While the two former municipalities may have had many commonalities, their territorial histories on the other hand went two quite different ways. Both centres can look back on a more than 650-year-long history. Indeed, the first documentary mention came in 1355. The village's foremost landmark is the belltower mentioned above.
Antiquity As far back as
prehistoric times there were people in the area that is now Steinbach am Glan, as clearly witnessed by
archaeological finds made within municipal limits. As early as the 19th century,
stone axes were being found, which have now all gone missing. Also dating from the
Stone Age is a
barrow in what was once Frutzweiler's municipal area. A row of six untouched barrows from the late
Hallstatt culture stretches along the ridge of the Steinberg as far as the municipal limit with Henschtal. Three further barrows stand on the Schnepfenrech in the south of the municipal area, of which one lies within Börsborn's limits. It is unknown to what epoch these barrows belong. The area was also inhabited in
Gallo-Roman times. In 1904, a grave within Steinbach's limits was opened, bringing to light
grave goods such as four clay vessels containing ashes, four rings and two needles. These finds might have been from Gallo-Roman times. A stone lion found within Steinbach's limits is now kept at the
Historisches Museum der Pfalz (Historic Museum of the Palatinate) in
Speyer. From the Altenwald (forest) once led a
Roman road over to somewhere near
Wahnwegen; it supposedly had a breadth of six metres.
Middle Ages Because the Steinbach and the Henschbach formed the border between the
Remigiusland and the Hornbach Monastery's holdings in the Münchweiler valley, Steinbach's and Frutzweiler's paths through history were utterly unalike. From the
Imperial Domain (
Reichsland) around Castle Lautern, kings split certain parcels off to donate them to various ecclesiastical and secular lordships. Great parts passed into
Salian hands. Count Werner I of this dynasty endowed the Hornbach Monastery in 737, whose first abbot was
Saint Pirmin. The Count bestowed a great many estates and landholds upon the monastery, including the Münchweiler valley, where Steinbach lay. As a fief from the Hornbach Monastery with its centre at
Glan-Münchweiler, all this area's villages passed first in 1323 to the
Raugraves in the
Nahegau, and thereafter, in 1344, to the Archbishop of
Trier and the Breidenborns in 1388. In connection with the Münchweiler valley, the village of Steinbach and the now vanished village of Frensweiler were both mentioned repeatedly, although the latter was mentioned earlier. A man named Conradus de Vrodenswilre was mentioned as far back as 1313 in the family Mauchenheim's
cartulary, while a village named Frinßwiller was named in 1419 in the family Breidenborn's cartulary. In the
Weistum from 1456, a one
Clais von Frynswillr crops up as a witness, and in a further 1461
Weistum from Glan-Münchweiler, someone who is likely the same man crops up again as
Claz von Frinßwiller (a
Weistum –
cognate with
English wisdom – was a legal pronouncement issued by men learned in law in the
Middle Ages and early modern times). The Lords of Frenzweiler may have been considered lower nobility in their own time. In 1355, Steinbach had its first documentary mention in a border description of the
Remigiusland; it was mentioned again in the 1419 document mentioned above, and then again in a 1541
Weistum (also a border description). The modern spelling was used, although much of the text used spellings that would now be considered archaic; the spelling used for Frensweiler, on the other hand, was
Frntzweiler. Through Georg I von der Leyen's marriage to Eva von Mauchenheim in 1456, the
House of Leyen came into possession of the
Bliesgau and also, by hereditary accession in 1486, of a share in the
Blieskastel castle. At the same time, Abbot Ulrich of the Hornbach Monastery granted Jörge von der Leyen, a
Burgmann of Castle Lautern, the Münchweiler valley. The Lords of Leyen had their roots in the
lower Moselle area, and by the
High Middle Ages, they already resided at their castle near
Gondorf on the Moselle. They were mostly in the service of the Archbishop of Trier, and Johann von der Leyen-Saffig was even chosen to fill that office in 1556. Alongside the Leyens, their kin, the Mauchenheims took turns being enfeoffed with parts of the monastery's holdings in the Münchweiler valley, but as of 1533, only the Barons – later Counts – of Leyen were fiefholders there. While Steinbach and Frensweiler eventually lay within the landholds granted the Leyens by the monastery, Frutzweiler lay in the
Remigiusland, which was held by the
Abbey of Saint-Remi in
Reims, and which was also given in 1112 to the
Counts of Veldenz as a
Vogtei. This put the village in the County of Veldenz. Frutzweiler coincidentally had its first documentary mention in the same 1355 border description as Steinbach (
see above), and was mentioned again in a 1387 document from the
Counts of Sponheim. A man named Baldewin von Frutzweiler stood in the late 15th century as the Burgmann at
Lichtenberg Castle. According to a 1391 document, Count Friedrich III of Veldenz enfeoffed this Baldewin with a rental income of 8 pounds in Lichtenberg currency. In 1397, Baldewin still appeared among the Burgmannen at Lichtenberg Castle. In 1402, Count Friedrich confirmed for him that this rental income could be bequeathed to his offspring. Baldewin had two sons, who were likewise mentioned in documents in the years still to come. One was named Tilman and the other Baldwin after his father. Tilman, too, was in the castle's service as a Junker. In 1414, he confirmed that he was entitled to the same rental income of eight
Gulden as his now late father. The younger Baldwin, Tilman's brother, now appeared in the record under the name Baldewin von Zweibrücken. He, too, lived as a Junker at Lichtenberg Castle, and according to a 1441 document, received a rental income of 8 pounds in
Heller. This younger Baldewin was married to Jutta von Wadenau, whom he granted his Lichtenberg Castle fief in 1441, a deed confirmed by Count Friedrich III. 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. From 1444 on, Frutzweiler thus lay in this state.
