Bosenbach
Bosenbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kusel-Altenglan, whose seat is in Kusel.
Geography
Location
The municipality lies in the Kusel Musikantenland in the Western Palatinate. Bosenbach lies at an elevation of some 250 m above sea level in the valley of its namesake brook, the Bosenbach, which rises near Jettenbach and flows into Bosenbach from the southeast after being joined by the Klingelbach. The Bosenbach is further fed in the village core by the Walschbach from the south and the Lanzenbach from the north, and then flows farther westwards, being further strengthened by the Schambach coming from the north before emptying into the Reichenbach, itself a tributary to the river Glan. The elevations up the sides of the dales in the north reach heights of more than 400 m above sea level on the slopes of the Herrmannsberg, in the northeast in the foothills of the Bornberg more than 500 m above sea level, and in the south more than 300 m above sea level. Interesting rural cadastral toponyms in Bosenbach include “Selgut”, which could be interpreted as meaning “Soul Estate” – it might well once have been an endowment to the church in the hopes of securing Salvation – and “Kastellwiese”, supposedly a reference to a Roman castrum here, although this is rather doubtful. The municipal area measures 816 ha, of which 563 ha is given over to agricultural use and 132 ha is wooded. The rest is meadow and fields.Neighbouring municipalities
Bosenbach borders in the north on the municipality of Elzweiler, in the northeast on the municipality of Eßweiler, in the east on the municipality of Jettenbach, in the southeast on the municipality of Reichenbach-Steegen, in the south on the municipality of Niederstaufenbach, in the southwest on the municipality of Föckelberg and in the west on the municipality of Altenglan. Bosenbach also meets the municipality of Welchweiler at a single point in the north.Constituent communities
Bosenbach has an outlying Ortsteil called Friedelhausen, which was amalgamated with the municipality on 1 January 1971 in the course of administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate. Also belonging to Bosenbach is the outlying homestead of Kelterhof, an Aussiedlerhof built about 1970, but which is now no longer worked as a farm.Municipality’s layout
Before the Thirty Years' War, Bosenbach actually had two centres. The smaller one in the west was known as Oberbosenbach or das Oberdorf. Both centres had grown together by the late 19th century since the building of the road now known as Landesstraße 370 about 1844. As early as the 15th century, a small church stood in the middle of the village, as opposed to the Feldkirche outside the village. This village church was built in its current form in 1802. The originally loosely built clump village has since spread into the side dales. The way in which the built-up area has developed still clearly shows its original character as a farming village. Also living in Bosenbach then, however, were craftsmen, stonemasons and musicians. In the 18th century, the Lanzenbach drove a small mill, which owing to longstanding disputes with the miller was bought out by the villagers. About 1850, some farmers built a coöperative mill, which was run until the early 20th century. This stood at about at the same elevation as the old mill, but on the other side of the brook. The graveyard lies to the east, far outside the village on the road going towards Friedelhausen and Altenglan. Well known is the tower of the former Wolfskirche on the graveyard lands with its paintings from the Middle Ages. The sporting ground lies in the east, outside the village on the road leading to Jettenbach.History
Antiquity
When the old Wolfskirche was torn down, it was suggested to the pastor that he turn all Roman artifacts, which were still being kept there, over to Speyer. In 1825, a hundred Roman copper coins were found near Bosenbach. These came from an urnfield. A grave hollow with five urns was hewn into a cliffside near the village. Today in the Wolfskirche tower's stonework, building blocks from Roman times can still be found, some with inscriptions. a fragment of a Roman “god stone” is incorporated into the entrance portal to the graveyard. A sculpture from Roman times, a lion tearing at an animal that it has caught and a relief can be found in the church's sanctuary. Northeast of Bosenbach ran an old Roman road leading from Landstuhl to Trier.Middle Ages
In 945, Bosenbach had its first documentary mention when Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, granted his faithful follower Franko a few landholds. To better describe where these landholds lay, both Reichenbach and Bosenbach were named. Either Franko or his heirs yielded these lands shortly after 945 to Saint Maximin's Abbey in Trier. Until about 1100, Bosenbach was listed time and again as being among the monastery's holdings. Territorially, Bosenbach belonged to the Imperial Domain around Kaiserslautern and about 1130, it came to be held as a Palatine fief by the Counts of Veldenz. About 1282, the Amt of Bosenbach was held in common ownership by the Counts of Veldenz and the Waldgraves. Later, in the 14th and 15th centuries, the common ownership had ended and it was owned by the Waldgraves and Rhinegraves. In 1595, through territorial trade, the Amt found its way back into the Duchy of Palatine Zweibrücken. From the years 1514, 1537 and 1578 come three Weistümer dealing with Bosenbach.Modern times
