Limbach 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.

Limbach
Municipality
Coat of arms
Location of Limbach within Bad Kreuznach district
Limbach Show map of Germany Limbach Show map of Rhineland-Palatinate
Coordinates:49°44′28″N07°32′45″E / 49.74111°N 7.54583°E /49.74111; 7.54583
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Bad Kreuznach
Municipal assoc.	Kirner Land
Government
• Mayor(2019–24)	Thorsten Pröschel[1]
Area
• Total	9.18 km2 (3.54 sq mi)
Elevation	308 m (1,010 ft)
Population  (2022-12-31)[2]
• Total	287
• Density	31/km2 (81/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	55606
Dialling codes	06757
Vehicle registration	KH

Limbach is a clump village that lies on the like-named brook, the Limbach, in theNorth Palatine Uplands. The outlying centre of Welschrötherhof lies just under 3 km to the south-southwest of the village.

Clockwise from the north, Limbach's neighbours are the municipalities ofMerxheim,Kirschroth,Hundsbach,Schweinschied,Hoppstädten,Otzweiler,Becherbach bei Kirn andHeimweiler, all of which but for Hoppstädten, which lies in the neighbouringKusel district, likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district.

Also belonging to Limbach is the outlying homestead of Welschrötherhof.^[3]

In theMiddle Ages, Limbach belonged to the RaugravialAmt of Naumburg or the court district of Becherbach, a half share of which passed to theCounts of Sponheim-Kreuznach about 1350, with the other half passing into their ownership towards the end of the 14th century. Together withBecherbach andSchmidthachenbach, Limbach was one of the biggest places in theAmt of Naumburg, which in the 18th century fell under the lordship of theMargraves of Baden. About 1600, there were 26 households in the village. Limbach, too, had to pay theZollhafer (“toll oats”) to the Lords of Steinkallenfels whenever farmers from Limbach wanted to sell their wares atKirnmarket. AfterFrench Revolutionary troops overran the German lands on theRhine’s left bank, the villages in theAmt of Naumburg, which had been merged into theAmt of Herrstein in 1776, lay underFrench rule beginning in 1794. Limbach was grouped, along withHeimberg and Krebsweiler, into theMairie (“Mayoralty”) of Hundsbach in theCanton of Meisenheim. After theNapoleonic French had been driven out, Becherbach once again became the mayoral seat for these municipalities, which now became part of theOberamt of Meisenheim inHesse-Homburg. During this Landgravial time,Evangelical inhabitants built a newGothic Revivalchurch in the years 1858 to 1860 to plans laid out byMeisenheim architect Krausch. TheCatholicchapel that still stands today was built in 1893 and 1894 on the spot where the old church square once was. By 1864, Limbach, now a village of 380 inhabitants, had grown to 56 houses occupied by 94 families. In 1866, the village passed to the Kingdom ofPrussia. In 1932, when the Meisenheim district was dissolved, Limbach was reassigned to the Kreuznach district. In 1940, theAmt of Becherbach was likewise dissolved, and Limbach's newAmt was then Kirn-Land, within which it still finds itself now, although it has been redefined as aVerbandsgemeinde.^[4]

As at 31 October 2013, there are 305 full-time residents in Limbach, and of those, 211 areEvangelical (69.18%), 58 areCatholic (19.016%) and 36 (11.803%) 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 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.^[6]

Limbach's mayor is Thorsten Pröschel.^[1]

The German blazon reads:In geteiltem Schild oben in Gold ein schwarzer Pflug, unten blau-gold geschacht.

The municipality'sarms might in Englishheraldic language be described thus: Per fess Or a plough sable and chequy of azure and Or.

Thecharge in the upper field, theplough, refers to Limbach'sagricultural structure; the village was until not very many years ago still a purely agricultural community. The “chequy” pattern in the lower field is a reference to the village's former allegiance to the “Further”County of Sponheim. Municipal council, on 8 December 1963, gave the graphic artist Brust fromKirn-Sulzbach the task of designing a municipal coat of arms. At a council meeting on 13 April 1965, council adopted the design that had been put forth. After consent by the state archive, the Ministry of the Interior inMainz granted approval for Limbach to bear its own arms on 12 May 1965.^[7] The municipal banner also bears this coat of arms in the centre.^[8]

The following are listed buildings or sites inRhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:^[9]

• Evangelicalchurch, Hauptstraße 6 –Gothic Revivalaisleless church, 1858–1860, architect Krausch,Meisenheim
• Saint Boniface’sCatholicChurch (Kirche St. Bonifatius), Schulstraße 11 – Romanesquified aisleless church, 1892/1893, architect Walther,Lauterecken, destroyed in 1944/1945, reconstructed before 1952
• Hauptstraße – warriors’ memorial 1914-1918, cast-stone column, possibly about 1930
• Im Winkel 1 –timber-frame house, plastered and slated, possibly from the early 19th century
• Vordergasse 14 – estate complex along the street, late 18th to early 19th century; house und stable-barn, partly slated timber framing

South of the village, at the junction whereKreisstraße 71 ends atLandesstraße 182, stands a monument dating from 1913 to the memory of the “Freeing of theRhineland from the 12-Year EnemyOccupation”, a reference toBlücher's success in driving theNapoleonicFrench out of the region in 1814, 99 years earlier. In 2001, this monument was given a thorough restoration.

The following clubs are active in Limbach:^[10]

• Förderverein der freiwilligen Feuerwehr Limbache.V. —fire brigade promotional association
• Jugendclub “Flakhalle” Limbach e.V. — youth club
• Kultur- und Verschönerungsverein e.V. — culture and beautification club
• Landfrauen Limbach — countrywomen's club
• MGV Gemischter Chor Limbach e.V. — mixedchoir
• SV Limbach e.V. —sport club

Running through Limbach isKreisstraße 71. Branching off this in the middle of the village is another road that leads to neighbouringKirschroth.Bundesstraße 41 runs to the north betweenKirn andBad Sobernheim. Serving Kirn is arailway station on theNahe Valley Railway (Bingen–Saarbrücken).

• Limbach in the collective municipality’s webpages(in German)