Henschtal is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a , a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Oberes Glantal.
Geography
Location Henschtal lies on both sides of its namesake brook, the Henschbach, formed by two smaller streams called the Steinbach and the Hodenbach, which flows right through Henschtal and thence down to the Glan, meeting it upstream from Rehweiler. The Ortsteil of Haschbach lies on the right bank, while the Ortsteil of Trahweiler, whose centre is roughly 500 m upstream, lies on the left bank. The municipal area measures 345 ha, of which 61 ha is wooded.Henschtal’s location
Haschbach am Glan Haschbach lies on the Henschbach's right bank, somewhat downstream from Trahweiler and on the other side. The elevation at the bottom of the valley is roughly 240 m above sea level. Towards the south, the slope of the Klopfberg climbs steeply to 380 m above sea level. Some of the land on the slope is wooded. Haschbach does not lie right on the Glan. The tag “am Glan” merely serves to distinguish the Henschtal Ortsteil from the self-administering Ortsgemeinde of Haschbach am Remigiusberg, which lies in the same district.Haschbach am Glan’s location
Trahweiler Trahweiler stretches along a road running parallel to the Henschbach and along a side valley of the Henschbach. The valley floor here lies at an elevation of slightly more than 240 m above sea level, and some of the houses on higher ground stand at about 250 m above sea level. Towards the north, the land climbs steeply, reaching an elevation of 478 m above sea level. The land towards the municipal limit with Wahnwegen is wooded. West of Trahweiler, into Steinbach am Glan’s municipal area, the Hodenbach empties into the Hengsbach. The Hodenbach valley, which along the brook’s northern reaches touches Trahweiler’s (former) municipal area, is held to be a popular recreational area.Trahweiler’s location
Neighbouring municipalities Henschtal borders in the north on the municipality of Quirnbach, in the east on the municipality of Glan-Münchweiler, in the southeast on the municipality of Börsborn, in the southwest on the municipality of Steinbach am Glan and in the west on the municipality of Wahnwegen.
Constituent communities Henschtal’s Ortsteile are Trahweiler, Haschbach am Glan and the hamlet of Sangerhof.Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz – Amtliches Verzeichnis der Gemeinden und Gemeindeteile , Seite 97 (PDF) For the purposes of this article, Trahweiler and Haschbach am Glan will be discussed separately under most headings, while the Sangerhof outlying centre will be grouped with Trahweiler.
Municipality’s layout
Haschbach am Glan Haschbach was originally a linear village (by some definitions, a “thorpe”). The built-up area mostly runs along Bundesstraße 423, locally known as Hauptstraße (“Main Street”). Today, other streets branch off Hauptstraße towards the south, into a side valley of the Henschbach. The shapes that the houses take make it quite clear that the village was once mostly characterized by agriculture. The former schoolhouse stands not far from the bridge linking the Ortsteil of Haschbach with the Ortsteil of Trahweiler. West of the village lies the graveyard.Haschbach am Glan’s layout
Trahweiler Trahweiler was originally settled along the valley road, which can still be made out today in the simple farmhouses that were built mostly in the 19th century to the general design that characterizes such houses in the Westrich, an historic region that encompasses areas in both Germany and France. Newer building can be found along this road's extensions and on two sidestreets that branch off towards the north. The graveyard lies west of the village.Trahweiler’s layout
History
Antiquity
Haschbach am Glan Even as far back as prehistoric times, the broader area around the village was settled by man, bearing witness to which are archaeological finds. A row of barrows runs from within Steinbach am Glan's limits into Haschbach. It is unknown, though, from what time these date. The area was also settled in Gallo-Roman times, although there have been no finds to confirm this.Haschbach am Glan’s ancient history
Trahweiler The area around Trahweiler was settled in both prehistoric times and Roman times, bearing witness to which are many barrows in the municipal areas of neighbouring villages and Gallo-Roman finds in the area.Trahweiler’s ancient history
Middle Ages
Haschbach am Glan From the contiguous Free Imperial Domain (Freies Reichsland) around Castle Lautern (Kaiserslautern), kings split certain areas off to give as donations to both ecclesiastical and secular lordships. Great parts of it came into the Salian dynasty’s ownership. Count Werner I from the Salian noble family endowed Hornbach Abbey in 737, whose first abbot was Saint Pirmin. Werner furnished this monastery richly with estates and lands, among which was the Münchweiler Tal (dale), which itself included the Henschbach valley, to which Haschbach belonged. As a fief from Hornbach Abbey with Glan-Münchweiler as its hub, all villages in this valley first passed to the Raugraves in the Nahegau, and thereafter to the Archbishop of Trier in 1344 and to the Breidenborns in 1338. In connection with the Münchweiler Tal, both the now vanished village of Frensweiler and also Haschbach