Laubach () 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''

Simmern-Rheinböllen Simmern-Rheinböllen is a ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' is in Simmern. It was formed on 1 January 2020 by the merger of the former ...

, whose seat is in Simmern.

Geography

Location

Laubach lies in the central

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 ...

between Simmern and

Kastellaun Kastellaun () is a town in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the like-named ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality. Geography Location The town lies in the eastern Hunsrüc ...

. It lies roughly centrally within its municipal area, sloping down gently towards the Külzbach valley. The municipal area measures 1 002 ha, 502 ha of which is municipal forest. Laubach's highest point is 480 m above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

, and its lowest 405 m above sea level.

History

In 1103, Laubach had its first documentary mention. A lordly estate named ''Lupach'' belonged as of that year to the Ravengiersburg Monastery as the result of an exchange deal with Provost Amselm of Saint Stephen's in

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

. In 1135, the widow of Burkhard von Honrein (that is, the neighbouring village now known as

Horn Horn may refer to: Common uses * Horn (acoustic), a tapered sound guide ** Horn antenna ** Horn loudspeaker ** Vehicle horn ** Train horn *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various animals * Horn (instrument), a family ...

) transferred her estate in Horn, Laubach and other places “together with the right to assist in filling the pastoral post at the church in Horn to the Ravengiersburg Monastery”. As to Laubach's ecclesiastical history, a

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

in the village was named for the first time in 1211, and then again in 1217. It belonged to the Archbishopric of Trier. About 1250, one of the Archbishop's directories named various rights, among them a “cathedral tax” that the Archbishop had the right to levy at ''Loupach'' in the rural deaconry of Keimta (now Zell). From the early 14th century comes a reference to the ''Laubacher Gericht'' (“Laubach Court”), which was made up not only of Laubach, but also of the neighbouring villages of Bubach, Ebschied and Horn along with a part of Budenbach and the now forsaken villages of Heinzert, Scheuf, Steilheim, Allenzhausen, Steinkülz, which clearly must still have been inhabited at this time. In 1302, Laubach and its immediate neighbours, including the ones that have since vanished, were granted

Imperial immediacy In the Holy Roman Empire, imperial immediacy ( or ) was the status of an individual or a territory which was defined as 'immediate' () to Emperor and Empire () and not to any other intermediate authorities, while one that did not possess that stat ...

. On 13 June 1302, Emperor Albert I pledged the villages, for services to be rendered, to Count Simon of Sponheim, or as he is called in the document, “Simoni comti des Spanheim”, after long, drawn-out warfare in 1300 and 1301. It might have been in the time that followed that the village was fortified. Under whose lordship this happened, however, is unknown. Only in 1360 was Laubach once again mentioned in this regard, when it was noted that the “town on the Hunsrück” should be further fortified (in the

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

, “town” – or ''Stadt'' in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

– almost always meant a fortified place). The lordship at this time was held by the Count Palatine of the Rhine, on whose orders the fortifications, presumably hitherto a single wall, were expanded with a ringwall. In 1410, Laubach passed to the newly founded Principality of Simmern (Palatine branch), and in 1673 to the

Electorate of the Palatinate The Electoral Palatinate was a Imperial State, constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire until it was annexed by the Electorate of Baden in 1803. From the end of the 13th century, its ruler was one of the Prince-electors who elected the Holy ...

. In the

Late Middle Ages The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the Periodization, period of History of Europe, European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period ( ...

, the ''Vesten Laubach des Fürstenthumes Simmern'' (Laubach Castles of the Principality of Simmern”) lost their importance. The fortifications crumbled bit by bit. In 1772, great pieces of the once oval defences with their moat still stood. The last remnants of the fortifications, though, were swept away in the '' Flurbereinigung'' undertaken between 1951 and 1956. Beginning in 1794, Laubach lay under French 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 ...

Population development

* 1939: 362 * 1970: 412 * 1982: 401 * 31 December 2006: 457 * 31 December 2007: 445

Politics

Municipal council

The council is made up of 8 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. Until the 2004 election, the council was made up of 12 council members.

Mayor

Laubach's mayor is Karl Heinz Bohn.

Coat of arms

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 be described thus: A fess wavy abased argent between sable a lion rampant with tail forked flory Or armed and langued gules and vert an oakleaf fesswise fructed of two of the third.

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

The following are listed buildings or sites in

’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:Directory of Cultural Monuments in Rhein-Hunsrück district
/ref> *

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

church, Kastellauner Straße 10 – Late Classicist

aisleless church An aisleless church () 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 from the nave by col ...

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

motifs, marked 1858 *

Saint Stephen Stephen (; ) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first martyr of Christianity."St ...

’s

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Church (''Kirche St. Stephan''), Koblenzer Straße 8 – three-naved,

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

hall church A hall church is a Church (building), church with a nave and aisles of approximately equal height. In England, Flanders and the Netherlands, it is covered by parallel roofs, typically, one for each vessel, whereas in Germany there is often one s ...

, 1868–1870 * Behind Kastellauner Straße 27 – bakehouse with well, quarrystone building, marked 1836; village well with pyramidal roof * At Koblenzer Straße 20 – dance hall; one-floor plastered building, 1920s

Economy and infrastructure

The village's appearance is characterized by two churches that tower over it, a lovely and functional community centre, a

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

, two

inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway. Before the advent of motorized transportation, they also provided accomm ...

s, a drink wholesaler, a

Trakehner Trakehner () is a light warmblood breed of horse, originally developed at the East Prussian state stud farm in the town of Trakehnen from which the breed takes its name. The was established in 1731 and operated until 1944, when the figh ...

stud farm A stud farm or stud in animal husbandry is an establishment for selective breeding of livestock. The word "stud (animal), stud" comes from the Old English ''stod'' meaning "herd of horses, place where horses are kept for breeding". Historically, ...

with a riding facility and several major

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

businesses.

References

External links

Laubach
in the SWR programme ''Hierzuland''
Municipality's official webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laubach, Rhein-Hunsruck Municipalities in Rhineland-Palatinate Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis