Dörrebach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde Langenlonsheim-Stromberg, whose seat is in Langenlonsheim.
Geography
Location Dörrebach lies in the northeast of the Soonwald, which is part of the Hunsrück not far from the seam where it meets the Binger Wald (forest). The Soonwald stretches out between the Guldenbach and the Simmerbach and with an area of 25 000 ha is after the Palatinate Forest western Germany’s second biggest contiguous woodland. In this sanctuary for red deer has been not only the Jäger aus Kurpfalz (“Hunter from Electoral Palatinate”, the subject of a well known folksong), but also the Hunsrück “national hero” – actually a robber – known as Schinderhannes, who made the place his hideout. Northwest of the village, beyond the Hochsteinchen (a mountain) lies Rheinböllen, while to the southeast lies Stromberg. Dörrebach lies on the northwest side of the widely wooded and hilly Bad Kreuznach district, and also within the influence of the middle centres of Bad Kreuznach and Bingen. The municipal area measures 13.14 km² (of which 2.36 km² is wooded) and has an average elevation of 370 m above sea level, while the municipality’s highest elevation, called the Kipp, is 408.3 m above sea level. Given over to agriculture is an area of 320 ha, of which 180 ha is grassland and the other 140 ha is cropfields.Location
Neighbouring municipalities Clockwise from the north, Dörrebach’s neighbours are the municipality of Seibersbach, the town of Stromberg, the municipality of Schöneberg, the municipality of Spabrücken and the municipality of Spall, all of which lie in the Bad Kreuznach district, and the municipality of Argenthal, which lies in the neighbouring Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis.
Constituent communities Also belonging to Dörrebach are the outlying homesteads of Forsthaus Opel, Burg Gollenfels (castle), Im Waldwinkel and Weinbergerhof.Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz – Amtliches Verzeichnis der Gemeinden und Gemeindeteile , Seite 17 (PDF; 2,16 MB)
Rural cadastral areas It is the custom in many parts of Germany for defined areas of rural land to bear proper names, and the countryside within Dörrebach’s limits is no exception. Many of these toponyms are centuries old. Some refer to long vanished villages or hamlets that once lay in these areas, others refer to the land’s geographical characteristics, and still others refer to historic landowners. Dörrebach has a great number of named cadastral areas in its outlying rural (and to a great extent, wooded) countryside – all together 99 of them. Their names, most of which are prepositional phrases, are as follows: Am Bangert, Am Buchenweg, Am Buchenweg, Am Hahnenpfad, Am Heesbaum, Am Hellienbohr, Am Hirschbrunnen, Am Hollerpfad, Am Kapellchen, Am Schleckenacker, Am Schlosswald, Am Totenweg, Am Weigertsgraben, Am Weiher, An dem Hahn, An dem Seibersbacher Weg, An dem Streitbirnbaum, An den Horschwiesen, An der Braunewies, An der Kipp, An der Langmauer, An der Schlosswiese, An der Stehwiese, An der Straße, An der Trift, An der Wolfsgass, Auf dem Fischweiher, Auf dem Holler, Auf dem Lindenfels, Auf dem Sasset, Auf dem Schlag, Auf dem Schleckenacker, Auf dem Stemel, Auf dem Wolfshäuschen, Auf der Braunewies, Auf der Helle, Auf der Hirtenwiese, Auf der Kreuzwiese, Auf der Lay, Auf der Mauerwiese, Auf der Maushell, Auf der Maushell am Rithberg, Auf der Pfingstheide (southwest of the village), Auf der Pfingstheide (west of the village), Auf der Pfingstheidwiese, Auf der Schwann, Auf der Seibersbacher Heide, Auf der Sparrwiese, Die Mauerwiese, Hinter dem Weiher, Hinter der Kipp, Im Bangert, Im Bingelsberg, Im Dorf, Im Ebertsborn, Im Geren, Im Hobengarten, Im Kirchgarten, Im Lagerborn, Im oberen Bangert, Im Schlafbohr, Im Schloss, Im Schlossgrund, Im Schlosswald, Im unteren Bangert, Im Waldwinkel, Im Wingertsberg, In den untersten Horschwiesen, In den Adamsäckern, In den Eichäckern, In den Frühjahrsäckern, In den Geren Wusten, In den Honigäckern, In den Kreuzwiesen, In den Linnäckern, In den oberen Wiesen, In den obersten Horschwiesen, In den Schlosswiesen, In den Stolläckern, In den Strinkwiesen, In der Au, In der Bangertgewann, In der Gereheck, In der Kohlgrube, In der Langfuhr, In der Muhl, In der Neuwiese, In der oberen Au, In der Schlesheck, In der Silswiese, In der Weigertswiese, Krummäcker, Links am Mühlenweg, Neben den Horschwiesen, Neben der Flurwiese, Rechts am Mühlenweg, Unter dem Rithberg, Unter Ludwigs, Unterm Bingelsberg.Rural cadastral areas
Geology The geological parent material is mainly Devonian slate and quartzite from the Rhenish Massif. The surface is formed out of weathered slate and quartz mixed with quartzitic greywackes and loam. The mostly stony loam soil has a thickness of 0.2 to 0.8 m above the slate. In 1628, ore mining near Seibersbach had its first documentary mention when two Junker (young noblemen) from Dörrebach complained to the Archbishop of Mainz about some ironworkers at the Stromberger Neuhütte (ironworks), who together with French and Spanish soldiers had been causing damage to the woods and fields in their quest for iron ore. Also important are the limestone deposits in the eastern part of the municipal area. The Guldenbach splits the limestone into two parts, with the more westerly lying in Dörrebach, while the more easterly, called the Hunsfels, lies within Stromberg’s limits. The long axis of this limestone pod stretches some 2 km from east to west, while the north-south extent barely reaches more than 600 m. More precisely, this area begins near the Weinbergerhof and includes the whole western