Rinzenberg

Rinzenberg
Coat of arms
Rinzenberg
Location of Rinzenberg within Birkenfeld district
Coordinates: 49°40′38″N 7°7′56″E / 49.67722°N 7.13222°E / 49.67722; 7.13222Coordinates: 49°40′38″N 7°7′56″E / 49.67722°N 7.13222°E / 49.67722; 7.13222
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Birkenfeld
Municipal assoc.	Birkenfeld
Government
• Mayor	Sven Becker
Area
• Total	11.33 km2 (4.37 sq mi)
Elevation	535 m (1,755 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	308
• Density	27/km2 (70/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	55767
Dialling codes	06782
Vehicle registration	BIR
Website	www.rinzenberg.de

Rinzenberg 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 at the southern edge of the Schwarzwälder Hochwald, a self-contained forest within the Hunsrück. The municipal area measures 1 133 ha, of which somewhat more than half is state forest, and indeed 76.5% of it is wooded. The area makes Rinzenberg the district’s seventh biggest municipality by land area. Only the three towns (Birkenfeld, Idar-Oberstein and Baumholder) and the municipalities of Allenbach, Hoppstädten-Weiersbach and Brücken have larger municipal areas. Rinzenberg’s elevation is roughly 532 m above sea level, and above the village looms the 668 m-high “Wehlenstein”.

Rinzenberg borders in the northeast on the municipality of Oberhambach, in the east on the municipality of Gollenberg and in the south on the municipalities of Ellenberg and Buhlenberg.

In 1269, Rinzenberg probably had its first documentary mention as Ritzeberg, and thereafter belonged to those villages that were bought back by the Counts of Sponheim after they had enfeoffed Wilhelm von Schwarzenberg with them.