Hettenrodt

Hettenrodt is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Herrstein, whose seat is in the like-named municipality.GeographyLocationThe municipality lies on the east side of a ridge between the Idarbach and the Siesbach in the Vorderhunsrück and borders directly on the town of Idar-Oberstein. The municipal area measures 532 ha, of which some 120 ha is state forest. The actual village itself covers 29 ha. The municipal area has a rather odd shape, which has given it its unusually long municipal limit of roughly 20 km. The village centrepoint has an elevation of 410 m above sea level, and the municipality’s highest point, the fort near Kirschweiler, lies at 623 m above sea level.Hettenrodt lies on the Deutsche Edelsteinstraße (“German Gem Road”) and within both the Naturpark Saar-Hunsrück and the Wildenburg hiking area.HistoryOf protohistoric times in what is now Hettenrodt, very little is known. It is likely, however, that running over the ridge set north-south between the Idarbach and the Siesbach (two small rivers), from the Silberich towards the Steinkaulenberg (two mountains) was a Roman road. Since the Romans used, cared for and even guarded all springs that lay near their roads, it can be assumed that at that time – about the year 1 – there was already a small settlement, or perhaps a fort, on the “Kremel”.