Draft:Züntersbach

Züntersbach is a district of the municipality of Sinntal in the Main-Kinzig district of Hesse.

Geographical location
Züntersbach is located at a height of 360 m above sea level on the border Spessart and Rhön, 15 km southeast of Schlüchtern. In the south and east, the Hessian village borders the state border with Bayern. The Schluppbach flows through the village and divides the village into two halves. The town is framed by the two peaks of the Haag and Stift mountains in the northwest as well as the Fondsberg in the south and the Volkersberg in the northeast.

As the westernmost part of the Brückenauer Kuppenrhön, Züntersbach is the easternmost village in the Main-Kinzig district and does not belong geographically to the Spessart, like most of the district, but to the Rhön.

Middle ages
Züntersbach, originally a royal estate, lies in an area acquired by Count Hessi and is first mentioned as Ziuncilesbah in pago Salagewe (Züntersbach in Saalgau) around 900, when it was donated to the Fulda monastery. The monastery passed the village on to its branch, the Schlüchtern monastery, to which it belonged in 1167.

In 1306, the village was divided between Fulda and Hanau. Ulrich von Steckelberg sold half of the village to his brother, the provost of the Petersberg monastery near Fulda. The village was actually divided. Since then, this monastery owned half of the village to the left of the Schluppbach. The Half of the village to the right of the Schluppbach belonged to the Altengronau court, which came to the Hanau lordship in 1333 as an imperial fief from an inheritance from the House of Rieneck. In the 15th century, the court became the Schwarzenfels office of the County of Hanau, and from 1459 the County of Hanau-Münzenberg.

The Hanau half
In 1643, the Schwarzenfels office - and with it the Hanau half of Züntersbach - was handed over as a pledge along with other securities to the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel. It was intended to guarantee the repayment of Hanau's debts to Hesse-Kassel that had arisen in connection with the liberation of the city of Hanau from the siege by imperial troops in the Thirty Years' War in 1636. The Counts of Hanau were unable to redeem this pledge from Hesse-Kassel. The office was subsequently administered as landgrave property, even after Hesse-Kassel inherited the entire county of Hanau-Münzenberg in 1736, following the death of the last Hanau Count, Johann Reinhard III.

Re-Unification
The division of the village even survived the territorial redistributions in Napoleonic times: the Fulda half came to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1816, the Hessian half remained with the Electorate of Hesse, which had emerged from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel in 1815. It was not until 1863 that the Bavarian half was ceded to the Electorate of Hesse in an exchange of territory between the two states.

In the Electorate, Züntersbach belonged to the district of Schlüchtern after the administrative reform of the Electorate of Hesse in 1821, through which Hesse was divided into four provinces and 22 districts.

Hessian regional reform (1970–1977)
When the Main-Kinzig district and the municipality of Sinntal were created as part of the regional reform in Hesse on July 1, 1974, the municipality of Züntersbach initially retained its independence, as the Hessian state government did not want to anticipate an appropriate, cross-border reorganization of the border area. At that time, it was intended to incorporate the municipality of Züntersbach into the Bavarian town of Bad Brückenau. Only when these plans to change the state border were abandoned was the municipality incorporated into the new municipality of Sinntal on January 1, 1977.

Economic history
The "Obere Mühle" was located at the eastern end of the town. There was also the "Alte Mühle", which was located 500 meters southeast of Züntersbach. It was shut down in 1940. In 1970, the mill facilities were destroyed by a storm.

Population structure 2011
According to the 2011 census, 600 people lived in Züntersbach on May 9, 2011. Of these, 6 (1.0%) were foreigners. In terms of age, 108 residents were under 18, 225 were between 18 and 49, 129 were between 50 and 64, and 138 residents were older. The residents lived in 267 households. Of these, 78 were single households, 66 were couples without children, and 99 were couples with children, as well as 18 were single parents and 6 lived in shared flats. 63 households were exclusively inhabited by senior citizens and 162 households had no senior citizens.

Religion
In 1167, the village church belonged to the Schlüchtern monastery and the Ramholz parish. The political division of the village in 1303 also meant that the Fulda half of the village remained Roman Catholic after the Reformation, while the county of Hanau-Münzenberg adopted the Reformation in the middle of the 16th century, which, according to the principle of "cuius regio, eius religio", meant that the Hanau half of the village was initially Lutheran and then Reformed in 1597. In 1602, the Hanau half belonged to the Mottgers parish, then to the Oberzell parish. Today, there is a Protestant and a Roman Catholic church in Züntersbach.

For centuries, there was also a lively Jewish community in Züntersbach. There was a synagogue, a Jewish priest with a residence, a Jewish bath (today a small privately owned fish pond), and a Jewish slaughterhouse where animals were slaughtered according to Jewish rites.

Historical religious affiliation

Economic structure
Züntersbach is strongly influenced by agriculture, but is also a state-run climatic health resort with 10,000 overnight stays annually.

Public facilities
Züntersbach has a small school that is attended by 19 students. All four grades are taught in one class. There is also a kindergarten in the village.

Traffic
Züntersbach is connected to the neighboring towns of Oberzell, Schwarzenfels and Bad Brückenau via the state roads 3141 and 3180.