From the Local History of Bruschied

In the Middle Ages, Bruschied was part of a larger territorial domain of the imperial abbey of St Maximin at Trier which, in addition to Bruschied, included the settlements of Hausen bei Rhaunen, Woppenroth, Blickersau (deserted), Kaffeld (deserted), Bundenbach, and Schneppenbach, and was presumably subordinate to the “Hof Haus”.

{“Hof” can mean a farm or a court (legal or regal). I’m not sure why the original is in quotes, so without more context I’d guess it meant something along the lines of “the Court of Hausen”.}

Bruschied formed a boundary along with Scheppenbach, and appears for the first time in 1023 as “Prubesdervot” in the list of estates. In 1283 it is called “Probsterade”, in 1426 “Proistrot”. Place name researchers interpret the name as “a clearing which was calculated for the priory estate”.

In the Middle Ages, the boundary region of the two villages was also a “judicial region”, where magistrate and jury dispensed lower-level jurisdiction within the “sub-court”. This sub-court was a part of the Rhaunen high court, which was originally in the possession of the Wildgrafen, and included jurisdiction over capital crimes.

After Schmidtburg passed over to the Archbishop and Elector of Trier, Bruschied was part of the Trier Electoral district of Schmidtburg from the middle of the 14th century until the end of the 18th century. In 1563, ten families lived in Bruschied, of whom six were liable for tax and military service to the Elector, and four to the lords of Wiltberg.

From a church perspective, Bruschied and Schneppenbach were originally part of the parish of Hausen, where the Reformation was introduced around 1555. As the senior Electoral official, Nikolaus Schenk of Schmidtburg, converted to the new faith, the inhabitants of the villages also temporarily took up the Protestant denomination.

After numerous changes of faith during the Thirty Years’ War, the inhabitants of the villages of Bruschied, Schneppenbach, and Bundenbach became Catholic again in the course of the Counter-Reformation, and belonged to the parish of Bundenbach.

After the French district and administrative reforms of 1798, Bruschied came under the newly created “Marie (town hall) de Kirn” to which it belonged until the end of the French dominion in 1814. During the subsequent Prussian era, the district also remained for a time in this joint community, which bore the name “Burgermeisterei Kirn”.

After this group of localities had belonged temporarily to the districts of Simmern and Oberstein, Bruschied was assigned to the Simmern mayoralty of Gemunden in 1817, which later received the title of “Amt” instead of its prior description.

With the latest district and administrative reform in Rheinland-Pfalz, the Gemunden joint community was dissolved on August 11, 1970, and Bruschied, together with the districts of Kellenbach, Königsau, Schneppenbach, and Schwarzerden, was integrated into the Kirn-Land joint community within the Bad Kreuznach region.

Among Bruschied’s monuments and listed buildings, the Catholic church of St. Franz Xaver is most worthy of mention. The church was built in 1892/3 on the site of a smaller 18th-century church. It was built as a neo-Gothic, single-aisled 5/8 choir building, to the design of the Freiburg master cathedral builder, Max Meckel. A comprehensive restoration was carried out in 1969/70, including, among other things, several sculptures from the period around 1700.

Further listed buildings in Bruschied are the Marienkapelle, founded in 1699 by a local woman, and a dwelling house in the Oberdorfstrasse originating from the 17th century.