Kludenbach

Kludenbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kirchberg, whose seat is in the like-named town.GeographyLocationThe municipality lies in the Hunsrück roughly 2 km southeast of Kappel and 4 km west-northwest of Kirchberg. The Rhine flows 25 km to the east-northeast at Oberwesel. The area within Kludenbach’s municipal limits is 288 ha, of which 80 ha is wooded.HistoryPrehistoric and early historic barrows can be found just south of Kludenbach right at the municipal limit with Metzenhausen, bearing witness to early settlers here. In 1173, Kludenbach had its first documentary mention in a donation document from Springiersbach Monastery that named a Sir Richard von Clodenbach. The Counts of Sponheim had an estate at Kludenbach. They and the Knights of Wildberg also held tithing rights. Early on, a village named Lampenrode (now Lampertsmühle) vanished. Beginning in 1794, Kludenbach lay under French rule. In 1815 it was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna. In the 19th century, iron ore was mined east of Bundesstraße 421. Since 1946, it has been part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate.