Matzenbach 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 Oberes Glantal.
Geography
Location The municipality lies on the river Glan in the Western Palatinate. Rising above the village to the northeast is the Potzberg (562 m above sea level). The municipal area measures 705 ha, of which 202 ha is wooded.Location
Matzenbach (main centre) Matzenbach lies at the mouth of the Straubenbach where it empties into the Glan, on the river's right bank across from the neighbouring Ortsteil of Eisenbach at an elevation of 210 m above sea level. To the north lies the Ortsteil of Gimsbach. From the Glan valley outwards, the mountain slopes climb steeply to an elevation of 330 m above sea level. The Straubengrunderhof lies east of Matzenbach and the Langenbacherhof south (see Constituent communities below).Location, Matzenbach (main centre)
Eisenbach While the Ortsteil of Matzenbach spreads out on the Glan's right bank, Eisenbach lies across the river on the left bank. Both centres are linked by a bridge. The rather busy Bundesstraße 423, too, runs along the right bank, so that Eisenbach on the other side of the river is spared any great volume of traffic. On the other hand, Eisenbach lies on the railway line, which is served by hourly trains running between Kusel and Landstuhl. Matzenbach is linked by simple Kreisstraßen to the neighbouring village to the south, Rehweiler, and to Godelhausen to the north, an outlying centre of Theisbergstegen. Eisenbach itself borders on each of these on the Glan's left bank.Location, Eisenbach
Gimsbach Gimsbach lies south of the Potzberg at the mouth of the Günsbach (or Gimsbach) where it empties into the Glan at an elevation of some 108 m above sea level. Towards the north, the land climbs steeply up to the Potzberg, and below the Potzberg's peak reaches the highest elevation within Matzenbach's municipal limits at 490 m above sea level. In the west, the municipal area is bordered by the Glan, while in the south is the former municipal limit with the Ortsteil of Matzenbach, now lo longer operative since the amalgamation.Location, Gimsbach
Neighbouring municipalities Matzenbach borders in the north on the municipality of Theisbergstegen, in the northeast on the municipality of Neunkirchen am Potzberg, in the east on the municipality of Reichenbach-Steegen (outlying centre of Fockenberg-Limbach in the Kaiserslautern district), in the southeast on the municipality of Niedermohr (outlying centre of Reuschbach, also in the Kaiserslautern district) and in the southwest on the municipality of Rehweiler.
Constituent communities Matzenbach's Ortsteile are Matzenbach (main centre), Eisenbach am Glan and Gimsbach. Under many headings in this article, each of these three centres will be given its own subsection. Also belonging to Matzenbach are the outlying homesteads of Auhof, Hollerhof, Langenbacherhof, Schreckmühle, Straubengrunderhof and Wellesbacherhof.Constituent communities
Municipality’s layout
Matzenbach (main centre) The Ortsteil of Matzenbach presents itself as a small clump village in the area of the Straubenbach's mouth with rather sparse building on the through road along the Glan (Moorstraße), with heavier building on the streets that branch off it, Eisenbacher Straße to the west and Fockenberger Straße and Reuchenbacher Straße to the east. The building style makes it clear that Matzenbach was in earlier days purely a farming village. Buildings that stand out are the former schoolhouse on Eisenbacher-Straße near the Glan, the stately mill building on the way out of the village going towards Rehweiler and a few typical West Palatine farmhouses, some of which have over the years been remodelled. New building zones have arisen “an der Warth” (this prepositional phrase is a street's name; such name formulations are quite common in Germany; cf Unter den Linden) in the village's north end and on Fockenberger Straße. The old washing steps are still preserved on the bank of the Glan.Municipality’s layout, Matzenbach (main centre)
Eisenbach Eisenbach stretches mainly along a single street alongside the railway and the river Glan beginning at the bridge that links it with Matzenbach. Only a few houses stand south of the bridge, among them the former Eisenbach-Matzenbach railway station, now the Matzenbach halt. Here, too, the building style makes it clear that this was in earlier days purely a farming village. As is mostly customary in the West Palatinate, the houses stand with their long sides towards the street. Many have remained in their original condition.Municipality’s layout, Eisenbach
Gimsbach Gimsbach's built-up area stretches along both sides of the through road (Bundesstraße 423), which within the village is known as Glanstraße and which runs parallel to the river Glan, then along both sides of Neunkircher Straße, which branches off the main road and runs along the Günsbach. On the brook's south side, Römerstraße branches off Glanstraße affording access to an extensive new building zone. The building style in the older parts of the village makes it clear that it was mainly farmers who lived here in earlier times. Nowadays, many of these farmhouses have been remodelled and are also used quite often for tourism. Standing out among the older buildings is the Protestant church built in 1747, which dominates the view from the northern Glan valley. Before the church, towards the street, stands the former schoolhouse. Worth mentioning as a good example of the former farmhouse typical of the Westrich, an historic region that encompasses areas in both Germany and France, is the Haus Maas-Schleppi on Glanstraße, although even this has deviated considerably from the original type as a result of later conversions. Somewhat outside the village on Neunkircher Straße stands the former Schreckmühle (mill). On the slope south of the Günsbach lie a few Aussiedlerhöfe (post-war farming settlements established to enhance the food supply). The former village pond has now become a “solar bath”.Municipality’s layout, Gimsbach
History On 7 June 1969, the municipality of Eisenbach-Matzenbach was newly formed out of the former municipalities of Eisenbach and Matzenbach. Today's Ortsgemeinde of Matzenbach came into being on 20 March 1971 through the merger of this municipality with the municipality of Gimsbach.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis 2006, Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz , Seite 186 (PDF)
Antiquity
Matzenbach (main centre) The area around Matzenbach was settled by people in prehistoric times and also in Gallo-Roman times, bearing witness to which are the extensive archaeological finds right near the village and also farther afield. Particularly worthy of mention are the rich Gallo-Roman finds at the Potzberg near Mühlbach and within neighbouring Gimsbach's limits (see below), and also finds unearthed near Glan-Münchweiler. There are, however, no reports of any archaeological finds within Matzenbach's limits.Antiquity, Matzenbach (main centre)
Eisenbach The area around Eisenbach was settled beginning in the New Stone Age, as witnessed by many finds from the surrounding villages. It was also so in Gallo-Roman times, as shown foremost by the extensive finds from Glan-Münchweiler and the Roman settlement at Gimsbach.Antiquity, Eisenbach
Gimsbach The area around Gimsbach was settled in prehistoric times and in Gallo-Roman times, bearing witness to which are the extensive archaeological finds right near the village and also farther afield. In Roman times, there was also a settlement right near Gimsbach. Historian Johann Goswin Widder wrote the following about this: “In the year 1765 in the field, an underground building was discovered of 16 feet in length, 12 feet in breadth and 7 feet in height, wherein various Roman remnants were found.” (Widder was using the old German measurement called a Schuh, also called a Fuß, and here translated as “foot”; German feet varied in length, but were usually about 30 cm). It is likely that he was writing about part of a Gallo-Roman villa rustica.Antiquity, Gimsbach
Middle Ages
Matzenbach (main centre) According to the old border descriptions of the Remigiusland, the centres of Matzenbach and Gimsbach, which now lie within the municipality of Matzenbach, lay outside the Bishopric of Reims holdings in the Westrich, in the Free Imperial Domain (Reichsland), which spread out broadly around Castle Lautern (a castle in Kaiserslautern). The centre of Eisenbach, on the other hand, lay within the Reims-controlled Remigiusland, which shaped this village's history in a way unlike the other two in the municipality. The Reichsland was given as an Imperial pledge to various regional lords in the mid 14th century. Matzenbach ended up along with the other villages of the Amt of Reichenbach as an Imperial pledge in 1345 in the hands of the younger line of the Counts of Veldenz. In 1444, the County of Veldenz met its end when Count Friedrich III of Veldenz died without a male heir. His daughter Anna wed King Ruprecht's son Count Palatine Stephan. By uniting his own Palatine holdings with the now otherwise heirless County of Veldenz – his wife had inherited the county, but not her father's title – and by redeeming the hitherto pledged County of Zweibrücken, Stephan founded a new County Palatine, as whose comital residence he chose the town of Zweibrücken: the County Palatine – later Duchy – of Palatinate-Zweibrücken.Middle Ages, Matzenbach (main centre)
Eisenbach The village of Eisenbach was founded long before its thus far earliest known documentary mention. It lay within the so-called Remigiusland, which had been given in the mid 12th century to the Counts of Veldenz as a Schutzvogtei (thus making the Counts “lords protector”). According to a 1200 document, Count Heinrich of Veldenz and Geroldseck declared that he was having seven solidi in the Trier currency paid yearly to the Provost of the Remigiusberg, the actual holder of the Remigiusland, for the villages of Ysenbach and Leidenstal, which he had bought from a knight from the County of Zweibrücken. Leidenstal is a now vanished village that once lay within what are now Rehweiler’s limits, while Ysenbach is an old name for Niedereisenbach. Heinrich was a count of the younger line of the Counts of Veldenz, who also by marrying the orphaned Hereditary Countess Agnes of Veldenz took over the regiment. As described above, the Veldenz line died out for lack of a male heir in 1444, and the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken was founded.Middle Ages, Eisenbach
Gimsbach Gimsbach shares Matzenbach's history as part of the Reichsland, and was also among those villages pledged in 1345 as a Vogtei to the Counts of Veldenz (see above). From late Veldenz times in 1430 – only 14 years before the comital family died out – comes a report that Burgmann Syfrit Blick von Lichtenberg bequeathed to his wife Katharina von Sötern, on the occasion of her having been given a widow's endowment of benefices from many villages, two Malter of rye and oats from Gimsbach. With the last count's death in 1444, Gimsbach, like the other two villages now in the municipality of Matzenbach, passed to the new Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken.Middle Ages, Gimsbach
Modern times
Matzenbach (main centre)