Niederhambach - History

History

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.

In the 14th century, the Oberstein church owned a farm within Burbach’s limits. Böschweiler’s first documentary mention came in 1438.

The Salingshof was built by Lord Saling from Oberstein after he had earned money from building the Nahe Valley Railway and had bought land from what was then the self-administering municipality of Burbach. Lord Saling later sold this estate to Lord Scherer from Brücken who, having just come back from the United States, was used to a life of solitude. The family later gave this up and moved to Rimsberg.

Downstream from Burbach, on the Hambach’s left bank, once lay a village called Klaffweiler, which is believed to have been devoid of any inhabitants by 1438. Its land was divided between Burbach and Brombach. At the turn of the 20th century, a bark mill stood downstream from Heupweiler, while in Böschweiler, a thriving tannery supplied the local farmers with sole leather.

The current municipality of Niederhambach came into being on 1 October 1933 through the merger of Böschweiler and Heupweiler. This was a result of a bill passed by the Free State of Oldenburg for the purpose of simplifying administration.

Flurbereinigung began even before Oldenburg was merged with Prussia in 1937, but the new Prussian administration delayed the project, and then the outbreak of the Second World War brought the whole endeavour to an end, at least for a while. The project was finally completed in 1955. A steady rise in the number of workers moving into other sectors of the economy, however, has led to a shift in Niederhambach’s economy away from agriculture.

In 2000, a new building area was opened up in Böschweiler, and nine new houses have been built there.

Niederhambach participates in the project Unser Dorf hat Zukunft (“Our village has a future”), and has placed first in the main class.