Allenfeld is an ''

Ortsgemeinde Ortsgemeinde may refer to: * Ortsgemeinde (Austria), a type of municipality in Austria * Ortsgemeinde (Germany) A (; plural ) is a low-level administrative division, administrative unit in the Germany, German States of Germany, federal states ...

'' – a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

belonging to a ''

Verbandsgemeinde A (; plural ) is a low-level administrative division, administrative unit in the Germany, German States of Germany, federal states of Brandenburg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A is typically composed of a small group of Municipalitie ...

'', a kind of collective municipality – in the

Bad Kreuznach Bad Kreuznach () is a town in the Bad Kreuznach (district), Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a spa town, known for its medieval bridge dating from around 1300, the Alte Nahebrücke (Bad Kreuznach), Alte Nahebrücke, ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Rüdesheim, whose seat is in the municipality of

Rüdesheim an der Nahe Rüdesheim an der Nahe, or simply Rüdesheim, is an '' Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ' ...

Geography

Location

Allenfeld lies in the southern

Hunsrück The Hunsrück () is a long, triangular, pronounced mountain range, upland in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the valleys of the Moselle (river), Moselle-Saar (north-to-west), the Nahe (south), and the Rhine (east). It is continued ...

, between the

Soonwald The Soonwald () is a forested, low mountain region, up to , which forms part of the Hunsrück mountains in the German Central Uplands. It lies within the counties of Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis and Landkreis Bad Kreuznach, Bad Kreuznach in the state of ...

and the Gauchswald. Its elevation is 375 m above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

and its municipal area measures 2.98 km².

History

The village’s name first cropped up in 1438 as ''Aldenfeld'' in the

Sponheim Sponheim is a municipality in the district of Bad Kreuznach in Rhineland-Palatinate in western Germany. History Sponheim was the capital of the County of Sponheim. Sponheim Abbey There was a Benedictine abbey which was founded in 1101 by Steph ...

taxation book. Beginning no later than the 12th century, Allenfeld belonged to the County of Sponheim and in the 13th century was grouped into the newly formed administrative entity called the ''

Amt Amt is a type of administrative division governing a group of municipalities, today only in Germany, but formerly also common in other countries of Northern Europe. Its size and functions differ by country and the term is roughly equivalent to ...

'' of Winterburg, which as of 1416 belonged to the so-called “Hinder” County of Sponheim-Starkenburg.

Population development

The table shows Allenfeld’s population development. The figures in the table from 1871 to 1987 are based on

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

es:Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz – Regionaldaten
/ref>

Religion

As at 31 August 2013, there are 195 full-time residents in Allenfeld, and of those, 106 are

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

(54.359%), 35 are

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

(17.949%) and 54 (27.692%) either have no religion or will not reveal their religious affiliation.

Politics

Municipal council

The council is made up of 6 council members, who were elected by

majority vote A majority is more than half of a total; however, the term is commonly used with other meanings, as explained in the "#Related terms, Related terms" section below. It is a subset of a Set (mathematics), set consisting of more than half of the se ...

at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.

Mayor

Allenfeld’s mayor is Florian Keller.

Coat of arms

The municipality’s

arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

might be described thus: Per fess gules a plough Or and chequy of twelve gules and argent.

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

The following are listed buildings or sites in

’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:Directory of Cultural Monuments in Bad Kreuznach district
/ref> * Brunnenstraße 18 –

timber-frame Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs. If the struc ...

building with half-hipped roof, partly slated, marked 1833 * On ''

Kreisstraße A Kreisstraße (, or 'county road') is a class of road in Germany. It carries traffic between the towns and villages within a ''Districts of Germany, Kreis'' or district or between two neighbouring districts. In importance, the ''Kreisstraße'' ...

'' 28 – signpost,

Classicist Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

obelisk An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used th ...

, about 1820 * On ''

Landesstraße ''Landesstraßen'' (singular: ''Landesstraße'' ) are roads in Germany and Austria that are, as a rule, the responsibility of the respective German or Austrian federal state. The term may therefore be translated as "state road". They are road ...

'' 238 – signpost, Classicist sandstone obelisk, about 1820 * On ''Landesstraße'' 238 – signpost, Classicist sandstone obelisk, about 1820

Sport and leisure

A particular highlight in Allenfeld is the cycle path that follows the old right-of-way once used by the former ''Kreuznacher Kleinbahnen'', a

narrow gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

network that closed in 1936. The path snakes its way along one side of the Gräfenbach, coming back along the other side of the Ellerbach valley. The path reaches its highest point in Allenfeld at some 370 m above

. Also found here is the old Allenfeld winepress, which was once used to press the fruit from the meadow orchards, which was then made into

must Must is freshly crushed Juice, fruit juice (usually grape juice) that contains the skins, seeds, and stems of the fruit. The solid portion of the must is called pomace and typically makes up 7–23% of the total weight of the must. Making must ...

References

External links

Allenfeld in the collective municipality’s webpages

Brief portrait of Allenfeld with film
at

SWR Fernsehen SWR Fernsehen is a German regional television channel targeting the states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. It is produced by Südwestrundfunk (SWR) and is one of eight regional "third channels" broadcast by the ARD members. His ...

Literature about Allenfeld in the ''Rheinland-Pfälzische Landesbibliographie''
{{Authority control Bad Kreuznach (district) Districts of the Rhine Province