Oberhausen bei Kirn is an '' Ortsgemeinde'' – a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

belonging to a ''

Verbandsgemeinde A Verbandsgemeinde (; plural Verbandsgemeinden) is a low-level administrative unit in the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A Verbandsgemeinde is typically composed of a small group of villages or towns. Rhinelan ...

'', a kind of collective municipality – in the

Bad Kreuznach Bad Kreuznach () is a town in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a spa town, most well known for its medieval bridge dating from around 1300, the Alte Nahebrücke, which is one of the few remaining bridges in t ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Kirner Land, whose seat is in the town of

Kirn Kirn is a town in the Bad Kreuznach (district), Bad Kreuznach Districts of Germany, district in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. It is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Kirner Land. Kirn is a Central place theory, middle centre serving an area on the ...

. Oberhausen bei Kirn is one of two municipalities in the district with the name Oberhausen. The other is

Oberhausen an der Nahe Oberhausen an der Nahe 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 ...

Geography

Location

Oberhausen bei Kirn lies on a high plateau at the edge of the Lützelsoon above

on the River Nahe.

Neighbouring municipalities

Clockwise from the north, Oberhausen bei Kirn's neighbours are the municipalities of

Hennweiler Hennweiler 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'' Kirner Land, wh ...

, Heinzenberg and Hochstetten-Dhaun, the town of

and the municipality of Hahnenbach, all of which likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district.

Constituent communities

Also belonging to Oberhausen bei Kirn are the outlying homesteads of Itzebacherhof, Königshof and Schloss Wartenstein.

History

The land that is now Oberhausen's municipal area was settled very early on. A few

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

finds at barrows of the so-called "Old Hunsrück-Eifel Culture", for instance a

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids suc ...

torc and bronze armrings, are traces of human habitation from the time between 600 and 400 BC. Leading across what is now the municipal area were two important prehistoric roads, of which the so-called ''Salzstraße'' ("Salt Road") linked the upper Nahe region with the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , source ...

and the other, a road from Kirchberg to Meisenheim, served as a north–south link between the Moselle region and the

North Palatine Uplands The North Palatine Uplands (german: Nordpfälzer Bergland), sometimes shortened to Palatine Uplands (''Pfälzer Bergland''), is a low mountain range and landscape unit in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and belongs mainly to the Pala ...

. Oberhausen's first documentary mentions are found in documents from 1342 (''Obernhusen'') and 1346. The latter is a ''Weistum'' (

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical ef ...

with

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

''wisdom'', this was a legal pronouncement issued by men learned in law in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

and early modern times) in which the court ''Schöffe'' (roughly "lay jurist") "Hermann von Obirnhusen" is named as a member of the

court's council of ''Schöffen''. Oberhausen then belonged to the ''

Vogt During the Middle Ages, an (sometimes given as modern English: advocate; German: ; French: ) was an office-holder who was legally delegated to perform some of the secular responsibilities of a major feudal lord, or for an institution such as ...

ei'' of Heinzenberg, a mediaeval jurisdictional and administrative region formed of the villages of Hennweiler, Oberhausen, Guntzelnberg, Rode and Heinzenberg and the ''Eigener Hof'' (an estate). Here, the Lords of Heinzenberg, who lived at a castle in the Kellenbach valley, were responsible as '' Vögte'' for giving the law and for raising tax revenue. Hennweiler was the "mother village" in this greater municipal area, whereas Oberhausen was, like all the other outlying villages, a "daughter village" or an "expansion settlement". The ''Vogtei'' region was also a parochial region whose mother church was

Saint Stephen Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ''Stéphanos'', meaning "wreath, crown" and by extension "reward, honor, renown, fame", often given as a title rather than as a name; c. 5 – c. 34 AD) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first ...

's (''Stephanuskirche'') in Hennweiler. In the

Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Ren ...

, Oberhausen became part of the Lordship of Wartenstein and belonged to the '' Unteramt'' of Hennweiler. It was then that power passed from the Lords of Heinzenberg, first to Tilmann vom Stein (or Wartenstein), but he died without having fathered any male offspring, and his power eventually passed over time, by marriage into other families of the lower nobility, to other lines. These families who had acquired Tilmann's holdings and rights in the Lordship of Wartenstein, formed a kind of ''Ganerbengemeinschaft'', a form of

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...

