far as to begin with the sentence: “Es ist streng verboten zu scheissen neben die Hauser oder auf die Strassen.” This one sentence alone contains several structural blunders (mostly involving word order and case inflections), one swearword (the sixth one, which means “shit”) and a word missing an umlaut (the ninth one). Nonetheless, the ordinance demonstrates a concern for the village's state of cleanliness. The intended meaning was “It is strictly forbidden to defecate next to houses or on the streets.” The last US troops withdrew from Müllenbach in July of the same year. Fear, however, still beset the area as “Stumpfarm” (“Stump-Arm”) – or Johann Wilhelm Mayer, to use his actual name – was still at large. He is said to have been the area's most dangerous criminal, a serial killer. He was caught on 10 August 1919, and beheaded in 1923. In late August 1919, Rheinische Basaltwerke AG started new basalt mines on the Hoechst. A railway spur was built to serve the operation. Electric lighting came to Müllenbach in 1920. The same year also brought industrial strife to the municipality, and there was a ten-day strike at the slate mines. In 1921, there was a new parish priest, Peter Klein, born in Korweiler; he served until 1925. The rampant inflation in Germany in the early 1920s led locally – and indeed nationally – to a great upswing in crop thefts and wood thefts in 1923. By 1925, the village's population had shrunk to 726 (745 Catholics, 5 Evangelicals and 12 Jews), and the basalt mines were shut down owing to unprofitability. The slate mines, however, were doing well by this time. In 1926, there was a new parish priest, Wilhelm Zils, born in Trier; he served until 1941. In 1927, all the slate miners ended up on welfare as all the slate mines were shut down. The French, who had been occupying the Rhineland since the First World War ended, withdrew from the Second Zone of Occupation on the night of 30 November to 1 December 1929, and on 30 June 1930, they also withdrew from the Third Zone of Occupation. Third Reich In 1932, the Nazis were gaining in popularity. Their supporters’ numbers rose in this year from 19 to 52, and at elections in 1933, 118 Müllenbachers cast votes for the NSDAP. On 21 March of that year, with the opening of the Reichstag, the