Hattgenstein
Municipality
Coat of arms
Location of Hattgenstein within Birkenfeld district
Hattgenstein Show map of Germany Hattgenstein Show map of Rhineland-Palatinate
Coordinates: 49°41′55″N 7°09′37″E / 49.69861°N 7.16028°E / 49.69861; 7.16028
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Birkenfeld
Municipal assoc.	Birkenfeld
Government
• Mayor (2019–24)	Udo Laube[1]
Area
• Total	8.21 km2 (3.17 sq mi)
Elevation	534 m (1,752 ft)
Population  (2022-12-31)[2]
• Total	244
• Density	30/km2 (77/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	55767
Dialling codes	06782
Vehicle registration	BIR

Hattgenstein is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Birkenfeld, whose seat is in the like-named town.

The municipality lies at the edge of the Schwarzwälder Hochwald (forest) in the Hunsrück, and 72.2% of the municipal area is wooded. There is a widespread misconception that Hattgenstein, with its average elevation of 534 m above sea level, is the highest place in Rhineland-Palatinate, but this is not true. There are a few places, such as Stein-Neukirch in the High Westerwald and Nürburg in the Eifel, that are higher.^[3]

To the northeast lies Schwollen, and to the south, Oberhambach.

Also belonging to Hattgenstein are the outlying homesteads of Helmhof, Waldfriede and Zur Zimmerei.^[4]

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.^[5]

Hattgenstein's mayor is Udo Laube, re-elected in 2019.^[1]

The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Over a base countercompony gules and argent, gules on a mount vert the Hattgenstein Glockenhaus argent with timber framing sable and doors and windows of the field.

The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:^[6]

• Am Brunnen 2 – Quereinhaus (a combination residential and commercial house divided for these two purposes down the middle, perpendicularly to the street), partly timber-frame, partly slated, late 18th or early 19th century
• Am Brunnen 4 – former winepress house, timber-frame building
• Flurstraße 3 – Quereinhaus, partly timber-frame, possibly from the earlier half of the 19th century
• Hauptstraße 13 – so-called Glockenhaus (“Bell House”); partly timber-frame, half-hipped roof, bell turret, 1762; characterizes village's appearance
• Hauptstraße 17 – stately Quereinhaus, partly timber-frame, possibly from the early 19th century

The Glockenhaus (“Bell House”) is Hattgenstein's main landmark. It was built in 1762 as a school building and a dwelling for the beadle.

Hattgensteiner Fels, a crag with a lookout tower near the sporting ground, is believed to be the village's namesake.

To the west runs Bundesstraße 269, and to the south, the Autobahn A 62 (Kaiserslautern–Trier). Available in nearby Neubrücke is a railway station on the Nahe Valley Railway (Bingen–Saarbrücken).

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hattgenstein.

• Municipality’s official webpage (in German)