Schmalenberg

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

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 49 ° 20 '  N , 7 ° 44'  E
Basic data
State :	Rhineland-Palatinate
County :	Southwest Palatinate
Association municipality :	Waldfischbach castle albums
Height :	442 m above sea level NHN
Area :	10.39 km 2
Residents:	753 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	72 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	67718
Area code :	06307
License plate :	PS , ZW
Community key :	07 3 40 044
Association administration address:	Friedhofstrasse 3 67714 Waldfischbach-Burgalben
Website :	www.vgwaldfischbach- burgalben.de
Local Mayor :	Peter Seibert
Location of the local community Schmalenberg in the district of Südwestpfalz

Schmalenberg is a municipality in the Südwestpfalz district in Rhineland-Palatinate . It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde Waldfischbach-Burgalben , within which it is the third smallest local community in terms of population.

geography

location

Schmalenberg is located in the Palatinate Holzland in the Palatinate Forest Nature Park in the north of the Südwestpfalz district; Immediately to the north is the district of Kaiserslautern . Neighboring communities are - clockwise - in the northeast Trippstadt , southwest Heltersberg and Geiselberg and in the northwest Schopp .

Most of the district is covered by mixed forests used for forestry. The Hirschalbermühle residential area also belongs to Schmalenberg .

Elevations and waters

Schmalenberg is a high altitude village on a ridge. In the northeast rises the 424.1 meter high Wolfskaut and in the southeast the 451.7 meter high Vogelskopf . To the southwest of the development, the Hirschalbe runs for a short time over the municipality. The north-east of the district extends almost to the moss ointment .

history

The place was created as a so-called "clearing island". In the Middle Ages it was under the Hornbach Monastery . It was first mentioned in a document in the so-called 'Weistum von Fischbach' of 1369, in which a lay judge and a witness from 'Smalenberg' are named.

With the secularization of the monastery in 1557, Schmalenberg came to the Electorate of Palatinate , with which the community remained until the end of the 18th century and whose further fate it shared.

The Thirty Years' War brought a violent turning point . The place lost almost 90 percent of its population. While 33 families were still listed in an appraisal book from 1592, in 1657 (nine years after the end of the war) there were only 5 families. And with that the place was still doing well. Other woodland communities such as Walfsichbach or Schopp were completely depopulated after the war.

From 1798 to 1814, when the Palatinate was part of the French Republic (until 1804) and then part of the Napoleonic Empire , Schmalenberg was incorporated into the canton of Waldfischbach in the Donnersberg department and was subordinate to the Mairie Waldfischbach . In 1815 the place was initially added to Austria . A year later the community moved to the Kingdom of Bavaria and was part of the Rhine district there . From 1818 to 1862 the place was part of the Landkommissariat Pirmasens , which was then converted into a district office.

In 1939 Schmalenberg was incorporated into the district of Pirmasens (from 1997 district of Südwestpfalz ) . After the Second World War , the municipality within the French occupation zone became part of the then newly formed state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the administrative district of Palatinate . In the course of the first administrative reform in Rhineland-Palatinate , the community was assigned to the newly created community of Waldfischbach-Burgalben in 1972 .

In 1981 Schmalenberg became the state winner in the competition Our village should be more beautiful and received the bronze medal at the federal level.

Residents

Population development

The development of the population of Schmalenberg, the values ​​from 1871 to 1987 are based on censuses:

year Residents 1815 370 1835 516 1871 546 1905 593 1939 580 1950 598 1961 651

year Residents 1970 687 1987 627 1997 663 2005 801 2011 775 2019 753

religion

In 2013, 55.9 percent of the population were Protestant and 22.0 percent Catholic. 0.8 percent belonged to another religious community. 21.3 percent said they did not belong to any religious community. There is a cemetery on site, where the deceased from the neighboring village of Schopp were once buried before the latter set up its own cemetery in the first half of the 19th century .

politics

Municipal council

The local council in Schmalenberg consists of twelve council members, who were elected in the local elections on May 26, 2019 in a personalized proportional representation, and the honorary local mayor as chairman.

