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70-572: Idar-Oberstein ( German: [ˌiːdaːɐ̯ˈʔoːbɐˌʃtaɪ̯n] ) is a town in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate , Germany . As a Große kreisangehörige Stadt (large city belonging to a district), it assumes some of the responsibilities that for smaller municipalities in the district are assumed by the district administration. Today's town of Idar-Oberstein is the product of two rounds of administrative reform, one in 1933 and

140-462: A middle centre : the educational facilities were expanded ( Realschule , Heinzenwies- Gymnasium ), new building developments could be opened up (especially in Göttschied, Regulshausen and Weierbach), land was available for a new hospital building and there was room, too, for industrial and commercial operations to locate. Since Idar-Oberstein had not only a good general infrastructure but also, after

210-479: A “bench singer” and a fiddler at markets and church fêtes. At Easter 1800, Schinderhannes saw “Julchen” for the first time at the Wickenhof, a now vanished hamlet near Kirn , where the 19-year-old danced. Their relationship yielded a daughter and a son, Franz Wilhelm. After Schinderhannes was beheaded for his crimes in 1803, Juliana married first a gendarme, with whom she had seven children, and then after his death

280-516: A 1321 Oberstein enfeoffment document. In 1324, the Lords of Oberstein pledged it to the Waldgraves and Rhinegraves of Kyrburg. But for this, Algenrodt shares a history with the other Idarbann communities. Enzweiler boasts traces of human habitation going back to Roman times. In 1276, Tholey Abbey owned a mill near Enzweiler. The village itself might have arisen in the 14th century, and it was always part of

350-458: A lion rampant azure armed and crowned Or and langued of the first. The chequered red and silver pattern was the arms of the Counts of Sponheim , a medieval county of the region. The lion is the symbol of the Counts of Veldenz . Verband -free town: Idar-Oberstein 49°40′N 7°20′E  /  49.67°N 7.33°E  / 49.67; 7.33 Cession The act of cession

420-400: A livestock herder and day labourer. According to legend, there were two noble brothers, Wyrich and Emich, who both fell in love with a beautiful girl named Bertha. The brothers lived at Castle Bosselstein, which stood atop a 135 m-high hill. Bertha was from a noble line that occupied the nearby Lichtenburg Castle. Neither brother was aware of the other's feelings for Bertha. When Wyrich,

490-512: A new Catholic parish but also introduced a simultaneum at the local church. The foundation stone of today's village of Mittelbollenbach is said to be the estate of Bollenbach, which was mentioned in 1283 as a holding of the Lords of Oberstein in the area of the Winterhauch woodland. In 1432, the Dukes of Lorraine were enfeoffed with Nahbollenbach and Mittelbollenbach, which in the wake of the death of

560-639: A protest rally of the Hambach Festival in Sankt Wendel in May 1832, complete with a liberty pole in the Napoleonic tradition, to an end using military force, after Coburg had called on Prussia for help in the matter. Idar, Oberstein, Tiefenstein, Algenrodt, Enzweiler, Georg-Weierbach, Göttschied, Enzweiler and Regulshausen became on 16 April 1817 part of the newly created Principality of Birkenfeld. They also became

630-405: A result of the new political arrangement been raised to residence town, found little to complain about. The jewellery industry there, which even by this time had become national, perhaps international in scope, and indeed the jewel dealers themselves, who now found themselves living in a little provincially oriented town, perceived the new arrangement, though, as a backward step, particularly so after

700-556: Is marked by a considerable splintering of lordly domains in the local area. Only in Napoleonic times, beginning in 1794, with its reorganization and merging of various territorial units, was some order brought to the traditional mishmash of local lordships. However, shortly thereafter, the Congress of Vienna brought the future town division once again, as the river Nahe became a border, and the centres on its north bank were thereby grouped into

