Jettenbach () is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district which belongs to the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde Lauterecken-Wolfstein.
Geography
Location Topographically, the municipality lies in the North Palatine Uplands. The original village of Jettenbach grew in the valley of an eponymous brook, the Jettenbach, from which it took its name. Quite early on, a mediaeval regular route linking Landstuhl to Trier following the nearby ridge running parallel to the brook was established as a roadway. To the south of the village rises the Spannagelberg (449.5 m above sea level) and to the north, the Potschberg (formerly 492 m above sea level). South of the village, the Rutzenbach and the Selchenbach streams flow together to form the Jettenbach, which then flows north through the village, later emptying into the Talbach, another stream near Eßweiler. To the southeast, the ridge of the Imberg (almost 450 m above sea level) borders the valley. The village's average elevation is reckoned at 355.6 m above sea level. The municipality covers 1 025 ha, of which 69 ha is used for dwelling or transport, 593 ha is under agricultural use and 322 ha is made up of meadows or woodland.Location
Neighbouring municipalities Jettenbach is bordered on its north by the municipality of Eßweiler, in the east by the municipality of Rothselberg, in the southeast by the municipality of Kollweiler, in the southwest by the municipality of Reichenbach-Steegen, and in the west by the municipality of Bosenbach.
Constituent communities Also belonging to Jettenbach are the outlying homesteads listed below. They are all Aussiedlerhöfe (agricultural settlements) established after the Second World War to increase food production.
+ Jettenbach's AussiedlerhöfeConstituent communities Riding stable since 1995 Still worked Livestock raising until 2004;now cropraising, meadowsand reforestation
Municipality’s layout Jettenbach is a former farming village, and also one of the villages known for Musikantentum, an industry that formerly sent local musicians all over the world. The village also had regional craft businesses. In earlier times, the village displayed two types of layout depending on whether one viewed it from the east end or the west, with the former layout like a clump village and the latter like a linear village (or by some definitions, a "thorpe"). Rising above the village centre on a small hillock is the Evangelical village parish church, built in 1895-1896, which, owing to the great many Wandermusikanten ("travelling musicians") at one time, is also widely known as the Musikantendom ("Musicians’ Cathedral", although it is not a bishop's seat). Next to it stands the Art Nouveau Leonhard Villa, known in Jettenbach as the Schlösschen ("Little Palace"). In 1989, the new village square with its Musikantenbrunnen – a fountain dedicated to the musicians of yore – was completed at the heart of the village. At the south end of the village, a community recreation area has been under development since 1978. It has a swimming pool (first established by the Nazis in the 1930s), a grass sports ground, and two clay tennis courts. Accompanying the new village primary school is a multipurpose community centre for school sports and other leisure activities. Still in its planning stages is an expansion of a disused rural pathway which is to be repurposed as an educational nature walk with a dry stone wall, featuring various portions of its length in different conditions to host a variety of flora and fauna for visitors to observe.
The local cemetery lies on the way out of the village going towards Bosenbach on the left side of the road.
Today Jettenbach is a bedroom and recreational community with only a few local jobs.
In 1714, an Erbbestandsbrief (document establishing a hereditary trading place)(Erbbestand is a uniquely German land tenure arrangement in which ownership rights and usage rights are separated; this is forbidden by law in modern Germany) was first issued for a small mill north of the village. This mill was refurbished before 1800 and expanded with a farming operation. It never had anything more than local importance, though, because there was only ever enough water to drive it in the winter months. The mill closed about 1930, and torn down in 1958-1959.Municipality’s layout
History
Antiquity Evidence of local inhabitants in and around Jettenbach includes almost every period back to the Stone Age. Of particular note is a settlement hub from the Middle Stone Age which was archaeologically surveyed and analysed over several years. For centuries, Stone Age people camped along the ridge east of the "Witthau" forest. One archaeological find witnessing their presence, a small-bladed knife dates from the late Old Stone Age. At the same site, which was visited several times in the early 1990s, artefacts mainly from the Middle Stone Age were excavated. Only sporadic items were found to date from the New Stone Age.
From the Bronze Age and the Iron Age come the remnants of barrows in the Jungenwald (woods) between Jettenbach and Kollweiler. Little of these mounds’ contents survives. Among the remnants, however, are an axe and a sacrificial blade. Discovered on the Wingertsberg (mountain) was a grave field dated to early Roman times. On the peak of the Potschberg, now been stripped away by stone quarrying, the remnants of a mountain sanctuary from the 2nd or 3rd century AD (Roman period) were found in 1965. Three Roman-era homesteads lay within Jettenbach's current limits with others are suspected. Quite a few coins from the first to the fourth centuries A.D. have been unearthed locally as a result of land surveys along with water pipes and a 5 cm-tall 2nd-century bronze figure of the god Mercury.