The distribution of seats in the municipal council:

choice	CDU	WGR	WGR	total
2019	3	9	-	12 seats
2014	2	8th	2	12 seats
2009	3	9	-	12 seats
2004	by majority vote			12 seats

mayor

Peter Seibert (WG Seibert) became local mayor of Schmalenberg in 2014. In the direct election on May 26, 2019, he was confirmed in his office for another five years with 79.96% of the votes. Seibert's predecessor Heinz Dechert had held the office for 20 years.

coat of arms

	Blazon : "In black a grafted golden tip, inside a black church tower, top right a golden oak, top left a red-armored and tongued golden lion."
	Foundation for the coat of arms: It was approved by the Neustadt district government in 1980 . The Palatinate Lion is a reminder of the former belonging to the Electoral Palatinate .

Culture and sights

Cultural monuments

Protestant Church

There are a total of eleven objects on site that are listed , including the Protestant church. A testimony from the first settlement has been preserved in it. It is believed that the tower's ground floor dates back to the 12th century and was originally a chapel. It is probably the only remaining building in the entire Holzland from this period. Today the sanctuary of the church is located here. The current nave dates from 1769, the current shape of the interior was created in 1837.

There is an unusual memorial to the fallen right next to the church .

nature

With a tulip tree and a linden tree, there are a total of two natural monuments on site .

Economy and Infrastructure

economy

Due to the geographic conditions, the forest and timber industry dominated the area for centuries. The Daniel Theysohn Foundation based in Ludwigswinkel supports young people in their training in Schmalenberg. There is also a trout farm at the Hirschalbermühle. After the Second World War, the place was part of the Pirmasens Military Community, which has now been dissolved .

traffic

The place can be reached via subordinate streets. In the extreme south of the district runs the state road 499 , which leads from Frankeneck to Waldfischbach-Burgalben . From this, the district road 29 branches off , which grazes the eastern edge of the settlement and leads to Schopp. The county road 30 runs right through the settlement area and connects the community with Heltersberg and Tripp city. There is a connection to long-distance traffic via the A 62 and A 6 , each 10 kilometers away .

The closest rail connection is Schopp station on the Biebermühlbahn , seven kilometers away , and the closest connection to international long-distance traffic is at Kaiserslautern main station on the Mannheim – Saarbrücken – Paris line.

Personalities

This section needs to be revised: no life data of the honorary citizen and no representation since when honorary citizen. See also WP: FV / S / P !
Please help to improve it , and then remove this flag.

• August Köhler (1835–1897), Protestant theologian and rector of the University of Erlangen

• Heinz Dechert, former mayor and honorary citizen

Web links

Commons : Schmalenberg  - Collection of Images

• Page at the Verbandsgemeinde
• Portrait of the SWR

Individual evidence

1. ↑ State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate - population status 2019, districts, communities, association communities ( help on this ).
2. ↑ State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Official directory of the municipalities and parts of the municipality. Status: January 2018 ^{[ Version 2020 is available. ]} . S. 109 (PDF; 2.2 MB).
3. ^ Andreas Neubauer: Regesten of the former Benedictine monastery Hornbach. Speyer 1904, p. 224 ff .
4. ↑ Bernd Gundacker, Liliane Gundacker, Peter Klein: Holzlanddorf Schmalenberg 1369 - 2019 . Kaiserslautern 2019, p. 22-26 .
5. ↑ State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate - regional data
6. ↑ KommWis, as of November 30, 2013
7. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: Local elections 2019, city and municipal council elections
8. ↑ Andrea Daum: Mayoral election: Seibert wants to run again. Die Rheinpfalz, January 22, 2019, accessed on March 31, 2020 . 
9. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: direct elections 2019. see Waldfischbach-Burgalben, Verbandsgemeinde, sixth line of results. Accessed March 31, 2020 . 
10. ↑ Retired local mayors in the district adopted. Pfälzischer Merkur, December 4, 2014, accessed on March 31, 2020 . 
11. ^ Karl Heinz Debus: The great book of arms of the Palatinate. Neustadt an der Weinstrasse 1988, ISBN 3-9801574-2-3 .
12. ^ H. Dietzsch: The forest village Schmalenberg and its church , self-published.
13. ↑ Dechert is to become the first honorary citizen - current news from the Palatinate. Retrieved July 26, 2020 .