Waldbreitbach is a municipality in the district of Neuwied, in

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 is situated in the

Westerwald The Westerwald (; literally 'Western forest') is a low mountain range on the right bank of the river Rhine in the States of Germany, German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. It is a part of the Rhenish Ma ...

, on the river Wied, approx. 16 km north of

Neuwied Neuwied (, ) is a town in the north of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, capital of the Neuwied (district), District of Neuwied. Neuwied lies on the east bank of the Rhine, 12 km northwest of Koblenz, on the railway from Frankfurt ...

. Waldbreitbach was the seat of the former ''

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 ...

'' ("collective municipality") Waldbreitbach.

History

The place was first mentioned in documents (spelled "Bretpah") in 857. In the following centuries the dominion over the place changed several times between

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

and

Sayn Sayn was a small Germany, German county of the Holy Roman Empire which, during the Middle Ages, existed within what is today Rhineland-Palatinate, Rheinland-Pfalz. There have been two Counties of Sayn. The first emerged in 1139 and became closel ...

. Between 1806 and 1815 the village belonged to the

Duchy of Nassau The Duchy of Nassau (German language, German: ''Herzogtum Nassau'') was an independent state between 1806 and 1866, located in what became the Germany, German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. It was a States of the Confederation of th ...

, then to

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, ...

Population

In 1815 406 people were living in Waldbreitbach. This number increased to 2118 in 1997 and as of 2018 there were officially 1828 inhabitants.

Waldbreitbach mill

On the Wied stands an

oil mill An oil mill is a grinding mill designed to crush or bruise oil-bearing seeds, such as linseed or peanuts, or other oil-rich vegetable material, such as olives or the fruit of the oil palm, which can then be pressed to extract vegetable oils, whi ...

, which started production in 1676. Only four years later it was destroyed by a flood. The mill was rebuilt in 1700 and was in operation until 1948. It is considered the oldest oil mill of this type in the

Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...

. In the 1990s an old half-timbered house was dismantled in nearby Bremscheid and rebuilt next to the mill as a museum of crafts and trade. About 100 meters upstream stands a mill with a water wheel from 1911.

References

Neuwied (district) {{Neuwied-geo-stub