Bärenbach | |
|---|---|
 Coat of arms | |
Location of Bärenbach within Bad Kreuznach district
| |
 Location of Bärenbach | |
  Bärenbach  Bärenbach | |
| Coordinates:49°44′54″N7°26′28″E / 49.74833°N 7.44111°E /49.74833; 7.44111 | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Rhineland-Palatinate |
| District | Bad Kreuznach |
| Municipal assoc. | Kirner Land |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2019–24) | Jürgen Schmidt[1] |
| Area | |
• Total | 5.6 km2 (2.2 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 253 m (830 ft) |
| Population (2023-12-31)[2] | |
• Total | 490 |
| • Density | 87/km2 (230/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| Postal codes | 55758 |
| Dialling codes | 06784 |
| Vehicle registration | KH |
Bärenbach (German pronunciation:[ˈbɛːʁənbax]) is anOrtsgemeinde – amunicipality belonging to aVerbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in theBad Kreuznachdistrict inRhineland-Palatinate,Germany. It belongs to theVerbandsgemeindeKirner Land, whose seat is in the town ofKirn.
Bärenbach lies on the Großbach, a short way upstream from where it empties into the riverNahe, and 47.1% of the municipal area is wooded.
Clockwise from the north, Bärenbach's neighbours are the town ofKirn, the municipality ofHeimweiler (both in the Bad Kreuznach district), the town ofIdar-Oberstein, the municipality ofFischbach and the municipality ofBergen (all three in the neighbouringBirkenfeld district).
Bärenbach's founding might have come about in that time when the clearing of the so-calledjüngerer Siedlungsraum ("newer settling grounds"), meaning mainly the near edge of the Soon and the uplands, began in the early 7th century; it was completed by the 12th century. The great importance of thismediaeval clearing process lies in its having been the first time that new land forfarming was conquered not by the sword, but rather with the axe. Most new settlements in the woodlands may at first have been only single farms, or at best, groups of homesteads forming the core of a settlement. As late as 1599, Bärenbach still boasted only 12 hearths (for which read "households" or "families"). Data given by H. Kaufmann about the Bad Kreuznach district's placenames show that Bärenbach was mentioned in documents as early as 1108 ("Gerardus comes de Berenbach", UB. Mainz I n. 436). The village's history is tightly bound with the neighbouringCastle Naumburg. In 1146,Raugrave Emicho named "Graf von Nuenburc" ("Count of Naumburg"), thus giving the castle its first documentary mention. Castle Naumburg (fromNeue Burg, meaning "New Castle") likely got its name from being a newer founding than the nearby Kyrburg (another castle) or even the Hachenfels (a now vanished castle). Castle Naumburg stood on a hill near where the Bärenbach (the brook from which the municipality draws its name) empties into theNahe. It was among the Raugraves' holdings; this comital house also held further castles and administrative rights on theAlsenz, theAppelbach, the Großbach and theHunsrück. After changes in ownership arrangements, the Raugraves transferred the castle in the 14th century to theCounts of Sponheim-Kreuznach, who made it into the administrative seat of a smallAmt comprising the courts of Bärenbach,Becherbach andMartin-Weierbach, along with parts ofLöllbach andOberreidenbach. According to a description of theAmt compiled in 1599, theHigh Court of Becherbach was the hub of theAmt of Naumburg. At the time when theCounty of Sponheim was partitioned in 1706, theAmt of Naumburg was assigned to theBadish part, then forming theOberamt of Naumburg, and in 1776, theAmt of Herrstein from the "Hinder" County of Sponheim was annexed to it. Further, theImperial-knightly lordship ofMartinstein, which belonged to the Margrave of Baden, was administratively tied to theAmt of Naumburg. According to a description of theAmt of Naumburg from 1785, Bärenbach had 32 houses and as many families. One third of Bärenbach's municipal area was lordly domain. The biggest house belonged to the family Nagel, who had long administered theheadsman's andknacker's office. By 1755,Louis George, Margrave of Baden-Baden had pledged his Naumburg landhold against 2,550Rhenish guilders to 16 families in Bärenbach. During the time ofFrench rule, the pledge was redeemed in favour of the French state. After the family Puricelli had later acquired the pledge atauction, it was only in 1855 that 22 Bärenbach families had lands transferred to them against a payment of 7,200 Rhenish guilders. During the Frenchoccupation of the lands on theRhine's left bank, Bärenbach belonged to theMairie ("Mayoralty") of Schmidthachenbach, theCanton of Grumbach and theDepartment ofSarre. It was also under French rule that the building complexes at the Naumburg were torn down. Under the terms laid down by theCongress of Vienna after theNapoleonic