Mittelreidenbach

Mittelreidenbach
Coat of arms
Mittelreidenbach
Location of Mittelreidenbach within Birkenfeld district
Coordinates: 49°43′33″N 07°26′28″E / 49.72583°N 7.44111°E / 49.72583; 7.44111Coordinates: 49°43′33″N 07°26′28″E / 49.72583°N 7.44111°E / 49.72583; 7.44111
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Birkenfeld
Municipal assoc.	Herrstein
Government
• Mayor	Peter Ballat
Area
• Total	5.07 km2 (1.96 sq mi)
Elevation	282 m (925 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	741
• Density	150/km2 (380/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	55758
Dialling codes	06784
Vehicle registration	BIR

Mittelreidenbach is an Ortsgemeinde - a member of the Verbandsgemeinde [United Municipalities of] Herrstein - in the district of Birkenfeld in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, in southwestern Germany.

The village lies in the Reidenbach valley southeast of the Nahe River. To the west lies Idar-Oberstein.

There is already the evidence of the fact that Mittelreidenbach is a very old settlement. The stones with markings, called "Hollen- and Bellenstein" [“Hell and Bell Stones”] in the ancient times, and the eleven graves of the Huns (burial sites of the Celts) are known to be in the area of the sports fields of Mittelreidenbach.

The foundation of the present village of Mittelreidenbach goes back to the Frankish period (800-1000 AD). In the 12th Century, the settlement belonged to the district of Naumburg bei Bärenbach. In this history appears a Ritter [knight], Werner von Reidenbach, in the years between 1282 - 1287, as the resident of Hachenpfuhls (now Hachenfels) near Naumburg. In 1321 the Herren [Lords] von Reidenbach zu Dune und Stein (Oberstein, now Idar-Oberstein) were given the properties of Weiersbach and Nahbollenbach.

One of the first earliest mentions of Mittelreidenbach is found in a deed of sale in 1340, when the Edelknecht (the lowest rank of medieval German nobility) Johann von Oberstein sold the tithes in Reidenbach to the Archbishop of Trier, Baldwin of Luxembourg. After the extinction of the family of the Ritter von Reidenbach, the properties fell to the Herren von Schwarzenberg. With the extinction of the House of Schwarzenberg in 1483, the brothers Bernhard and Jost von Flersheim in Rheinhessen inherited the village and estate of Reidenbach. Later the Reidenbach package went as the dowry of Anna, the daughter of Jost Flersheim, to Emmerich von Dietz, the district officer of St. Wendel. When the male line of the House of Dietz became extinct in 1616, the village and estate of Reidenbach were annexed as orphaned fiefs by the Archbishopric of Trier and assigned to the district of St. Wendel. In 1779, it was transferred to the district of Oberstein.