district. During the wars of independence, the Eichsfeld had suffered much, leading to crop failures and widespread illness. Holungen received money from the king for the reconstruction of several burned-down houses. On 2 February 1861, King Frederick William IV died, and his brother William I took his place. In the same year, the shooting club was formed, and the Chaussee (main road) was extended over the Graseforst. The Holungers were dissatisfied with this extension, since they had supported a different route, one which would have been more favourable for the area but had been dropped. In February 1865, this led to a big court case, which the Holungers lost. The Chaussee led from Worbis over the Sonnenstein to Gerode and was half-an-hour further away than the old road, which almost completely cut Holungen off from long-distance traffic. The period of the German Empire The years 1870 and 1871 saw the Franco-Prussian War, and on 30 January 1871, Germany became an empire under the Prussian King William I. The soldiers returned home with the Iron Cross, the Kriegsgedenkmünze (War Service Medal) and other service decorations. Many Kriegskameradschaften (veterans’ groups) were formed, and later joined by a Kriegerverein (veterans’ association). In Holungen, support for Kaiser Wilhelm was very high. This was due in large part to the fact that a Holunger (Josef Hildebrandt), was the Kaiser's driver from 1861–1888. At this time, Holungen had approximately 650 inhabitants, two nursery gardens, one Hirtenhaus (lit. shepherd's house), one school, one local pub (Am. inn) and one fire pond. It covered roughly 98 acres / 40 hectares (196 Äcker). On 1 April 1876, rector Friedrich Polak from Nordhausen was appointed out as the school inspector. Holungen received a second teacher and a new school was built. In March 1871 land plots on all the farmland were remeasured. Due to the differing altitudes it was possible that there were differences in the measurements, but in 232 cases the permissible difference was exceeded. In 100 cases it amounted to even twice the limit. The owners gave the land over to the Separationsverfahren (roughly, the process of crop rotation) and “had it given back afterwards” (uncertain literal translation of “und ließen es sich hinterher zurückgeben” from German original), as a result of which the total area of farmland was reduced. In 1906, it became apparent that roughly 90 acres / 36 hectares (180 Äcker) of Holungen, which were