Two settlement complexes were examined in greater detail. By 1960, a settlement was found on the municipality's western border with Bosenbach, and an archaeological dig was undertaken. Unearthed here were wall remnants, waste, clay waterpipes and pieces of little heating pipes, leading investigators to conclude that it was a settlement from the 2nd and 3rd centuries. A more thorough investigation was completed at the settlement complex on the Trautmannsberg (or Trautelsberg, but, in either case, a mountain). Here, in 2002-2003, preparations to lay a long-distance gas pipeline facilitated an intensive investigation of the designated ground area. The site proved to house a remarkably large complex of Roman structures over what was a possible temple zone and a villa rustica, accompanied by many outbuildings. An adjoining area of about one hectare was placed under a protection order.
The pipeline route excavations revealed building work from Celtic forerunner buildings, including remnants of posts from pit-houses. In 1995, an urn graveyard from the early Roman period was found to have existed on the Wingertsberg (mountain).Antiquity
After the Roman withdrawal, the current Jettenbach area was uninhabited for several centuries. Only at Frankish takeover did people settle the area once again.
Middle Ages
History is silent as to the precise date of Jettenbach's establishment. It is believed to date to before the year 1000, but is first mentioned in a document from 1348 (a full transcription of the document in question, in archaic German, can be found in the German article). At that time, Jettenbach belonged to the extensive area of the Reichsland ("Imperial Land") near Kaiserslautern, which was already subdivided into separate court districts (Gerichte). Jettenbach belonged to the Gericht (or Amt) of Deinsberg (Theißberg). Later, this Amt was described as the Schultheißerei (judicial district) of Reichenbach, and for a time also as the Jettenbacher Gericht. This may well have something to do with where the Schultheiß’s seat was at any given time.
Another document, from 1393, shows that the village once compromised two centres, Obergittenbach and Niedergittenbach. The latter is today's village. The location of the first is, however, as yet uncertain. According to oral tradition, it lay at the forks of the Rutzenbach and the Selchenbach, the municipality's two brooks.
From the first half of the 14th century, the Gericht of Deinsberg belonged to the Counts of Veldenz. At the time, two brothers, Count Heinrich III and Count Friedrich II, divided their holdings, with the village and its Amt seat and associated villages passing to the former. In the letters patent bestowing these holdings upon Count Friedrich III, however, Jettenbach was part of the combined Amt of Reichenbach and Deinsberg, and was split into Ober-Gittenbach and Nieder-Gittenbach. After the Counts of Veldenz died out in 1444, the village, along with the rest of the Amt of Reichenbach, passed to the Dukes of Palatinate-Zweibrücken.Middle Ages
Modern times In 1543, Jettenbach passed to the newly formed Principality of Palatinate-Veldenz, headquartered at Lauterecken, with its princely Residenz (and hence, the principality was also known as Veldenz-Lauterecken). Clearer details of village history only emerge from this time.
The Thirty Years' War spelt disaster for Jettenbach, as for so many villages. Given the village's location some way off the military roads, it was possible, if only temporarily, for people to remain there. Due to various factors, it appears, however, that the village was largely destroyed, and that three quarters of the local population fell victim to the war or consequent disease. Refugees sought safety within the walls of Lauterecken, the princely family's residence town.
War's end saw the influx of new settlers to the village to make up for these losses as is witnessed by names in documents. These new villagers intermarried with surviving locals. All soon had to share the ravages of war occasioned by fresh hostilities.
French King Louis XIV's wars of conquest brought the villagers such woe that at times things were as bad as they had been in the Thirty Years' War. The princely House of Veldenz was powerless to do anything about these privations.
In 1694, the princely house's last male dynast died in Strasbourg. From his death arose a dispute between the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken and the Electorate of the Palatinate as to who was his rightful heir and inheritor of his former domains. The Elector Palatine's troops quickly occupied the Amt of Lauterecken and the Schultheißerei of Reichenbach after the French withdrawal in 1697. The succession struggle, however, was not resolved until 1733.
After centuries of war, disease, and hardship, only in the early 18th century did Jettenbach reach its former size. But by then the villagers had already begun to turn their backs on it. As early as 1708-1709, one Jettenbach family had left the village for fresh opportunities in America. In the late 18th century, many individuals and families sought better incomes in the Danube Monarchy and Russia.
In a compromise between the two princely houses competing to inherit the locality, it was agreed that, from 1733, Jettenbach would be ceded permanently to the Electorate of the Palatinate. This arrangement, however, did not long endure. From the turn of the nineteenth century, French Revolutionary intervention swept away the arrangements of historical ruling class and with it their traditional lordship over Jettenbach. This period, and the Napoleonic era which followed it saw the region under French rule for a further period.Modern times
Recent times During the years of the French Revolution, the Mairie ("mayoralty") of Jettenbach comprised the villages of Albersbach, Eulenbis, Jettenbach, Kollweiler and Pörrbach. Under the French, the mayoralty belonged to the French canton of Wolfstein, the arrondissement of Kaiserslautern, and the department of Mont-Tonnerre (or Donnersberg in German).