Diefflen

Mayors of the municipality of Diefflen until the incorporation to Dillingen:[7]

From 1802 until its incorporation into the city of Dillingen/Saar in 1969, the population of Diefflen developed as follows:[11][12]

Diefflen with the Dillinger Hütte in the background seen from the Litermont

The most important employers in the immediate vicinity of Diefflen are the steel industry and metalworking companies and the craft assigned. Examples include the Dillinger Hütte, the Bartz-Werke, the Dillinger factory of perforated sheets and the NEMAK aluminum foundry. The automotive industry is represented by Ford on the Röderberg. In the luxury food industry the works of Trumpf Schokolade in Fraulautern and Saarwellingen have to be mentioned. Many jobs are also offered by various retailers. The unemployment rate of the district of Saarlouis was 5.4% in April 2016.[13] The unemployment rate in the district reduced to 4.8% by November 2017.[14] In May 2018, the unemployment rate in the district was 4.6%.[15]

In the year 1913 in the district of Saarlouis seven electrically operated Tram-lines were built. One of these tram lines led from Saarlouis to Dillingen and a second from Dillingen via Diefflen to Nalbach. The municipal council had decided in 1907, the construction of the tram, as Diefflen had not been included in the construction of the railway line. The official commissioning took place on 1913.[16][17] Since 1928 there is a bus line from Diefflen to Düppenweiler. In the period from 1953 to 1963 there was a conversion from tram to bus operation. The entire municipality (with Dillingen and Pachten) is now connected by thirteen bus lines.

Rail

Dillingen (Saar) station

The nearest passenger and freight station is Dillingen (Saar) station, which opened in 1858. It is a railway junction on the Saar route of the German course (Saarbrücken-Trier-Koblenz) with branch of the Niedtalbahn into the French Thionville and Metz as well as the Primstalbahn. The railway line Dillingen-Primsweiler was originally planned to run on the right bank of the Prims via Diefflen. It should connect the railway line Trier-Hermeskeil-Wemmetsweiler and Trier-Saarbrücken by a cross-link. However, the railway administration decided on a route on the left side of the Prims. The construction work was begun in 1897 and completed until 1901. The Diefflen nearest train station was Nalbach. At the same time the Dillingen (Saar) station was extended, provided with a railway underpass and promoted from rank class II to rank class I, since Dillingen was now the most important node of the route Saarbrücken-Trier. In June 1980, the passenger traffic was set on the route through the Primstal. Freight continues to cross the line as needed.[17] On the part of the premises of the Dillinger Hütte, which lies on the left side of the Dieffler district, there are six tracks that serve rolling mill 2. The neighboring stations of Dillingen are Saarlouis Hauptbahnhof and Beckingen.

Airports in the vicinity

Diefflen, Glider-Flight-Area, plane in the landing process

Diefflen, Glider-Flight-Area, Landed aircraft in front of the hangar

Within a radius of 100 km around Diefflen there are several airports:

• Saarbrücken Airport
• Luxembourg Airport
• Hahn Airport in Hunsrück
• Saarlouis-Düren as a traffic landing place for private machines
• Glider area and airfield for powered flight in Diefflen

The Luftsportclub Dillingen/Saar e.V. was founded in 1965. In 1971, the construction of today's airfield and aircraft hangar in Diefflen began. For the planning of the area a former sand and gravel mining area with 360.000 m³ filling material was filled. The resulting airfield has a length of 800 m and a width of 120 m. The runway has been extended for gliders in the direction of East in 2003. From 1988, the hangar was extended to include a training building.[18]

• Jewish cemetery in Diefflen
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  Nazi forced labor cemetery on the grounds of the Jewish cemetery

The Jewish cemetery, the largest Jewish cemetery in Saarland,[24] lies on the edge of the Dillinger Hüttenwald, at the entrance to Diefflen. The cemetery is connected to the entrance of Diefflen, but is located entirely on the district of Dillingen, as the sidewalk edge of the street "Am Babelsberg" of Dieffler already belongs to the area of Dillingen whose residential development begins only about 2 km further west.

