Hinzweiler () is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde Lauterecken-Wolfstein.
Geography
Location The municipality lies in the Eßweiler Tal (dale) northwest of the Königsberg (mountain) in the North Palatine Uplands at an elevation of some 200 m above sea level. Elevations on the right bank at the Königsberg reach above 500 m above sea level (Leienberg 524 m). On the left bank, they reach only a bit more than 300 m above sea level (Spenzelberg 305 m). The municipal area measures 532 ha, of which roughly 32 ha is settled and 200 ha is wooded.Location
Neighbouring municipalities Hinzweiler borders in the north on the municipality of Nerzweiler, in the east on the municipality of Aschbach, in the south on the municipality of Oberweiler im Tal, in the west on the municipality of Horschbach and in the northwest on the municipality of Glanbrücken.
Constituent communities Also belonging to Hinzweiler is the outlying homestead of Mühlbergerhof.Constituent communities
Municipality’s layout Landesstraße 372 runs through the village of Hinzweiler from north to south, on the brook's right bank in the north of the village and on its left in the south. Nevertheless, the village cannot be considered a true linear village, for in the village centre, where the road crosses the brook, other built-up streets branch off the thoroughfare to the southeast and east. Indeed, it is also here that the older part of the built-up area is found. The church stands in the south of this old village centre. The great Königslandhalle with its civic centre dominates the view in the village centre's north. The sporting ground lies to the village's west on the Talbach's left bank, while the graveyard lies at the village's south end by the road to Horschbach.Municipality’s layout
History
Antiquity Going by the many archaeological finds from the broader area around Hinzweiler, it can be assumed that the immediate area was likewise settled in the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, and perhaps even as early as the New Stone Age. In the 19th century, a prehistoric barrow was discovered within Hinzweiler's limits. Its whereabouts are, however, no longer known today. In Roman times, too, people lived in Hinzweiler's immediate vicinity. Bearing witness hereto is a piece of spolia at the churchtower, which shows a portrait of Hercules with abundant hair and beard. It may once have been part of a dedication stone at a sanctuary somewhere nearby.Antiquity
Middle Ages Hinzweiler to a great extent shares the same history as all other villages in the Eßweiler Tal, which in many respects form a unit. Besides Hinzweiler itself, these were originally Hundheim (Neuenglan), Hachenbach, Nerzweiler, Aschbach, Horschbach, Oberweiler, Elzweiler, Eßweiler and the now vanished villages of Letzweiler, Niederaschbach, Nörweiler, Mittelhofen, Zeizelbach, Füllhof, Neideck and Lanzweiler. It is certain that these villages lay within the free Imperial domain around the royal castle at Lautern (Kaiserslautern). In the 9th century, likely shortly before 870, the nobleman Hererich was enfeoffed with the Eßweiler Tal and shortly before his death he bequeathed it to Prüm Abbey. This area's ecclesiastical hub was at first the Hirsauer Kirche, an old country church, now no longer used, that still stands near Hundheim. Hundheim at this time, still bore the name Glena or Glan, and was perhaps “Neuenglan” (Nieuwen Glena) as opposed to the place still called “Altenglan” (Gleni). This Glena was Hun's seat, Hun being an administrator of sorts who oversaw the whole dale for the actual lords. His name gave the seat lying at the mouth of the Talbach (“Dale Brook”), where it empties into the Glan, its name, Hundheim (the first syllable's resemblance to the Modern High German word for “dog” might be folk etymology; Heim is still German for “home” today).
Sometime before 1222, Prüm Abbey lost its holdings in the Glan valley, the circumstances under which this happened now being unknown. Named in later times were only the 14 feudal lords who exercised special rights in the Eßweiler Tal and could rightfully take a share of the tithes, namely the Junker Mühlenstein von Grumbach as the Rhinegraves’ vassal, the County Palatine of Zweibrücken, Offenbach Abbey, Remigiusberg Abbey, Tholey Abbey, Enkenbach Abbey, the Knights Hospitaller commandry at Sulzbach, the Church of Zweibrücken, the Church of Sankt Julian, the Church of Hinzweiler, the Stangenjunker of Lauterecken, the House of Blick von Lichtenberg, the Lords of Mauchenheim and the Lords of Mickelheim. Obviously, each fiefholder held a different administrative seat. The Waldgraves and Rhinegraves, as holders of high jurisdiction, resided above the Lords of Mühlenstein (later Cratz von Scharfenstein) who resided near the Hirsauer Kirche and at the Springeburg (or Sprengelburg; the ruin still stands today between Eßweiler and Oberweiler im Tal).
The Counts of Veldenz, as feudal lords over the dale's “poor people” (as of 1444, this was instead the Counts Palatine of Zweibrücken) chose as their seat the village of Nerzweiler, which between 1350 and 1446 was always named in documents as the seat of the Nerzweiler Amt. Count Friedrich III of Veldenz granted his wife Margarethe of Nassau-Saarbrücken this Amt as a widow's estate. After 1446, Hundheim once again appeared as the only administrative seat. Hinzweiler itself got its own church in 1451, and became the parish's hub in the Eßweiler Tal instead of the Hirsauer Kirche. Dependence on a great number of lords in the dale afforded greater freedom than in other areas where united power and governing relationships prevailed.
