Raumbach

Raumbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Meisenheim, whose seat is in the like-named town. Raumbach is a linear village (by some definitions, a “thorpe”) that lies between Meisenheim and Rehborn on the left (west) side of the lower Glan valley in a part of the North Palatine Uplands characterized mainly by cropfields and woodland. This landscape is part of the Glan-Alsenz Uplands and comprises the southern part of the Bad Kreuznach district with its picturesquely arranged low mountain range, which is also rich in waterbodies. A variety of landforms from hills and dales, some more pronounced than others, to steep slopes and others that are not quite as steep can be found, along with frequent changes from cropfields and meadows on the one hand to woods on the other. Raumbach sits at an elevation of 160 m above sea level. Clockwise from the north, Raumbach's neighbours are the municipalities of Abtweiler and Rehborn, the town of Meisenheim, and the municipalities of Desloch and Lauschied, although it touches the last at only one point. All these places likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district. It is unknown when the first settlers came to the Raumbach valley, nor is it even known what tribe they belonged to. Archaeological finds from the time of the Celtic habitation of the Glan-Nahe region have led to the conclusion that even a few centuries before the Christian Era, there were people living in scattered homesteads here. There were no longer any nomads, but rather settled farmers who worked the land, raised livestock and understood how to make themselves articles for everyday use from bronze, iron and clay. To defend themselves against the unending threat of invasion by Germanic peoples from the east, they built refuge castles girded by ringwalls on mountaintops. One such ringwall supposedly stood on the Raumberg above what is now the village.