Hasselbach is an – a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
belonging to a , a kind of collective municipality – in the
Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis
Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis is a district () in the middle of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The neighbouring districts are (from north clockwise) Mayen-Koblenz, Rhein-Lahn, Mainz-Bingen, Bad Kreuznach, Birkenfeld, Bernkastel-Wittlich, Cochem-Zell.
His ...
(
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 county, counties, several municipality, municip ...
) in
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) 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 sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. It belongs to the
''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Kastellaun, whose seat is in the
like-named town.
Geography
Location
The municipality lies in the
Hunsrück
The Hunsrück () is a long, triangular, pronounced mountain range, upland in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the valleys of the Moselle (river), Moselle-Saar (north-to-west), the Nahe (south), and the Rhine (east). It is continued ...
, in a dale between the Gimbach and, coming from Hundheim, the Hundheimer Bach. These two brooks flow together within
Alterkülz
Alterkülz is an '' Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is also a tourism community (''Fremdenverk ...
’s municipal limits and the resulting stream is thereafter known as the Külzbach. The greater part of the outlying countryside within Hasselbach’s municipal limits is sloped.
History

In 1310, Hasselbach had its first documentary mention in the ''Sponheimisches Gefälleregister'', a taxation register kept by the
County of Sponheim
The County of Sponheim (, former spelling: Spanheim, Spanheym) was an independent territory in the Holy Roman Empire that lasted from the 11th century until the early 19th century. The name comes from the municipality of Sponheim, where the cou ...
.
Beginning in 1794, Hasselbach lay under
French
French may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France
** French people, a nation and ethnic group
** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices
Arts and media
* The French (band), ...
rule. In 1815 it was assigned to the Kingdom of
Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
at 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, Napol ...
. Since 1946, it has been part of the then newly founded
state
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
of
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) 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 sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...
.
Hasselbach became well known in the years from 1983 to 1989 for the
peace movement
A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world pe ...
’s Easter Marches (''Ostermärsche''), inspired by the
Aldermaston Marches
The Aldermaston marches were anti-nuclear weapons demonstrations in the 1950s and 1960s, taking place on Easter weekend between the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire, England, and London, over a distance of fifty-t ...
in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, which were always held at
Easter
Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...
. Marchers were protesting the stationing of
cruise missile
A cruise missile is an unmanned self-propelled guided missile that sustains flight through aerodynamic lift for most of its flight path. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large payload over long distances with high precision. Modern cru ...
s proposed within the framework of the
NATO Double-Track Decision
The NATO Double-Track Decision was the decision by NATO from December 12, 1979, to offer the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact a mutual limitation of medium-range ballistic missiles and intermediate-range ballistic missiles amidst the Soviet invasion o ...
for the nearby
Pydna Missile Base.
Hasselbach’s former town hall, built in 1750, was dismantled in 1977 when it became unusable. It was then reassembled in 1978 and 1979 at the ''Rheinland-Pfälzisches Freilichtmuseum Bad Sobernheim'' (“Rhineland-Palatinate
Open-Air Museum
An open-air museum is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts outdoors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum.
Definition
Open air is "the unconfined atmosphere ... outside buildings" ...
at
Bad Sobernheim
Bad Sobernheim () is a town in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the like-named ''Verbandsgemeinde'', and is also its seat. It is a state-recognized spa town, and is well known for two fossil discovery sit ...
”). The upper floor houses a small room that was once the council chamber, and the lower floor has been restored to its original use – a bakehouse. In earlier days, when the town hall was still in Hasselbach, a system was established laying out how the order of the bakehouse users was to be determined. Lots were also drawn to determine who had to fire the ovens up and who had to clean the bakehouse up.
In 1954, a lot was acquired for the new municipal administration building, but only in 1964 could work on it begin. On 4 May 1968, the new building was dedicated. Sweeping renovations and conversions were undertaken in 1987 and 1988.