770-401: Is the assignment of property to another entity. In international law it commonly refers to land transferred by treaty . Ballentine's Law Dictionary defines cession as "a surrender; a giving up; a relinquishment of jurisdiction by a board in favor of another agency." In contrast with annexation , where property is forcibly seized, cession is voluntary or at least apparently so. In 1790,

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840-634: The Amt of Oberstein, which comprised the Bürgermeistereien (“Mayoralties”) of Herrstein, Oberstein and Fischbach. French law was allowed to stand. The Duke did, however, issue a Staatsgrundgesetz (“Basic State Law”) with which the people were not in agreement, because they would rather have stayed with Prussia. This continued work on the patchwork quilt of little states covering Germany was judged very critically in Idar and Oberstein, whereas Birkenfeld , which had as

910-517: The British - and French- occupied Saar . The remaining 68 municipalities then bore the designation “Restkreis St. Wendel-Baumholder”, with the first syllable of Restkreis having the same meaning as in English, in the sense of “left over”. The Prussians were themselves not well liked leaders, as they sometimes imposed their order with military might. They were known, and hated, for, among other things, putting

980-679: The Duke of Oldenburg , along with smaller cessions to smaller princes – and since this had also been reconfirmed in Article 49 of the concluding acts of the Congress of Vienna, the region underwent further territorial division. The villages south of the Nahe – Hammerstein, Kirchenbollenbach, Mittelbollenbach, Nahbollenbach and Martin-Weierbach – were therefore transferred in 1816 to the Principality of Lichtenberg, held by

1050-584: The German Weather Service's weather stations , lower figures are recorded. The driest month is April. The most rainfall comes in December. In that month, precipitation is 1.6 times what it is in April. Precipitation hardly varies at all and is evenly spread throughout the year. At only 13% of the weather stations are lower seasonal swings recorded. The territorial history of Idar-Oberstein's individual centres

1120-509: The Hunsrück . The town lies on the southern edge of the Hunsrück on both sides of the river Nahe . The following are the divisions within the town of Idar-Oberstein as of 31 December 2015: Total population: 20,066 Total population: 11,935 Yearly precipitation in Idar-Oberstein amounts to 774 mm, falling into the middle third of the precipitation chart for all Germany. At 57% of

1190-476: The Louisiana Purchase . Spain made a cession of East and West Florida by the treaty of February 22, 1819. Cessions have been severally made of a part of their territory by New York, Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. Under the civil law system , cession is the equivalent of assignment , and therefore, is an act by which a personal claim is transferred from

1260-688: The Qing dynasty government of China to the United Kingdom ; and following defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War , Taiwan was ceded to the Empire of Japan in 1895. Territory can also be ceded for payment, such as in the Louisiana Purchase and Alaska Purchase . This is a yielding up, or release. France ceded Louisiana to the United States by the treaty of Paris, of April 30, 1803 following

1330-559: The church's patron saint . After the French dissolved all the old lordships, they introduced a sweeping reorganization of territorial (and social) structure beginning in 1794. The whole area belonged to the arrondissement of Birkenfeld in the Department of Sarre . Until 1814, this was French territory. The introduction of the Code civil des Français , justice reform and, foremost, the abolition of

1400-667: The Dukes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The Dukes were not satisfied with this territorial gain, and for their part, the people in the territory were not satisfied with their new rulers. In 1834, the area was sold for two million Thaler to Prussia and made into the Sankt Wendel district. Later, after the First World War , the Treaty of Versailles stipulated, among other things, that 26 of the Sankt Wendel district's 94 municipalities had to be ceded to

1470-468: The Idarbann. The village of Georg-Weierbach north of the Nahe, built in a way resembling terraces on land that falls steeply towards the river, likely goes back to the foundation of a church by Archbishop of Mainz Hatto II in the 10th century. In the 11th century, the village was mentioned in connection with the Lords of Wirebach (that is, Weierbach). In 1327, the village, which was for a short time held by

