Antiquity It is likely that the area around what is now Neunkirchen was settled in
prehistoric times, though heaps of spoil within the municipal area likelier stem from mining than ancient gravedigging. According to a report in the
Westrichkalender Kusel, a stone knife was found in a garden near the church at some unspecified time in the past. From
Roman times comes a
Jupiter Column that was unearthed in the cadastral area known as Lanzweiler. Furthermore, an old wall found underneath the village itself might be Roman in origin.
Middle Ages According to the old border descriptions of the
Remigiusland, Neunkirchen am Potzberg lay outside this holding of the
Bishopric of Reims in the Westrich, and thus in the Free
Imperial Domain (
Reichsland), which stretched out over a broad swath of land around Castle Lautern. Just when Neunkirchen arose as a village is very hard to determine, but it was likely founded only in the 10th century.
Ernst Christmann was of the opinion that a church that
Otto the Great gave the
Worms Cathedral Foundation in 937 as a donation was none other than the church in Neunkirchen am Potzberg. This opinion, though, is contradicted by historians today. Researchers M. Dolch and A. Greule, for example, hold that the church in question was the one in a place called Neunkirchen southeast of
Kübelberg, known as “Neuenkirchen” in contrast to “
Altenkirchen” (
neu and
alt are
German for “new” and “old” respectively). They base their thesis on the assertion that the said church appears several times in documents from the 10th century, and that its location was more thoroughly described, as in 956 when it was described as being in a forest near the
Cheuilinbahc (a brook now called the Kohlbach, and also likely the old name for Kübelberg, but certainly not for Schwedelbach). Therefore, Neunkirchen am Potzberg cannot be the same place as the Neunkirchen in the 937 document as was claimed by so many historians in days gone by (Widder, Frey and Gümbel among others). As early as the 15th century, this village in what is now the southern Kusel district was given up. Furthermore, Neunkirchen am Potzberg must also be distinguished from
Neunkirchen an der Nahe, which like
Medard was held by the
Bishops of Verdun. Any reference to this relationship that crops up in a document about “Neunkirchen” must always have to do with Neunkirchen an der Nahe. In view of all these revisions to the body of knowledge about “Neunkirchen”, Neunkirchen am Potzberg's first documentary mention must be considered to be a 1329 document kept at the Munich Main State Archive (
Hauptstaatsarchiv München), which contains the wording “
zu Nunkyrchen”. According to this document, Count Georg I of
Veldenz delivered to Dietrich Schwinde von Rittersdorf 100 pounds in
Heller to be paid out of a comital estate near Neunkirchen am Potzberg. About this estate, which was called
Horreys gut, nothing further is known. The Count may have owned an estate in the still free
Reichsland from which he drew income to pay his
vassals. The free
Reichsland was then, in the earlier half of the 14th century, pledged to various regional lords. Neunkirchen am Potzberg thus passed in 1345 along with all the villages in the
Amt of Reichenbach as an Imperial pledge to the
Counts of Veldenz. While it is still not quite certain as to whether the 1329 document indeed deals with Neunkirchen am Potzberg when it refers to
Horreys gut, it can be so assumed with certainty by what appears in a further documentary mention. This deals with a 1393 letter granting a
widow's estate from Count Friedrich of Veldenz, which is reprinted in the
Acta Academiae Theodoro-Palatinae. Yet another mention of Neunkirchen from late in Veldenz times is to be found in a 1430 document, according to which Siegfried Blick von Lichtenberg bequeathed to his wife Katharina money from, among other places, Neunkirchen in the amount of 2 pounds in Heller. It is clear that this means Neunkirchen am Potzberg from the addition of the phrase “
in dem Konigrych” – “in the kingdom”. The
Reichsland still existed, even if the king had pledged it. In 1444, the County of Veldenz met its end when Count Friedrich III of Veldenz died without a male heir. His daughter
Anna wed
King Ruprecht's son
Count Palatine Stephan. By uniting his own Palatine holdings with the now otherwise heirless County of Veldenz – his wife had inherited the county, but not her father's title – and by redeeming the hitherto pledged County of Zweibrücken, Stephan founded a new County Palatine, as whose comital residence he chose the town of
Zweibrücken: the County Palatine – later Duchy – of
Palatinate-Zweibrücken. It is likely that throughout the
Middle Ages, only a few houses stood around the church, only the rectory and the estate with various outbuildings. Likely more heavily settled was the now vanished village of Lanzweiler, lying somewhat lower down than Neunkirchen.
Modern times In 1543, Count Palatine and later Duke
Wolfgang of Zweibrücken transferred to his uncle
Ruprecht lands for the founding of his own county palatine. Belonging to it were
Veldenz on the
Moselle,
Lauterecken and later also the County of Veldenz-Lützelstein in
Alsace. The
Imperial pledged domains of the
Ämter of Reichenbach and Jettenbach and also the
Remigiusberg hill in the
Remigiusland were grouped into this new county palatine, and along with them, the village of Neunkirchen. The County Palatine of Veldenz-Lauterecken-Lützelstein met its end in the late 17th century when the last Count Palatine died. Then, a years-long dispute arose between the
Electorate of the Palatinate and the Duchy of
Palatinate-Zweibrücken, who both claimed the right of succession in Palatinate-Veldenz. The dispute was settled in 1733 with the Veldenz Succession Treaty of
Mannheim, under whose terms the
Ämter of Veldenz and Lauterecken passed wholly to the Electorate of the Palatinate, and the former Palatine-Veldenz
Amt of Lauterecken was permanently given the status of an Electorate of the Palatinate
Oberamt, after it had already been occupied by the Electorate of the Palatinate troops in 1697 anyway. Neunkirchen am Potzberg thus became an Electorate of the Palatinate holding. Towards the end of the old
feudal age, the Electorate of the Palatinate
geographer and
historiographer Johann Goswin Widder wrote the following about the village of Neunkirchen am Potzberg: “Neunkirchen, a handsome village lying three quarters of an hour westwards from
Reichenbach on the Potzberg, is held to be the
Nuninchirichaa (archaic name form for
Neunkirchen) where
King Otto donated a main church … as early as the year 936 to the
Worms Cathedral Foundation. About
Nuinchiricha, however, two other places that bear the name
Nunkirch, and which also belong to the
Nahegau must be considered … Now, this village has two churches, 63 houses, which are occupied by 63 families. The municipal area is made up of 880
Morgen of cropland, 186
Morgen of meadows, 326
Morgen of forest.”