Ecclesiastical law at the time of the Reformation was made jointly by the Counts Palatine of Zweibrücken and the Counts Palatine of Palatinate-Veldenz. Only towards the end of the 16th century did the Duke of Palatinate-Zweibrücken alone exercise this function, using it to force the subjects to convert to the Reformed faith. In 1595, the Amt of Bosenbach also became territorially part of the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, Oberamt of Lichtenberg. During the Thirty Years' War, the Schultheißerei of Bosenbach was abolished and combined with the court region of Eßweiler Tal. In Bosenbach itself, after the war, lived only one fifth as many people as before the war. Only about 1700 did the Schultheißerei once again become separate.Recent times
After the new order introduced during French Revolutionary and Napoleonic times, Bosenbach became the seat of a mairie. In Bavarian times, too, the village was the mayoral seat for several villages. At the same time, a taxation authority was located in Bosenbach. Both offices would exercise their functions until administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate and the formation of Verbandsgemeinden in 1972. As early as 1816, several Bürgermeistereien acquired a communal hand-pumped fire engine, which until 1870 was kept at a fire station in Bosenbach, whose location was central to the municipalities involved. Bosenbach was also the location of the forester's office for the forest region of Bosenbach. In the 1933 Reichstag elections, the people of Bosenbach voted 86.3% for Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party. On 1 January 1971, Friedelhausen was amalgamated with Bosenbach.Population development
Bosenbach was inhabited not only by farmers, but also by the craftsmen who would normally be found in such a village. Quite early on, though, there were also workers who worked in the stone quarries, coalmines and chalk mines. Today, agriculture plays only a subordinate role. The village is today home to people of the most varied of occupations, who must commute to work. With respect to religion, the overwhelming majority belong to the Evangelical denomination of Christianity. Population figures rose steadily from about 500 in the early 19th century to roughly 900 in the late 20th century, then growth stagnated and recently there has been a slight drop.The following table shows population development over the centuries for Bosenbach, with some figures broken down by religious denomination:
Municipality’s name
The placename ending —bach is combined in the village's name with the element Baso, which goes back to an early Frankish personal name. The village has borne the following names over the ages: Basinbahc ; Basinbach ; Basenbecher ampt ; Basenbach ; Boßenbach ; Bosenbach.Religion
In earliest times, Bosenbach belonged to the parish of Deinsberg. In 1323, a chaplaincy for the later ecclesiastical region of Bosenbach was built and given its own chaplain. The Feldkirche outside the village, which had already been standing before the turn of the second millennium, was granted burying rights by 1323. Buried here were the dead from the villages of Bosenbach, Friedelhausen and Niederstaufenbach.The Bosenbach chaplaincy also remained in existence in the time of the Reformation. During the Reformation, the Lutheran faith was introduced into the parish of Bosenbach. This changed with the change in religion made by Duke Johannes I of Zweibrücken in 1588, in which he made Reformed teaching the duchy's religion. In 1566, the parish of Bosenbach was founded. The at first Lutheran parish comprised the villages of Bosenbach, Friedelhausen and Niederstaufenbach. At times, the villages of Neunkirchen am Potzberg, Oberstaufenbach and Föckelberg, which belonged to the ecclesiastical region of Neunkirchen, were also tended by Bosenbach. In 1601, Eßweiler, which had belonged to the parish of Hirsau, was merged into the parish of Bosenbach. The Reformed parish of Bosenbach remained in existence on into the Thirty Years' War, and the pastor also had to tend the villages in the Eßweiler Tal. In 1637, the parochial seat was shifted from Bosenbach to Hinzweiler. Owing to the great loss of population, the pastor's post was not filled again until 1671. Once it was, the pastor also had to tend the villages in the parish of Altenglan. Only in 1746 did that parish once again become fully autonomous, and Bosenbach acquired Eßweiler once again as a parochial branch. The parish now comprised the three villages of Bosenbach, Eßweiler and Niederstaufenbach. This arrangement remained in place until the beginning of 1971 when the parish was dissolved. Today, Bosenbach and Niederstaufenbach belong to the parish of Rothselberg.
In 1709, ecclesiastical regions were established for the Lutherans in the Oberamt of Lichtenberg, with one with Bosenbach as its hub to which the Reformed followers made their church available. The Lutherans did not get their own minister, though. It was 1744 before the two ecclesiastical regions of Bosenbach/Ulmet and Eßweiler Tal were transferred to a pastor. In 1818, these parishes were dissolved with the merger of Lutheranism and Calvinism.
In the summer of 1893, a few families in Bosenbach approached the Inner Mission. This tendency, however, had already run its course within a year. Only a deep religiosity remained in a few families in the village.
In the 18th century, Bosenbach's Catholics belonged to the Catholic parish of Kusel, passing about 1800 to the Catholic parish of Reichenbach. In Bosenbach the church could be shared with members of other denominations. Even today, Reichenbach is the parish seat for the few Catholics in Bosenbach.
The first Jew in Bosenbach was named as early as 1704. Towards the end of the 18th century there were at least three Jewish families living in the village. In the 19th century, there were five from time to time. By the beginning of the 20th century, though, no more Jews were living in Bosenbach.