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1540-482: The Idarbann. As the lordly seat with its castle and fortifications – remnants of the old town wall built about 1410 can still be seen – Oberstein developed the characteristics of a town, however without ever earning the legal status of a market town ( Flecken ). In 1682, the Counts of Leiningen -Heidesheim, and in 1766 the Counts of Limburg-Styrum , became the owners of the Lordship of Oberstein, which largely shrank back to

1610-545: The Lords of Randeck, was largely sold off to the Waldgraves and Rhinegraves and grouped into the Amt of Kyrburg. The form “Georg-Weierbach” stems from the church's patron saint . Göttschied, which had its first documentary mention in 1271, belonged together with Regulshausen, Gerach and Hintertiefenbach to Mettlach Abbey. These four villages were therefore known as the Abteidörfer (“abbey villages”), and in 1561, they were sold to

1680-547: The Nahe; and Lichtenberg , east of it. The principality of Birkenfeld was annexed by Oldenburg in 1817; Lichtenberg became an exclave of the Duchy Saxe-Coburg ( Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld until 1826, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha thereafter). Prussia bought Lichtenberg in 1834 and made it the District of Sankt Wendel . After World War I , the southern half of Sankt Wendel had to be ceded to the newly created Saar Territory , and

1750-692: The Nazis an opportunity to get rid of some “undesirables”; under Kreisleiter (district leader) Wild from Idar, all significant public positions were held until Hitler's downfall by Nazis. In 1937, on the basis of the Greater Hamburg Act , the Landesteil of Birkenfeld was dissolved and transferred together with the “Restkreis St. Wendel-Baumholder” to the Prussian district of Birkenfeld, a deed which put all of what are today Idar-Oberstein's constituent communities in

1820-590: The Oldenburg Landtag elections in 1931, the NSDAP received more than 37% of the votes cast, but could not form the government. After the Nazis had first given up a declaration of tolerance for the existing government, they were then soon demanding that the Landtag be dissolved. Since this was not forthcoming, the Nazis filed suit for a referendum, and they got their way. This resulted in dissolution on 17 April 1932. In

1890-584: The Principality of Birkenfeld, an exclave of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg , most of whose territory was in what is now northwest Germany, with a coastline on the North Sea . The towns of Idar and Oberstein belonged to the Barons of Daun-Oberstein (who later became the Counts of Falkenstein ) until 1670. In 1865, both Idar and Oberstein were granted town rights, and finally in 1933, they were forcibly united (along with

1960-479: The Steinbach Reservoir was brought into service, a more than adequate water supply, the option of amalgamating themselves with the town became attractive to many further municipalities. On the initiative of Mayor Wittmann, who had a survey done by an Osnabrück planning bureau on the town's relationship with 25 other neighbouring municipalities, town council decided to promote the “unconditional amalgamation” of

2030-518: The U.S. states of Maryland and Virginia both ceded land to create the District of Columbia , as specified in the U.S. Constitution of the previous year. The Virginia portion was given back in 1847, a process known as "retrocession". Following the First Opium War (1839–1842) and Second Opium War (1856–1860), Hong Kong ( Treaty of Nanking ) and Kowloon ( Convention of Peking ) were ceded by

2100-482: The above-mentioned lordly core after the Idarbann was ceded to the “Hinder” County of Sponheim in 1771. In 1776, the Margraves of Baden became the owners of the Lordship after the “Hinder” County of Sponheim was partitioned. It is known from archaeological finds that human settlement in what is now Idar goes back to the very earliest times. The constituent community of Idar on the Nahe's right bank belonged, as did

2170-400: The amalgamation opponents on the other, who promoted their views in demonstrations , at gatherings and in letter duels in newspaper correspondence pages, a poll was taken in early September 1970 with a vote in the Amt of Weierbach. The results favoured the state of affairs that had existed before the constitutional court's ruling with almost 80% of the vote in favour of amalgamation, whereas

