Oberelbert

Oberelbert
Coat of arms
Oberelbert
Location of Oberelbert within Westerwaldkreis district
Coordinates: 50°23′30″N 7°49′2″E / 50.39167°N 7.81722°E / 50.39167; 7.81722Coordinates: 50°23′30″N 7°49′2″E / 50.39167°N 7.81722°E / 50.39167; 7.81722
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Westerwaldkreis
Municipal assoc.	Montabaur
Government
• Mayor	Karl Jung
Area
• Total	3.45 km2 (1.33 sq mi)
Elevation	310 m (1,020 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	1,140
• Density	330/km2 (860/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	56412
Dialling codes	02608
Vehicle registration	WW
Website	www.oberelbert.de

Oberelbert is an Ortsgemeinde – a community belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde – in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

The community’s elevation ranges from 310 to 340 m above sea level.

Oberelbert lies roughly 5 km south of Montabaur in the Nassau Nature Park on the Stelzenbach. The community belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Montabaur, a kind of collective municipality. Its seat is in the like-named town.

Sometime before 1200, in the municipal area (Bann) of the village of Humbach (Montabaur), the Archbishop of Trier owned, among other things, a Wildhube (a fief that required the holder to protect Imperial hunting rights) at Elewartin. In the time between 1212 and 1214 there was in the extensive woodlands around Humbach – the Spurginberch Forest – two Försterhuben at Elwartin. These were foresters’ farmsteads with fields in the forest. In 1233 there was a dispute between members of the St. Florin Monastery at Koblenz involving the use of the Pfaffenholz Forest near Elewarthe. In 1362 came a documentary mention of Niederelbert (inferiori Elewarten), which suggests that there must have been an Oberelbert by this time, too (Nieder– is German for “nether” or “lower”, while Ober– means “upper”). It was not until 1436, however, that Oberelbert was explicitly named (Obern and Nyddern Elwart). In a treaty, the Lords of Helfenstein, as holders of the Elbert landlordship, and the villages of Nieder Elbartt and Obern Elbartt reached a compromise thanks to concessions from the farmers and a meal from the landlords.

In 1476, or by 1584 at the latest, Oberelbert had a chapel. The Oberelbert coalmine was part of the Amt and Bann of Montabaur before 1500, but after the Bann of Montabaur was partitioned about 1550 or 1560, the community passed to the Bann of Holler. In 1508, the representatives from Oberelbert and Niederelbert acknowledged by old usage in a Weisentum the Archbishop of Trier as their overlord and the Lords of Helfenstein as Lords of the Court. In 1519, the Archbishop of Trier transferred half the Elbert landlordship to the Lords of Nassau (at the Sporkenburg, which was a castle) as a fief. In 1602, three fourths of the landlordship was held by the Lords of Metternich. The other fourth was a cameralistic possession in the Electorate of Trier. Between 1630 and 1636, during the Thirty Years' War, Oberelbert was utterly destroyed and became uninhabitable. Beginning about 1642, building work to restore the community and settle it once again was undertaken.