Becherbach bei Kirn

Coordinates: 49°44′28″N 7°30′01″E / 49.74111°N 7.50028°E / 49.74111; 7.50028
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Becherbach bei Kirn
Municipality
Coat of arms of Becherbach bei Kirn
Coat of arms
Location of Becherbach bei Kirn within Bad Kreuznach district
Becherbach bei Kirn is located in Germany
Becherbach bei Kirn
Becherbach bei Kirn
Becherbach bei Kirn is located in Rhineland-Palatinate
Becherbach bei Kirn
Becherbach bei Kirn
Coordinates: 49°44′28″N 7°30′01″E / 49.74111°N 7.50028°E / 49.74111; 7.50028
CountryGermany
StateRhineland-Palatinate
DistrictBad Kreuznach
Municipal assoc.Kirner Land
Government
 • Mayor (2019–24) Karl-Otto Selzer[1]
Area
 • Total8.41 km2 (3.25 sq mi)
Elevation
260 m (850 ft)
Population
 (2022-12-31)[2]
 • Total421
 • Density50/km2 (130/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes
55608
Dialling codes06757
Vehicle registrationKH
View of Becherbach bei Kirn

Becherbach bei Kirn 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 Kirner Land, whose seat is in the town of Kirn. Becherbach bei Kirn should not be confused with Becherbach
. Becherbach bei Kirn has borne the tag “bei Kirn” since 1 July 1969, at which time both municipalities found themselves in the same district as a result of administrative reform.

Geography

Location

Becherbach bei Kirn is situated on the Großbach in the North Palatine Uplands between the Nahe and the Glan.

Neighbouring municipalities

Clockwise from the north, Becherbach bei Kirn's neighbours are the municipality of Heimweiler, the municipality of Limbach, the municipality of Otzweiler (all in the Bad Kreuznach district) and the municipality of Schmidthachenbach (in the Birkenfeld district).

History

Antiquity

Unearthed within Becherbach's limits have been archaeological finds bearing witness to a settlement here during Roman times.[3]

Middle Ages

Lying as it did on a trade road that linked the Kirn area with the Glan valley, Becherbach was in the

Amt of Naumburg, which was made up of the courts of Bärenbach, Martin-Weierbach, Oberhachenbach, Oberreidenbach, Löllbach and, of course, Becherbach. This Amt of Naumburg was ceded by the Raugraves, a sideline of the Waldgraves, to the Counts of Sponheim-Kreuznach, first half of it in 1349, and then the whole towards the end of the 14th century. The Amt administrative seat was Castle Naumburg near Bärenbach, which had its first documentary mention, along with its owner, Raugrave Emich, in 1146.[4]

Modern times

At the time when the

market. This was a kind of “sales tax” levied by the Ganerben (holders of a joint-rule arrangement) of Steinkallenfels. The Becherbach court district was likewise a parish, whose mother church stood in Becherbach. Only in 1820 did Schmidthachenbach pass to the parish of Sien. The ecclesiastical structure was defined from 1345 to 1606 by the Lords of Oberstein, and later by the Lords of Löwenstein and the Lords of Schmidtburg. In 1785, Becherbach had 45 houses with 46 families. A few houses had upper floors.[5]

Recent times

After the conquest by

Ortsgemeinde, has been part of the Verbandsgemeinde of Kirn-Land.[6]

Jewish history

In the 19th century, Becherbach was home to a small

civil registry
documents and the municipal books to have lived in Becherbach:

  1. Isaak Moritz (1749-1827, tradesman) and wife Sophie née David with three children;
  2. Peter Moritz (1788-1856) and wife Edeline Binnes (1786-?, after husband's death emigrated to United States) with six children;
  3. Simon Moritz (1783-1862) with wife Nannette née Gottschalk from Hennweiler (1797-1859) with eight children;
  4. Michael Moritz (1795-1856) and wife Karoline née Wendel from Rachtig (1794-1859) with four children;
  5. Joseph Wolf from Löllbach (1803-1837) with wife Johannetta née David (1793-?) with three children;
  6. Emanuel Marx (1817-?) and first wife Henriette née Salomon from Waldmohr (1819-1851) and second wife Christina née Salomon (1829-?) with all together four children;
  7. Ferdinand Moritz (1822-?) and wife Judith née Haas (1818-?) with five children (all emigrated to United States in 1863);
  8. David Wolf (1832-?, spice dealer) and wife Mina née Loeb (1830-?) with six children (all moved to Kirn);
  9. David Moritz (1821-1881) and wife Regina née Löser from Laufersweiler (1828-1897) with four children;
  10. Ferdinand Moritz II (1830-?) and wife Wilhelmine née Löser from Laufersweiler (1835-?) with eight children.

