Steinbach Am Glan - Religion

Religion

Steinbach belonged from the Early Middle Ages to the Glan-Münchweiler church, which was consecrated by Saint Pirmin and ministered to all churches in the Münchweiler valley. In the time of the Reformation, Steinbach, along with all the dwellers of the Münchweiler valley, had to adopt on the lord’s orders Lutheran beliefs, leaning as the Leyens did mainly towards Palatinate-Zweibrücken’s views when it came to religion, at least at first. In 1588, though, when Palatinate-Zweibrücken, then headed by Duke Johannes I, commanded all its subjects to convert to Calvinism, the Counts of Leyen resisted this order within their lordly domain. The valley’s Christians kept their Lutheran faith, but were subject to an ecclesiastical administration that was directed from Zweibrücken. After the Thirty Years' War, the law conferred religious freedom, and indeed, among the newcomers to Steinbach, particularly at the time of King Louis XIV’s War of the Reunions, were a great many Catholics. At the turn of the 19th century, one third of the Christian population was Catholic, a share that is still similar today. Today’s Protestant villagers belong to the Quirnbach church within the Evangelical deaconry of Kusel, while the Catholics belong to the Glan-Münchweiler church within the Catholic deaconry of Kusel. The same is true for Frutzweiler.

As a village within the Remigiusland, Frutzweiler belonged from the Early Middle Ages to the Kusel church, but later to the Quirnbach church. In the time of the Reformation, people here had to convert to Lutheranism as well, but unlike people in Steinbach, they obeyed the order from Duke Johannes to convert to Calvinism. Only after the Thirty Years' War did the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken have to tolerate other faiths. The Swedish kings promoted Lutheranism while the French tried to restore Catholicism to the land. By the turn of the 19th century, almost half Frutzweiler’s population was Catholic. By the 20th century, the figures had once again swung the Protestants’ way, and they are to this day about two thirds of the population.

After Count Casper von der Leyen allowed Jakob Levi, a Jew, to settle in Steinbach in 1728, a considerable Jewish community grew bit by bit in the village, which laid out its own graveyard and built a synagogue, not only for themselves but for worshippers from the surrounding area, too. It is not known in exactly what year the synagogue was built. In 1825, Jews made up 29% of Steinbach’s population; in Frutzweiler it was 6%. Before 1933, there were no tensions between Jews and Christians, but then came Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. On Kristallnacht (9–10 November 1938), SA thugs came to the village, destroyed the synagogue in Steinbach, ravaged several Jewish houses and devastated the Jewish graveyard.