, whereby they ruled jointly. In the course of the earlier half of the 16th century, the Lords of Schwarzenberg eventually managed to secure their place as the sole lordship in the ''Unteramt'' of Hennweiler, although they had to be mindful that their overlords were still the Counts Palatine of Zweibrücken (later Dukes of Palatinate-Zweibrücken), who were rightful successors to the Counts of Veldenz. As the village lord, Johann III of Schwarzenberg introduced the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

into the parish of Hennweiler/Oberhausen sometime about 1550. Oberhausen formed together with Hennweiler a greater municipal area in the Late Middle Ages that was run as a ''Markgenossenschaft'' – a combined municipality with one administration and a single body of law. It was only later that the municipal area was split between the two villages. The villages' common woodlands were shared out as late as 1769. Beginning in 1798, Oberhausen lay under

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

rule, as did all the German lands on the

's left bank. This lasted until the

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

ic French were driven out in 1814. During this time, Oberhausen belonged to the ''Mairie'' ("Mayoralty") of Kirn in the

Arrondissement An arrondissement (, , ) is any of various administrative divisions of France, Belgium, Haiti, certain other Francophone countries, as well as the Netherlands. Europe France The 101 French departments are divided into 342 ''arrondissements ...

of Simmern. After the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon ...

had grouped the village into the Kingdom of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

, Oberhausen remained with the same mayoralty, although the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

word ''Bürgermeisterei'' was now used for it. After Kirn was granted town rights in 1857, though, it together with the outlying villages formed a municipal body known as the ''Landbürgermeisterei Kirn'', which was headed by the mayor of Kirn. This "personal union" was dissolved in 1896, whereupon representatives of the rural villages chose their own ''Bürgermeister'' (mayor). Ever since, Oberhausen has remained in this municipal league of "Kirn-Land" without interruption, although in the course of administrative restructuring in

, it ceased to be an ''

Amt Amt is a type of administrative division governing a group of municipalities, today only in Germany, but formerly also common in other countries of Northern Europe. Its size and functions differ by country and the term is roughly equivalent to ...

'' in 1969 and became instead the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Kirn-Land. Over the last few decades, Oberhausen has grown from a mainly agriculturally orientated village into a modern residential community. Since 1953/1954, water has been supplied to the village by the ''Gruppenwasserwerk Krebsweiler'' ("Krebsweiler Group Waterworks"). Sewerage was laid between 1956 and 1963, and carries sewage to the treatment plant at Kirn.

Population development

Oberhausen bei Kirn's population development since

ic times is shown in the table below. The figures for the years from 1871 to 1987 are drawn from census data:Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz – Regionaldaten
/ref>

Religion

As at 30 November 2013, there are 917 full-time residents in Oberhausen bei Kirn, and of those, 458 are

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

(49.945%), 346 are

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

(37.732%), 1 is Russian Orthodox (0.109%), 5 (0.545%) belong to other religious groups and 107 (11.668%) either have no religion or will not reveal their religious affiliation.

Politics

Municipal council

The council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman. The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:

Mayor

Oberhausen bei Kirn's mayor is Thomas Jung.

Coat of arms

The German blazon reads: ''In gespaltenem Schild vorn in Schwarz ein silberner, goldgekrönter, -bewehrter und -gezungter Löwe, hinten in Gold ein roter Sparren, darunter ein roter gelappter Wendelring''. The municipality's arms might in English

heraldic Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branc ...

language be described thus: Per pale sable a lion rampant sinister argent armed, langued and crowned Or and Or a chevron in chief under which a lobed torc, both gules. The charge on the dexter (armsbearer's right, viewer's left) side, the lion, is a reference to the village's former allegiance to the Lords of Wartenstein. Meanwhile, on the sinister (armsbearer's left, viewer's right) side, the

chevron Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to: Science and technology * Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines * Chevron (anatomy), a bone * '' Eulithis testata'', a moth * Chevron (geology), a fold in rock la ...

is, in a manner of speaking, a canting charge, suggesting as it does a "house", which in turn suggests the placename ending ''—hausen'' ("house" is ''Haus'' in

). The torc is an

find from Hallstatt times unearthed from a grave in Oberhausen. Municipal council, on 29 November 1963, gave the graphic artist Brust from Kirn-Sulzbach the task of designing a municipal coat of arms. At a council meeting on 24 September 1965, council adopted the design that had been put forth. After consent by the state archive, the Ministry of the Interior in

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

granted approval for Oberhausen bei Kirn to bear its own arms on 29 December 1965. The municipal banner also bears this coat of arms in the centre.