In the way of institutions, the Jews had a “prayer parlour” (

First World War, one member of the Jewish community fell, Max Alfred Moritz (b. 16 May 1890 in Becherbach [or in Meisenheim, having lived until 1914 in Kirn] as salesman Isidor Moritz's and his wife Regina's [née Wendel] son, d. 20 June 1916). His name is to be found on the plaque of honour for the fallen of both world wars at the Becherbach graveyard. About 1924, when there were only five Jews still living in the village, they belonged – as mentioned above – to the community in Kirn. They were four members of the family Moritz and an older man named Eisick (Isaak). After Kristallnacht (9–10 November 1938), the village's last Jewish inhabitants left. On Kristallnacht itself, the family Moritz's shophouse was attacked and damaged. Mr. Moritz was taken to the Kirn prison, and thereafter was imprisoned at Dachau for three months. In 1939, the family Moritz fled by way of Luxembourg to France, where they survived the time of the Holocaust. Two others born in Becherbach, Ernst Moritz and Alfred Moritz, have since died (in August 2010 and January 2011 respectively). According to the Gedenkbuch – Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933-1945 ("Memorial Book – Victims of the Persecution of the Jews under National Socialist Tyranny") and Yad Vashem
, of all Jews who either were born in Becherbach or lived there for a long time, three were killed during Nazi persecution (birthdates in brackets):

  1. Claire Löb née Moritz (1889);
  2. Alfred Moritz (1886);
  3. Frieda Moritz (1890).[7]

Municipality’s name

The name Becherbach may derive from the Middle High German bechaere and may be linked with the production of pitch (Pech in German) or charcoal.[8]

Religion

After the

Reformed faith predominated, and each denomination had its own schoolteacher.[9] As at 31 July 2013, there are 388 full-time residents in Becherbach bei Kirn, and of those, 290 are Evangelical (74.742%), 51 are Catholic (13.144%), one is Lutheran (0.258%), 2 (0.515%) belong to other religious groups and 44 (11.34%) either have no religion or will not reveal their religious affiliation.[10]

Synagogue

The Jewish families in Becherbach bei Kirn established not so much a synagogue as a Betstube (“praying parlour”). In a great fire that struck the village on 9 September 1854, leaving 29 of the village's families homeless, the “praying parlour” – it was often called the “synagogue” – was burnt down, too. It is unknown in which house this small worship centre was. After the fire, it was never reestablished, and the village's Jewish inhabitants thereafter went to services in Hundsbach.[11]

Politics

Municipal council

The council is made up of 8 council members, who were elected by

majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.[12][13]

Mayor

Becherbach bei Kirn's mayor is Karl-Otto Selzer.[1]

Coat of arms

The German blazon reads: Über blau-gold geschachtem Schildfuß in Rot eine silberne Hauswand mit 6 durch Bogen verbundenen Säulen über einem Sockel, der in der Breite von 3 Bogen von einer Treppe durchbrochen ist. Im mittleren Bogen befindet sich eine Tür, in den übrigen befinden sich Fenster.

The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Per fess abased gules a house wall with six columns conjoined by arches on a base interrupted for the breadth of the three middle arches by a stairway, in the middle arch a door, in each of the others a window, the whole argent, and chequy of 18 azure and Or.

