A manuscript from the late 18th century – kept at the archive of the Museum of Wasserburg-Anholt of the Prince of Salm-Salm in Isselburg-Anholt in Westphalia – is the only record of this.

The original was a donation document whereby Wezilo granted Saint Christopher's Church at Ravengiersburg an estate in the village of Lindenschied and also three mansos in Runa und Crummenauwe in pago Nachgowe (“oxgangs[4] in Rhaunen and Krummenau in the County of the Nahegau”).

This particular donation, for instance, required the recipient to say a Mass each Friday for the donor's salvation and also to sing a Requiem for him when he died.

There is some question as to whether the manuscript writer, J. G. F. Schott, falsified the document just so that he could earn money by selling it, but whatever happened in the 18th century, it is highly likely that Krummenau is older than 900 years anyway.

A new settlement process began with farmsteads, clearings, village foundings and the division of the land into Gaue.

Furthermore, a 1508 Weistum likewise mentions the “grey cross” as part of a border description (a Weistum – cognate with English wisdom – was a legal pronouncement issued by men learned in law in the Middle Ages and early modern times).

Even as late as 1711, a map marked a cross on the old Roman road at that spot, even though protocols from as early as 1461 had noted that it had long ceased to be there.

On 29 September 1399, Johann and Friedrich, Waldgraves at Dhaun, enfeoffed Count Palatine Ruprecht (who the very next year became Rupert, King of Germany) with the court and people at Krummenau, for which they received a charter of protection for this and other villages.

Great havoc was wrought as French, Prussian and Austrian troops marched on through, taking their toll by demanding supplies and by encamping.

The French did not stay long in any one place, not even in the winter, preferring to move elsewhere in search of supplies once they had depleted those nearby.

Krummenau found itself in the Bürgermeisterei (“Mayoralty”) of Rhaunen in the Bernkastel district, which in turn was in the Regierungsbezirk of Trier.

In the last third of the 19th century, a few people from Krummenau moved to the industrial areas that had arisen by then, and the population began to shrink.

There were dirt paths leading to nearby villages such as Wahlenau, Niederweiler and Laufersweiler, but they were only passable by freight cart.

From one year to the next, Krummenau had to contribute ever greater amounts of grain and potatoes, as well as vegetables, straw, hay, oil-bearing crops, butter and eggs.

It did not help matters that so many men were called into the forces to fight for the Kaiser; the bulk of the work thus fell to women, children and the elderly.

The workload was eased somewhat by help from Russian and later also French and British prisoners of war, who were housed at the old schoolhouse, and guarded by a man from Horbruch.

That same year, the Kaiser was overthrown, the monarchy was abolished and the Great War came to an end with Germany's defeat.

A new republican constitution brought Germany democracy, and the first election for the National Assembly on 19 January 1919 drew great interest in Krummenau.

As Germany's looming defeat in the war became ever more obvious, enthusiasm for the Nazi régime sank ever deeper.

Widespread rental accommodation leased by the Americans stationed here also brought such modern conveniences as sanitary facilities, electric cooking appliances and so forth.

Given the dearth of public transport in Krummenau, cars were viewed as a necessity, and through the years, their numbers rose.

In the wake of the Second World War, the Allied occupiers established many military facilities in the Hunsrück, and Krummenau was affected by this process, too.

The French built a munitions depot covering 127 ha of the Idar Forest, ten to twelve hectares of which lay within Krummenau's limits (the rest was in neighbouring Weitersbach).

Military manoeuvres, which were common throughout rural areas in the Bonn Republic, were also undertaken in the woods near Krummenau, and in 1963, there was a nasty accident.

Some children from Krummenau who were playing in the woods found some ordnance in the forest that had been left behind by soldiers and lit some of the powder that they had gathered together from it.

The river also had to be channelled through a steel pipe (owing to a contingency that the planners had failed to foresee), and the old Bauernmühle (“Farmer’s Mill”) downstream from Krummenau had to be torn down to make way for the new road.

[5] It is far from certain whether there was ever a monastery at Krummenau, but according to oral tradition, there was one called Saint Lawrence’s here once, which stood until the Reformation was introduced in 1555.

[9] The German blazon reads: Schild durch einen blauen Balken geteilt, oben in Gold ein rotes Fabeltier mit einem Wolfskopf und weit geöffneten Schwingen belegt mit einem Wolfshaken.

The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: A fess azure between Or a monster with a wolf's head and eagle's body sans legs displayed gules, its breast charged with a cramp palewise sable, and argent a gridiron palewise of the fourth.

[10] The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:[11] Spanning the Idarbach is a slate arch bridge onto one of whose spandrels the old churchtower clock, with its figures in gold leaf, has been mounted.