Rodalben is a municipality in the Südwestpfalz

Südwestpfalz

Südwestpfalz is a district in the south of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are Saarpfalz, the district-free city Zweibrücken, the districts Kaiserslautern and Bad Dürkheim, the district-free city Landau , Südliche Weinstraße, and the French département Bas-Rhin...

 district, in Rhineland-Palatinate

Rhineland-Palatinate

Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It is situated in the Palatinate forest, approx. 5 km northeast of Pirmasens

Pirmasens

Pirmasens is a district-free city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, near the border with France. It is famous for the manufacture of shoes. The surrounding rural district was called Pirmasens from 1818 until 1997, when it was renamed Südwestpfalz....

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Rodalben is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde

Verbandsgemeinde

A Verbandsgemeinde is an administrative unit in the German Bundesländer of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt.-Rhineland-Palatinate:...

("collective municipality") Rodalben

Rodalben (Verbandsgemeinde)

Rodalben is a Verbandsgemeinde in the Südwestpfalz district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the municipality is in Rodalben....

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History

Rodalben was founded by a Celt

Celt

The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....

ic tribe.
In 1237 Rodalben was first mentioned as a "Meyerhof". Over the centuries mainly farmers lived there.

The origin of the name isn't clarified. The suffix "alb (alben)" is a Celtic word for rivers or brooks.