Modern times Until the
French Revolution, the local lordly relations did not change very much. Steinbach lay in the Leyens’ Münchweiler valley while Trahweiler lay in the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken. As a matter of principle, there were good ties between Zweibrücken and the Counts of Leyen. According to a church Visitation protocol, there were 48 people living in Frutzweiler in 1609: 10 men, 11 women, 26 children and one manservant. Frutzweiler then already belonged to the parish of Quirnbach. Corresponding figures for Steinbach from that time are unavailable. Both villages were heavily stricken by the events of the
Thirty Years' War and the
Plague. Only a few survived the war. Repopulation followed. A few years after the Thirty Years' War, the Leyens began to expand their holdings to the rivers
Blies,
Saar and
Glan. The villages of the Münchweiler valley within this widely scattered landhold were grouped together as an
Unteramt of the whole lordship. Only in 1773 did the comital couple of Franz Karl von der Leyen and Marianne
née Dalberg move the residence from
Koblenz to
Blieskastel. After Count Franz Karl's death in 1775, his wife Marianne assumed the regency for their young son Philipp. When Blieskastel was
occupied by
French Revolutionary troops, the Countess managed to flee and, with some support, get herself first to Koblenz and later to
Frankfurt. Under
Napoleon’s rule, the Leyens were allowed to have their personal holdings back. Both villages, Steinbach and Frutzweiler, at the time of
French rule after 1801 belonged to the
Department of
Sarre, whose capital was at
Trier. Steinbach belonged to the
Canton of Waldmohr, the
Arrondissement of Saarbrücken and the
Mairie (“Mayoralty”) of Glan-Münchweiler, while Frutzweiler belonged to the Canton of Kusel, the Arrondissement of Birkenfeld and the
Mairie of Quirnbach.
Recent times In 1814, the French were driven out from the Rhine's left bank. After a transitional period, the
Bavarian Rheinkreis – an
exclave of the Kingdom of Bavaria – was founded in 1816. This was later called the
Rheinpfalz (“Rhenish Palatinate”). The administrative entities that had come into being during French Revolutionary and later
Napoleonic times had to be reorganized. While Frutzweiler remained in the
Bürgermeisterei (“Mayoralty”) of Quirnbach and in the
Landkommissariat of Kusel, Steinbach now belonged to the
Bürgermeisterei of Glan-Münchweiler in the Canton of Waldmohr in the
Landkommissariat of Homburg. The homestead of Neumühle in Steinbach's west, originally part of the municipality, was merged with
Brücken. A Steinbach inhabitant, Isidor Triefus, brought the craft of
diamond cutting to the Western
Palatinate in 1888, thereby laying the groundwork for the region's economic upswing in the earlier half of the 20th century. When
Homburg was grouped into the autonomous
Saar area after the
First World War, the Canton of Waldmohr remained with the newly formed Free State of Bavaria – the
Kaiser had been overthrown and so had the
Bavarian king – and thereby with
Weimar Germany. The canton belonged to the
Bezirksamt of Kusel with an administrative branch of its own, which it retained until 1940, whereafter the Canton of Waldmohr was administered directly from Kusel. Thus, Steinbach belonged to the Kusel district, but remained part of the
Bürgermeisterei of Glan-Münchweiler. On 31 July 1934, the last horse-drawn postal coach in the Palatinate made its last trip, between
Glan-Münchweiler and Steinbach. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the
Nazi Party (NSDAP) became quite popular in Steinbach am Glan. In the
1928 Reichstag elections, 1.3% of the local votes went to
Adolf Hitler’s party, but by the
1930 Reichstag elections, this had grown to 4.2%. By the time of the
1933 Reichstag elections, after Hitler had already
seized power, local support for the Nazis had swollen to 44.3%. Hitler's success in these elections paved the way for his
Enabling Act of 1933 (
Ermächtigungsgesetz), thus starting the
Third Reich in earnest. The last colliery in Rhineland-Palatinate was in Steinbach am Glan; it was closed in 1959. In the course of administrative restructuring in
Rhineland-Palatinate, Glan-Münchweiler became the seat of a
Verbandsgemeinde in 1972 into which both the municipality's current centres were grouped. Steinbach am Glan had already been newly formed on 7 June 1969 from the municipal areas of Frutzweiler and Steinbach as part of this administrative restructuring. In 2005, a new building area was opened.
