In the New Stone Age ( roughly 3000 to 1800 BC ) and during the time of the Hunsrück-Eifel Culture ( 600 to 100 BC ) , the Bad Sobernheim area was settled , as it likewise was later in Roman times . Beginning about AD 450 , the Franks set up a new settlement here . However , only in 1074 was this " villa " ( that is , village ) of '' Suberenheim '' first mentioned in a document , one made out to Ravengiersburg Abbey . The Sobernheim dwellers then were farmers ( some of whom were townsmen ) and craftsmen , and into modern times they earned their livelihoods mainly at agriculture , forestry and winegrowing . Businesses and trades existed , but they were often linked with farming . Several monastic orders held landholds in the town . Furthermore , several noble families were resident , such as the Counts of Sponheim , the Raugraves and the Knights of Steinkallenfels . Administration was led by an archiepiscopal '' Schultheiß '' , who by 1269 at the latest also had three '' Schöffen '' ( roughly " lay jurists " ) at his side . They also formed the first town court . In 1259 , Sobernheim was split away from Disibodenberg ; only the pastoral duties remained in the monks ' hands . Sobernheim was from the Early Middle Ages a centre among the estates held by the Archbishopric of Mainz on both the Nahe and the Glan . It was subject to the vice-lord of the Rheingau . The archbishop transferred Saint Matthew 's Church ( '' Kirche St. Matthias '' ) to the monks at Disibodenberg . The Romanesque-Early Gothic building was newly built about 1400 and renovated in the 19th century . The town was granted town rights on the Frankfurt model in 1292 by King Adolf of Nassau and again in 1324 by Emperor Louis the Bavarian . It was , however , the town rights on the Bingen model granted by Archbishop Baldwin of Trier in 1330 that became operative and remained so until the French Revolutionary Wars . Until 1259 , Sobernheim was administered by Disibodenberg , and thereafter until 1471 by the Burgraves of Böckelheim . In the Nine Years ' War ( known in Germany as the '' Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg '' , or War of the Palatine Succession ) , the fortifications and most of the town 's buildings were destroyed by the French . Named in 1403 , besides the archiepiscopal '' Schultheiß '' , were a mayor and 14 '' Schöffen '' drawn from among the townsmen . At that time , there were also Jews living here , who worked at trading . A stone bridge spanned the Nahe beginning sometime between 1423 and 1426 , but after a flood shifted the riverbed towards the south in 1627 , it sat high and dry in the meadows and was only replaced with the current bridge in 1867-1868 . In 1471 , Elector Palatine Friedrich I 's conquests for Electoral Palatinate included Sobernheim , ending Burgravial rule . Two great fires laid almost the whole town waste in 1567 and 1689 . The oldest part of the town hall ( '' Rathaus '' ) was built in 1535 , with later expansions being undertaken in 1805 , 1837 and 1861-1862 . There was already a school sometime after 1530 . Despite efforts by the Archbishopric of Mainz , Sobernheim remained with Electoral Palatinate until the French Revolution , then passing to France 's Department of Rhin-et-Moselle after the French conquest in the years 1792-1797 , which ended the Elector 's own rule . Sobernheim became the seat of a '' mairie '' ( " mayoralty " ) that included not only the town itself but also the outlying villages of Waldböckelheim , Thalböckelheim , Schloßböckelheim , Steinhardt , Boos , Oberstreit , Bockenau , Burgsponheim and Sponheim as well as a '' Friedensgericht '' ( " Peace Court " ; in 1879 this became an '' Amtsgericht '' ) . After the Napoleonic Wars had ended and the Congress of Vienna had been concluded , the town passed to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1815 . The '' mairie '' became a '' Bürgermeisterei '' ( also " mayoralty " ) under Prussian administration . The year 1817 saw the two Protestant denominations , Lutheran and Reformed , united . In 1857 , the King of Prussia once more – for the fourth time in the town 's history – granted Sobernheim town rights . In 1858 , members of the town 's Jewish community built a synagogue . This lasted for 80 years before it was destroyed by Brownshirt thugs on Kristallnacht ( 9 – 10 November 1938 ) . Industrial development took a long time to make itself felt in Sobernheim , even after the town was linked to the new Rhine-Nahe-Saar Railway in 1859 . A cardboard packaging printshop opened for business in 1832 , a stocking factory in 1865 and a gelatine factory in 1886/1887 . There was also a factory that made sheet-metal articles , and after 1900 there were two brickworks . The Kreuznach district savings bank ( '' Kreissparkasse Kreuznach '' ) was founded in Sobernheim in 1878 and moved to Bad Kreuznach in 1912 . A Catholic hospital opened in 1886 , as did a location of the Rhenish Deaconry in 1889 . In 1888 , the Prussian government split the outlying villages from the town , making them a '' Bürgermeisterei '' in their own right , called Waldböckelheim . A new development began after 1900 with the introduction of the '' Felkekur '' ( " Felke cure " ) . From 1915 until his death in 1926 , Pastor Emanuel Felke worked in Bad Sobernheim . He was a representative of naturopathy who developed the treatment so named , which now bears his name . This cure is to this day still applied at Bad Sobernheim 's many spa houses . His student Dhonau established a Felke treatment house across the Nahe that began operations in 1907 . Further such houses sprang up in 1924 ( Stassen ) , 1926 ( Neues Leben ) and 1928 ( Menschel ) . The small '' Amt '' of Meddersheim was in 1935 brought into joint administration with Sobernheim and , as of 1940 , was wholly merged with the town to form the new '' Amt '' of Sobernheim . The Second World War brought not only a toll in human lives but also damage from Allied air raids . Reconstruction began with the 1948 currency reform and brought into being a town of some 7,000 inhabitants in which trade , industry , services and public institutions defined economic life . Several central schools , extensive sport facilities and the raising to a Felke spa town are more recent milestones in the town 's development . In the course of administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate in 1969 and 1970 , the '' Verbandsgemeinde '' of Sobernheim was formed . Belonging to this originally were 20 '' Ortsgemeinden '' and the town of Sobernheim , but the number of '' Ortsgemeinden '' dropped to 18 in 1979 with the dissolution of the '' Ortsgemeinden '' of Pferdsfeld and Eckweiler , whose municipal areas made up the swathe of non-contiguous municipal territory lying to the northwest . The German Air Force was stationed at the outlying centre of Pferdsfeld from 1960 with the '' Leichtes Kampfgeschwader '' ( " Light Combat Squadron " ) 42 and from 1975 with the '' Jagdbombergeschwader '' 35 ( Jagdgeschwader 73 ) . On 1 January 1969 , a tract of land with 121 inhabitants was transferred from the municipality of Waldböckelheim to Sobernheim . On 10 June 1979 , the hitherto self-administering municipalities of Eckweiler and Pferdsfeld were amalgamated with Sobernheim . Since 11 December 1995 , the town has borne the designation " Bad " ( literally " bath " ) in recognition of its tradition as a healing centre
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Bad Sobernheim