Meckenbach, Birkenfeld
| Meckenbach | ||
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 Meckenbach
Location of Meckenbach within Birkenfeld district
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| Coordinates: 49°37′2″N 7°5′51″E / 49.61722°N 7.09750°ECoordinates: 49°37′2″N 7°5′51″E / 49.61722°N 7.09750°E | ||
| Country | Germany | |
| State | Rhineland-Palatinate | |
| District | Birkenfeld | |
| Municipal assoc. | Birkenfeld | |
| Government | ||
| • Mayor | Werner Möhlecke | |
| Area | ||
| • Total | 3.78 km2 (1.46 sq mi) | |
| Elevation | 413 m (1,355 ft) | |
| Population (2015-12-31) | ||
| • Total | 113 | |
| • Density | 30/km2 (77/sq mi) | |
| Time zone | CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) | |
| Postal codes | 55767 | |
| Dialling codes | 06782 | |
| Vehicle registration | BIR | |
Meckenbach 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 Birkenfeld, whose seat is in the like-named town.
The municipality lies in the westernmost part of the Birkenfeld district on the like-named river Meckenbach in a hollow at the edge of the Schwarzwälder Hochwald (forest) in the Hunsrück. The municipal limit runs concurrently for more than 5 km with the boundary with the Saarland. The municipal area measures 378 ha, of which 220 ha is wooded, mainly with mixed forest, and it is also mostly privately owned.
In 1334, Meckenbach had its first documentary mention. On this occasion, a certain “Cuno in den Gassen zu Birkenfeld” (“Cuno in the laneways at Birkenfeld”) vowed that he would “improve” his holding at the estate in Meckenbach and in future try harder to maintain it in a better state. The very name Meckenbach, though, makes it clear that the place was settled a few centuries earlier, for it is typical of placenames from the time when the Franks took over the land between the 6th and 9th century. The land had already been settled in prehistoric times, of course. A dig by Prof. Dr. H. Baldes before the First World War at a barrow 500 m southwest of the village in the cadastral area known as “Auf dem Bühl in Sangbösch” yielded objects from early La Tène times (no later than 225 BC).
Meckenbach’s history is tightly bound with the Pflege (literally “care”, but actually a local geopolitical unit) and the parish of Achtelsbach, to which also belonged, among others, the villages of Brücken (the part on the Traun’s right bank only), Traunen, Eisen and Obersötern, and an estate between Meckenbach and Obersötern called Haupenthal.
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Wikipedia