On request of the owner at that time, Mr. Josef Reiter, the Heimatpfleger (home curator) of the district Augsburg, Dr. Eberlein,
delivered in the year 1953 the following statement to the "Kirchberg" (church hill):


A.Z. II/324-4
The home curator                Augsburg, 19 October 1953
     for the                      Kreuzeck street 14
District Augsburg                telephone 30259
To the
District administration Augsburg
G ö g g i n g e n


Reference: The "Kirchberg" to Batzenhofen, plan number 464/477 of the
         tax commune Batzenhofen

     In the area of the municipality Batzenhofen from west
three hill backs push their way against the Schmutter valley, namely in
the south the ridge between Gailenbach and the Boeglegraben (bend ditch),
in the north the Katharinenberg (Catherine hill) and in the center the
somewhat lower Kirchberg. On the latter, about 400 m northwest from the
parish church and about 200 m southwest from the Sebastian Chapel, lies
the property mentioned in the reference and belonging to the Batzenhofen
farmer Josef Reiter,Hs.Nr. 34, together with the two-trunk oak registered
in the natural monuments book.
     The property "Kirchberg" (strictly speaking), a conspicuous,
obviously artificially formed hill, forms an about 40 m long
and 12 to 15 m wide tongue-like hill flattened above, which
rises in the west gradually from the hinterland and develops in gentle
inclination eastward. The front edge of the plate turned against
the village is rounded and approximately 2.50 m higher
than the surrounding area. The steep escarpments at the front and the two
longitudinal sides in the south and the north are overgrown with bushes
and hedgerows, in several places slightly dig into, and bushes
and hedges partly spoiled by garbage deposit.
At the southeast corner of the edge stands the two-trunk oak
mentioned above. Its girth directly above the roots amounts
to approximately 5.20 m, that of the both trunks 3.70 respectively
3.10 m. The height of the treetop mainly sweeping against southeast
is estimated to 16 to 18 m. A few meters away from the
roots of cut down second oak with a girth of
about 3.80 m can be noted. Close beside it is the chopped trunk of
the oak with a diameter of 0.80 m. 12 to 15 m westwards on southern
escarpment there are three additional but much younger
oaks.

                                    II.
     Regarding to the documents available for the home curator, whose
correctness however could not be tested by source research yet,
on the property mentioned once a chapel dedicated to
John the Baptist stood, from which probably the field name "Kirchberg"
is derived. The chapel was built apparently some time before 1575,
because an inspection report from this year calls it "profanirt
and zergangen" (profaned and dilapidated). In a "Geometrisches
Grundrißbuch" (geometrical ground plan book) from the year 1738 of the
Augsburg ladies convent St. Stephan the chapel is named "St. Johannes
et Sebastian Kuerch" (church of St. John and St. Sebastian),
probably because of its Sebastian altar.
It was pulled down in 1765. In the next year the Sebastian
chapel at the in that time north end of the village on the west side
of the road leading to Holzhausen was erected. From this new building
the legend announces that the chapel originally should have been
established on the Kirchberg; but each night what was built the day
before was carried in mysterious way from the Kirchberg to the
current place of the chapel. Therefore people decided for the new
location. The "Kirchberg "seems to have carried no more buildings
after the demolition of the John and Sebastian chapel in 1765;
today the property is used for agriculture.

                                    III.
     Any clues that the "Kirchberg" is to be regarded as former
thingstead (i.e. Germanic judgment seat), are missing.
This assumption was expressed to me for the first time some months
ago by Mr. Josef Joerg in Batzenhofen, old people's home Sonnenhof.
I had to draw his attention however, according to the situation of
the things, on strong doubts against such an opinion. After that Mr.
Joerg published on 4th September 1953 an essay in the local newspaper
"Schwaebische Landeszeitung, Augsburger Landbote" (Swabian country
news, Augsburg country courier) with the title "Thing-Hügel am Rande
von Batzenhofen" (Thing hill at the edge of Batzenhofen).
In this article "the so-called Kirchberg of today's designation"
is called a "place of worship of high age and once great importance".
It is called further: "This Kirchberg respectively this earth hill
artificially built up on a field proves itself to the view of an
expert as a good preserved typically perfect Germanic thingstead".
A closer reason is not given however. Furthermore one reads: "On this
hill stands still today the old-venerable Thing oak in the same .
place" In the end it is still mentioned that "the today's Batzenhofen
Kirchberg with its high age as typical old-Germanic thingstead
and place of worship of our ancestors earns more attention, since so
far of its former importance nothing was known."

