24905070	. The National Socialist régime’s Gleichschaltung set in right after the seizure of power and even in the smallest villages, it did not spare club life. The warriors’ club still staged memorial celebrations for those who had fallen in the First World War. The church and singing club participated in these as well. As elsewhere, the warriors’ club quickly submitted itself to Nazi ideology: “The warriors’ club, in the spring of 1933, always participated fully and wholly in the celebration of the National Rising of our people.” The youth – an important factor in Nazi power politics – were drawn in from 	Bärweiler
24905071	the beginning, even in Bärweiler. Youthful membership in clubs and other organizations thereby virtually ceased to exist. Documents were compiled as to who had joined which mass Nazi organization, and when (that is, the Hitler Youth, the League of German Girls, the Deutsches Jungvolk or whatever). Although on 1 September 1939 only three or four men from the village went to the war, later all men capable of fighting were called into the Wehrmacht, which amounted to 68 men, and that meant at least one man from almost every household. As early as the spring of 1940, bombs fell within 	Bärweiler
24905072	Bärweiler’s municipal limits for the first time, among them one demolition bomb and several incendiaries. They did no damage to the village itself, although the craters were still visible long after the war. Bärweiler was mostly spared Allied bombings as the war wore on. The war’s consequences were harsh: Of 74 men who went away to fight, 17 did not return. To this day, eight local soldiers’ fates are unknown. One family lost three sons, while several others each lost two. The last to return was a man who had been held in the Soviet Union and who 	Bärweiler
24905073	arrived back home on 7 December 1949. The population’s supply of everyday goods was at this time worse than it had been during the war. Rationing was still the rule. Until early 1948, food rationing cards were still in use. Since the Second World War. After the 1948 currency reform, a measure of normalcy began to return to village life. In 1949, Bärweiler began holding kermises again. A year later, the gymnastic club was refounded. Since the club had no apparatus at its disposal, it produced two theatrical plays each winter. The admission was 1 DM for each playgoer 	Bärweiler
24905074	and the proceeds were used to buy new gymnastic apparatus. The first mayor after the war was Willi Kistner, who was chosen by municipal decision. He remained in office for three years. In 1950, Bärweiler had 420 inhabitants, a peak for the 20th century. It can be explained by the presence in the village at that time of 12 Germans driven out of Germany’s former eastern territories and other refugees. Moreover, people who had lost homes to bombing in the cities temporarily sought shelter in Bärweiler. Once their dwellings had been reconstructed or repaired, these people mostly went back 	Bärweiler
24905075	to their towns and their jobs. Only a few of the refugees stayed in Bärweiler or neighbouring villages. Several medals from the contest Unser Dorf soll schöner werden" (“Our village should become lovelier”) bear witness to the successful village renewal measures, which have made Bärweiler into a showplace over the last 20 years. Jewish history. Bärweiler once had a small Jewish community that was actually an outlying part of the Jewish community in Hundsbach. See the relevant sections of that article for the community’s history and information about its synagogue. Religion. As at 31 December 2012, there are 246  full-time residents in Bärweiler, and of those, 176 are Evangelical (71.545%), 30 are Catholic (12.195%), 2 (0.813%) belong to other religious groups and 38 (15.447%) either have no religion or will not reveal their religious affiliation. Politics. Municipal council. The council is made up of 6 council members, who were elected by majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman. Mayor. Bärweiler’s mayor is Helmut Schmell. Coat of arms. The German blazon reads: "In Rot-Gold geschachten Schild eine schwarze Spitze, belegt mit goldenem Löwenkopf." The municipality’s arms  might in English heraldic language be described thus: Chequy gules and Or a pile transposed sable charged with a lion’s head erased of the second langued of the first. The village of Bärweiler was a fief from the Waldgraviate in the family Stromberg’s and the family von Merxheim’s hands as a "Ganerbschaft" (a kind of condominium). In 1382, part of the village and the court found its way into the hands of Waldgraves Otto and Friedrich at Kyrburg. In 1461, “Fust” von Stromberg acquired his cousin Syffryt von Stromberg’s fief. The Waldgraves of Kyrburg bore arms  gules three lions Or (a red shield with three gold lions). Fust (Faust) von Stromberg bore arms chequy gules and Or (with a chequered pattern, with alternating squares of red and gold). The “chequy” pattern in these arms thus symbolizes the link to the Lords of Stromberg. The “pile transposed” (the wedge-shaped element) symbolizes the "Langenstein" (local menhir), while the charge thereon, the lion’s head, is a reference to the village’s former allegiance to the Waldgraves of Kyrburg. Culture and sightseeing. Buildings. The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments : Sport and leisure. Hiking trails around Bärweiler and to the "Langenstein" (local menhir) invite hikers to view and explore the village. Economy and infrastructure. Transport. To the north runs "Bundesstraße" 41. Serving Bad Sobernheim is a station on the Nahe Valley Railway (Bingen–Saarbrücken). Bärweiler Bärweiler is an "Ortsgemeinde" – a municipality belonging to a "Verbandsgemeinde", a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the "Verbandsgemeinde" of Bad Sobernheim, whose seat is in the like-named town. Geography. Location. Bärweiler lies in picturesque hilly land between Bad Sobernheim and Meisenheim. The residential