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

The following are listed buildings or sites in

's Directory of Cultural Monuments: *

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

, Dhauner Straße 29 – formerly Saint Mary's (''St. Maria''), Late Gothic quire, from the latter half of the 15th century,

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

aisleless church An aisleless church (german: Saalkirche) is a single- nave church building that consists of a single hall-like room. While similar to the hall church, the aisleless church lacks aisles or passageways on either side of the nave and separated ...

, 1743 *

Assumption of Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution '' Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by ...

Parish Church (''Pfarrkirche Mariä Himmelfahrt''), Soonwaldstraße –

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

aisleless church, 1897/1898, architect Josef Dormann,

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

* Dhauner Straße 4/6 – estate complex, 19th century;

timber-frame Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

house, timber-frame barns, storage building, parental cottage * Near Hintergasse 7 – well, 18th century (?), altered 1922 * Soonwaldstraße – warriors' memorial 1914–1918; cast-stone

obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by An ...

, after 1920, expanded after 1945 * Soonwaldstraße 34 – Catholic rectory; building with hip roof and Gothic elements, 1898 * ''Schloss Wartenstein'',Landkreis Bad Kreuznach: Inhaltsverzeichnis des Kreisrechtes
retrieved 31 October 2011. above the Kellenbach valley – ringwall remnants of the

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

complex founded in 1347, destroyed in 1689; Baroque palatial castle ('' Schloss''), 1704, lengthened in 1728, commercial building 1723, little gatehouse possibly from 1732; cavalier's building, from the latter half of the 18th century

More about the churches

The

with its

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

quire with colourful painting comes from the latter half of the 15th century. It was given a new nave in 1743, and until 1898 it was a

shared church A shared church (german: Simultankirche), simultaneum mixtum, a term first coined in 16th-century Germany, is a church in which public worship is conducted by adherents of two or more religious groups. Such churches became common in the German-s ...

, used by both

Protestants Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

and

Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. It was in that year that the groundwork was laid for the new Catholic church.

Clubs

The following clubs are active in Oberhausen bei Kirn:Clubs
/ref> *''Förderverein der freiwilligen Feuerwehr Oberhausen'' — volunteer fire brigade promotional association *''Heimat- und Kulturverein Oberhausen e.V.'' — local history and culture club *''Jugendtreff 1991 Oberhausen'' — youth club *''MGV 1929 Oberhausen e.V.'' — men's singing club *''Musikverein 1947 e.V.'' — music club *''SV Oberhausen 1922 e.V.'' — sport club

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

Meeting in the village are '' Kreisstraßen'' 5 and 11. The former leads southwards to neighbouring

. The junction of '' Bundesstraßen'' 41 and 421 lies a few kilometres east of Kirn. One can also board a train at Kirn on the

Nahe Valley Railway The Nahe Valley Railway (german: Nahetalbahn) is a two-track, partially electrified main line railway in the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, which runs for almost 100 kilometres along the Nahe. It was built by the Rhine-Nahe ...

( Bingen–Saarbrücken). The travel time on the hourly

Regionalexpress In Germany, Luxembourg and Austria, the Regional-Express (RE, or in Austria: REX) is a type of regional train. It is similar to a semi-fast train, with average speed at about 70–90 km/h (top speed often 160 km/h) as it calls at ...

trains to Saarbrücken is 1 hour and 10 minutes, while Mainz can be reached in just under an hour. Every other train to and from

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

also runs through to

Frankfurt Airport Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...

. Frankfurt-Hahn Airport lies some 30 km away from Kirn and can be reached from the town by car in just under a half-hour.

Famous people

Sons and daughters of the town

* Otto Groß (1901–1981), German politician ( Free Democratic Party, Member of the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate)

References

External links

Oberhausen bei Kirn in the collective municipality's webpages
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oberhausen Bei Kirn Bad Kreuznach (district) Districts of the Rhine Province