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2240-569: The area was restructured. On the grounds of Article 25 of the concluding acts of the Congress of Vienna , the northern part of the Department of Sarre was at first given to the Kingdom of Prussia in June 1815. Since Prussia was obliged under the terms of the 1815 Treaty of Paris to cede an area out of this parcel containing 69,000 inhabitants to other powers – 20,000 souls each to Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and

2310-410: The assignor (the cedent ) to the assignee (the cessionary ). Whereas real rights are transferred by delivery, personal rights are transferred by cession. Once the obligation of the debtor is transferred, the cessionary is entirely substituted. The original creditor (cedent) loses his right to claim and the new creditor (cessionary) gains that right. When an ecclesiastic is created bishop , or when

2380-455: The church was completed, he received his sign: a miraculous spring opened up in the church. Wyrich died soon after this. When the local bishop came to consecrate the new church, he found the noble lord dead on its steps. Wyrich was later placed in the same tomb with his brother. Idar-Oberstein is known as a gemstone centre. Until the 18th century, the area was a source for agate and jasper . A combination of low-cost labour and energy helped

2450-513: The cliff where the Felsenkirche (“Rock Church”) - itself mentioned as early as the 12th century - would later be built. The core of the area over which the lordship held sway was framed by the rivers Nahe, Idarbach, Göttenbach and Ringelbach. After 1323, the Lords of the Stone styled themselves “von Daun-Oberstein”, and managed to considerably expand their domain even into lands south of the Nahe and into

2520-404: The counsel of a local abbot, he began a long period of penance. At this time, Bertha disappears from the historical record. Many romantics feel that she died of a broken heart . As Wyrich waited for a heavenly sign showing that he was forgiven, the abbot suggested that he build a church on the exact place where his brother died. Wyrich worked and prayed himself into exhaustion. However, the moment

2590-515: The economy. A well regulated school system – in 1830, a public school was built in Oberstein – and the temporary suspension of military conscription only helped to support this positive picture. Roads were expanded and a postal coach service (for persons, bulk mailings and bulky goods) was set up. A further economic upswing was brought by the building of the Nahe Valley Railway , especially when

2660-401: The elder brother, was away on some unknown business, Emich succeeded in securing Bertha's affections and, subsequently, married her. When Emich announced the news to his brother, Wyrich's temper got the better of him. In the heat of the moment, he hurled his brother out of a window of the castle and sent him to his death on the rocks below. Wyrich was almost immediately filled with remorse. With

2730-693: The ensuing new elections on 20 May, the Nazis won 48.38% of the popular vote, and thereby took 24 of the 46 seats in the Landtag , which gave them an absolute majority. In Idar, which was then still a self-governing town, the National Socialists received more than 70% of the votes cast. They could thereby already govern, at least in Oldenburg, with endorsement by the German National People's Party , which had two seats at its disposal, even before Adolf Hitler ’s official seizure of power in 1933. One of

2800-556: The gemstone-working industry flourish. The river Nahe provided free water power for the cutting and polishing machines at the mills. In the 18th century, though, gemstone finds in the Hunsrück were dwindling, making life harder for the local people. Many left to try their luck abroad. Some went as far as Brazil , where they found that gemstones could be recovered from open-pit mines or even found in rivers and streams. The locally common tradition of preparing meat over an open fire, churrasco ,

2870-569: The last Lord of Oberstein led to bitter arguments over the complicated inheritance arrangements. Only in 1778 did Lorraine finally relinquish its claims in Electoral Trier's favour. Until 1667, Nahbollenbach and Mittelbollenbach shared the same history. Then, Nahbollenbach was acknowledged by Lorraine as an allodial holding of Oberstein, although beginning in 1682 it was an Electoral-Trier fief held by Oberstein. The “abbey village” of Regulshausen belonged to Mettlach Abbey, who sold it in 1561 to

