Nußbaum

Nußbaum
Coat of arms
Nußbaum
Location of Nußbaum within Bad Kreuznach district
Coordinates: 49°48′1″N 7°36′54″E / 49.80028°N 7.61500°E / 49.80028; 7.61500Coordinates: 49°48′1″N 7°36′54″E / 49.80028°N 7.61500°E / 49.80028; 7.61500
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Bad Kreuznach
Municipal assoc.	Bad Sobernheim
Government
• Mayor	Kurt Greulach
Area
• Total	5.92 km2 (2.29 sq mi)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	453
• Density	77/km2 (200/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	55569
Dialling codes	06751
Vehicle registration	KH

Nußbaum (or Nussbaum) 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 Bad Sobernheim, whose seat is in the like-named town. Nußbaum is a winegrowing village.

Nußbaum lies in the valley of the River Nahe. The municipal area measures 591 ha.

Clockwise from the north, Nußbaum’s neighbours are the municipalities of Daubach, Bockenau (although this boundary is only several metres long) and Waldböckelheim, the town of Bad Sobernheim, the municipalities of Meddersheim and Monzingen and the town of Bad Sobernheim again, all of which likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district. Nußbaum borders on Bad Sobernheim twice because that town’s municipal area is in two geographically separate pieces with Nußbaum lying right between them. The actual townsite lies to the southeast while the part to the northwest is mainly rural.

Also belonging to Nußbaum is the outlying homestead of “In der Bein”.

The earliest traces of human habitation in what is now Nußbaum come from an ice-age supply camp from the Late Stone Age. In a building excavation in 1996, local historians discovered remnants of a fireplace in which there were reindeer antler fragments and bones, believed to have been from horses. Stone tools were also found, blade fragments among other things, at the site of this archaeological find, which lies about one kilometre south of the village. In 1295, Nußbaum had its first documentary mention and was until 1400 the knightly seat of the Knights of Nußbaum, who were vassals to the Counts of Sponheim. In the War of the Succession of Landshut (1504-1505), Nußbaum was all but utterly burnt down in 1504, as were many other places, and was only built anew from the few remnants of the old village one hundred years later. The church with its massive 13th-century steeple is used by both Catholics and Evangelicals, while the “tower with bells and rope” is the secular municipality’s property. In the 18th century, the emperor granted one of Count Palatine Carl-Theodor’s sons the title Count of Bretzenheim. Carl-Theodor had the Nußbaumer Schloß newly built for him, which still stands today and is under private ownership.