Idar-Oberstein () is a town in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. As a Große kreisangehörige Stadt (large city belonging to a district), it assumes some of the responsibilities that for smaller municipalities in the district are assumed by the district administration. Today's town of Idar-Oberstein is the product of two rounds of administrative reform, one in 1933 and the other in 1969, which saw many municipalities amalgamated into one. The various Stadtteile have, however, retained their original identities, which, aside from the somewhat more urban character encountered in Idar and Oberstein, tend to hark back to each centre's history as a rural village. Idar-Oberstein is known as a gemstone town, and also as a garrison town. It is also the largest town in the Hunsrück.
Geography The town lies on the southern edge of the Hunsrück on both sides of the river Nahe.
Constituent communities The following are the divisions within the town of Idar-Oberstein as of 31 December 2015:
Centres merged in 1933 administrative reform Oberstein (7,834 inhabitants) Idar (7,897 inhabitants) Tiefenstein (2,489 inhabitants) Algenrodt (1,846 inhabitants) Total population: 20,066
Centres merged in 1969 administrative reform Göttschied (2,928 inhabitants) Weierbach (2,536 inhabitants; area 751.6 ha) Nahbollenbach (1,899 inhabitants; area 821.7 ha) Mittelbollenbach (1,060 inhabitants; area 360.9 ha) Kirchenbollenbach (787 inhabitants; area 227.5 ha) Regulshausen (874 inhabitants) Enzweiler (686 inhabitants) Georg-Weierbach (661 inhabitants) Hammerstein (504 inhabitants; area 217.5 ha) Total population: 11,935
Climate Yearly precipitation in Idar-Oberstein amounts to 774 mm, falling into the middle third of the precipitation chart for all Germany. At 57% of the German Weather Service's weather stations, lower figures are recorded. The driest month is April. The most rainfall comes in December. In that month, precipitation is 1.6 times what it is in April. Precipitation hardly varies at all and is evenly spread throughout the year. At only 13% of the weather stations are lower seasonal swings recorded.
History
The territorial history of Idar-Oberstein's individual centres is marked by a considerable splintering of lordly domains in the local area. Only in Napoleonic times, beginning in 1794, with its reorganization and merging of various territorial units, was some order brought to the traditional mishmash of local lordships. However, shortly thereafter, the Congress of Vienna brought the future town division once again, as the river Nahe became a border, and the centres on its north bank were thereby grouped into the Principality of Birkenfeld, an exclave of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, most of whose territory was in what is now northwest Germany, with a coastline on the North Sea.
The towns of Idar and Oberstein belonged to the Barons of Daun-Oberstein (who later became the Counts of Falkenstein) until 1670. In 1865, both Idar and Oberstein were granted town rights, and finally in 1933, they were forcibly united (along with the municipalities of Algenrodt and Tiefenstein) by the Nazis to form the modern town of Idar-Oberstein.
History up to French reorganization beginning in 1794 The constituent community of Oberstein grew out of the Imperially immediate Lordship of Oberstein. The Herren vom Stein (“Lords of the Stone”) had their first documentary mention in 1075. Their seat was at Castle Bosselstein, now known as the Altes Schloss (“Old Palatial Castle”), above the cliff where the Felsenkirche (“Rock Church”) - itself mentioned as early as the 12th century - would later be built. The core of the area over which the lordship held sway was framed by the rivers Nahe, Idarbach, Göttenbach and Ringelbach. After 1323, the Lords of the Stone styled themselves “von Daun-Oberstein”, and managed to considerably expand their domain even into lands south of the Nahe and into the Idarbann. As the lordly seat with its castle and fortifications – remnants of the old town wall built about 1410 can still be seen – Oberstein developed the characteristics of a town, however without ever earning the legal status of a market town (Flecken). In 1682, the Counts of Leiningen-Heidesheim, and in 1766 the Counts of Limburg-Styrum, became the owners of the Lordship of Oberstein, which largely shrank back to the above-mentioned lordly core after the Idarbann was ceded to the “Hinder” County of Sponheim in 1771. In 1776, the Margraves of Baden became the owners of the Lordship after the “Hinder” County of Sponheim was partitioned.
It is known from archaeological finds that human settlement in what is now Idar goes back to the very earliest times. The constituent community of Idar on the Nahe's right bank belonged, as did the villages of Enzweiler, Algenrodt, Mackenrodt, Hettenrodt, Hettstein, Obertiefenbach and Kirschweiler, to the Idarbann. This area belonged mostly to the Lords of Oberstein, and it therefore shares a history with Oberstein; however, in some centres, notably Tiefenbach and Kirschweiler, some estates and rights were held by other lords, such as the Waldgraves and Rhinegraves and Tholey Abbey.
The constituent community of Tiefenstein arose from the merger of the villages of Tiefenbach and Hettstein in 1909. This Idarbann community's territorial history is the same as Idar's and Oberstein's. Tiefenbach was mentioned as an estate in a 1283 document; a further documentary mention from 1051 cannot be related to the village with any certainty. Hettstein was mentioned as Henzestein or Hezerten in 1321 and had among its inhabitants Waldgravial subjects.