Recent times During the time of the
French Revolution and the
Napoleonic era that followed, the German lands on the
Rhine’s left bank were annexed by France. With the new political arrangement and within the new boundaries, Neunkirchen am Potzberg found itself in the
Mairie (“Mayoralty”) of Neunkirchen, the
Canton of Wolfstein, the
Arrondissement of Kaiserslautern and the
Department of
Mont-Tonnerre (or Donnersberg in
German) whose seat was at
Mainz. After
French rule, the
Congress of Vienna drew new boundaries yet again. After a transitional time, Neunkirchen am Potzberg was grouped into the
bayerischer Rheinkreis, later known as
Rheinpfalz (“Rhenish Palatinate”), an exclave of the
Kingdom of Bavaria in 1816, where it was the seat of a
Bürgermeisterei (“mayoralty”) at first within the
Landcommissariat (today
Landkreis or district) of Kusel and the Canton of Wolfstein. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the
Nazi Party (NSDAP) became quite popular in Neunkirchen am Potzberg. In the
1928 Reichstag elections, none of the local votes went to
Adolf Hitler’s party, but by the
1930 Reichstag elections, this had grown to 7.4%. By the time of the
1933 Reichstag elections, after Hitler had already
seized power, local support for the Nazis had swollen to 43.3%. Hitler’s success in these elections paved the way for his
Enabling Act of 1933 (
Ermächtigungsgesetz), thus starting the
Third Reich in earnest. The
Bürgermeisterei remained in force until administrative and regional reform in 1968. Belonging to this mayoralty were, besides Neunkirchen itself, the villages of
Föckelberg and
Oberstaufenbach, and until 1825
Mühlbach, too. Since 2018, Neunkirchen am Potzberg has been an
Ortsgemeinde within the
Verbandsgemeinde of Kusel-Altenglan. The municipality marked its 675-year jubilee (since the 1329 first documentary mention) in 2004.
Population development Those living in Neunkirchen were originally mostly farmers and forestry workers, and at times miners who worked the Potzberg’s
quicksilver pits. The number of inhabitants in the early 19th century was about as high as it is today, but in the mid 19th century, it broke the 500 level, only to shrink again to a level of 439 at the outbreak of the
Second World War. After the war, the population at first rose again with the arrival of
ethnic Germans driven out of Germany’s former eastern territories, but then about 1960 shrank again, only to rise once again. This new growth owed itself to the village’s proximity to the towns of
Kaiserslautern and
Kusel. Over the last few years, there has been stagnation in population growth. The original commercial relationships have over time undergone a significant shift. There are very few farms left, which has led to a population turnover characterized by older, long established families’ younger members moving away and new families moving in. Many people in the workforce nowadays earn livelihoods outside the village,
commuting mainly to Kaiserslautern and Kusel. The following table shows population development over the centuries for Neunkirchen am Potzberg, with some figures broken down by religious denomination: • This figure is the number of families.
Municipality’s name Within Germany, there are 17 places bearing the name Neunkirchen, not counting all the places bearing the name that have been forsaken over the ages. Relevant to this article are the
Neunkirchen on the upper
Nahe and a vanished village in the
Schönenberg-Kübelberg area, and to a lesser extent, the town of
Neunkirchen in the
Saarland. As a rule, this placename means “new church” (
neue Kirche in
German), and not “nine churches” (
neun Kirchen) as might be supposed. This may be so in Neunkirchen am Potzberg's case: a village arose near a country church that was built on the site of an older church (thus making it “new”). As discussed above, it is highly questionable whether the
Nuinchiricha mentioned in
Otto the Great's 937 document is the same one that stood in this village. There is, however, no doubt that the following are names borne by Neunkirchen am Potzberg over the ages:
Nunkyrchen (1329),
Nunkirchen (1393),
Nuekirchen (1460), Neunkirchen (1524).
Vanished villages Within what are now Neunkirchen am Potzberg's limits once supposedly lay a village called Landsweiler, although as far as is known currently, there is no documentary proof of its former existence. While there were originally only a few houses around the “new church” that gave Neunkirchen its name, Landsweiler was supposedly Neunkirchen's actual village core. According to this version of events, it was only after the
Thirty Years' War that newcomers settling in the area around the church and others giving up the old village core combined to form the village core at the site where it can still be found today, and essentially formed the village of Neunkirchen as it is today. Another vanished village within Neunkirchen am Potzberg's limits is said to have been one called Einöd, named in 1393 as
Einode. This is believed to have actually been little more than an out-of-the-way homestead. ==Religion==