Hundsbach is anOrtsgemeinde – amunicipality belonging to aVerbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in theBad Kreuznachdistrict inRhineland-Palatinate,Germany. It belongs to theVerbandsgemeinde of Meisenheim, whose seat is in thelike-named town.

Hundsbach
Municipality
Coat of arms
Location of Hundsbach within Bad Kreuznach district
Hundsbach Show map of Germany Hundsbach Show map of Rhineland-Palatinate
Coordinates:49°43′33″N7°33′22″E / 49.72583°N 7.55611°E /49.72583; 7.55611
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Bad Kreuznach
Municipal assoc.	Meisenheim
Government
• Mayor(2019–24)	Jan Hey[1]
Area
• Total	7.48 km2 (2.89 sq mi)
Elevation	345 m (1,132 ft)
Population  (2022-12-31)[2]
• Total	356
• Density	48/km2 (120/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	55621
Dialling codes	06757
Vehicle registration	KH
Website	www.hundsbach-rlp.de

Hundsbach is a clump village that lies in theNorth Palatine Uplands. Its typical historical appearance as a rural village has been preserved.

Clockwise from the north, Hundsbach's neighbours are the municipalities ofKirschroth,Bärweiler,Lauschied,Jeckenbach,Schweinschied andLimbach, all of which likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district.

Also belonging to Hundsbach are the outlying homesteads of Forsthaus Hundsbach and Lochmühle.^[3]

Yearlyprecipitation in Hundsbach amounts to 590 mm, which is very low, falling into the lowest fourth of the precipitation chart for all Germany. Only 19% of theGerman Weather Service'sweather stations are even lower figures recorded. The driest month is February. The most rainfall comes in May. In that month, precipitation is 1.6 times what it is in February. Precipitation varies only slightly and is spread quite evenly over the year. At only 1% of the weather stations are lower seasonalswings recorded.

Hundsbach is found on an oldRoman road that led from theRhine Valley toMetz. The village, mentioned in old records asHundisbach had for a while in theMiddle Ages two centres, Oberhundsbach and Niederhundsbach (“Upper” and “Nether”). By 1611, however, Hundsbach had been given up, and this even before the ravages of theThirty Years' War (1618—1648). Hundsbach belonged to theCounty of Veldenz, and as of 1386 to theWaldgraves. From 1816 to 1866 it belonged to theOberamt of Meisenheim in theLandgraviate ofHesse-Homburg, passing with this state in 1866 to the Kingdom ofPrussia. Late in theSecond World War, Hundsbach was almost utterly destroyed.

Hundsbach had aJewish community in the 19th century. It arose in the 18th century. In the 19th century, the number of Jewish inhabitants developed as follows: in 1808, 40 Jewish inhabitants; in 1867, 22 (of all together 688 inhabitants); in 1895, 21. About 1870, known Jewish family heads were Moses Haas, Ludwig Winer, Abraham Leiser and Jakob Adler, who were all merchants whose existence is confirmed in this year by their registration at the SobernheimAmt court as theJewish graveyard's owners. All together, documents are still available from the registry office and the municipal books witnessing 18 Jewish families in Hundsbach in the earlier half of the 19th century (until about 1870):