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2940-500: The merger of the villages of Tiefenbach and Hettstein in 1909. This Idarbann community's territorial history is the same as Idar's and Oberstein's. Tiefenbach was mentioned as an estate in a 1283 document; a further documentary mention from 1051 cannot be related to the village with any certainty. Hettstein was mentioned as Henzestein or Hezerten in 1321 and had among its inhabitants Waldgravial subjects. The village of Algenrodt had its first certain documentary mention as Alekenrod in

3010-472: The municipalities of Algenrodt and Tiefenstein to form the new town of Idar-Oberstein. The law foreshadowed what was to come: It would be applied within a few weeks, without further discussion or participation, to the exclusion of the public and against the will of municipalities, who had not even been asked whether they wanted it, to places such as Herrstein and Oberwörresbach, Rötsweiler and Nockenthal, or Hoppstädten and Weiersbach. The restructuring also afforded

3080-604: The municipalities of Algenrodt and Tiefenstein) by the Nazis to form the modern town of Idar-Oberstein. The constituent community of Oberstein grew out of the Imperially immediate Lordship of Oberstein. The Herren vom Stein (“Lords of the Stone”) had their first documentary mention in 1075. Their seat was at Castle Bosselstein, now known as the Altes Schloss (“Old Palatial Castle”), above

3150-435: The municipalities of Enzweiler, Göttschied, Hammerstein and Regulshausen were amalgamated, and on 7 November 1970 they were followed by Georg-Weierbach, Kirchenbollenbach, Mittelbollenbach, Nahbollenbach and Weierbach. Before the administrative restructuring, there were extensive, sometimes behind-closed-doors talks by the then mayor of Idar-Oberstein, Dr. Wittmann, with offers of negotiation to all together 22 municipalities in

3220-457: The municipalities of Fischbach, Dickesbach, Zaubach, Mittelreidenbach , Oberreidenbach , Schmidthachenbach, Sienhachenbach, Sien, Hintertiefenbach and Vollmersbach . The municipalities of Rötsweiler-Nockenthal, Siesbach , Gerach, Veitsrodt , Kirschweiler, Hettenrodt and Mackenrodt were each to receive an offer of amalgamation. The district administration in Birkenfeld then got involved, and it

3290-495: The new Saar Protectorate in 1947. Not until 1970 were the present borders of the district set. The Nahe River runs through the district from south to north. The portions west of the river are located on the eastern slopes of the Hunsrück . The German blazon reads: Geschachtet von Rot und Silber; belegt mit einem rot gezungten, golden gekrönten und golden bewehrten blauen Löwen. The arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Chequy of twenty gules and argent

3360-533: The new government’s first initiatives was administrative reform for Oldenburg, which was followed on 27 April 1933 by the similar Gesetz zur Vereinfachung und Verbilligung der Verwaltung (“Law for simplifying administration and reducing its cost”) for the Landesteil of Birkenfeld. Through this new law, 18 formerly self-administering municipalities were amalgamated; this included the self-administering towns (having been granted town rights in 1865) of Idar and Oberstein, which were amalgamated with each other and also with

3430-461: The noble and clerical classes with the attendant end to compulsory labour and other duties formerly owed the now powerless lords quickly made French rule popular. However, there was quite a heavy tax burden imposed by the new rulers, and there was also continuing conscription of men into the French army. Both of these things weighed heavily on France's Rhineland citizens. After Napoleonic rule ended,

3500-555: The notorious outlaw Johannes Bückler (1777–1803), commonly known as Schinderhannes . His parents lived in Idar around 1790, and Oberstein was the scene of one of his earliest misdeeds in 1796. He spent a whole Louis d'or on drinks at an inn. He had stolen it from an innkeeper named Koch from Veitsrodt who had meant to use it to buy brandy . Schinderhannes's sweetheart, Juliana Blasius (1781–1851), known as “Julchen”, came from Idar-Oberstein's outlying centre of Weierbach. She spent her childhood with her father and elder sister Margarethe as