area of the Gollenfels. In the area of the railway station property in Stromberg, this area stretches along the left bank of the Guldenbach. In both places, the limestone deposits have been exploited commercially for decades, thereby leaving considerable scarring on the landscape. Worth noting is the way that the Dörrebach percolates into the ground along its eastern stretch, beginning under the bridge at the Weinbergerhof inn. The water is positively swallowed up by several holes, called ponors. Reportedly there are certain spots where one can even clearly hear the slurping noise made by the sinking water. This unusual occurrence can only be explained by the local geological conditions. Since 1925, the limestone pod that lies here has been called the Stromberger Karst because here, watercourses sink into the ground, flowing onwards underground, which in drier years can lead to the Dörrebach’s disappearing utterly. Some 2 km farther east, in Stromberg, there are two karst springs. The water, which here comes out of the walling on the Guldenbach’s right bank, might come from water that has sunk underground from the Dörrebach. Thus far, however, nobody has been able to prove this by dye tracing. What is odd about these springs is that the water coming out of the more voluminous one, the Kalter Steg, maintains a year-round temperature of about +5 °C, whereas the water from the other, less copious, one, only about 20 m away, the Warmbrunnen, lives up to its name, at least relatively speaking (the first syllable does indeed mean “warm”), running at a steady temperature of +17 °C. It also has a considerably lower limestone content.Geology
History
Antiquity Just when the village of Dörrebach was founded and its church was built are things that cannot be known today. No documents dealing with either of these events have ever been found. The village’s earliest times are shrouded in darkness. Nevertheless, Dörrebach likely has the Romans to thank for its beginnings. Specific details are missing, but the rather well established traditional story about two Roman roads joining each other here (one from Mainz-Bingen and the other from Kreuznach, which after the junction led by way of the Thiergarten and Argenthal to Neumagen on the Moselle) suggests that this area before the Soonwald was inhabited quite early on. From the Stone Age came archaeological finds of stone axes, flint blades, arrowheads, and awls made of bone. From the Bronze Age came a dagger and a lance, which were unearthed at the “Wolf’sch” (that is, pertaining to the former feudal lords, named Wolf von Sponheim) stone quarries. In the vicinity of the Neupfalz Chief Forestry Office, armbands, bronze fibulae and urns for keeping ash were discovered in a barrow. From Hallstatt times, a human dwelling with two rooms was found in the Hunsfelsen (cliffs). In one of these, a human skeleton was found, along with grave goods. In the Naheland-Kalender 1954, Gisela Sommer wrote (unfortunately without mentioning her source for the 433 date):The little village of Dörrebach is one of the oldest Roman settlements; the churchtower up to its roof comes from as far back as Roman times, and before the Romans left the village in the year 433, they had already established in this tower a Christian worship site. Very numerous, of course, have been the finds from Roman times. In Dörrebach, a Roman grave lamp, a ring with an inscription and many coins have been brought to light. On the way from Dörrebach to Seibersbach, wall remnants can be found that supposedly come from a Roman estate. The so-called Hinkelstein – a regional word for “menhir” (the article Hinkelstein culture includes an explanation of the word’s etymology) – found near the farmstead Birkenhof, is held to be an impressive witness to Dörrebach’s eventful past. These menhirs are known in the German vernacular as Hünensteine. Since the Roman road ran up through the Guldenbach valley, the castrum on the Schlossberg would have had particular importance as a place where watch was kept. The Roman road led from Dörrebach by way of the so-called Atzweiler Abbey to Simmern and Trier. Besides finds of milestones and graves, which can be taken as the definite basis for inferring the road’s alignment, there are also literary sources. It is also believed that rural cadastral names containing the German word for “wall”, “Mauer” (of which there are three) have some historical link to Roman building remnants found in some parts of Dörrebach’s municipal area.Antiquity
Middle Ages Dörrebach and Seibersbach along with a few estates formed a unit and belonged in the Middle Ages to the Palatinate. Language and customs may well have been as in other parts of this land. It is known from records that from the mid to late 15th century the Electors of Mainz had enfeoffed the Lords of Sponheim, whose landholds lay in the Upper Rhine districts, with it. Dörrebach’s size in the time between 1580 and 1600 was supposedly 32 houses with 144 inhabitants. The inhabitants’ relationship with their lords, the Wolfe von Sponheim, was, as elsewhere, one of serfdom. The serfs had to work for a prescribed time for their lords, pay them great tithes (and smaller tithes to the clergy) and perform other unpaid work. Thus, they had to, for instance, perform transport and delivery services for as far as three (local) miles and also bring the lords loads of wood and other things. The comital House of Sponheim built in Dörrebach the so-called Schloss (known until it was torn down in 1940/1941 as the schoolhouse), where either the counts themselves or their administrators lived.Middle Ages
Modern times