Politics
Municipal council
The council is made up of 6 council members, who were elected by
majority vote
A majority is more than half of a total; however, the term is commonly used with other meanings, as explained in the "#Related terms, Related terms" section below.
It is a subset of a Set (mathematics), set consisting of more than half of the se ...
at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.
Mayor
Hasselbach's mayor is Sascha Eisinger.
[
]
Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: ''Schild gespalten durch blaue Wellenleiste, vorn rot-silber geschachtet, hinten grüner Haselnusszweig in Gold.''
The municipality's arms
Arms or ARMS may refer to:
*Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body
Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to:
People
* Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader
Coat of arms or weapons
*Armaments or weapons
**Fi ...
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: An endorse wavy azure between chequy of twenty-one argent and gules and Or a hazel twig bendwise slipped, leafed of three and fructed of two, all proper.
Earlier forms of the placename Hasselbach, such as ''Hasilbach'' and ''Haselbach'', derived from ''Hasala'', an old word for “hazel
Hazels are plants of the genus ''Corylus'' of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family, Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K ...
shrub” (“hazel” is ''Hasel'' in Modern High German). The charge
Charge or charged may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Charge, Zero Emissions/Maximum Speed'', a 2011 documentary
Music
* ''Charge'' (David Ford album)
* ''Charge'' (Machel Montano album)
* '' Charge!!'', an album by The Aqu ...
on the sinister (armsbearer's left, viewer's right) side, a hazel twig with leaves and nuts
Nut often refers to:
* Nut (fruit), fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed
* Nut (food), a dry and edible fruit or seed, including but not limited to true nuts
* Nut (hardware), fastener used with a bolt
Nut, NUT or Nuts may also refer to:
A ...
, is thus canting
' (International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: , Van Ophuijsen Spelling System, VOS Spelling: , ) is a pen-like tool used to apply liquid hot wax () in the batik-making process in Indonesia, more precisely (). Traditional consists of copper wax-con ...
. The silver and red “chequy” pattern on the dexter (armsbearer's right, viewer's left) side refers to Hasselbach's former allegiance to the County of Sponheim
The County of Sponheim (, former spelling: Spanheim, Spanheym) was an independent territory in the Holy Roman Empire that lasted from the 11th century until the early 19th century. The name comes from the municipality of Sponheim, where the cou ...
, and more specifically to its former inclusion in that county's ''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 ...
'' of Kastellaun. Between the two sides is a wavy “endorse” (a much slimmer version of a pale) standing for a brook, or ''Bach'' in German, thus referring to the last syllable in the placename Hasselbach.
The arms have been borne since 27 October 2009.
Culture and sightseeing
Buildings
The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) 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 sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...
’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:Directory of Cultural Monuments in Rhein-Hunsrück district
/ref>
* Dorfstraße 11 – timber-frame
Timber framing () 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 pegs. If the struc ...
building house, half-hipped roof, early 19th century
* Dorfstraße 16 – timber-frame house, partly solid and slated, half-hipped roof, earlier half of the 19th century; timber-frame stable, partly brick, about 1900
* At Dorfstraße 33 – Late Classicist door with skylight, mid 18th century
Sport and leisure
Ever since 1996, a great tent city has arisen around Hasselbach each year in August to lodge those attending the open-air electronic music
Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...
festival Nature One.
On the ''Gartenroute Hunsrück-Mittelrhein'', a vast garden belonging to Hasselbach’s old schoolhouse can be visited. The schoolhouse itself today houses a museum displaying toys from the last 150 years.
Just beyond the village’s outskirts runs the "Schinderhannes
Johannes Bückler ( 177821 November 1803; ) was a German outlaw who orchestrated one of the most famous crime sprees in German history. He has been nicknamed Schinderhannes and Schinnerhannes () in German and John the Scorcher, John the Flayer ...
Cycle Path".
Further reading
*''Hasselbach im Hunsrück'', Spurensuche von Doris Wesner; Publisher: Ortsgemeinde Hasselbach.
References
External links
Municipality's official webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hasselbach, Rhein-Hunsruck
Municipalities in Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis