Schneppenbach is an '' Ortsgemeinde'' – 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''

Kirner Land Kirner Land is a ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") in the district of Bad Kreuznach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Balt ...

, whose seat is in the town of

Kirn Kirn () is a town in the Bad Kreuznach (district), Bad Kreuznach Districts of Germany, district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Kirner Land. Kirn is a Central place theory, middle centre serving an area ...

Geography

Location

Schneppenbach 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 ...

on the western edge of the

Lützelsoon The Lützelsoon (also called the Kleiner Soon) is a part of the Hunsrück hills, , in the county of Bad Kreuznach, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Location The Lützelsoon is a hill ridge southwest of the Soonwald range and north of ...

ridge and east of (above) the Hahnenbach valley. The nearest major towns are

Idar-Oberstein Idar-Oberstein () is a town in the Birkenfeld (district), Birkenfeld Districts of Germany, district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. As a ''Große kreisangehörige Stadt'' (large city belonging to a district), it assumes some of the respons ...

(17 km to the south-southwest) and Simmern (17 km to the north-northeast). Schneppenbach sits at an elevation of 424 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 ...

Neighbouring municipalities

Clockwise from the north, Schneppenbach's neighbours are the municipalities of Woppenroth, which lies in the neighbouring

Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis is a district () in the middle of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The neighbouring districts are (from north clockwise) Mayen-Koblenz, Rhein-Lahn, Mainz-Bingen, Bad Kreuznach, Birkenfeld, Bernkastel-Wittlich, Cochem-Zell. His ...

Bruschied Bruschied is an ''Ortsgemeinde (Germany), Ortsgemeinde'' – a Municipalities of Germany, municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach (district), Bad Kreuznach Districts of Germany, d ...

, which lies in the Bad Kreuznach district, and Bundenbach, which lies in the neighbouring

Birkenfeld Birkenfeld () is a town and the district seat of the Birkenfeld (district), Birkenfeld Districts of Germany, district in southwest Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is also the seat of the Birkenfeld (Verbandsgemeinde), like-named ''Verbandsge ...

district.

History

From the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages (historiography), Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start o ...

, Schneppenbach belonged to a major landhold of Saint Maximin's Imperial Abbey at

Trier Trier ( , ; ), formerly and traditionally known in English as Trèves ( , ) and Triers (see also Names of Trier in different languages, names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle (river), Moselle in Germany. It lies in a v ...

. The 2,742-hectare landhold comprised, besides the centres of Blickersau and Kaffeld, which later vanished, the villages of Woppenroth, Bundenbach, Schneppenbach,

and the main centre and parish seat of Hausen bei Rhaunen. Until the 18th century, Schneppenbach was administratively tightly bound with the

Schmidtburg The Schmidtburg is a ruined hill castle next to Schneppenbach (Hunsrück) in Germany. The castle was built up in 926, and was destroyed during the War of the Grand Alliance (1688–1697) by French troops in 1688. File:Schmidtburg Castle Panora ...

(

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

), which nowadays stands within the village's municipal limits. The castle, whose beginnings go back at least as far as 929, and possibly as far as 926, is one of the oldest in the Nahe-

region and is believed to have been the family seat of the Counts in the

Nahegau The Nahegau was a county in the Middle Ages, which covered the environs of the Nahe and large parts of present-day Rhenish Hesse, after a successful expansion of the narrow territory, which did not reach the Rhine, to the disadvantage of the Wo ...

, the

Emichones The Emichones () were an early medieval family in the southwestern German region. Its members were counts (''Gaugrafen'') in the Nahegau, perhaps as undercounts of the Salian dynasty. The conventional name Emichones is due to the prevailing first ...

. Their coheirs and rightful successors, the

Waldgrave The first Waldgraves or Wildgraves (Latin: ''comites silvestres'') descended from a division of the House of the Counts of Nahegau in the year 1113. When the (a countship named after the river Nahe) split into two parts in 1113, the count ...

s, owned the castle in the 12th and 13th centuries. Internal Waldgravial family disputes, however, resulted in ownership being transferred about 1330 to Archbishop and Elector of Trier

Baldwin of Luxembourg Baldwin of Luxembourg (c. 1285 – 21 January 1354) was the archbishop and elector of Trier and archchancellor of Burgundy from 1307 to his death. From 1328 to 1336, he was the administrator of the archdiocese of Mainz and from 1331 to 1337 (w ...

. Under Baldwin, the castle was expanded, and in the time that followed, it became the seat of the Electoral-Trier '' Amt'' of Schmidtburg. While Bundenbach was the only village in the ''Amt'' that stood wholly under Electoral-Trier sovereignty,

and Schneppenbach formed a

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership regime in which a building (or group of buildings) is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual own ...

and belonged jointly to the Electorate of Trier and the Knights of Wildberg. When the ''Amt'' of Schmidtburg was pledged to the Electoral-Trier ''

Amtmann __NOTOC__ The ''Amtmann'' or ''Ammann'' (in Switzerland) was an official in German-speaking countries of Europe and in some of the Nordic countries from the time of the Middle Ages whose office was akin to that of a bailiff A bailiff is a ...

'' Nikolaus von Schmidtburg sometime before 1554, he temporarily introduced

Calvinism Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyteri ...

. By 1626, though, the villages had reverted to

Catholicism 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 ...

. In 1563, there were nine households in Schneppenbach, five in 1684 and eleven in 1715 that belonged to the Electoral-Trier ''Amt'' of Schmidtburg. About 1650, records show that the local lord was the knight Sir Cratz von Scharffenstein. Schneppenbach formed together with

an ''Ingericht'' (local court district). The two villages' inhabitants only owned one

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

, and attended the main services in Bundenbach. In 1794, during the

War of the First Coalition The War of the First Coalition () was a set of wars that several European powers fought between 1792 and 1797, initially against the Constitutional Cabinet of Louis XVI, constitutional Kingdom of France and then the French First Republic, Frenc ...

, the German lands on the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

's left bank were occupied by the French, and in 1798, the region was reorganized on the French administrative model by the

French Directory The Directory (also called Directorate; ) was the system of government established by the Constitution of the Year III, French Constitution of 1795. It takes its name from the committee of 5 men vested with executive power. The Directory gov ...

. With this French administrative reform, the ''Amt'' of Schmidtburg was dissolved. Schneppenbach passed to the then newly founded ''Mairie'' ("Mayoralty") of Kirn in the

Arrondissement An arrondissement (, , ) is any of various administrative divisions of France, Belgium, Haiti, and certain other Francophone countries, as well as the Netherlands. Europe France The 101 French departments are divided into 342 ''arrondissem ...

of Simmern and the Department of

Rhin-et-Moselle Rhin-et-Moselle (; ) was a department of the First French Republic and First French Empire in present-day Germany. It was named after the rivers Rhine and Moselle. It was formed in 1797, when the left bank of the Rhine was annexed by France. Unti ...

, remaining there for the rest of French Revolutionary and

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

ic times. Then, in 1817, it passed to the ''Bürgermeisterei'' ("Mayoralty") of Gemünden in the

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

n Simmern district. In the course of administrative restructuring in

after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Schneppenbach was assigned to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Kirn-Land.

Jewish history

For information about Schneppenbach's former small

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish community, which was bound with the one in Hennweiler, see the Jewish history section in that article.

Criminal history

Like many places in the region, Schneppenbach can claim to have had its dealings with the notorious outlaw

Schinderhannes Johannes Bückler ( 177821 November 1803; ) was a German outlaw who orchestrated one of the most famous crime sprees in German history. He has been nicknamed Schinderhannes and Schinnerhannes () in German and John the Scorcher, John the Flayer ...

(or Johannes Bückler, to use his true name). On 25 February 1799 at five o'clock in the morning, the

Gendarmerie A gendarmerie () is a paramilitary or military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to " men-at-arms" (). In France and so ...

raided the ''Budzliese-Amie'', a house nestled in rustic charm in Schneppenbach, and there managed to arrest Schinderhannes. The miller at the ''Römermühle'' had given the authorities the "hot tip". The event is commemorated in

Carl Zuckmayer Carl Zuckmayer (27 December 1896 – 18 January 1977) was a German writer and playwright. His older brother was the pedagogue, composer, conductor, and pianist Eduard Zuckmayer. His first two dramas were failures. In 1929, he wrote the script ...

's play ''

'' in the song "Schinderhanneslied": "''Im Schneppenbacher Forste, da geht der Teufel rumdibum...''".Statistische Mappen, Verbandsgemeinde Kirn-Land, 2009.

Population development

Schneppenbach's population development since

ic times is shown in the table below. The figures for the years from 1871 to 1987 are drawn from census data:Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz – Regionaldaten
/ref>

Religion

Most of Schneppenbach's inhabitants 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 ...

. The Catholic church community belongs to the parish of Saint

Francis Xavier Francis Xavier, Jesuits, SJ (born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta; ; ; ; ; ; 7 April 15063 December 1552), venerated as Saint Francis Xavier, was a Kingdom of Navarre, Navarrese cleric and missionary. He co-founded the Society of Jesus ...

(''St. Franz Xaver'') in

and is administered by the Oberhausen parish office. The

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 ...

inhabitants are tended from Gemünden. As at 31 January 2014, there are 253 full-time residents in Schneppenbach, and of those, 49 are

(19.368%), 174 are

(68.775%), 1 (0.395%) belongs to another religious group and 29 (11.462%) 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

Schneppenbach's mayor is Markus Fey.

Coat of arms

The German blazon reads: ''Unter silbernem Schildhaupt, darin ein rotes Balkenkreuz, in Grün eine goldene Gewandschließe belegt mit 4 roten und 4 blauen Punkten im Wechsel, begleitet von 2 silbernen Rauten.'' 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 in English

heraldic Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branc ...

language be described thus: Vert an arming buckle Or studded with eight roundels, four gules and four azure alternately, between two lozenges argent, on a chief of the fifth a cross of the third. The cross in chief is a reference to the village's former allegiance to the

Electorate of Trier The Electorate of Trier ( or '; ) was an Hochstift, ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire that existed from the end of the 9th to the early 19th century. It was the temporal possession of the prince-archbishop of Trier (') wh ...

. The buckle refers to the Family Schenk von Schmidtburg, whose painted coat of arms can be seen at the

Koblenz Koblenz ( , , ; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz'') is a German city on the banks of the Rhine (Middle Rhine) and the Moselle, a multinational tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman military p ...

State Archive (Abt. 54 S Nr. 226). The lozenges stand for the village's former

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

industry. The

tincture A tincture is typically an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Solvent concentrations of 25–60% are common, but may run as high as 90%.Groot Handboek Geneeskrachtige Planten by Geert Verhelst In chemistr ...

in the main field, vert (green), stands for the village's wealth of woodland. Municipal council gave the graphic artist Brust from Kirn-Sulzbach the task of designing a municipal coat of arms. At a council meeting on 13 August 1971, council adopted the design that had been put forth. After consent by the state archive, the Ministry of the Interior in

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

granted approval for Schneppenbach to bear its own arms on 8 October 1981. The municipal banner also bears this coat of arms in the centre.

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

The following are listed buildings or sites in

's Directory of Cultural Monuments: Schnep-ro-kapelle

* Saint John the Baptist's

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

(''Kirche St. Johannes der Täufer''), Hauptstraße 39 – Late Baroque

aisleless church An aisleless church () is a single-nave church building that consists of a single hall-like room. While similar to the hall church, the aisleless church lacks aisles or passageways on either side of the nave and separated from the nave by col ...

, 1768, architect Johann Thomas Petri * Schmidtburg castle ruin (monumental zone),Landkreis Bad Kreuznach: Inhaltsverzeichnis des Kreisrechtes
, retrieved 31 October 2011. above the Hahnenbach valley – destroyed in 1689; upper bailey: ''

palas A ''palas'' () is a German term for the imposing or prestigious building of a medieval '' Pfalz'' or castle that contained the great hall. Such buildings appeared during the Romanesque period (11th to 13th century) and, according to Thompson ...

'' with

staircase tower A staircase tower or stair tower (, also ''Stiegenturm'' or ''Wendelstein'') is a tower-like wing of a building with a circular or polygonal plan that contains a stairwell, usually a helical staircase. History Only a few examples of staircase ...

reaching up to second-floor height, after 1328; lower bailey: scant remnants; between baileys a

neck ditch A neck ditch (), sometimes called a throat ditch,
at www.roadstoruins.com. Accessed on 3 Jan 2012. is a dry

in Schneppenbach, which stands under monumental protection, was built in 1768 by the

Salm-Kyrburg Salm-Kyrburg was a state of the Holy Roman Empire located in present-day Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, one of the various partitions of Salm (state), Salm. It was twice created: the first time as a Wild- and Rhinegraviate (partitioned from Upper ...

court master builder Johann Thomas Petri, whose plans also yielded many lordly buildings dating from the 18th century in the

area. The Schmidtburg

ruin is considered Schneppenbach's foremost landmark and is one of the biggest of the Rhenish castle complexes, and also one of the most important cultural monuments. After excavations and shoring-up work on the ruin that had been almost thoroughly overgrown, visitors now have a clear picture of the imposing complex's size and former importance. Up above the village, at 568 m and right next to the legendary Teufelsfels ("Devil's Crag") stands a lookout tower bearing the same name as this

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock that was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tecton ...

butte In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...

in the Lützelsoon. The Herrenberg Slate Quarry has since 1976 been a

show mine A show mine is a mine that is accessible to visitors. A mine, i.e. an industrial facility for the underground extraction of mineral products, has three operating phases: it may be open or running, or closed or it may be a working museum. Most ...

with a

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

. Also found in Schneppenbach is a La Tène-era

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

heights settlement called the Altburg.

Natural monuments

Schneppenbach is home to the still largely untouched, wild Hahnenbach valley, through which leads a water adventure path.

Speech

The local people speak the Hunsrück

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

with a

Moselle Franconian Moselle Franconian (; ) is a West Central German language, part of the Central Franconian languages area, that includes Luxembourgish. Overview Moselle Franconian is spoken in the southern Rhineland and along the course of the Moselle, i ...

character. The village lies, along with the neighbouring ones, just north of a well known

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an language boundary, the so-called Das-Dat line, south of which people speak

Rhine Franconian __NOTOC__ Rhenish Franconian or Rhine Franconian ( ) is a dialect chain of West Central German. It comprises the varieties of German spoken across the western regions of the states of Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, northwest Baden-Württember ...

. One particular legacy from the

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history between and ; it was preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended according to historiographical convention ...

is a number of deviations from Standard High German in the realm of

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

, with forms such as ''die Bach'' (feminine, but usually ''der Bach'', masculine) and ''der Butter'' (masculine, but usually ''die Butter'', feminine) cropping up, which have preserved the state of the language in

Walther von der Vogelweide Walther von der Vogelweide (; ) was a Minnesänger who composed and performed love-songs and political songs ('' Sprüche'') in Middle High German. Walther has been described as the greatest German lyrical poet before Goethe; his hundred or s ...

's time. A number of French

loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...

s can also be found in the local speech, having been adopted in French Revolutionary and

ic times. These include ''Scheeslong'' ("

sofa A couch, also known as a sofa, settee, chesterfield, or Davenport (sofa), davenport, is a cushioned piece of furniture that can seat multiple people. It is commonly found in the form of a bench (furniture), bench with Upholstery, upholstered ...

", from ''

chaise longue A chaise longue (; , ) is an upholstered sofa in the shape of a chair that is long enough to support the legs of the sitter. In modern French, the term ''chaise longue'' refers to any long reclining chair, such as a deckchair. In English, ...

''), ''Trottwa'' ("

sidewalk A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English, South African English), or footpath (Hiberno-English, Irish English, Indian English, Australian English, New Zealand English) is a path along the side of a road. Usually constr ...

