Allenbach

Coat of arms

Allenbach

Location of Allenbach within Birkenfeld district

Coordinates: 49°45′20″N 07°09′57″E / 49.75556°N 7.16583°ECoordinates: 49°45′20″N 07°09′57″E / 49.75556°N 7.16583°E

Country

Government

• Mayor

Siegfried Burmann

Area

• Total

27.56 km² (10.64 sq mi)

Elevation

478 m (1,568 ft)

Population (2015-12-31)

• Total

635

• Density

23/km² (60/sq mi)

CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)

55758

06786

BIR

Website

www.allenbach-hunsrueck.de

Allenbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Herrstein, whose seat is in the like-named municipality.

The municipality lies in the Schwarzwälder Hochwald (forest) in the Hunsrück, roughly 14 km northwest of Idar-Oberstein and 12 km north of Birkenfeld.

Also belonging to Allenbach is the homestead of Hüttgeswasen.

In 1265, Allenbach had its first documentary mention as Ellenbach. At that time, it belonged to the County of Sponheim. In 1601, the Allenbacher Schloss (residential castle) was built through the conversion of the old Castle Ellenburg, and this still stands in the middle of the village today. In February 1898, the castle was bought by a salesman from Idar named Max Purper. Near the castle stands the Evangelical Castle Church, which since 1832 has housed a Stumm organ. Until administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate in 1969, this Hunsrück village belonged to the now abolished Bernkastel district, whose seat was at Bernkastel-Kues.

For 12 years, the Hüttgeswasen homestead at Allenbach was home to Johann Peter Petri, better known as Schwarzer Peter (“Black Peter”). He was a lumberjack and a charcoal maker, but also earned notoriety as a robber, becoming outlaw Schinderhannes’s (Johannes Bückler’s) sidekick. It is said that in prison, he devised the game Schwarzer Peter, which is much like old maid.

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Wikipedia