Horbach, Bad Kreuznach

Horbach
Coat of arms
Horbach
Location of Horbach within Bad Kreuznach district
Coordinates: 49°49′21″N 7°30′48″E / 49.82250°N 7.51333°E / 49.82250; 7.51333Coordinates: 49°49′21″N 7°30′48″E / 49.82250°N 7.51333°E / 49.82250; 7.51333
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Bad Kreuznach
Municipal assoc.	Kirn-Land
Government
• Mayor	Günter Buhrmann-Klein
Area
• Total	1.92 km2 (0.74 sq mi)
Elevation	360 m (1,180 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	43
• Density	22/km2 (58/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	55606
Dialling codes	06754
Vehicle registration	KH
Website	www.kirn-land.de

Horbach 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 of Kirn-Land, whose seat is in the town of Kirn, although this lies outside the Verbandsgemeinde. Horbach is a state-recognized tourism community, and also the district’s second smallest municipality by population, after Heinzenberg.

Horbach lies in the southern Hunsrück at an elevation of 340 m above sea level on the western foothills of the Soonwald above the Kellenbach and the municipality of Simmertal. Found well away from the main through roads, Horbach lies across the Kellenbach valley from Schloss Dhaun, and unlike so many other municipalities in Kirn-Land, it has kept a certain agrarian character from bygone days in the village’s appearance.

Clockwise from the north, Horbach’s neighbours are the municipalities of Simmertal and Brauweiler, both of which likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district.

Horbach’s name was attested in 1541 as Horbruch, which means “boggy land”. Originally, Horbach, Brauweiler, Martinstein and Simmern unter Dhaun (since 1971 called Simmertal) formed a Markgenossenschaft, an association with combined economic and legal functions. All land, whether built upon or not, was a unit. Ecclesiastically and administratively, Simmern unter Dhaun was the hub of this great municipal area, while the neighbouring villages were either outgrowth or daughter settlements of this mother village. It can also be assumed that the neighbouring villages’ foundings came about with the arrival of settlers from a village in the original municipal area, as otherwise there would be no way to explain everybody’s rights to common land and joint ownership of grazing land, water and woodland. Only in 1513 was Horbach’s municipal area split off from this greater body with the setting of 18 boundary stones. The lordship over the village of Horbach in the Middle Ages was shared among several lords, among whom were the Counts of Sponheim and the Waldgraves. In 1340, it is known that Horbach was granted Electoral Mainz rights, which later, in 1393, were bestowed upon the Knights of Löwenstein. In the time that followed, Horbach became part of the Imperial Knightly Lordship of Martinstein and counted the Barons of Ebersberg, called of Weyers-Leyen, among others, as its local lords. In 1747, the Evangelical church was built, at which the pastor from Simmern unter Dhaun provided church services. In the 18th century, the village lordship passed to the Margrave of Baden, who had the Lordship of Martinstein administered by an Amtmann who was resident at Castle Naumburg (near Bärenbach). Horbach and Martinstein each had a Schultheiß. In the course of administrative restructuring undertaken by the Revolutionary/Napoleonic French, Horbach was grouped about 1800 into the Mairie (“Mayoralty”) of Monzingen. The village remained in the later Bürgermeisterei (“Mayoralty”) or Amt of Monzingen until it was assigned to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kirn-Land in 1970.