There are about 470 tombstones in the cemetery. In 1746, the Duchy-Lorraine official Charles Francois Dieudonné de Tailfumyr, Seigneur de Cussigny et Président à Mortier, had bought the domain of Dillingen.[25] He was a baptized Jew and showed his Jewel-friendly policy by the 1755 granted permission to create a Jewish cemetery on the edge of the Dillinger Wald on the bann border of Diefflen. The initiative was based on the Jews Hayem, Zerf of Worms and Elias Reutlinger, citizens of Saarlouis, who had to pay an annual interest of 25 Lorraine Francs. In the same year 1755 the first deceased ones were buried.

In 1852 the cemetery was enlarged. In the Nazi era, it was destroyed in 1938. A restoration took place in 1946.

In 1964, a burial ground for more than 50 Polish and Russian forced laborers of the Nazi era was created in the back of the Jewish cemetery. The memorial stone bears the inscription "Homeless and abandoned, they found their last resting place in foreign soil."[26]

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  Diefflen, Sports ground
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  Diefflen, Primary School, Day-nursery, Sports halls
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  One of several fishing lakes
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  Gemeindehaus Diefflen

• several fishing ponds
• Bowling alleys in the town hall Diefflen
• Shooting range in the sports hall Diefflen
• Sports hall Diefflen
• Stadium Babelsberg
• Tennis court Diefflen
• Primary school Primsschule
• Glider area and airfield for powered flight

In the surroundings of Diefflen there are several swimming pools:

• Indoor swimming pool Dillingen (Distance: 3.8 km)
• Outdoor swimming pool Dillingen (Distance: 3,8 km)
• Outdoor swimming pool Saarwellingen (Distance: 6,3 km)
• Indoor swimming pool Saarlouis (Distance: 7,6 km)
• Outdoor swimming pool Saarlouis-Steinrausch (Distance: 7,8 km)
• Indoor swimming pool Beckingen (Distance: 7.9 km)
• Outdoor swimming pool Wallerfangen (Distance: 8,1 km)
• Outdoor swimming pool Schmelz (Distance: 11.7 km)
• Indoor swimming pool Lebach (Distance: 14.4 km)

More than 100 clubs are currently active in the city of Dillingen. At traditional clubs in Diefflen are the men's choir Diefflen (founded in 1874), the musical association "Piano-Forte" (founded in 1908), the church choir St. Cäcilia Diefflen (founded in 1900), the gymnastics club Diefflen (founded in 1891), the football club FV 07 Diefflen (founded in 1907) as well as the local association of the German Red Cross (founded in 1925) to call.

Diefflen has a catholic parish church: Saint Joseph and St. Wendelin. The first neo-gothic church of the architect Wilhelm Hector (1855–1918) was built in the years 1899-1900. After severe damage in World War II, the building was extensively extended in the years 1948-1950 according to the plans of the architects Alois Havener (Saarlouis) and Rudolf Güthler (Saarbrücken) and redesigned in the romanizing or late-antiquing abstraction-historicism.[27][28][29]

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  St. Joseph and St. Wendelin, around 1900
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  St. Joseph and St. Wendelin, Interior before the Second World War
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  St. Joseph and St. Wendelin, after the reconstruction of the post-war period
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  St. Joseph and St. Wendelin, Interior today

Diefflen belongs to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trier (Ecclesiastical province of Cologne) and to the Protestant Church in the Rhineland. The assignment to the Catholic province of Trier is still based on the Roman province division of Emperor Diocletian.[30] In 1891, when the old Romanesque church of Pachten was demolished to build a neo-Gothic one, the late antique so-called "Ursusstein" with a Christogram ☧ was found. This proves that already in the 3rd or 4th century AD, people of Christian faith lived in the immediate vicinity of Diefflen.[31] Whether Christianity perished completely during the turmoil of Migration Period in the surrounding area remains unclear. The episcopal centers Trier and Metz survived the Germanic conquests. From here, in the early Franconian period, the Christianization of the pagan population was tackled.