The village of Algenrodt had its first certain documentary mention as Alekenrod in a 1321 Oberstein enfeoffment document. In 1324, the Lords of Oberstein pledged it to the Waldgraves and Rhinegraves of Kyrburg. But for this, Algenrodt shares a history with the other Idarbann communities.
Enzweiler boasts traces of human habitation going back to Roman times. In 1276, Tholey Abbey owned a mill near Enzweiler. The village itself might have arisen in the 14th century, and it was always part of the Idarbann.
The village of Georg-Weierbach north of the Nahe, built in a way resembling terraces on land that falls steeply towards the river, likely goes back to the foundation of a church by Archbishop of Mainz Hatto II in the 10th century. In the 11th century, the village was mentioned in connection with the Lords of Wirebach (that is, Weierbach). In 1327, the village, which was for a short time held by the Lords of Randeck, was largely sold off to the Waldgraves and Rhinegraves and grouped into the Amt of Kyrburg. The form “Georg-Weierbach” stems from the church's patron saint.
Göttschied, which had its first documentary mention in 1271, belonged together with Regulshausen, Gerach and Hintertiefenbach to Mettlach Abbey. These four villages were therefore known as the Abteidörfer (“abbey villages”), and in 1561, they were sold to the “Hinder” County of Sponheim.
Hamerzwiller (nowadays called Hammerstein) was mentioned in 1438 in a taxation book kept by the County of Sponheim, and had been held by the “Hinder” County of Sponheim as early as 1269, when that county enfeoffed the Counts of Schwarzenberg with it.
Regarded as the origin of the village of Kirchenbollenbach is the foundation of a church by Archbishop of Mainz Willigis sometime after 975. The earliest documentary evidence of the village goes back to 1128 when it was called Bolinbach. It is first known to have been a fief held by the Lords of Schwarzenberg from the Counts of Zweibrücken, whereafter it passed in 1595 to the Waldgraves and Rhinegraves of Kirn. One local peculiarity here was that a Catholic sideline of the otherwise mainly Protestant Rhinegraves ended up holding sway in Kirchenbollenbach, and under Prince Johann Dominik of Salm-Kyrburg, this line not only founded a new Catholic parish but also introduced a simultaneum at the local church.
The foundation stone of today's village of Mittelbollenbach is said to be the estate of Bollenbach, which was mentioned in 1283 as a holding of the Lords of Oberstein in the area of the Winterhauch woodland. In 1432, the Dukes of Lorraine were enfeoffed with Nahbollenbach and Mittelbollenbach, which in the wake of the death of the last Lord of Oberstein led to bitter arguments over the complicated inheritance arrangements. Only in 1778 did Lorraine finally relinquish its claims in Electoral Trier's favour.
Until 1667, Nahbollenbach and Mittelbollenbach shared the same history. Then, Nahbollenbach was acknowledged by Lorraine as an allodial holding of Oberstein, although beginning in 1682 it was an Electoral-Trier fief held by Oberstein.
The “abbey village” of Regulshausen belonged to Mettlach Abbey, who sold it in 1561 to the “Hinder” County of Sponheim. The oldest documentary mention comes from 1491.
The village of Weierbach – not to be confused with Georg-Weierbach mentioned above – had its first documentary mention in 1232 as Weygherbach, and belonged to the Amt of Naumburg in the “Further” County of Sponheim, which itself was later held by the Margraves of Baden, which gave the village its onetime alternative name, Baden-Weierbach. The oft-used other alternative name, Martin-Weierbach, stems from the church's patron saint.
French, Oldenburg and Prussian times After the French dissolved all the old lordships, they introduced a sweeping reorganization of territorial (and social) structure beginning in 1794. The whole area belonged to the arrondissement of Birkenfeld in the Department of Sarre. Until 1814, this was French territory. The introduction of the Code civil des Français, justice reform and, foremost, the abolition of the noble and clerical classes with the attendant end to compulsory labour and other duties formerly owed the now powerless lords quickly made French rule popular. However, there was quite a heavy tax burden imposed by the new rulers, and there was also continuing conscription of men into the French army. Both of these things weighed heavily on France's Rhineland citizens.
After Napoleonic rule ended, the area was restructured. On the grounds of Article 25Acte du Congrès de Vienne du 9 juin 1815, Art. 25: Possessions prussiennes sur la rive gauche du Rhin of the concluding acts of the Congress of Vienna, the northern part of the Department of Sarre was at first given to the Kingdom of Prussia in June 1815.
Since Prussia was obliged under the terms of the 1815 Treaty of Paris to cede an area out of this parcel containing 69,000 inhabitants to other powers – 20,000 souls each to Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and the Duke of Oldenburg, along with smaller cessions to smaller princes – and since this had also been reconfirmed in Article 49Acte du Congrès de Vienne du 9 juin 1815, Art. 49: Territoires réservés pour les maisons d’Oldenbourg, de Saxe-Cobourg, de Mecklenbourg-Strelitz, et le comte de Pappenheim of the concluding acts of the Congress of Vienna, the region underwent further territorial division.