Nohen

Location

The municipality lies at the mouth of the Röhmbach, where it empties into the Nahe.

Neighbouring municipalities

Nohen borders in the north on the municipality of Kronweiler, in the east on the municipality of Reichenbach, in the south on the municipality of Heimbach and in the west on the municipality of Rimsberg.

History

Nohen’s beginnings can be traced back to a time when the location was favourable to transportation because it lay on one of the few fords in the river Nahe’s upper valley. As an indication of how important Nohen was geographically in those early days, one need only observe that it was then the only place along the river Nahe that was named after the river (the names “Nohen” and “Nahe” have a common heritage). It was here that one of the oldest north-south trade roads crossed the Nahe. This Bronzestraße (“Bronze Road”) from the Glan by way of Nohen to the Moselle was expanded in Roman times into a crosslink between the Mainz-Trier and Mainz-Metz roads.

The military-strategic importance of the road link with the ford, or later bridge, was great. On the night of 23 and 24 September 1635 and the following morning, a Swedish-French army under Duke Bernard of Saxe-Weimar’s leadership went slogging by across the river after their defeat at Nördlingen in the Thirty Years' War on their retreat by way of Birkenfeld to Wallerfangen, even as they were being pursued by the far superior, victorious Imperial army under Count Gallas.

Until the late 18th century, Nohen belonged to the “Hinder” County of Sponheim.

Municipal council

The council is made up of 8 council members, who were elected by majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.

Mayor

Nohen’s mayor is Norbert Helm, and his deputies are Holger Romag and Kai Müller.

Coat of arms

The German blazon reads: In schräggeteiltem Schild vorne in Silber eine in der Teilung geschnittene schwarze Brücke über schräglinkem blauen Wellenband, hinten rot-silbern geschacht.

The municipality’s arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Per bend argent a bridge couped at the line of partition sable above a bend sinister wavy abased azure, and chequy gules and argent.

The charges on the dexter (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) side refer to the bridge over the river Nahe (the wavy bend sinister), and the “chequy” field on the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side is a reference to the village’s former allegiance to the “Hinder” County of Sponheim, which bore arms chequy gules and argent. Nohen was in the Oberamt of Birkenfeld.

The arms have been borne since 20 June 1963.

Buildings

The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:

Transport

To the west runs Bundesstraße 41, and to the south, the Autobahn A 62 (Kaiserslautern–Trier). Nohen also has a station on the Nahe Valley Railway (Bingen–Saarbrücken).