The

Amt building”) in Becherbach, which was destroyed in 1944 in an air raid. The building, as seat of the Amt administration for the municipalities of Becherbach bei Kirn, Bärenbach, Heimberg, Hoppstädten, Hundsbach, Krebsweiler, Limbach and Otzweiler, was long the hub of this historically important municipality. From the time when the Amt was dissolved in 1940 until the building's destruction, it served Becherbach alone as the municipal hall. The “chequy” pattern in the lower field is a reference to the village's former allegiance to the “Further” County of Sponheim. On 11 June 1965, municipal council commissioned the graphic artist Brust, from Kirn-Sulzbach, to come up with a design for a municipal coat of arms. At its meeting on 18 September 1965, council adopted Brust's resulting design. After consent by the state archive, the Ministry of the Interior in Mainz granted approval for Becherbach to bear its own arms on 29 December 1965.[14] The arms also appear on the municipal banner.[15]

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:[16]

  • Evangelical parish church, Kirchstraße – Early Classicist aisleless church, 1783–1786, State Building Inspector Lindemann, west tower essentially Romanesque, made taller in 1837
  • Catholic church, Neue Straße – Gothic Revival aisleless church, brickwork walls, 1893
  • Hauptstraße 23 – timber-frame house, essentially possibly from the 18th century
  • Im Winkel 1 – former Evangelical rectory; Baroque timber-frame building, marked 1749
  • Im Winkel 2 – former school; partly timber-frame, marked 1755, essentially possibly from the 16th century
  • Oberdorfstraße 1 – former smithy; timber-frame knee wall, latter half of the 19th century
  • Oberdorfstraße 5 – former school; timber-frame building like house with single roof ridge, 1820
  • Oberdorfstraße 14 – house, Renaissance building, Flemish gable, marked 1597
  • Across from Sachsenhausen 13 – water cistern; built of red brick with sandstone finial, iron door marked “1899/C. Hiller”
  • Schulstraße – former school; building with hip roof, partly slated timber framing, Heimatstil, 1911
  • Monument, on Landesstraße 182 – boulder, possibly from the 1920s/1930s
  • Jewish graveyard, southwest of the village at the edge of the forest (monumental zone) – area with 21 gravestones from 1881 to 1938 (see also below)

Jewish graveyard

When the Jewish graveyard in Becherbach bei Kirn was laid out is unknown. The older part with its 13 preserved gravestones would likely date to the latter half of the 18th century (gravestone no. 3 dated to 1762). A new part of the graveyard was laid out about 1880. The first burial took place here on 7 June 1881 (David Moritz, b. 1821, husband of Regina Moritz née Loeser, b. 1828, d. 1897), while the last one took place in October 1938 (Regina Moritz née Wendel, b. 1853 in Nahbollenbach, d. 16 October 1938; widow of Isidor Moritz, b. 1860, d. 1908). The graveyard was last registered to the following owners: Gustav Moritz, Isidor Moritz's widow (Regina Moritz née Wendel), Bernhard Moritz and once again Gustav Moritz. All together there are 21 graves marked with a gravestone. The graveyard's area is 617 m2. In 1999, the graveyard was placed under monumental protection. The graveyard lies not far from the road that leads from Becherbach to Schmidthachenbach. Near the way out of the village, right by the Christian graveyard at the left, a farm lane coming from Becherbach leads in a righthand curve to a nearby grove in which the Jewish graveyard is found.[17]

Clubs

The following clubs are active in Becherbach bei Kirn:[18]

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

Running west of Becherbach bei Kirn is

railway station on the Nahe Valley Railway (Bingen–Saarbrücken
).

References

  1. ^ a b Direktwahlen 2019, Landkreis Bad Kreuznach, Landeswahlleiter Rheinland-Pfalz, accessed 2 August 2021.
  2. Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz
    . 2023.
  3. ^ Antiquity
  4. ^ Middle Ages
  5. ^ Modern times
  6. ^ Recent times
  7. ^ Jewish history
  8. ^ Municipality’s name
  9. ^ Religion
  10. ^ Religion
  11. ^ Synagogue
  12. ^ Municipal election results for Becherbach bei Kirn
  13. ^ Municipal council
  14. ^ Description and explanation of Becherbach bei Kirn’s arms
  15. ^ Municipal banner
  16. ^ Directory of Cultural Monuments in Bad Kreuznach district
  17. ^ Jewish graveyard
  18. ^ Clubs

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Becherbach bei Kirn.
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