Erdesbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kusel-Altenglan, whose seat is in Kusel.
Geography
Location The municipality lies in the Kusel Musikantenland (“Minstrels’ Land”) in the Western Palatinate, on the middle Glan, through whose narrow valley run Bundesstraße 420, the once strategically important Glantalbahn (railway) and the river Glan itself side by side with each other. Right at this narrowing in the dale nestles a greater part of the village, about a kilometre long, stretching along both sides of the roadway, lying in some spots right beneath the dale's steep slopes. The other half of the village is squeezed into two side valleys that run down to the Glan through which run the Wingertsbach and the Gölschbach. The landscape around Erdesbach is characterized by the narrow Glan valley with its fertile flood-plain meadows, by the steeply rising, overgrown slopes to the west and northwest and by the far less steep slope to the east with its scant meadow and cropfield soils. The riverside flats within municipal limits lie at an elevation of roughly 190 m above sea level, while elevations in the southwest reach 385 m above sea level and those in the municipal area's east 335 m above sea level.Location
Land use The vegetation cover characterizing local land use takes the form of meadow orchards, meadows and cropfields along with some 60 ha of mixed forest. The south slope at the so-called Wingertsberg (“Vineyard’s Mountain”) was still characterized in the 19th century by vineyards and hillside meadows. The last vineyard was dissolved in 1945. Currently, many vineyard walls are still well preserved. The municipal area was divided wholly into agricultural smallholds; there was not even one major block of land in only one owner's hands. Often, as a result of inheritance disputes, plots were split into ever smaller pieces. The municipal area measures 401 ha.Land use
Geology The Erdesbach area is geologically characterized mainly by the so-called Kusel Strata (Kuseler Schichten in German) of the Lower Rotliegend. These strata are made up mainly of sandstone, claystone and conglomerates. The basic volcanic rock deposited in between is mainly made up of melaphyre, andesite, tholeiitic basalt and cuselite. The geological structure to a great extent defines the shape of the municipal area's relief.Geology
Climate The Erdesbach area lies within the zone affected by the prevailing westerly winds. Characteristic of this kind of climate are moderate summers and to a great extent, mild, damp winters. The mean yearly temperature between 1881 and 1930 lay between 8 and 9 °C in the Glan valley, and at 7 °C in the surrounding heights.Climate
Neighbouring municipalities Erdesbach borders in the north on the municipality of Ulmet, in the east on the municipality of Bedesbach, in the south on the municipality of Altenglan, in the southwest on the municipality of Blaubach and in the west on the municipality of Oberalben.
Constituent communities In the village's east, across the Glan, a small outlying hamlet arose in the latter half of the 19th century around the old Erdesbacher Mühle (mill), the so-called “Bockhof” with four farms and a smithy. Since then, after the Second World War, especially in the 1980s, this hamlet has grown with new building and now counts roughly 50 inhabitants.Constituent communities
Municipality’s layout Erdesbach was formerly a workers’ and farmers’ village as well as a centre for craftsmen, and thus still bears today the nickname Dorf der Zimmerleute – “Village of Carpenters”. In 1981, there were still 50 to 60 carpenters, cabinetmakers and formworkers. They all learnt their hard trades at one of the then three local carpentry shops. Today, the village is almost purely a residential community for those who commute to jobs in Kusel, Kaiserslautern, Ramstein, Baumholder and even as far away as Mannheim and Ludwigshafen. Since 1994, mainly owing to farm shutdowns, there have been no independent agricultural operations at all. Erdesbach may be characterized as a linear village (by some definitions, a “thorpe”). Still currently busy in the municipality are five craft businesses with all together roughly 30 employees, a bakery, a butcher’s shop, two grocer’s shops, a hairdresser’s shops and an alternative practitioner.Municipality’s layout
History
Antiquity Worthy of note are protohistoric archaeological finds of Celtic origin. In 1902, during building work on the trackbed for the Bad Münster-Homburg railway (Glantalbahn), a grave with jugs and lance tips was discovered. Four prehistoric barrows stand in a row on the heights along the municipal limit with Altenglan (Ortsteil of Patersbach). They show that the Erdesbach area was settled in prehistoric times. About 500 BC, the Celts were living here. With Gaul’s subjugation by Julius Caesar (58-31 BC), the land ended up under Roman rule.Antiquity
Middle Ages In the time of the Migration Period, the local area first fell under the sway of the Alemanni, after whose defeat by the Frankish King Clovis I in AD 496 it fell under Frankish rule. Erdesbach’s founding came some four or five centuries later. In the earlier half of the 12th century, Count Gerlach received as successor to the Counts of the Nahegau the Vogtei (that is, he became a “lord protector” of sorts) over various areas under ecclesiastical ownership, which he took along with parts of the Nahegau to found the County of Veldenz. Under his protection, too, was the Remigiusland. According to the 1364 document in which Erdesbach's first documentary mention is found, the inhabitants of the Unteramt of Altenglan, and thus also the inhabitants of Erdesbach, had to support the young Prince Heinrich (later Heinrich III of Veldenz) and his wife Loretta of Sponheim with a special tax. The last Count of Veldenz, Frederick III, died in 1444 without a male heir and the county thus passed to his son-in-law, Stephen, Count Palatine of Simmern-Zweibrücken, widower of Frederick's daughter, Anna of Veldenz. Stephen took some Palatinate territory that he held and, combining it with his wife's inheritance, founded the new County Palatine of Zweibrücken, which later came to be seen as a duchy. Within this new County Palatine, Erdesbach belonged to the Unteramt of Ulmet in the Oberamt of Lichtenberg.Middle Ages
