The field names

„Kottenweg“ leads hikers through the districts of the local community and display boards explaining the historical field names. Field names are the names of mountains and valleys, forests and fields, creeks or ponds and other locations outside of settlements. The same basic words often appear in compound words, such as “Dell” for ditch, derived from the Middle High German word “telle” for valley or “-hübel” derived from the common dialect word “Hewwel” for hill. The preceding determiner describes the ditch, the dell, etc. in more detail, e.g. „Heiligendell“(saints ditch).

The field names were used by the agricultural population working in the fields to define locations and to orientate themselves in fields and fields and thus enabled clear communication. However, some of the names have been forgotten over time as the agricultural population has declined. Nevertheless, the field names together with the parcel numbers are still an integral part of every official document, insofar as it concerns property matters.

This description of the field names was made possible by the work of Mr. Karl Urschel, a native of Kottweiler-Schwanden, who through years of research in community, church and state archives as well as court files, has compiled the history and meaning of the field names. The work was published in 2018 in the book called „Die Flurnamen von Kottweiler-Schwanden“ by the local community.
The content may be used with the kind permission of the author. The passages, some of which have been taken over literally, are not labeled in detail. Additional information on the village history is taken from the chronicle „650 years of Kottweiler-Schwanden“ by Karl Krupp, Jakob Lill and Karl Urschel (published by the local community of Kottweiler-Schwanden) from 1999.