Lambdacism in the local dialect In bygone days, the local Birkenfeld dialect was marked by the peculiarity of often replacing the sounds /d/ and /t/ – and sometimes /r/ as well – with /l/, a
shift known as
lambdacism. For example, a Birkenfelder in those days would have said
Fulerlale where Standard High German would have
Futterladen (“fodder shop”). A full-sentence example can be seen in a remark made by the Birkenfeld sexton “Fuchs Karl” to the church councillor and parish priest Haag:
Jo, jo, Herr Kirjerot, pririje kann e jela, awa noch lang net loule!, or in Standard High German,
Ja, ja, Herr Kirchenrat, predigen kann ein jeder, aber noch lange nicht läuten! (“Yes, yes, Mr. Church Councillor, preaching is something anyone can do, but bellringing, not for long”). Lambdacism, though, long ago vanished from the Birkenfeld dialect, having given way to the other shift that is customary in
Hunsrückisch:
rhotacism.
Museums The
Landesmuseum des Vereins für Heimatkunde im Landkreis Birkenfeld (“State Museum of the Association for Local History in the Rural District of Birkenfeld”) offers an overview of 2,500 years of cultural history. The centrepiece is the interactively equipped Celtic experience exhibit
Kelten, Kunst und Kult erleben (“Experience
Celts,
Art and
Worship”). Here, through reconstructions, archaeological finds and replicas, these people's life is presented. Further exhibits deal with regional and territorial history of the
Birkenfelder Land. Historical highlights among these exhibits are the
High Middle Ages (13th to 15th centuries) and Oldenburg times in the Principality of Birkenfeld beginning in the early 19th century. Regularly changing exhibits deal with both historical and current themes.
Buildings The following are listed buildings or sites in
Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments: • Castle Birkenfeld, Burgstraße 17, 19, 28, 30, 32 (monumental zone) – preserved from the actual
mediaeval castle a round tower stump; from the
Renaissance complex the gatehouse (no. 17); former
Gasthaus zum ledigen Waidsack (
inn, no. 28); youth hostel, 1926, architect Wilhelm Heilig,
Darmstadt (no. 19) •
Evangelical parish church, Am Kirchplatz 4/6 –
Baroque aisleless church, five-sided quire, 1750-1756, architects
Jonas Erikson Sundahl and Johann Seiz;
Romanesque Revival west tower, 1895/1896, architect Heinrich Jester,
Speyer; bells from 1554, 1717, 1961; décor • Saint James’s
Catholic Parish Church (
Pfarrkirche St. Jacobus), Maiwiese 8 –
Gothic Revival hall church, yellow
sandstone, 1888-1890, architect Reinhold Wirtz,
Trier; tomb slab 1752; décor • Am Kirchplatz 2 – dwelling and commercial house, partly
timber-frame, marked 1808, essentially older • Am Kirchplatz 5 – Evangelical and Catholic public school; nine-axis
Baroque Revival building with
mansard roof, 1911; characterizes square’s appearance • Am Kirchplatz 11 – dwelling and (former) commercial house;
Renaissance Revival, 1881, characterizes square’s appearance • Am Rech 2 – so-called
Backhaus (“Bakehouse”); small house, partly timber-frame, partly slated, 18th or early 19th century • An der Oelmühle 4 – former mill; quarrystone building, 1580; oilmill beginning in the 1770s, expansion and higher roof 1922; technical equipment • Auf dem Römer 5 – building with half-hipped roof, partly timber-frame (with wooden shingles), marked 1723 • Auf dem Römer 6 – Baroque house, 18th century, essentially possibly older (1665?); characterizes street's and town's appearance • Auf dem Römer 9 – so-called
Kußlersches Haus; corner house, marked 1590, partly with alterations from the 19th century; characterizes town's appearance • Bahnhofstraße 2 –
Late Historicist house, hewn-stone plastered surfaces, bare timber framing, late 19th century • Bahnhofstraße 4 – corner house, partly timber-frame (slated), wooden gallery, late 18th or early 19th century; characterizes street's appearance • Brückener Straße 8 – house with saddle hipped roof, gabled dormer, 1920s/1930s • Friedrich-August-Straße 15 –
Maler-Hugo-Zang-Haus;
Neoclassical house, 1883 (see below) • Friedrich-August-Straße 17 – museum; in the forms of a