Modern times Erdesbach remained with the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken until that state was swept away by the French Revolutionary troops who marched into the region and occupied it. During the roughly 350 years under Zweibrücken hegemony, the village had to face hard blows of fate. In 1609, there were 137 houses standing in Erdesbach, and the village's population was about 500, but by the time the Thirty Years' War was over, the village had all but died out, just like so many villages in the Kusel region. New families came to Erdesbach, but French King Louis XIV's wars of conquest brought further death and destruction. Only in the early 18th century did any strong population growth once more begin. During the time of Napoleon’s annexation of the German lands on the Rhine’s left bank, beginning in 1801, Erdesbach belonged to the Mairie (“Mayoralty”) of Ulmet, the Canton of Kusel, the Arrondissement of Birkenfeld and the Department of Sarre, whose seat was at Trier.Modern times
Recent times With the founding of the Kingdom of Bavaria after French times in 1816, Erdesbach belonged to the Bürgermeisteramt (“Mayoralty”) of Ulmet, the Landcommissariat (later Bezirksamt, then Landkreis, or rural district) of Kusel and the bayerischer Rheinkreis, the part of the kingdom that was not contiguous with the rest to the east. The kingdom's borders, as defined by the Congress of Vienna, remained thus until 1945 (by which time the monarchy had ended and Bavaria was now the Free State of Bavaria). With the formation of the new state of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1947, consisting of the Regierungsbezirke of Koblenz, Trier, Montabaur, Rheinhessen and Pfalz, a new political order was created in the southwest of what was shortly to become West Germany. Later, the Regierungsbezirke of Montabaur and Rheinhessen were dissolved and integrated into the Regierungsbezirke of Koblenz and Pfalz respectively; in 2000, all the state's Regierungsbezirke were dissolved, and in their stead arose the Aufsichts- und Dienstleistungsdirektion (ADD. roughly “Directorate of Inspection and Services”), which is now responsible for the whole of Rhineland-Palatinate.Recent times
Population development According to a debt book kept by the Remigiusberg Monastery, a taxation list from the Oberamt of Lichtenberg indicated that just under 100 people were living in Erdesbach in 1480. According to the 1609 Konken Protocols (Konker Protokolle), it was roughly 500. A consequential drop in population was brought by the Thirty Years' War. Indeed, the population had only once more reached as high as 150 in 1776, according to a list of subjects from the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken. In an examination by Michael Frey of the bayerischer Rheinkreis, a population figure for Erdesbach of 143 souls was stated, and 316 for 1837, of whom 309 were Protestant and 7 were Catholic. From the middle of the 19th century onwards, the village experienced a great upswing in population, bearing witness to which was the widespread construction about the turn of the 20th century. Thus, the 1837 population figure of 316 inhabitants had grown to 425 by 1871, to 631 by 1905, to 607 by 1939, to 659 by 1961, to 687 by 1964, to 739 by 1969 and to 687 by 1977. Thereafter, the population figures began to shrink steadily, reaching their lowest in many years in 1988, when there were only 570 inhabitants in Erdesbach. The opening of land to new development drew newcomers to the village and the population once again began a steady rise in 1984, reaching 640 by 1996. However, this newer growth may stagnate in the future.
The following table shows population development over the centuries for Erdesbach, with some figures broken down by religious denomination:Erdesbach’s population development Year 1825 1835 1871 1905 1939 1961 1996 2005 Total 282 316 428 631 607 659 640 638 Evangelical 271 622 507 Catholic 11 32 77 Other – 5 54
Municipality’s name The placename's meaning, according to Professor Ernst Christman, goes back to the given name Herideo. In 1364, Erdesbach had its first documentary mention as Ertenspach. From 1456 to 1460, the village was called at times Hertespach, Hertzbach and even Ertelspach. About 1480, the names Ertisbach and Ertsbach cropped up, and in the years between 1585 and 1588, the village's name appeared as Ertesbach, as it also did in the 1609 Konken Protocols. The current name, Erdesbach, first appeared in 1785.Municipality’s name
Religion The municipality of Erdesbach has no church of its own; it belongs to the parish of Ulmet. The overwhelming majority in the village is Evangelical, 507 of 640 inhabitants. Seventy-seven inhabitants, however, are Catholic. Adhering to other faiths are five villagers, while 34 belong to no religious group and 15 refused to answer the question.Religion
Politics
Municipal council The council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected by majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.Kommunalwahl Rheinland-Pfalz 2009, Gemeinderat
Mayor Erdesbach's mayor is Ralf Lukas, and his deputies are Helmut Fehrentz and Joachim May.
Coat of arms The German blazon reads: Von schwarz und blau durch einen silbernen Wellenbalken geteilt, oben ein rot gekrönter und rot bewehrter goldener Löwe, unten eine silberne mit roten Steinen belegte Mitra mit seitlich abflatternden Bändern.