Of particular importance for the Christianization of the Nalbach-Valley with Diefflen is certainly the foundation of the Franconian nobles and deacon of the Verdun Cathedral, Adalgisel Grimo. He determined on 30 December 634 in his will that his possessions in the place Tholey together with the built there by him "loca sanctorum" to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Verdun, which at the time was headed by Bishop Paul, should fall. This foundation became the focal point of a busy missionary activity in the area.[32]

Since its medieval founding Diefflen formed with the neighboring village of Nalbach until 1858 not only a political, but also until 1919 a church unity. The parish church St. Peter and Paul in Nalbach is the mother church of the surrounding six villages of the Nalbach-Valley: Diefflen, Piesbach, Bettstadt, Bilsdorf and Körprich.

Nalbach, which was mentioned as a parish for the first time in the 11th century, belonged in the Middle Ages to the archdeaconry St. Mauritius Tholey and the deanery and land chapter Merzig in the then Archdiocese of Trier. The archdeaconry Tholey existed until the abolition of the abbey by the troops of the French Revolution in 1793.

By a gift of the Archbishop of Trier Eberhard from 1048, a letter of protection of Henry III from 1098 and a letter of protection of Pope Adrian IV of 1154 and by acquiring the rights of the knights of Nalbach in 1331 the Simeonstift of Trier had in the Nalbach-Valley the basic jurisdiction, the tax collection law and the right to fill the vicarages.[33] The ancestral parish of the Nalbach-Valley, St. Peter and Paul, whose patronal feast presumably refers to the local fishermen at the Prims (Saint Peter as a fishing patron), is mentioned in the list of parishes from the middle of the 12th century committed to the pilgrimage to the abbey of Mettlach.

The Reformation could not be spread by the catholic rule of the Electorate of Trier and the Duchy of Lorraine. In the neighbor-village Diefflen, Saarwellingen, which was under the sovereignty of the Lords of Kriechingen, the Reformation was enforced. However, with the reunification policy of King Louis XIV of France and the construction of the fortress of Saarlouis, here too, as well as in Schwalbach, Reisweiler, Eiweiler and Überherrn, the only superficially Protestantised church ended.[34]

Until Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, there were hardly any people of Protestant denomination in the immediate vicinity of Diefflen.[35] Only with the construction of a Protestant church in Dillingen in the years 1902-1903 exists in today's urban area of Dillingen a Protestant church.

