Bundenbach | |
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 Coat of arms | |
Location of Bundenbach within Birkenfeld district  | |
  Bundenbach  Bundenbach | |
| Coordinates:49°50′34″N7°22′43″E / 49.84278°N 7.37861°E /49.84278; 7.37861 | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Rhineland-Palatinate |
| District | Birkenfeld |
| Municipal assoc. | Herrstein-Rhaunen |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2019–24) | Verena Mächtel[1] |
| Area | |
• Total | 7.70 km2 (2.97 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 400 m (1,300 ft) |
| Population (2022-12-31)[2] | |
• Total | 843 |
| • Density | 110/km2 (280/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| Postal codes | 55626 |
| Dialling codes | 06544 |
| Vehicle registration | BIR |
| Website | www.bundenbach.de |
Bundenbach is anOrtsgemeinde – amunicipality belonging to aVerbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in theBirkenfelddistrict ofRhineland-Palatinate,Germany. It belongs to theVerbandsgemeindeHerrstein-Rhaunen, whose seat is inHerrstein.
For its roughly 400-million-year-oldfossils ofPlacodermi and other creatures from theDevonian, Bundenbach is said to be a world-class fossilLagerstätte.
The municipality lies on theHunsrück Schiefer- und Burgenstraße (“Hunsrück Slate and Castle Road”).
The nearest major towns areKirn,Idar-Oberstein andSimmern. Neighbouring municipalities areRhaunen,Bollenbach,Schneppenbach andBruschied.
Also belonging to Bundenbach are the outlying homesteads of Neumühle and Reinhardsmühle.[3]
The area was settled inprotohistory, which is proven by digs undertaken by theRheinisches Landesmuseum Trier (Trier Rhenish State Museum) from 1971 to 1974 at the Altburg (“OldCastle”) on a mountain spur near Bundenbach, inside a bow in the tributary Hahnenbach. Standing there from about 170 to 50 BC was a LateIron Age, LateCeltic fortification complex, orcastellum, of theTreveri, a people of mixedCeltic andGermanic stock, from whom theLatin name for the city ofTrier,Augusta Treverorum, is also derived. This hill castle was first laid out as a lightly fortified settlement on the heights and only later given strong walls. The last traces of human presence there vanished in the mid 1st century BC. It is said to be the most thoroughly explored complex of its kind.[4]
As a result of the exploratory digs, the Altburg has been partly restored to its form in the 1st century BC, and has been expanded into a unique,protohistoricopen-air museum. TheFreilichtmuseum Altburg was dedicated and opened to the public in 1988.
Bundenbach's founding may be placed in the earlier half of the 10th century. It had its first documentary mention, though, in aWaldgravial partition document on 14 March 1283. The Waldgraves had the forest cleared and thereby gained freehold land for themselves. This was namedBeunde. The settlement on theBeunde, which also lay on a brook (Bach inGerman), thereby got its name: Bundenbach.
Mentioned much nearer the presumed founding date, however, was the Schmidtburg, theWaldgraves’ ancestral seat in the Hahnenbach valley. This first cropped up in history in 1084. Bundenbach was always bound to the Schmidtburg, even after the childless Waldgrave Heinrich von der Schmidtburg enfeoffedArchbishop and Elector of TrierBaldwin in 1324 with the Schmidtburg and the villages belonging to it. From 1330 to 1794, Bundenbach belonged to theElectoral-TrierAmt of Schmidtburg.
The Schmidtburg, which actually lies withinSchneppenbach’s limits, was thoroughly repaired between 1981 and 1987. It is among the Hunsrück’s oldest castles.
Politically, after theAmt of Schmidtburg was dissolved and after its short time in theFrenchcanton of Rhaunen inNapoleonic times, from 1817 to 1937 Bundenbach was part of the Grand Duchy and Free State ofOldenburg, and more locally to the Principality (later Province) of Birkenfeld. In the course of administrative restructuring inRhineland-Palatinate, Bundenbach passed from theAmt of Herrstein to theVerbandsgemeindeHerrstein-Rhaunen in theBirkenfeld district (and also in theRegierungsbezirk of Koblenz, although Rhineland-Palatinate abolishedRegierungsbezirke in 1999) in 1970.
Bundenbach is known internationally for itsslate mining and important fossil finds. The use of slate in the Bundenbach area has a demonstrably long history: the Celtic hill castle’s defensive wall was built of slate quarrystones. The first slate mining lease agreement is witnessed onSaint Walpurga’s Day 1519: The Lords of Wiltberg leased their“Laienkaul unden an Prorschitt uff der Bach gelegen” (“Laienkaul down below atBruschied, lying on the brook”) for four years to, among others, the two Bundenbach residents Peter and Niklas Huppen.
In 1865 21 slate mines still existed within Bundenbach's limits. In 2000, open-cast slate mining came to an end at Bundenbach's last slate pit. Since then, only slates delivered from elsewhere have been worked.
Another mine, the Herrenberg slate pit near the Altburg and opposite the Schmidtburg, first mentioned in 1822, ceased operations in 1964. Eleven years later, a private initiative by Bundenbach residents was begun to open this mine as a tourist attraction. It was dedicated and opened to the public in 1976. It was later expanded with the addition of a fossil museum that displays noteworthy pieces along with old photographs and equipment.[5][6]
The council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected byproportional representation at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.
The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:[7]
| Year | CDU | WGR | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 5 | 7 | 12 seats |
| 2004 | 9 | 7 | 16 seats |
Bundenbach's mayor is Verena Mächtel.[1]
The German blazon reads:In gespaltenem Schild vorne in Blau ein mit drei schwarzen Kugeln belegtes silbernes Buch schräg, hinten in Silber ein rotes Balkenkreuz.
The municipality'sarms might in Englishheraldic language be described thus: Per pale azure a book bendwise argent charged with three roundels sable and argent a cross gules.
Thecharge on the dexter (armsbearer's right, viewer's left) side isSaint Nicholas’s attribute, thus representing the municipality’s and the church’s patron saint. He was also depicted in the old court seal. The red cross on the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side is a reference to the village’s former allegiance to theElectorate of Trier.[8]
The following are listed buildings or sites inRhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:[9]
Worth seeing are themediaeval castle ruin, the Schmidtburg (the biggest Rhenish castle complex), the Herrenberg slate pit (since 1976 open to visitors as an attraction), the fossil museum, the Altburg Celtic heights settlement fromLa Tène times and the Hahnenbach valley, which has no road traffic.
In Kirn is the nearestrailway station. It lies on theNahe Valley Railway (Bingen–Saarbrücken). To the north areBundesstraße 50 andFrankfurt-Hahn Airport.
Bundenbach has onekindergarten and a village community centre.
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