The municipality lies in the southern Hunsrück on the river Nahe, near Idar-Oberstein and on the Deutsche Edelsteinstraße (“German Gem Road”). The Fischbach, coming from the Idar Forest, flows through the village.
The council is made up of 16 council members, who were elected by proportional representation at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.
The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:[3]
The municipality’s arms might be described thus: Per fess chequy gules and argent and argent a hammer and pick per saltire sable.
The “chequy” part of the escutcheon refers to the old Counts of Sponheim who held sway here centuries ago, while the hammer and pickcharge below recalls the copper mining that was the village’s livelihood for hundreds of years, shaping the people and the culture.[5]
Culture and sightseeing
Buildings
The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:[6]
Evangelical parish church, Hauptstraße 93 – Gothic Revival red sandstone building, west tower, 1853-1855, architect Meyer, Birkenfeld; décor; in the vestibule a tomb slab, after 1720
Hauptstraße 47 – so-called Fillmannsmühle (“Fillmann’s Mill”); three-floor quarrystone building with brick, 1924; technical equipment; waterwheel 1910
Lindenplatz 1 – former miner’s house, house with stable on ground floor, timber-frame storey on quarrystone basement, possibly from the 16th or 17th century
There is a former copper mine, open as a tourist attraction with underground visits and crushing stamps powered by a water wheel.
Elvira Eisenschneider (b. 22 April 1924, d. 6 April 1944 at Sachsenhausen concentration camp) – Paul’s daughter and fellow activist. Both were murdered by the Nazis.
