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Sulzbach, Birkenfeld

Sulzbach
Sulzbach church with Stumm organ
Sulzbach church with Stumm organ
Coat of arms of Sulzbach
Coat of arms
Sulzbach  is located in Germany
Sulzbach
Sulzbach
Coordinates: 49°50′3″N 7°20′20″E / 49.83417°N 7.33889°E / 49.83417; 7.33889Coordinates: 49°50′3″N 7°20′20″E / 49.83417°N 7.33889°E / 49.83417; 7.33889
Country Germany
State Rhineland-Palatinate
District Birkenfeld
Municipal assoc. Rhaunen
Government
 • Mayor Horst Schmäler
Area
 • Total 6.68 km2 (2.58 sq mi)
Elevation 460 m (1,510 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
 • Total 285
 • Density 43/km2 (110/sq mi)
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes 55758
Dialling codes 06544
Vehicle registration BIR

Sulzbach, also called Rhaunensulzbach, 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 Rhaunen, whose seat is in the like-named municipality.

The municipality lies on a ridge in the southern Hunsrück between Rhaunen and Herrstein.

Sulzbach borders in the north and northwest on the municipality of Rhaunen, in the east on the municipality of Bollenbach, in the southeast on the municipality of Wickenrodt, in the south on the municipality of Oberhosenbach and in the southwest on the municipality of Hottenbach.

Sulzbach’s church was consecrated by 1326, and its solidly built tower bears witness to its once having been a fortified church.

Sulzbach’s historical claim to fame stems from the birth of two industries of rather disproportionate importance to the village’s size. Both also sprang from the same family. The Sulzbach village smith, Johann Nikolaus Stumm (born 1669), bought up several old Hunsrück hammermills and ran them with such great success that he became the father of the Saarland’s smelting industry. The later “iron barons” of the family Stumm dominated and characterized the Saar region’s economic history for a good two hundred years.

While Johann Nikolaus might have been said to concern himself with the “rougher” things in life as an industrialist, his younger brother, Johann Michael Stumm (born 1683) was rather one who concerned himself with the finer things in life. Johann Michael was a skilled goldsmith and a music lover, and became the founder of the Stumm organ-building “dynasty”. His last instrument, completed in 1746, is still in service at the church in his home village. The first Stumm organ ever built was installed in the church in the neighbouring village of Rhaunen in 1723. All together, Johann Michael Stumm and his descendants built roughly 370 organs in Sulzbach, installing them in churches in the region whose limits are marked by Saarbrücken, Karlsruhe and the Middle Rhine.


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Wikipedia

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