are named repeatedly in documents. Thus it says in the Weistum of Glan-Münchweiler (a Weistum – cognate with English wisdom – was a legal pronouncement issued by men learned in law in the Middle Ages and early modern times), which was handed down about 1330 and written in both Latin and Middle High German, that the Raugraves’ representative (a bailiff or a beadle) was entitled to, among other things, a piece of land in Hagenspach. In Latin, the text reads: "" The Middle High German text reads: "" Then, in the 1456 Glan-Münchweiler Weistum, it says: "" Also appearing in this Weistum as a witness is someone named “Clais von Frynswillr”, who is also named in another Glan-Münchweiler Weistum from 1461 as “Claz von Frinßwiller”. Whoever he was, he was apparently from Frenzweiler, as indicated by his name, a village that has long since vanished, but which likely lay within what are now Henschtal's limits. Furthermore, a man named Konrad von Vrodenswilre – another reference to the same village – had appeared in 1313 in the Mauchenheim cartulary. It is likely that the Lords of Frenzweiler were distinguished members of the lower nobility. With Georg I's marriage to Eva von Mauchenheim in 1456, the House of Leyen came into ownership of the Bliesgau, and by inheritance in 1486 that family also came to own a share in the castle at Blieskastel. At the same time, Abbot Ulrich of Hornbach Abbey granted Jörge von der Leyen, a Burgmann from Castle Lautern, the Münchweiler Tal. The Lords of Leyen had their roots in the lower Moselle area and kept their seat as early as the High Middle Ages at their castle near Gondorf on the Moselle. They stood mostly in the service of the Archbishops of Trier, and indeed in 1556, Johann von der Leyen-Saffig was chosen to be the Archbishop of Trier. Besides the House of Leyen, until 1533, the Leyens’ kin, the Mauchenheims were also enfeoffed in turn with parts of the Abbey's holdings in the Münchweiler Tal.Haschbach am Glan’s mediaeval history
Trahweiler Trahweiler might have arisen in the 12th century, but an earlier founding cannot be ruled out. It is certain that the village lay within the so-called Remigiusland, which defined its later history. The oldest document that had been preserved from the Middle Ages, from 1446, was lost to the ravages of war. Another document from 1458, a book of accounts of payments by subjects owed the lords, says that Trahweiler was liable to the Remigiusberg Monastery in such matters, and listed the payments in money and in kind owed by not only Tragewillr but also Quirnbach and Frutzweiler. Trahweiler was included in the founding of the County of Veldenz under Count Gerlach I in 1112. In 1444, Frederick III, Count of Veldenz, the last from the Hohengeroldseck family to rule the county, died without a male heir; the county passed to his son-in-law Stephen, Count Palatine of Simmern-Zweibrücken, widower of Frederick's daughter, Anna of Veldenz. Stephen, combining his lands, created the new County Palatine of Zweibrücken, which in the fullness of time came to be known as the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken.
Even before Trahweiler's first documentary mention, the now vanished village of Frensweiler was being mentioned in documents. The documentary mentions of Conrad von Vrodenswilre and Clais von Frynswilr, both named after the former village, are discussed above.Trahweiler’s mediaeval history
Modern times
Haschbach am Glan Until the French Revolution, the lordly structure did not change again. Like all villages in the area, Haschbach, too, was stricken with the hardships and horrors of the Thirty Years' War and the Plague. By the 1648 end of that war, only a few people survived in the area. Newcomers settled, though, as in the neighbouring village of Trahweiler, there may have been no more than five families living in Haschbach, even into the 18th century. A few years after the Thirty Years' War, the Family von der Leyen began to expand their holdings on the rivers Blies, Saar and Glan. The villages of the Münchweiler Tal within these scattered holdings were gathered together administratively into an Unteramt of the lordship as a whole. Only in 1773 did the comital couple Franz Karl von der Leyen and Marianne, née Dalberg, move the comital residence from Koblenz to Blieskastel. After Count Franz Karl's death in 1775, his beloved, and now widowed, wife Marianne took on the regency for their underage son, Philip Francis, Prince of Leyen.Haschbach am Glan’s modern history
Trahweiler Wolfgang, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken introduced the Reformation according to Martin Luther into his county in 1537, and in 1588, John I, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken forced his subjects to convert to the Reformed faith according to John Calvin (Calvinism). In 1609, according to the ecclesiastical visitation protocol of Baumholder, 50 persons in 10 families lived in Trahweiler. During the 17th century, the Thirty Years' War and French King Louis XIV's wars of conquest claimed many victims, and for a time, the village was almost empty of people. Newcomers raised the population figures back up, and beginning in the 18th century, there were once more people migrating out of the village.Trahweiler’s modern history
Recent times
Haschbach am Glan