3570-430: The original plan come about. With the exception of Georg-Weierbach, the proposal to amalgamate these villages with the town of Idar-Oberstein had notable majorities, either in the villages themselves or on their councils, in favour of dissolving their respective municipalities and then merging with the town. Nevertheless, bitter discussions and even administrative legal disputes arose in the former Amt of Weierbach, which

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3640-404: The other in 1969, which saw many municipalities amalgamated into one. The various Stadtteile have, however, retained their original identities, which, aside from the somewhat more urban character encountered in Idar and Oberstein, tend to hark back to each centre's history as a rural village. Idar-Oberstein is known as a gemstone town, and also as a garrison town. It is also the largest town in

3710-512: The region hard. The council is made up of 40 honorary council members, who were elected by proportional representation at the municipal election held on 25 May 2014, and the full-time mayor ( Oberbürgermeister ) as chairman. The municipal election held on 25 May 2014 yielded the following results: Birkenfeld (district) In the early nineteenth century, the Nahe River was the boundary between two tiny principalities: Birkenfeld, west of

3780-428: The remaining municipalities in the Amt of Weierbach, namely Sien , Sienhachenbach , Schmidthachenbach , Fischbach , Zaubach (a village that vanished in the late 20th century) and Dickesbach , returned a vote of roughly 95% in favour of keeping the Amt of Weierbach. With this expansion of the town, the centres of gravity in the Birkenfeld district had been shifted considerably. Idar-Oberstein could further grow as

3850-603: The same district. After the Second World War , along with the whole district, the town's whole municipal area passed to the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate . On 1 April 1960, the town of Idar-Oberstein was declared a Große kreisangehörige Stadt (large town belonging to a district) by the state government, after the town itself had applied for the status. In the course of administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate , nine surrounding municipalities were amalgamated with Idar-Oberstein. On 7 June 1969,

3920-693: The small part remaining in Prussia was then officially called the Restkreis Sankt Wendel ("remaining district of Sankt Wendel"). In 1937 the Oldenburgian District of Birkenfeld was merged with the remaining Sankt Wendel District to form the new Prussian District of Birkenfeld. Following World War II , on 18 July 1946 by the French Ordinance No. 8, twenty-four more villages were ceded to the new Délégation Supérieure de la Sarre , which became

3990-493: The stretch from Bad Kreuznach to Oberstein opened on 15 December 1859. When the First World War ended, Grand Duke Friedrich August of Oldenburg abdicated , whereupon the Landesteil (literally “country part”) of Birkenfeld in the Free State of Oldenburg arose from the old principality. This Landesteil , along with the whole Rhineland, was occupied by the French on 4 December 1918. They did not withdraw until 30 June 1930. At

4060-423: The surrounding area. One of the reasons for this was a tendency that had been noted for people from Idar-Oberstein to move out of town to the surrounding municipalities, which were opening up extensive new building areas – among others Göttschied, Rötsweiler-Nockenthal and Kirschweiler – whereas within the town itself, given the problematic lie of the land, there were hardly any. The same problem saw to it that there

4130-401: The turn of the 20th century. After the Second World War , the region had to redefine itself once more, and it developed into a leading hub in the trade of gemstones from Brazil and Africa . That in turn provided local artists with a large selection of material and the region experienced a “third boom” as a gemstone centre. More recently, however, competition from Thailand and India has hit

4200-578: The village goes back to 1128 when it was called Bolinbach . It is first known to have been a fief held by the Lords of Schwarzenberg from the Counts of Zweibrücken, whereafter it passed in 1595 to the Waldgraves and Rhinegraves of Kirn. One local peculiarity here was that a Catholic sideline of the otherwise mainly Protestant Rhinegraves ended up holding sway in Kirchenbollenbach, and under Prince Johann Dominik of Salm -Kyrburg, this line not only founded

