Schmidthachenbach

In 1075, Hugo de Hachenfels sold his lands in Olkenbach to Saint Simeon's Monastery at Trier for 260 silver marks in a deed documented by Archbishop of Trier Udo. The Lords of Hachenfels are said to be the village's namesake. In 1112, Cuno de Hachenfels cropped up in a document about an exchange of holdings between Disibodenberg Monastery and Provost Richard von Liebfrauen in Mainz. Named as an occupant of the Hachenburg (an old castle near the Hachenfels) in 1128 was Adalbero de Hachenfels, who also cropped up in a donation document from Archbishop of Mainz Adalbert I to Disibodenberg Monastery. In 1140, Emicho VI's two sons formed the lines of the Waldgraves and Rhinegraves (Konrad) and the Raugraves (Emich VII). It was in this time that a new castle, the Naumburg, was built near Bärenbach, within whose domain lay Schmidthachenbach. In 1172, Emich VII transferred ownership of the Naumburg to his brother Gerlach. In 1323, Raugrave Conrad sold Archbishop of Trier Baldwin the Naumburg for 1200 Heller, whereupon Baldwin enfeoffed Conrad with the very castle that he had just sold.

The year 1361 is important in Schmidthachenbach's history, for this date was to be found on the lintel over the old town hall's door. In 1393, the castle and the Amt of Naumburg fell under the lordship of the Counts of Sponheim, whom the Counts of Oberstein owed allegiance. The Obersteins themselves held the patronage and tithing rights at the parish church at Becherbach, within whose parish lay Schmidthachenbach. This put the village in the “Further” County of Sponheim. In 1439, Wyrich von Dune, Lord of Oberstein, was enfeoffed by the Archbishop of Trier with the castle.

In 1557, the Reformation was introduced into the County of Sponheim. In 1572, Schmidthachenbach had its first documentary mention under the name Hachenbach. In 1599 came the first documentary mention of the Junkerhof within Schmidthachenbach's limits. The owner at the time was Junker Hans Jakob von Dietz, Lord at Mittelreidenbach. In 1618, the Thirty Years' War broke out, and locally, it gave rise to “The Legend of the Sunken Rider”.[4]

In 1707, the Amt of Naumburg was taken over by the Margrave of Baden. Beginning in 1795, Schmidthachenbach lay under French rule and became a mairie (“mayoralty”) in the canton of Grumbach, the arrondissement of Birkenfeld and the Department of Sarre. Beginning in 1798, Schmidthachenbach belonged to the French Republic; in 1800 there were roughly 300 inhabitants. That same year, Johannes Bückler, commonly known as “Schinderhannes”, attacked the Antesmühle, an outlying mill in Schmidthachenbach in the Antes valley.

In 1815, in the wake of Napoleon’s downfall and the Congress of Vienna, French rule ended and Schmidthachenbach found itself in the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld while remaining a mairie – although now called a Bürgermeisterei, the German word for the same thing – within the constituent territory of the Principality of Lichtenberg with Sankt Wendel as its capital. In 1834, Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld sold the Principality of Lichtenberg to the Kingdom of Prussia, and it became the Sankt Wendel district. At the time when the German Empire was founded in 1871, Schmidthachenbach had 466 inhabitants. The “Peace Oak” was also planted near the church this year on the occasion of the end of the Franco-Prussian War.

In 1937, in the time of the Third Reich, unlike its two neighbouring municipalities, Schmidthachenbach was grouped into the Birkenfeld district. In 1950, Schmidthachenbach had 498 inhabitants, and this year also marked the end of winegrowing in the municipality. In 1957, Flurbereinigung began. In 1958, a memorial was built and dedicated to those who fell or went missing in the First World War and the Second World War. In the course of administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate, the Amt of Weierbach was dissolved and Schmidthachenbach was grouped into the Verbandsgemeinde of Herrstein.[5]

The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:[8]

• Evangelical parish church, Kirchpfad – aisleless church, Rundbogenstil, 1848; belltower, 1903, architect August Senz, Düsseldorf; Stumm organ, 1852
• Bachweg 6 – Parallel estate, 19th century
• Bergstraße 5 – Evangelical rectory; building with half-hipped roof, Reform architecture, 1912/1913, architect Friedrich Otto, Kirn
• Kirchpfad 4 – hook-shaped commercial building, sandstone-framed breccia building, barn marked 1872, stable part marked 1883
• Talstraße (parallel to the Großenbach), Lambach pump – pumphouse, spring tapping, well house, cistern, works water storage pit, 1911

Running west of the municipality is Bundesstraße 41. Serving nearby Kirn-Sulzbach is a railway station on the Nahe Valley Railway (Bingen–Saarbrücken).

• Municipality’s official webpage (in German)