to Kaifenheim. Other infrastructure improvements included upgrades to all village streets in 1926 and the beginning of a postal bus service to Kaifenheim in 1930. Even during the Second World War, the trend continued, with a watermain being installed in 1940. The war also brought disaster for one RAF bomber at Kaifenheim, but spared everyone on the ground. It crashed on 26 September 1944, killing all seven aboard. According to eyewitnesses, the burning aircraft circled over Kaifenheim, losing an engine, which fell down into a garden on Bachstraße after bouncing off a roof. Had it broken through the roof, it might well have killed the woman who was sleeping in the house at the time. A gunner came down, too, complete with his machine gun and turret, falling onto Hauptstraße (the village's main street). The bomber then crashed in a meadow near the outlying centre of Besch, bursting into flames easily owing to the load of white phosphorus incendiary bombs that it had been carrying. Nobody on the ground was injured, and even buildings were spared any significant damage. The recently gathered harvest was left unscathed. As a memorial, and to give thanks for deliverance from what might have been a much worse disaster, a Heiligenhäuschen (a small, shrinelike structure consecrated to a saint or saints) with a Madonna was built. Since 1946, Kaifenheim has been part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate. In that same year, a volunteer fire brigade was established. In 1952, the local drum corps, Wanderlust, for the first time produced Passion plays. The proceeds went to help with the fund for the restoration of the Schwanenkirche (“Swan Church”) in Roes, which had been destroyed in 1944 in an air raid. On 11 July 1952, a fire claimed two barns. In November of the same year, the first passenger car made its appearance in Kaifenheim. By 1954, there were seven in the village. A new school was dedicated on 17 October 1964. That year also saw work begin on the Autobahn bridge over the Elz valley. Its height above the valley floor would reach 108 m and its length 384 m. It was finished in September 1966. This was followed in 1968 by the opening of Autobahn A 48, which crosses the bridge. In 1984, the parish of Kaifenheim marked its 650th anniversary. In 2001, the village was expanded with three new streets: Bergstraße,