Wars had ended, a new political order was established, which at first saw Bärenbach placed underPrussian administration in 1815. Soon thereafter, however, sometime in 1816 or 1817, the village found itself ruled byHesse-Homburg, within which it became part of theOberschultheißerei, and laterBürgermeisterei ("Mayoralty"), of Becherbach. Only in 1821 did the municipality build itself its ownchurch, to whichSchmidthachenbach was later, in 1903, added as a vicariate. Until this church was built, Bärenbach had always belonged to the parish of Becherbach. Until 1866, theBürgermeisterei of Becherbach belonged to theOberamt of Meisenheim, which was subject to the Landgraves of Hesse-Homburg. In the time that followed,Becherbach remained a local administrative seat when in 1869 the new Prussian Meisenheim district was newly formed out of the formerOberamt. In 1932, the Meisenheim district was dissolved and its lands were merged into theBad Kreuznach district. Eight years later, by which timeAdolf Hitler and theNazis had not only founded theThird Reich but also started theSecond World War, theAmt of Becherbach was dissolved in the course of administrative reform and then merged into theAmt of Kirn-Land. From this time,Kirn became the hub for all administrative functions for the citizens of Bärenbach. Since the latest administrative reform, in 1969 and 1970, Bärenbach has been part of theVerbandsgemeinde of Kirn-Land.[3]
About the derivation of the name "Bärenbach" there is no consensus. There are two other villages inRhineland-Palatinate alone with this same name (this one, for one). If interpreted as aModern High German word, its meaning would be "Bear's Brook", but the modern spelling may not be indicative of the name'setymology. Decisive for the interpretation is the first syllable, which – as also with the village ofBärweiler – was originallyBer— (Berenbach/Berwilre). InMiddle High German usage, this syllable had several meanings and was applied to not only thebear (Bär in Modern High German) but also thebreeding boar (in which case it wascognate with the still currentEnglish wordboar[4]) and evenbarley (in which case it was cognate with theOld English wordbere, which helped give rise to the modern wordbarley[5]), now calledGerste in German. At times, placename researchers lean towards the interpretation of the name having sprung from thebrown bear, which once roamed this area. It seems much likelier, though, that the name is drawn from a personal or family name. Many placenames after all go back to a village's owner, founder or leader, with the village that grows up drawing its name from a homestead that once stood there. If so, Bärenbach might have drawn its name from a man namedBero, a short form of the nameBerengar.[6]
As at 31 July 2013, there are 504 full-time residents in Bärenbach, and of those, 311 areEvangelical (61.706%), 116 areCatholic (23.016%), 14 (2.778%) belong to other religious groups and 63 (12.5%) either have no religion or will not reveal their religious affiliation.[7]
The council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected bymajority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.[8]
Bärenbach's mayor is Jürgen Schmidt, and his deputies are Alfred Litzenburger and Herbert Bangert.[9]
The municipality'sarms might be described thus: Per fess abased vert a bend sinister wavy couped at the line of partition and a berry couped in pale, both argent, and chequy of eighteen azure and Or.
These arecanting arms, referring as they do to the municipality's name. The twocharges in the upper field are the canting elements referring to the two parts of the name, a berry (Beere inGerman) for the name prefix and the wavy bend sinister (slanted stripe) standing for a brook (Bach in German). Some old descriptions record the village's name asBeerenbach, which literally does mean "Berrybrook". This would have been pronounced slightly differently from the current name, with the first vowel a bit higher, more an [eː] than the current [ɛː]. Thetincture vert (green) was chosen for two local dales. The lower field is a reference to the village's former allegiance to the "Further"County of Sponheim. Municipal council gave the graphic artist Brust fromKirn-Sulzbach the task of designing a municipal coat of arms on 8 October 1963. At a council meeting on 6 May 1964, council adopted the design that had been put forth. After consent by the state archive, the Ministry of the Interior inMainz granted approval for Bärenbach to bear its own arms on 12 May 1965.[10]
The following are listed buildings or sites inRhineland-Palatinate's Directory of Cultural Monuments:[11]
The following clubs are active in Bärenbach:[13]
Running to the village's west isBundesstraße 41. Bärenbach has norailway station of its own, but serving nearbyKirn-Sulzbach is a station on theNahe Valley Railway (Bingen–Saarbrücken).