", from ''trottoir'') and ''Portmonnee'' ("wallet", from ''porte-monnaie''). Words with French elements include ''Bobbeschees'' (standard: ''Puppenwagen''; "

doll A doll is a physical model, model typically of a human or humanoid character, often used as a toy for children. Dolls have also been used in traditional religious rituals throughout the world. Traditional dolls made of materials such as clay and ...

's pram") and ''Kinnerschees'' (standard: ''Kinderwagen''; "pram"), with the last syllable from French ''chaise'' ("chair") in each case.

Clubs

The following clubs are active in Schneppenbach: *''Spielvereinigung Teufelsfels'' — gaming union *''Freiwillige Feuerwehr Schneppenbach'' — volunteer

fire brigade A fire department (North American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire company, fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and ...

*''Hunsrücklerchen'' — "Hunsrück Larks" singing club *''Fischerei- und Naturschutzverein'' — fishing and conservation club *''Musikverein "Edelweiß" Schneppenbach'' — music club

Folklore

The local

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

includes an old story supposedly still told by the elderly inhabitants of the villages at the foot of the Lützelsoon:

Not a very long time ago, a few forestry workers were busying themselves planting oaks when one of them brought to light a gold belt with his hoe. When he grasped it and tried to put it in his bag, the gold coins fell out of the gold belt and every last one rolled down the slope without his getting hold of even one. In a hollow on the north side of the "Fat Stone", he saw them disappear. All efforts to open up the spot with his hoe, though, came to naught, and he could not reach any of the gold coins. The thought of this wad of money, his "treasure", however, the forestry worker would not give up. Eventually he resolved to set an explosive charge at the spot to reach the treasure. On a moonlit night, he put his plan into action. The explosion was successful, blowing away part of the "Fat Stone". He thought his wish was about to be fulfilled, but at the spot where he had seen the gold disappear, he found nothing, and thus all his work had been for nothing. He sought further for the treasure, but as long and hard as he looked throughout the rest of his life, he found no trace of it. On the north side, the hiker can still see the spot where the golddigger used explosives in his vain attempt. Perhaps some hiker's luck will be good, and he will find the mysterious treasure, and recover it and take it away.Folklore
/ref>

For another folktale about the Teufelsfels, see

here Here may refer to: Music * ''Here'' (Adrian Belew album), 1994 * ''Here'' (Alicia Keys album), 2016 * ''Here'' (Cal Tjader album), 1979 * ''Here'' (Edward Sharpe album), 2012 * ''Here'' (Idina Menzel album), 2004 * ''Here'' (Merzbow album), ...

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

Running through Schneppenbach is ''

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 ...

'' 184. This leads north to ''Landesstraße'' 162, and both roads then lead to ''

Bundesstraße ''Bundesstraße'' (, ), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways. Germany Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km. German ''Bundesstraßen'' are labelled with re ...

'' 421. To the south, ''Landesstraße'' 184 links with ''Landesstraße'' 182, which leads to

. Serving that town is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

on the

Nahe Valley Railway The Nahe Valley Railway () is a two-track, partially electrified main line railway in the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, which runs for almost 100 kilometres along the Nahe (Rhine), Nahe. It was built by the Rhine-Nahe Railway ...

( Bingen–

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; Rhenish Franconian: ''Sabrigge'' ; ; ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken has 181,959 inhabitants and is Saarland's administrative, commerci ...

). The travel time on the hourly Regionalexpress trains to Saarbrücken is 1 hour and 10 minutes, while Mainz can be reached in just under an hour. Every other train to and from

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

also runs through to

Frankfurt Airport Frankfurt Airport ( ) , is Germany's busiest international airport by passenger numbers, located in Frankfurt, Germany's fifth-largest city. Its official name according to the German Aeronautical Information Publication is Frankfurt Main Airpor ...

Famous people

Famous people associated with the municipality

* Johann Thomas Petry (or Petri; d. 1799 in Schneppenbach), German master builder

References

External links

Municipality's official webpage

Schneppenbach in the collective municipality's webpages
{{Authority control Bad Kreuznach (district)