4270-511: The villages of Enzweiler, Algenrodt, Mackenrodt , Hettenrodt , Hettstein, Obertiefenbach and Kirschweiler , to the Idarbann. This area belonged mostly to the Lords of Oberstein, and it therefore shares a history with Oberstein; however, in some centres, notably Tiefenbach and Kirschweiler, some estates and rights were held by other lords, such as the Waldgraves and Rhinegraves and Tholey Abbey . The constituent community of Tiefenstein arose from

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4340-484: The world's most important agate deposit in Brazil's state of Rio Grande do Sul . As early as 1834, the first delivery of agate from Rio Grande do Sul had been made to Idar-Oberstein. The Brazilian agate exhibited very even layers, much more even than those seen in the local agates. This made them especially good for making engraved gems . Using locals’ technical knowledge of chemical dyes, the industry grew bigger than ever at

4410-500: The years that France had ruled. It had had its worldly metropolis of Paris with its good business. The dealers, therefore, tried energetically, but without success, to have their land reannexed to Prussia. On the other hand, the Oldenburgers quickly managed to make themselves popular among the people by installing an unselfish government that established an independent judiciary and introducing various programmes that favoured farmers and

4480-516: The “Hinder” County of Sponheim. Hamerzwiller (nowadays called Hammerstein) was mentioned in 1438 in a taxation book kept by the County of Sponheim, and had been held by the “Hinder” County of Sponheim as early as 1269, when that county enfeoffed the Counts of Schwarzenberg with it. Regarded as the origin of the village of Kirchenbollenbach is the foundation of a church by Archbishop of Mainz Willigis sometime after 975. The earliest documentary evidence of

4550-545: The “Hinder” County of Sponheim. The oldest documentary mention comes from 1491. The village of Weierbach – not to be confused with Georg-Weierbach mentioned above – had its first documentary mention in 1232 as Weygherbach , and belonged to the Amt of Naumburg in the “Further” County of Sponheim, which itself was later held by the Margraves of Baden, which gave the village its onetime alternative name, Baden-Weierbach. The oft-used other alternative name, Martin-Weierbach, stems from

4620-497: Was a dearth of land for industrial location. Surprising was the desire expressed by Weierbach, which came without one of Idar-Oberstein's initiatives, to join the new greater town, for at the time, Weierbach did not even border on the town, and Weierbach itself was then foreseen as the future nucleus of its own greater municipality, or perhaps even town, together with the municipalities of Fischbach, Georg-Weierbach and Bollenbach, which would have been amalgamated with this municipality had

4690-433: Was also adopted by the newcomers and even found its way back to their homeland by way of gemstone shipping. Agate nodules were shipped back as ballast on empty vessels that had offloaded cargo in Brazil. The cheap agates were then transported to Idar-Oberstein. In the early 19th century, many people were driven out of the local area by hunger and also went to South America . In 1827, emigrants from Idar-Oberstein discovered

4760-429: Was being infringed, and the municipal league's vitality was being jeopardized. Thus, Weierbach, Georg-Weierbach, Nahbollenbach, Mittelbollenbach and Kirchenbollenbach were, with immediate effect, demerged from the town and reinstated as self-administering municipalities. After bitter arguments between the town of Idar-Oberstein together with the amalgamation supporters on the one side and the Amt of Weierbach together with

4830-399: Was decided by the district assembly ( Kreistag ) that Idar-Oberstein's amalgamation policy, which was deemed to be reckless, should be censured. Since a certain disenchantment with all these amalgamations had meanwhile set in both in the outlying centres and in the town of Idar-Oberstein itself, all further initiatives either got nowhere or were shelved. Idar-Oberstein has its connections with

4900-569: Was now bereft of its core municipalities. In April 1970, the Amt of Weierbach lodged a constitutional grievance with the Verfassungsgerichtshof Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate Constitutional Court), which ruled on 8 July 1970 that the state law for administrative simplification in Rhineland-Palatinate was in parts unconstitutional. The right to self-administration of the Amt of Weierbach, it furthermore ruled,

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