In 845, Bettingen, or more specifically, Niederbettingen Castle, had its first documentary mention in a document from King Lothar by way of
St. Maximin’s Abbey in
Trier. In the
Middle Ages, the village belonged to the House of Bettingen, under whom were the Counts of Blankenheim,
Manderscheid and Gerolstein. About 1470, Oberbettingen was made subject to the County of Gerolstein. Some of the earlier Lords of Bettingen were the Abbot of
Prüm in 1077, Wirich von Bettingen in 1157 and Theobald von Bettingen in 1158. Under
French rule (1794-1814), Oberbettingen was assigned to the mayor of the
Mairie (“Mayoralty”) of
Lissendorf in the like-named
canton. Even later, under
Prussian administration, the village was still administered by Lissendorf. Oberbettingen was until 1750 an autonomous parish. Ever since, it has belonged to the Parish of Niederbettingen, a
constituent community of the town of
Hillesheim. The former parish church, Saint Nicholas’s, now serves only as a
chapel of ease. There was a conversion of the quire in 1827 and of the nave in 1841. The churchtower was built higher in 1937 to accommodate another bell. In 1960 came more expansion work on the nave, and the adjoining rectory was built. Venerated in Oberbettingen is the
Irish saint
Brigid of Kildare, patron saint of
livestock, and for decades, on 1 February – Saint Brigid’s feast day – pilgrims from all the surrounding villages would come in processions to Oberbettingen. In 1815, after the
Congress of Vienna assigned the area to the Kingdom of
Prussia, the
Rhine Province was founded. This lasted until Germany’s defeat in the
Second World War. In 1816,
districts (
Kreise) were formed, and uninterruptedly ever since, Oberbettingen has belonged to the district of Daun, although this was given a new name –
Vulkaneifel – in 2007. In 1873, the Ehrang – Kalscheuren (
Trier –
Cologne)
railway came into service with the opening of the
railway station in
Hillesheim’s outlying centre of Alter Bahnhof (whose name means “Old Railway Station”). This lasted until the opening of the Ahrtalbahn (another railway) in 1912, when the local station became Hillesheim-Oberbettingen – and then later Oberbettingen-Hillesheim. In 1899, a grant of 1,500 Marks was mentioned for the meadowlands in the
Kyll valley, which existed until the
Flurbereinigung in 1952. In the same year, the Oberbettingen volunteer
fire brigade was also founded. In 1903, a new two-class school building was built, replacing the hitherto
one-room school at the house still found today at Am Bach 5. In 1913 a new graveyard,
Friedhof Auf Kringelsrech, came into use. Until then, there had only been the graveyard behind the chapel, where the rectory now stands. In 1914, the new waterworks came into being. The water was fed by gravity into a cistern and thence into the supply network. Founded in 1921 was the Oberbettingen savings and loan institution of
Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen and Georg Friedrich Dasbach. In 1922 came the first electricity supply to Oberbettingen, from Niederbettingen. As soon as the next year, Oberbettingen was connected to the Schleiden district network (later
RWE). In 1936 came the introduction of the first
Flurbereinigung measures, but they were interrupted by the
Second World War in 1939. On 5 March 1945,
United States forces seized Oberbettingen and crossed the Kyll on a Bailey bridge, whereupon the frontline turned its attention towards Hillesheim across the unoccupied “Kyll Position”. Along with the whole
Regierungsbezirk of Trier, the district of Daun (now Vulkaneifel) was assigned to the
French Zone of Occupation. Since 1946, the municipality has been part of the then newly founded
state of
Rhineland-Palatinate. In 1946, the sport club FC Oberbettingen 1946
e. V. was founded. In 1952, first
Flurbereinigung measures, begun before the war, were finished. The second round was completed in 1987. In 1970, in the course of administrative restructuring in
Rhineland-Palatinate, Oberbettingen, along with
Basberg, Mirbach and
Wiesbaum, was transferred from the
Amt of Lissendorf to the
Verbandsgemeinde of Hillesheim. In 1979, classes ended at the three-room Oberbettingen
primary school and scholastic operations were merged with the Hillesheim primary school. == Politics ==