Jewish history An almost 300-year-old
Jewish history permeates the municipality. As early as 1725, the first
synagogue in a country municipality was built here. Steinbach was the hub of Jewish life in the south of what is now the Kusel district; in 1848, out of 217 inhabitants in the village, more than one third were Jewish. There is now a small Jewish Museum in Steinbach.
Population development As can still be recognized today in the construction technique of the older parts of both Steinbach am Glan's centres, a great number of the villagers in the 19th century made their living from
agriculture. There were also, however, many who worked the coal pits in Steinbach and other mines farther afield. In the earlier half of the 20th century, many diamond cutters lived in both villages. Considerable, too, was the Jewish share of the population, many of whom were in trade and crafts, including the diamond cutting. The number of Jewish families shrank in the latter half of the 19th century as many Jews
emigrated to the
United States. By 1933, only 35 Jews lived in the village, and under the pressure of
Adolf Hitler’s
Nazi régime, emigration accelerated. Four Jewish residents who had remained were deported to the
Gurs internment camp in the south of France in 1940, whence they were later transported to
Auschwitz; they did not survive
the Holocaust. A sharp rise in the population figures can be noted between 1800 and the middle of the 19th century, with the population doubling. At the turn of the 20th century, there was a drop in population as people emigrated or moved on. The figures, though, began to rise again, even before the First World War, and further rises can be noted down to the present day. Frutzweiler, too, saw particularly strong population growth in the early 19th century. About 1835, the population peaked, only to fall off steadily for many years afterward, rising again only after the
Second World War. The Jewish share of the population was not as high in Frutzweiler as it was in Steinbach. Nowadays, no Jews live in either centre anymore. In the course of the 20th century, ever fewer villagers earned their livelihood at agriculture, until now, this endeavour plays only a very minor role in the municipality’s economy. Today’s municipality of Steinbach am Glan is mainly a residential community for
commuters. The following tables show population development over the centuries for Steinbach am Glan, with some population counts giving a breakdown by religious affiliation. Steinbach and Frutzweiler are treated separately here up to 1971, whereafter the Steinbach table shows the figures for the now amalgamated municipality:
Steinbach Frutzweiler More than 120
United States citizens live in Steinbach am Glan.
Municipality’s names The placename ending
—bach groups Steinbach into the series of names of countless other places with the same ending that arose on brooks –
Bach still means “brook” in
German – in the course of the
Frankish taking of the land. The other part of the name,
Stein—, meaning “stone”, is a reference to stone or pebbles, perhaps those found on the brook bed. The name's pronunciation, going by its appearance in documents, has not changed since 1355. The placename ending
—weiler bears witness to Frutzweiler's beginnings as a very small settlement (
Weiler is the word for “
hamlet” in modern-day German, although it originally meant “homestead”), and the other part of the name,
Frutz—, likely means that it was founded by a man named
Fruodi. Other forms of the name that have appeared in writing over the ages are:
Frutzwilr (1378 and 1391),
Frutßwilr (1397),
Fritzwilre (1401),
Frutschwilr (1402) and
Frudeßwilre (1411).
Vanished villages A village named Frensweiler (also known in the local speech as Fröschweiler), sometimes confused with Frutzweiler, lay within Steinbach am Glan's limits near the forks of the Hodenbach and Steinbach. It had its first documentary mention in 1313 as
Vrodenswilre, later being named in further documents:
Flinßwilr (1419),
Frinswiller (1461) and
Frentzwiler (1477). The last example cropped up in Lichtenberg Castle's revenue register, thus bearing witness to the village's still being inhabited at that time. The same was not so by 1541. A
Grenzscheidweistum (a
Weistum that describes a border's alignment) explicitly describes the village as a
Wüstung, the German word for “abandoned village”. Hence, it is clear that the village was forsaken by its villagers sometime between 1477 and 1541. Frenzweiler had the same
—weiler ending as Frutzweiler, and the other part of the name,
Frenz—, derives from the Frankish personal name
Frudin. Frenzweiler was thus originally “Frudin’s hamlet”. According to local lore, there were once two other villages in the west of the municipal area, named Steinbrück and Schnepfental. These two names, however, do not show up in any old documents, although there is still a rural cadastral name, Schnepfenrech. ==Religion==