Name At the time of Stipshausen's first documentary mention, the village's name was
Stebeshusen. This changed over the centuries to
Stibshusen,
Steibshausen and, by 1850,
Stiebshausen before settling on the current name. It seems likely that different spellings existed alongside each other at times, for although the first
topographic map compiled by the
Prussians in 1850 featured the spelling
Stiebshausen, the
Napoleonic
French authorities only a few decades earlier had used the modern spelling.
Prehistory and early history Several
barrows within municipal limits show that the area was settled quite early on. The most important
archaeological finds, however, stem from
Roman times. Where today the road leads out of the village – near the playground – once stood a
villa rustica. Unearthed nearby was a
Jupiter Column.
Middle Ages In 1334, Stipshausen had its first documentary mention in a church document as
Stebeshusen. In the middle of this old document is the granting of an
indulgence, which apparently had something to do with the building of the new, but now vanished, Saint Anthony's
Chapel. A first documentary mention nevertheless has nothing much to do with a village's actual age. A clearer indication of that is contained in the name itself. The ending
—hausen (originally
—husen) dates the village's founding to the time about the year 1000 when the
Franks were settling the land. In the
Late Middle Ages, the village was made up of two centres:
Stebeshusen lay on the Kehrbach's left bank and belonged to the
high court region of Rhaunen, and over on the other side lay
Smer(le)bach, which had its first documentary mention in 1325, and which formed together with the village of
Asbach a court region of its own. Upon the 1515 partition of the
Waldgraviate-Rhinegraviate, Smerlebach, which was also known as the court region of Stipshausen, passed to the Waldgraves and Rhinegraves of Kyrburg and thereafter belonged to the
Amt of Wildenburg. Stipshauen, on the other hand, remained with the
Amt and high court region of Rhaunen. The lordship was shared between the Waldgraves and Rhinegraves of Dhaun and the
Electorate of Trier, with three-fourths to the former and one-fourth to the latter. In 1515, there were 15 families living in Stipshausen.
Modern times Smerlebach was from 1619 to 1706 pledged to the family Schenk von Schmidtburg. It was later held as a pledged estate by the
widowed
Margravine Louise of
Nassau-Saarbrücken (1686-1773). When the French reorganized the administration in the lands that they occupied in 1798, Stipshausen and Smerlebach were presumably united. In 1805, the population amounted to 206, reaching 336 by 1820. After Stipshausen passed to
Prussia in 1815 as a result of the
Congress of Vienna, it belonged to the
Bürgermeisterei (“Mayoralty”) of Rhaunen in the Bernkastel district, which in turn was in the
Regierungsbezirk of Trier. In the village itself lived many day labourers and craftsmen, above all bricklayers. In the course of administrative restructuring in
Rhineland-Palatinate in 1969 and 1970, Stipshausen was grouped into the
Verbandsgemeinde Herrstein-Rhaunen in the
Birkenfeld district.
Ecclesiastical history In 1334, Johann von Basenheim,
Burgmann at the
Schmidtburg, and his wife Getza endowed a
chapel in Stipshauen. Saint Anthony's Chapel (
Antonius-Kapelle) was at first tended by a rector from
Rhaunen who was independent of any monastery or lordship. In 1504,
Archbishop of Mainz Berthold split the chapel away from Rhaunen and raised it to parish church with all attendant rights. The right to nominate parish priests alternated between the family Schenk von Schmidtburg (later the Electorate of Trier) and the family Metzenhausen. After the
Reformation had been introduced into Rhaunen in 1560, the parish priest there tended the flock at Stipshausen, preaching this new version of
Christianity. The relationship was not altogether free of conflict. Indeed, in 1714, the subjects asked the
Kollator (the holder of the altar benefice), Count Cratz von Scharfenstein, to be tended instead by the priest from Hottenbach. Besides the struggle between Rhaunen and Hottenbach over the priest's position at Stipshausen, the struggle between denominations, too, burdened ecclesiastical life. In the wake of the
War of the Reunions, the French declared Saint Anthony's Chapel a
simultaneous church in 1686. The
Catholics, whose numbers had grown through marriage and migration to 20% of the population, were nonetheless only allowed to use the church for burials. Tension was relieved only in 1778 and 1779, when the
Evangelical community built itself a new church on the site of the chapel, which by now had fallen into disrepair, and also gave the Catholic community land and money to build their own chapel.
Saint Maternus's Chapel was finished in 1781, and replaced with a new building in 1953 and 1954. In 1819, the Prussian government in
Trier ordered the merger of the Evangelical parishes of Hottenbach and Stipshausen. The parish is today independent and is part of the church district of Trier. The Catholic residents, whose share of the population has grown to 30%, belong to Saint Martin's parish in Rhaunen.
Jewish history Beginning in the
Middle Ages, the Waldgraves and Rhinegraves had so-called
Schutzjuden. There were major
Jewish communities in Rhaunen,
Laufersweiler and Hottenbach in the 18th century. In 1709, a Jewish inhabitant in Stipshausen is first mentioned. It is believed that the children attended the Jewish
school in Rhaunen. About 1800, five Jewish families lived in Stipshausen, roughly 25 men, women and children. At the
census in 1808, however, this had shrunk to 17 persons. In Prussian times, Stipshausen's Jewish inhabitants turned to Hottenbach for worship, for it was there in 1796 that a
synagogue was built. Likewise, the Jewish children had to go there for school. In 1843 there were 32
Jews living in Stipshausen. This number, though, was steadily shrinking. After the Jewish community in Hottenbach was dissolved in 1932, the 14 Jews left in Stipshausen went to synagogue in Rhaunen. After
Kristallnacht (9–10 November 1938), the last Jewish family left Stipshausen. All that bears witness to the former Jewish community today is the graveyard above the village. ==Politics==