Roman country house, 1910, architect Julius Groeschel,
Munich • Across from Gollenberger Weg 3 –
cast-iron fountain, late 19th century • Hauptstraße 9 – so-called
Stadthaus (“Town House”); lavish Historicist corner building on a terrace, about 1900 • Before Hauptstraße 11 – so-called
Apothekerbrunnen (“Apothecary’s Fountain”); great cast-iron Gothic Revival complex, last fourth of the 19th century • Königsgasse 11 – dwarf house with barn under one roof, stable built on later and roof made higher • Pfarrgasse 1 – Evangelical rectory; solid bungalow, biaxial dormer, 1733 • Between Rennweg 27 and 29 – warriors’ memorial for students from the Gymnasium Betuletia who fell in the
First World War; cube upon a pedestal, steel-helmet relief, 1927, design by Wilhelm Heilig, Darmstadt • Across from Rennweg 30 – so-called
Steinernes Kreuz (“Stone Cross”);
Bildstock,
tuff, 16th century, possibly Pre-Reformation • Saarstraße 19 – stately
Quereinhaus (a combination residential and commercial house divided for these two purposes down the middle, perpendicularly to the street), latter half of the 19th century • Schadtengasse 2 – house with three-part window ensemble, marked 1838 • Schlossallee 3 – five-axis wood-shingled house, 19th century; at the south gable parts of a nursery's sunken conservatory • Schlossallee 11 and 13 –
Neues Schloss;
Classicist group around open ''
cour d'honneur'', 1819–1821, architect J. W. L. Brofft,
Frankfurt; main building with triaxial middle
risalto, round behind, a balcony-porch; décor; one-floor side building with gabled entrance facility • Schlossallee 2, 3, 5, 9, 7, 11, 15, Schneewiesenstraße 22, 25, Friedrich-August-Straße 17,
Regierungsviertel (“Governmental Quarter”; monumental zone) – in Oldenburg times, beginning in the early 19th century successively built buildings in the angle formed by Schneewiesenstraße and Friedrich-August-Straße including palatial castle (
Schloss), barracks, prison, Government Building II, forester's office, museum and
Gymnasium headmaster's house • Schneewiesenstraße 3 – so-called
Pirmannsches Haus; elegant Classicist building, three-floor gabled risalto, 1859 • Schneewiesenstraße 22 – former infantry barracks; so-called
Altes Gymnasium, nine-axis Classicist plastered building, 1842/1843 • Schneewiesenstraße 25 – third Oldenburg public authority building; Baroque Revival building with mansard roof, three-floor gabled risalto, 1912 • Wasserschiederstraße 1 – corner house, partly slated, round behind, a sided gallery, hipped mansard roof, 1767, shop built in about 1900; characterizes town's appearance • Wasserschiederstraße 2/4 – double house on a high base, entrance gateway, marked 1791 • Wasserschiederstraße 6 – former inn with
brewery; sandstone quarrystone building, marked 1897 • Wasserschiederstraße 7 – house, partly timber-frame (plastered), possibly from the early 19th century • Wasserschiederstraße 16 – great house with stable facilities, mid 19th century • Behind Wasserschiederstraße 47 –
dovecote; small wooden building, cross-shaped roof with lantern, latter half of the 19th century • Wasserschiederstraße 49 – building with hipped roof, country house style, about 1910, roofed gallery to side building in the garden • Graveyard, Brückener Straße (monumental zone) – laid out in 1810; Gothic Revival
chapel, about 1850; grave cross 1769, on pedestal about 1900; memorial to the fallen 1870/1871; two elegant family graves (Eduard and Richard Böcking's families); family Scherer's tomb, 1920s •
Jewish graveyard, southeast of the town, on the road to
Dambach (monumental zone) – 34 grave steles
in situ, from 1898 and later
Maler-Zang-Haus Right next to the Birkenfeld State Museum is the
Maler-Zang-Haus (“Painter Zang House”). The house, built in 1883 in the bourgeois Classicist style, is where the painter Hugo Zang (1858–1946) once lived. In 2006, restoration work began in an effort to bring the house up to a standard worthy of monumental protection. Since 2008, the building has housed not only the Birkenfeld district
folk high school but also seven gallery rooms for changing exhibitions of works by local and national artists. ==Economy and infrastructure==