Niederhambach

Niederhambach
Coat of arms
Niederhambach
Location of Niederhambach within Birkenfeld district
Coordinates: 49°41′4″N 7°12′31″E / 49.68444°N 7.20861°E / 49.68444; 7.20861Coordinates: 49°41′4″N 7°12′31″E / 49.68444°N 7.20861°E / 49.68444; 7.20861
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Birkenfeld
Municipal assoc.	Birkenfeld
Government
• Mayor	Peter Schwarzbach
Area
• Total	9.77 km2 (3.77 sq mi)
Elevation	348 m (1,142 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	326
• Density	33/km2 (86/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	55767
Dialling codes	06787
Vehicle registration	BIR
Website	www.niederhambach.de

Niederhambach 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 on the Hambach in the Hunsrück, roughly 6 km northeast of Birkenfeld.

Niederhambach’s Ortsteile are Böschweiler, Burbach and Heupweiler. The municipality also includes an outlying centre known as the Burbacher Siedlung. This is three farms established in 1936.

In the Heupweiler cadastral areas known as “Geiershübel” and “Heiligenhübel”, archaeological finds from pre-Roman times have been made. In another area, the “Beel”, two sandstone lions from a Roman tomb were unearthed. They can now be found at the Birkenfeld Museum. On the path over the Böschweiler Höhe (heights) on the way to Wilzenberg, bronze rings from about 1000-500 BC were found in two barrows.

Standing in Böschweiler was a complex known as the Widdemhof, which belonged to the Brombach priest. It was made up of two buildings. Before the Reformation, the estate had to make payments to the priest. The local lore has it that the Widdemhof was once a monastery. Whether this is true or not, the Widdem, as it is called, is under church ownership to this day.

In 1338, Burbach had its first documentary mention. Count Johann III of Sponheim enfeoffed Prince-Archbishop-Elector Baldwin of Trier with his holdings at Burbach, whereupon he accepted from Baldwin the whole village as a fief. Johann III was the audacious Countess Lauretta’s son.