Bockenau lies at the south edge of the Hunsrück in the Ellerbach valley at the 380 m-high Wingertsberg and is enclosed by the Soonwald foothills, whose highest elevation is the Ellerspring at 657 m above sea level, which is also where the Ellerbach, which passes through Bockenau, rises. The village thus lies geographically in the scenically interesting and to a great extent untouched Gauchswald. As a whole, the countryside is known as the Bockenauer Schweiz, as reflected in the name borne by the village’s sport and event centre. The municipal area measures 9.66 km².
Also belonging to Bockenau is the outlying homestead of Lindenhof.
History
Beginning no later than the 12th century, Bockenau belonged to the County of Sponheim and was thereby one of its oldest landholds, and therefore lies today on the Sponheimer Weg, an historically thematized hiking trail. Nevertheless, the village’s origins actually go much further back. When the new building zone “In der Bein” was opened, foundations of a Romanvilla rustica from the 3rd century AD were found. This was proved by the coins that were also unearthed. On the lands of the campground called Bockenauer Schweiz, lying within municipal limits, and the settlement of Daubacher Brücke once lay, in the Middle Ages, Nunkirchen, a homestead with a church that was owned by Jutta von Sponheim.
Population development
Bockenau’s population development since Napoleonic times is shown in the table below. The figures for the years from 1871 to 1987 are drawn from census data.
The council is made up of 16 council members, who were elected by majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.
Mayor
Bockenau’s mayor is Jürgen Klotz, and his deputies are Rolf Stangenberg and Manfred Hay.
Culture and sightseeing
Buildings
The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:
Winterburger Straße 23 – Baroque timber-frame house, partly solid, 18th century
Near Winterburger Straße 25 – Late Gründerzeit sandstone Crucifix, marked 1903
Winterburger Straße 34/36 – villalike Late Classicist house, about 1880
Winterburger Straße 38/40 – former Evangelical school; Late Classicist plastered building, about 1830/1840
Signpost, on Landesstraße 237 – Classicist sandstone obelisk, about 1820
Signpost, at Landesstraße 238/Kreisstraße 23 – Classicist sandstone obelisk, about 1820
Clubs
Bockenau has an active club life manifested mainly at the new Bockenauer Schweiz Halle.
Museums
On the way out of the village to the south is found an open-air Kleinbahnmuseum. Visitors can discover – and even climb – two Krauss-Maffeinarrow-gaugesteam locomotives, one of them of the type ÖBB 998, together with a restored coach and a typical guard’s hut with a great signal tree from the same time period. The Kreuznacher Kleinbahn ran from 1896 to 1936 between Winterburg and Bad Kreuznach.
Economy and infrastructure
Winegrowing
Known countrywide is the 12.5 ha Schäfer-Fröhlich winery, which belongs to the Verband Deutscher Prädikats- und Qualitätsweingüter.
Established businesses
The firm HAY’s drop forge is with its newly expanded plant the biggest employer in the village and ensures together with its other location in nearby Bad Sobernheim more than 1,200 skilled jobs in the emergent region.
Running to Bockenau’s south is Bundesstraße 41, which since 2008 has been a four-lane highway. Serving the neighbouring town of Bad Sobernheim is a railway station on the Nahe Valley Railway with direct service without transfer to Frankfurt am Main by Regional-Express train. Five kilometres to the northwest lies the disused Pferdsfeld military airfield, while 35 km farther on in that same direction is found Frankfurt-Hahn Airport.