                                    IV.
     These claims unfortunately cannot be followed:Apart
from existing neither oral legends nor writings in Batzenhofen
that report from the Kirchberg as old thingstead, also location and
other circumstances speak against such a hypothesis.
     The area of the today's municipality Batzenhofen belonged to
the sphere of the Urmark (primeval marches) Hirblingen,
which extended in a broad strip between the Urmarken Gablingen and
Taefertingen from the east over the high terrace and the Schmutter
valley to right inside the western forests. As starting point for the
emergence of the village Batzenhofen perhaps the Maierhof (farm which
was occupied by the administrator (the Meier) of a noble or spiritual
estate) can be regarded, which dates back to the time of the colonization
around 500 B.C. It must not be imagined without reason that this Maierhof
goes back to a before-German (Roman) estata, i.e. that he took over the
existing cultural ground of a before-German farm estate.
     The Maierhof stood at the northeast slope of the ridge that reaches
between the Gailenbach and the Böglegraben to the Schmutter; on this lay
also the associated arable land. Westwards of this ridge the forest began,
from which only centuries later the area of the village Edenbergen
and its village lands were wrung from by clearing. Everywhere else
before the beginning of the first large clearing period in the
eighth century, the forest reached from the heights down to the edge of
the bottom of the valley, as it is still with the more southern slopes
of the Hammelberg and the Loderberg.
Like that also north of the Böglegraben the area of the today's Kirchberg
and Katharinenberg was covered with forest down to the valley meadows.
     When then approximately in the eighth century, starting from the
Maierhof, the village settlement Batzenhofen was brought into being, the
area of arable land needed for it had to be won only by extensive
clearing work. Parish church and the parsonage as well as the Ehaften,
i.e. mill and Taferne (tavern), developed on the area of the Maierhof
south of the Boeglegraben. This area also remained always the central
area of the village. In opposite to this the later so called "Kirchberg",
on which in the 16th Century the Johanneskapelle (chapel of John the
Baptist) is proven, belonged to the forest area laying far away from the
village center and was converted to arable land not before the birth of
the village. Its former use as "old-Germanic thingstead" appears therefore
impossible.      The age of the two-trunk oak standing on the Kirchberg
is estimated on 150 to 200 years. Even if one accepts the age
of the cut down oak by one hundred years higher, then it could have only
been planted in the time after the Thirty Years' War.
Therefore it is not possible that it goes back as "old-venerable Thing oak"
into the early Middle Ages.
     The question, whether and to what an extent a connection between
the Kirchberg and the by field names testified "Reglesburg" existed,
which is to be searched in the northwest of Batzenhofen, can be clarified
only by further detailed research.

                                    V.
     Even when the Kirchberg regarding to the above cannot be
called a former thingstead, it nevertheless represents a place important
to local history, as it is the former location of the Johannes and
Sebastiankapelle. That is why it deserves special protection
Since by the entry of the oak into the nature monument book
the hedges at the embankments are also protected, this measure
is judged sufficient for the time being. One may also without restriction
agree in the opinion that the Kirchberg is suitable for demonstrations
and similar meetings of larger extent. Therefore an appropriate suggestion
may probably be sufficient, that the place in the future gets a better
care as before.


Translated to the best of knowledge and belief by Franz X. Koehler


In connection to this statement the following questions result for the author of this homepage:

1. The home curator confirms that the Kirchberg is " a conspicuous, obviously artificially formed hill" (see section I.). From the measures given in section I. and considering the natural slope of the terrain it can be calculated that approximately 40 x (12+15)/2 x 2,5) / 2 = 675 (!) cubic meters of soil had to be moved to form the hill. What did our ancestors drive to do this immense expenditure?
2. For what reason an artificial hill near the village was set up, if in the further periphery plenty of natural hills are present? For instance to produce arable land, that could be cultivated without the hill even more simply?
3. If the early Johanneskapelle (chapel of St. John) existing on the Kirchberg on the one hand already in the year 1575 was "profanirt and zergangen" (profaned and dilapidated, see section II.), on the other hand however in 1765, thus 2 centuries later, it still stood and even had to be pulled down, at how much "some time" before 1575 the chapel was probably established?
4. Why did the early Batzenhofen people build a church that far away from the centre of the village? The designation "Kapelle" (chapel) originates from the vocabulary of the home curator. The official designation was even in the year 1738 still "Kürch", thus church (see section II.). Or did one simply not differentiate at that time between church and chapel?
5. Why became the already in 1575 ruined, profaned Johanneskapelle in 1669 equipped with a new Sebastian altar and got "resuscitated"? (and perhaps also renovated, which would explain, why it still stood in 1765). Did people remember suddenly in the times of distress of the plague an old "place of power"?

The following assumption suggests itself:
It is well-known that our ancestors knew about "places of power". These were used over centuries, even over millenniums as cult places. In the course of the Christianization at such places often deliberately churches were built, in order to bring the pagan cult to an end. Could this not also have happened in Batzenhofen? Perhaps even the home curator was not by hundred percent sure. Why did he choose in section IV the formulation "appears therefore impossible" and did not write clearly and unmistakable "is impossible"? And last but not least: Could this not even explain why someone brought the building material to another place? Because some in 1765 deliberately did not want to establish another chapel at an old cult place? (be it to protect the old cult place or because they did not want a chapel on ground that was used for pagan rites in former times). Fact is that the hill with the old oak possesses to this very day its own atmosphere, in particular in the morning and evening hours with the sunrise and sundown.

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