1. David Heymann (1772-1855) with wife Evanée Wolf (1775-1838) and eight children
2. Samuel Heymann (1731-18??),widower
3. David Leiser (1774-1842) with wife Veronikanée Max (1776-1839) and two children
4. Abraham Leiser (1765-1841) with wife Judith (1773-1850) and six children
5. Jacob Marx (1795-1848) with wife Klaranée Seligmann (1789-?) and three children
6. Veronikanée Daniel (1749-1827), widow of David Seligmann and two children
7. Isaak Haas (1778-18??) and first wife Esther as well as second wife Sara and together from both marriages five children
8. Gumpel Frenckel (late) and four children
9. Nathan Schiff (1788-1831) with wife Saranée Leiser (1801-1874) and three children; Sara Leiser married Moises Wiener in a second marriage
10. Joseph Leyser (1798-1864) with wife Philippina Schwarzschild fromGaugrehweiler (1808-1868) and eight children
11. Wolfgang Heymann (1803-1859) and first wife Johannettanée Feist (1808-1836), second wife Henriettenée Wolf (1806-1858) and third wife Fannynée Strauß (1821-1883) and together from all marriages eleven children
12. Moises Wiener (1799-1841) with wife Saranée Leiser (1801-1874)
13. Marcus Leiser (1804-?,shochet) with wife Evanée Böhm and two children
14. Aaron Haas (1811-1875, locksmith) and first wife Rosettanée Haas (1812-1849), second wife Saranée Stern (1812-185?) and together from both marriages four children
15. Marx Leyser (1815-?, emigrated to theUnited States) with wife Theresianée Herz (1819-?) and one son
16. Ludwig Leyser (1840-?) with wife Theresianée Lahn (1842-?) and five children
17. Ludwig Wiener (1836-?) with wife Karolinanée Levi (1841-?) and five children
18. Moses Haas (1844-?) with wife Johanettanée Rothschild fromUlmet (1869-?) and three children

In the way of institutions, there were asynagogue (seeFormer synagogue below), a Jewishschool, amikveh and a graveyard. To provide for the community's religious needs, a schoolteacher was hired for a time, who also busied himself as thehazzan (and theshochet?). The community belonged to the Rabbinate of Meisenheim. The Jews living inBecherbach bei Kirn,Bärweiler,Schweinschied,Löllbach andHoppstädten formed outlying parts of this Jewish community. In 1807, the following Jewish families were living in these villages (firm family names had not yet been adopted): in Bärweiler Loeb Jacob, Lasar Levy, Moyses Jacob and Seuve Gurnberg; in Schweinschied Joseph Nathan, Jacob Salomon, Susel Salomon, Isaac Abraham and Jacob Aaron; in Löllbach Herz Nathan, Jacob Wolff and Daniel Cahen. In 1867, there were 18 Jewish inhabitants in Becherbach bei Kirn, 13 in Bärweiler, 8 in Schweinschied, 6 in Löllbach and 4 in Hoppstädten. Löllbach also had its ownJewish graveyard. About 1924, four more families belonged to the Jewish community in Hundsbach (family names Blum, Adler and Leiser). Still living then in Hundsbach were ten Jewish inhabitants. Some of them left the village in the years after 1933, the year whenAdolf Hitler and theNazisseized power in Germany, though, some of the Jews moved away oremigrated in the face of theboycotting of their businesses, the progressive stripping of their rights and repression, all brought about by the Nazis. According toYad Vashem’s lists and information from the workGedenkbuch - Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933-1945 ("Memorial Book – Victims of the Persecution of Jews under theNational Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933-1945"), the following members of Hundsbach's Jewish community fell victim to theHolocaust (along with their birth years):

• Bertha Bärnée Frenkel (1880)
• Rosa Frenkel (1883)
• Erna Leiser (1900)

There were also two others from Schweinschied, who had since moved toFrankfurt:

• Lina Adler (1871)
• Martha Beckernée Adler (1885)^[4]

As at 30 September 2013, there are 390 full-time residents in Hundsbach, and of those, 308 areEvangelical (78.974%), 53 areCatholic (13.59%), and 29 (7.436%) either have no religion or will not reveal their religious affiliation.^[5]

The council is made up of 8 council members, who were elected bymajority vote at the municipal election held on 8 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.^[6]

Hundsbach's mayor is Jan Hey.^[1]

The German blazon reads:In rotem, durch goldenen Wellenbalken geteilten Schild, oben am goldenen Schaft eine dreiläntzige, silberne Sturmfahne, unten drei silberne schrägrechtsgestellte Gürtelschnallen.

