIn 1334, Dörth was first mentioned by name. It first arose as a clearing village and was once called Denrod (the —rod ending stems from the same root as the German verb roden, meaning “clear”, with reference to woods). In the latter half of the 14th century, the villagers forsook Dörth for a few years, but it is believed that the village was reoccupied within a decade. In 1375, Dörth had its first documentary mention. The actual document deals with an agreement in which the agreed sharing of tithes from the area under the Gallscheid Court’s (Gallscheider Gericht) jurisdiction between the Provost of Saint Martin’s Foundation at Worms and his chapter is recorded. Dörth was grouped with those villages that had to pay the tithe not to the Provost, but rather to the chapter. The tithe lord (or Decimator) in Dörth was until 1521 Saint Martin’s Foundation at Worms. Old documents speak of Denrod or Dinrod. The villagers worked mainly at farming and in the forest.