Birnbach

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Birnbach (disambiguation) .

coat of arms	Germany map
Help on coat of arms	Coordinates: 50 ° 42 '  N , 7 ° 35'  E
Basic data
State :	Rhineland-Palatinate
County :	Altenkirchen (Westerwald)
Association municipality :	Altenkirchen-Flammersfeld
Height :	270 m above sea level NHN
Area :	3.11 km 2
Residents:	626 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	201 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	57612
Area code :	02681
License plate :	AK
Community key :	07 1 32 009
Association administration address:	Rathausstrasse 13 57610 Altenkirchen
Website :	www.vg-altenkirchen.de
Local Mayor :	Mario Muller
Location of the local community Birnbach in the district of Altenkirchen (Westerwald)

Birnbach, aerial photo (2015)

Evangelical parish church Birnbach

War cemetery

Birnbach is a municipality in the Altenkirchen (Westerwald) district in Rhineland-Palatinate . It belongs to the community of Altenkirchen-Flammersfeld .

geography

Geographical location

The community is located in the Westerwald , about five kilometers northwest of the district town of Altenkirchen . From Birnbach it is about five kilometers to the North Rhine-Westphalian border.

Townscape

The village is widely located along the local road; The numerous green areas, streams and the old trees in the local area are characteristic . The very old town center is grouped around the Evangelical Church .

Neighboring communities

Neighboring towns are Wölmersen in the northeast, Oberölfen in the east, Hemmelzen in the south and Weyerbusch and Hilkhausen in the west.

traffic

Federal road 8 runs directly north of Birnbach .

The next junction on the federal highway 3 is Neustadt / Wied and is located about 20 km southwest of the village.

history

middle Ages

The first documentary mention of the place took place in a papal decree of March 31, 1131. This date was also taken as the occasion for the Birnbacher 850th anniversary celebration held in 1981. For the place, however, a much earlier settlement is considered likely. The Birnbach High Court is mentioned as early as 1260 and was the only one in the south-eastern part of the Auelgau . Shortly before 1464 it was requested to Altenkirchen.

Second World War

Three of the four officers who were held responsible for the loss of the Ludendorff Bridge (March 7, 1945), were innocently sentenced to death on March 13 and 14, 1945, and executed are buried in the local war cemetery . They are the majors Johann Scheller and August Krafft as well as Lieutenant Karl-Heinz Peters. The fourth, Major Herbert Strobel, was originally buried here, and his bones were brought back home at the instigation of his son. The officers in Rimbach and Oberirsen were sentenced to death by shooting by a " flying stand trial" personally installed by Hitler and executed immediately after the verdict was pronounced. Field Marshal Model had set up the headquarters of his Army Group B in the Rimbach inn "Katzmann". The court martial and management of General Rudolf Huebner was housed in the Oberirsen restaurant "Pick". The fifth officer, Captain Willi Oskar Bratge, was captured by the Americans when the Ludendorff Bridge was conquered and thus escaped death.

Latest time

Around 1990 Birnbach made a name for itself because of a conflict with a group of Bruderhöfer who had settled in Birnbach and had built up a larger community. A local citizens' initiative worked against the community until the Bruderhöfer finally left the village in 1995. The real estate of the Bruderhöfer was taken over by the New Religious Movement Lectorium Rosicrucianum , which opened an administration and conference center in Birnbach in 2000 .

Population development

The development of the population of the municipality of Birnbach. The values ​​from 1871 to 1987 are based on censuses:

year Residents 1815 140 1835 208 1871 252 1905 292 1939 307 1950 391

year Residents 1961 442 1970 423 1987 460 1997 582 2005 626 2019 626

politics

Municipal council

The municipal council in Birnbach consists of twelve council members, who were elected by a majority vote in the local elections on May 26, 2019 , and the honorary local mayor as chairman.

mayor

Mario Müller became the local mayor of Birnbach in the summer of 2019. In the direct election on May 26, 2019, he was elected for five years with 79.88% of the vote. Müller is the successor to Wolfgang Lanvermann.

Attractions

• The Evangelical Parish Church in Birnbach dates from the 13th century. Restoration of the church and the tower 1893–1900 by the architect Ludwig Hofmann with funding from the patron Emil Weyerbusch .
• In the center of the village is one of the oldest half-timbered houses in the Altenkirchen district: a former post office from the 16th century.

See also : List of cultural monuments in Birnbach

economy

Birnbach is an agricultural community. Today there are still four full-time farms, as well as several local handicrafts , grocery stores and a book publisher .

People who worked on site

• Emil Weyerbusch (* 1846 in Elberfeld , † 1909 in Gardone Riviera ), industrialist and patron; had a villa and the Protestant parish house built and the Romanesque basilica rebuilt.
• Wilhelm Boden (* 1890 in Grumbach ; † 1961 in Birnbach), from 1946 to 1947 first Prime Minister of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate; spent his old age here.

Web links

Commons : Birnbach  - Collection of Images

• Local community Birnbach on the website of the Association of Altenkirchen

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate - population status 2019, districts, municipalities, association communities ( help on this ).
2. ^ Hermann Josef Roth: The Westerwald. DuMont, Cologne 1981, p. 51.
3. ^ Forum Historicum Ebernhahn
4. ↑ Lothar Brüne and Jakob Weiler: Remagen in March 1945 - A documentation on the final phase of the Second World War. Peace Museum “Bridge of Remagen e. V. “(Ed.), Remagen 1993, ISBN 3-9803385-9-2 , p. 182 ff.
5. ↑ God's reliable children . In: ZEITmagazin . No. June 25 , 1991 (cover story).
6. ↑ State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate - regional data
7. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: Municipal Council Election 2019 Birnbach. Retrieved December 21, 2019 . 
8. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: direct elections 2019. see Altenkirchen-Flammersfeld, Verbandsgemeinde, fifth row of results. Retrieved December 21, 2019 .