Rammelsbach

Another outlying centre, the Schlichterhof, is an Aussiedlerhof, an agricultural settlement established after the Second World War to increase food production.

A great sporting ground can be found in the village's south, west of the road leading to Haschbach am Remigiusberg.

In Castle Lichtenberg's taxation rolls, a man named Hans von Rammelsbach was mentioned about 1450.

[7] In line with Zweibrücken Ducal ecclesiastical policy, the Reformation according to Martin Luther’s teaching was introduced into Rammelsbach about 1537.

Beginning in 1588, Count Palatine Johannes I forced all his subjects to convert to Reformed belief as espoused by John Calvin.

Newcomers settled, and repopulation was furthered by French King Louis XIV’s policies later on in the century.

At the time of Louis XIV’s politique des Réunions, the Catholic faith once more gained a foothold in the village.

Nevertheless, Hitler's overall success in these elections paved the way for his Enabling Act of 1933 (Ermächtigungsgesetz), thus starting the Third Reich in earnest.

In 2003, though, TDK closed the workshops and RME (Ritek Media Europe), a daughter company of a Taiwan-based business, moved into the premises.

In the course of the new settlement that came in the wake of the 17th century's frightful wars, however, the newcomers at first worked in the mines and the several still small stone quarries.

Later, when a great number of workers were employed at the village's only large-scale quarry, more and more people came to settle nearer their jobs.

Since then, however, the quarry's economic importance to the villagers has shrunk, and it no longer plays a great part in the local economy.

The developmental peak with more than 2,000 inhabitants in the mid 20th century is now bygone, and Rammelsbach's population is now shrinking, as it is in most villages in the area.

After both the churches were built in 1954, these communities became autonomous, first as an Evangelical vicariate and a Catholic curacy, and then as of 1964, as independent parishes.

The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:[15] Rammelsbach's mayor is Thomas Danneck.

[1] The municipality's arms might be described thus: Per fess argent issuant from the line of partition a bishop's staff sinister azure and a demilion of the same armed, langued and crowned gules, and azure issuant from base a crag sable between a pickaxe per pale and a sledge per pale, the handle embowed to dexter, both of the first.

The escutcheon's upper field symbolizes its former feudal allegiances to the Bishopric of Reims, represented by Saint Remigius’s staff on the dexter (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) side, and to the Counts of Veldenz and the Dukes of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, represented by the lion on the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side.

The Counts of Veldenz and the Dukes of Palatinate-Zweibrücken are represented by not only the lion, but also by the tinctures that prevail throughout the arms, argent and azure (silver and blue).

[16] The lower field shows a basalt crag as well as a stonemason’s tools, referring to the village’s stone quarrying tradition.

The arms have been borne since 1970 when they were approved by the now defunct Rheinhessen-Pfalz Regierungsbezirk administration in Neustadt an der Weinstraße.

On the other hand, other customs for children have sprung up: the Star boys’ singing, the Saint Martin's Day Parade and even Halloween.

Also worth mentioning is the German Red Cross’s local chapter, which had forerunners as long ago as the First World War and the 1930s, but was newly founded in 1948.

For a time there were 20 lime kilns and also brickworks, but after the Second World War, limestone quarrying was no longer worth the effort.

At the time when the road was built along the Kuselbach, the hard stone on the Rammelsbacher Kopf, or “Dimpel”, proved itself especially suitable for building roadbeds as far back as 1840.

Since April 2005, this plant has been working with only a small fraction of its original staff complement, and it now only ships CDs and DVDs that have been made elsewhere.

Christian Krieger from Aulenbach (a village erased in 1937 when the Nazis set up the Baumholder Troop Drilling Ground) is known to have been the first teacher in Rammelsbach.

Although the number of schoolchildren grew quickly in the time that followed, municipal council was at first not ready to build a new schoolhouse or expand the old one.

As early as 1933, at a time when Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were solidifying their hold on Germany, there were efforts to establish a Christian community school, against which the village's Catholics fought energetically.

Heavy loads borne by traffic in those days (wood and wine) were hindered by the ever-damaged Rammelsbach Bridge over the Kuselbach.

Owing to the shipping of stone from the quarries, Rammelsbach could count itself during the 19th century as ranking sixth among the busiest stations in the whole Palatinate in terms of freight turnover.

The Rammelsbach quarry (1998)
Coat of arms
Coat of arms