The municipality'sarms might in Englishheraldic language be described thus: Gules a closet wavy Or issuant from which to dexter a staff of the same bearing a standard with three streamers flying to sinister argent, below the closet three arming buckles bottony in bend of the last.

The following are listed buildings or sites inRhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:^[7]

• Evangelicalchurch, Hauptstraße 7 –Romanesque Revivalsandstone-block building, 1867, after 1945 reconstruction; retaining wall, sandstone-block; warriors’ memorial 1914-1918
• Hauptstraße 3 – formerschool;Late Classicist building with hip roof, mid 19th century
• Hauptstraße 12 – formerinn; in the style of a complex with a single roof ridge with a dance hall, marked 1830,timber-frame addition
• Untergasse 4 – former Evangelical rectory; Late Classicist plastered building, late 19th century
• Near Untergasse 9 – formersynagogue; sandstone-block building withRundbogenstil motifs, 1880 (see also below)
• Jewish graveyard “Am Judenkirchhof” (monumental zone) – area with some 50 gravestones from the 18th and 19th centuries (see also below)

At first, the Jewish community likely had to make do with a simple prayer room that had been set up in one of the Jewish houses. No later than 1866, though, there was asynagogue on Untergasse (a lane). This is known from a report from that year about a fire there, which damaged the building. In 1880, another fire broke out at the property next door causing such great damage that a new building had to be built. On 26 August 1881, the new synagogue building was consecrated. The village chronicle reported the celebration, in which “the district chairman, among others, took part... [as did] the representatives of the municipality of Hundsbach and the districtrabbi, who gave an uplifting speech in the house, which was filled by the crowd.” How long regular services were held at the synagogue is unknown. Possibly as early as the turn of the 20th century, and no later than the time of theFirst World War, Jews from Hundsbach were attending services inSien. On 7 July 1930, the synagogue, with its yard and school (195 m²), was sold to a farmer named Frenger, who used the building for storage. OnKristallnacht (9–10 November 1938),Brownshirts fromMeisenheim supposedly destroyed the synagogue, but there is oral history in Hundsbach that holds that the destruction was actually undertaken by private citizens from the village itself. It could be that the SA had been made aware that for eight years, the building had no longer been under Jewish ownership. After 1945, the building was used as the local Raiffeisen storehouse. In 1987, the building was placed under monumental protection. In the 1990s, the building was restored and was tended by those charged with the care of monuments. Since then, it has been used as a house.^[8]

TheJewish graveyard in Hundsbach was laid out in the late 17th or early 18th century and is among the district's oldest. The gravestones can be found towards the graveyard's lower end; many are heavily weathered. The graveyard has an area of 1 159 m². It is easily visible on a hill roughly one kilometre east of Hundsbach (“Am Judenkirchhof”), some 400 m from the road that leads fromKirn toMeisenheim. Coming from Hundsbach, it can be made out on the heights to the right of the road and can be reached along a farm lane.^[9]

Running through Hundsbach isLandesstraße 182, which links toBundesstraße 420 atMeisenheim to the southeast. In the other direction, the road leads toBecherbach bei Kirn and thenKirn itself, where it links withBundesstraße 41.Landesstraße 182 also has a junction withLandesstraße 374 just before Becherbach bei Kirn, which leads toBundesstraße 270 atSien. Serving Kirn is arailway station on theNahe Valley Railway (Bingen–Saarbrücken).

• Aerial photograph of Hundsbach by the United States Army Air Forces from 20 February 1945, 11:15. The picture shows the destruction from the time from 14 February 1945 11:30 to the moment when the picture was taken. The attack's target had been the “spy school” in Hundsbach. The buildings framed by the dotted square were destroyed or heavily damaged. The assessors estimated that 75% of the remaining buildings were at least slightly damaged in the attack.
• Jewish community’s history atAlemannia Judaica
• Jewish graveyard atAlemannia Judaica
• Hundsbach in the collective municipality’s webpages(in German)