• Katharina Best: Die Geschichte der ehemaligen Synagogen-Gemeinden Dillingen und Nalbach, in: Unsere Heimat, Mitteilungsblatt des Landkreises Saarlouis für Kultur und Landschaft, 13. Jahrgang, Doppelheft Nr. 3/4, Saarlouis 1988, S. 95–114.
• Georg Colesie: Geschichte des Nalbacher Tales, Eine saarländische Heimatgeschichte, 2. Auflage, Nalbach 1990.
• Das katholische Saarland, Heimat und Kirche, Hrsg.: L. Sudbrack und A. Jakob, Band II/III, Saarbrücken 1954, S. 30.
• Johannes Dräger/Stefan Reuter: »Der Westwall im Raum Dillingen von 1936 bis heute«, Geschichtswerkstatt Dillingen/Saar e.V., Dillingen 2006.
• Anton Edel: Die Einwohner des Nalbacher Tales 1800–1902 – Bettstadt, Bilsdorf, Diefflen, Körprich, Nalbach, Piesbach, hrsg. von Gernot Karge im Auftrag der Vereinigung für die Heimatkunde im Landkreis Saarlouis, Quellen zur Genealogie im Landkreis Saarlouis und angrenzenden Gebieten, Bd. 30, 2 Bände, Saarlouis 2004.
• Freiwillige Feuerwehr Dillingen/Saar (Hrsg.): »125 Jahre Freiwillige Feuerwehr Dillingen. 1864–1989«, Geschichte der Feuerwehr Dillingen/Saar anläßlich ihres 125-jährigen Bestehens 1864–1989 auch unter Berücksichtigung der Vergangenheit der Feuerwehr Pachten, Feuerwehr Diefflen und der Werkfeuerwehr der Dillinger Hüttenwerke, Dillingen 1989.
• Armin Jost/Reuter Stefan: »Dillingen im Zweiten Weltkrieg«, Geschichtswerkstatt Dillingen/Saar, Dillingen 2002.
• Katholische Kirchengemeinde St. Josef Diefflen (Hrsg.): 100 Jahre Pfarrkirche St. Josef Diefflen 1900–2000, Dillingen 2000.
• Walter Kiefer: »Dillingen (Saar), Fotos von Gestern und Heute (1890–1980)«, Saarbrücker Druckerei und Verlag, 1983.
• Walter Kiefer: »Pachten – Dillingen – Diefflen, Bilder von Gestern und Heute (1885–1985)«, Selbstverlag, o. J.
• Hans Peter Klauck: Die Einwohner des Nalbacher Tales vor 1803, Bettstadt, Bilsdorf, Diefflen, Körprich, Nalbach, Piesbach, Mitteilungen der Arbeitsgemeinschaft für saarländische Familienkunde e.V., 26. Sonderband, hrsg. von Werner Habicht, Saarbrücken 1989.
• Peter Kreis: De,iffler Stickelcher (sic), hrsg. von der Stadt Dillingen/Saar, Dillingen 1972.
• Kristine Marschall: Sakralbauwerke des Klassizismus und des Historismus im Saarland, (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Landeskunde im Saarland, Bd. 40), Saarbrücken 2002, S. 215 und S. 442–443.
• Aloys Lehnert: »Geschichte der Stadt Dillingen Saar«, Druckerei Krüger, Dillingen 1968.
• Aloys Lehnert: Heimatkundliches Jahrbuch des Kreises Saarlouis, Saarlouis 1960.
• Hermann Maisant: Der Kreis Saarlouis in vor- und frühgeschichtlicher Zeit, Saarlouis 1971.
• Ulrich Meisser: »Dillingen – Gesicht einer Stadt«, Krüger Druck + Verlag GmbH, Dillingen 1987.
• Johann Jakob Reichrath: Beiträge zur Morphologie und Morphogenese des Flußgebietes der mittleren und unteren Saar, Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde genehmigt von der Philosophischen Fakultät der Ernst Moritz Arndt-Universität zu Greifswald, Bonn 1936.
• Saarforschungsgemeinschaft (Hrsg.): Die Kunstdenkmäler der Kreise Ottweiler und Saarlouis, bearbeitet von Walter Zimmermann, 2., unveränderte Auflage von 1934, Saarbrücken 1976, S. 176.
• Alois Scherer: »Straßen und Plätze in Dillingen, Pachten, Diefflen – Ursache und Bedeutung ihrer Benennung«, herausgegeben von der Realschule Dillingen und der Stadt Dillingen, Nalbach 1990.
• Alois Scherer: Dieffler Geschichten, Diefflen, wie es einmal war in Dokumenten, Berichten, Erzählungen, Bildern, Dillingen/Saar 2009.
• Johann Spurk: »Diefflen – Die Entwicklung einer kleinen dörflichen Siedlung zu einer großen Arbeiter-Wohnsitzgemeinde«, A. Krüger, Dillingen-Saar, 1964.
• Johann Spurk: 75 Jahre Pfarrgemeinde St. Josef Diefflen, Saarlouis 1975.
• Stadtwerke Dillingen/Saar GmbH (Hrsg.): »Chronik Stadtwerke Dillingen/Saar GmbH«, Dillingen 1993.
• Ludwig Zöller: Das Quartär-Profil von Dillingen-Diefflen (Saarland), Jahresberichte und Mitteilungen des Oberrheinischen Geologischen Vereins, Neue Folge, Band 66, Stuttgart 1984, S. 351–355.