Legal matters within the Eßweiler Tal were governed by a whole range of Weistümer (singular: Weistum – cognate with English wisdom – this was a legal pronouncement issued by men learned in law in the Middle Ages and early modern times), which were already in force in the Middle Ages, although they were not actually set down in writing until the early 16th century. These documents are still preserved, and are said today to be prime examples of mediaeval jurisprudence. One deals with the court and borders, one is a Kanzelweistum (promulgated at church; Kanzel is German for “pulpit”), one is a Huberweistum (Huber were farmers who worked a whole Hube, which roughly corresponds to an “oxgang”), and one was a municipal Weistum (Gemeindeweistum).Middle Ages
Modern times As early as 1526, the Reformation was introduced into the Eßweiler Tal. In the course of the 16th century, the Plague raged in the dale and the villages’ inhabitants were largely wiped out. In Hinzweiler itself, only 15 people were left by 1575. With regard to the ruling class, this brought about a shift in power in 1595 as the high jurisdiction, hitherto held for some 250 years by the Waldgraves and Rhinegraves, was transferred to the Dukes of Zweibrücken. In return, Count Palatine Johannes I of Zweibrücken transferred the village of Kirchenbollenbach near Idar-Oberstein (nowadays a Stadtteil of that town) to the Rhinegraves. Lordship over the blood court thereby ended up in new hands, while the other lords named still otherwise held their tithing rights in the various villages.
In 1614, Duke Johannes II of Zweibrücken traded his serfs in Teschenmoschel for some in the Eßweiler Tal belonging to Baron Johann Gottfried von Sickingen in Schallodenbach. Hinzweiler also suffered in the Thirty Years' War. Details are, however, unavailable. Another fundamental shift in the power structure came in 1755, when Duke Christian IV transferred to Offenbach Abbey the villages of Hundheim, Nerzweiler, Hinzweiler, Oberweiler, Oberaschbach and Niederaschbach (now vanished) and also the Hirsauer Kirche to the Rhinegraves of Grumbach, who until 1595 had exercised high jurisdiction in these villages. Hinzweiler thereafter remained in the Rhinegraviate until the collapse of the old feudal order in the course of the French Revolution.Modern times
Recent times During the time of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era that followed, the German lands on the Rhine’s left bank were annexed by France. The French thereby swept away all borders that had hitherto existed and established their own administrative entities. Roughly, the Glan formed the boundary between the Departments of Sarre and Mont-Tonnerre (or Donnersberg in German). Hinzweiler passed together with the villages of Aschbach, Nerzweiler, Hachenbach and Gumbsweiler to the newly founded Mairie (“Mayoralty”) of Hundheim, which itself belonged to the Canton of Lauterecken and the Arrondissement of Kaiserslautern. After the victory over Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna awarded a territory on the Rhine to the Kingdom of Bavaria, the Baierischer Rheinkreis (“Bavarian Rhine District”), later known as the Bayerische Rheinpfalz (“Bavarian Rhenish Palatinate”). Hinzweiler now belonged within this territory to the Bürgermeisterei (“Mayoralty”) of Hundheim in the Canton of Lauterecken and the Landkommissariat (later Bezirksamt, and later still Landkreis or District) of Kusel.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Nazi Party (NSDAP) became quite popular in Hinzweiler. In the 1928 Reichstag elections, none of the local votes went to Adolf Hitler’s party, but by the 1930 Reichstag elections, this had grown to 0.4%. By the time of the 1933 Reichstag elections, after Hitler had already seized power, local support for the Nazis had swollen to 77%. Hitler’s success in these elections paved the way for his Enabling Act of 1933 (Ermächtigungsgesetz), thus starting the Third Reich in earnest. Further changes in administrative structures came about not only through the Third Reich but also after the Second World War. The Palatinate was grouped into the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate, which itself undertook administrative restructuring in 1968. Thus, since 1972, Hinzweiler has belonged within the Kusel district to the Verbandsgemeinde of Wolfstein.Recent times
Musikanten
In 19th-century Hinzweiler, jobs were always hard to come by, and thus Hinzweiler, along with Eßweiler, Jettenbach and Mackenbach, became a centre of the West Palatine Musikantentum ("musicianhood"). A great part of the male population, but also some of the female population, too, learnt to play one or more musical instruments, joined an orchestra and went abroad in the spring. In autumn, they came back from the Netherlands, England and Scandinavia. All through the winter, houses in the village rang with rehearsals.
Some orchestras chose destinations that were much farther away and did not return for years. Some went to the Near East, some to the Americas, and some even as far as Australia and New Zealand. Wives sometimes went along to look after their menfolk, and children were born overseas as well.
These “minstrels” brought earnings back home with them, investing them in cropland, livestock, houses and farms. Many became wealthy farmers. Some also settled abroad.
In 1905, the number of these musicians from Hinzweiler who were working abroad was 71. One such musician was Otto Schwarz. The tradition ended, though, with the outbreak of the First World War.
Jewish history
Within the territory of the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, there was generally little tolerance for Jews. Owing to a few exceptions, mainly after the Thirty Years' War, when the population had been heavily decimated, a few Jewish families managed to settle. In the Eßweiler Tal, the small region where Hinzweiler lies, the centre of Jewish life was mainly in Eßweiler.