Nanzdietschweiler () 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 of Oberes Glantal.
Geography
Location Nanzdietschweiler lies in the upper Glan valley where the Landstuhler Bruch (a depression) meets the North Palatine Uplands. The village's elevation ranges from 220 m to 250 m above sea level. The municipality's highest peaks reach 384 m above sea level. The municipal area is characterized by woodland, meadows and the species-rich river Glan, which flows through, among other things, the “Heimerbrühl” bird conservation area. Nanzdietschweiler is the biggest municipality in the Verbandsgemeinde by land area, and ranks second in population after Herschweiler-Pettersheim. Nanzdietschweiler arose out of the three centres of Dietschweiler, Nanzweiler and Nanzdiezweiler, each of whose locations is well defined. Dietschweiler lies on the Glan's left bank in the dale's upper reaches, mainly on three streets in the area of two small brooks, the Ochsenbach and the Lützelbach, which empty into the Glan. On the hill northwest of this centre lies the Lützelbacherhof, an Aussiedlerhof (post-war agricultural community). Nanzweiler stretches just under a kilometre farther north on the Glan's left bank, with a settlement concentrated at the riverbank, a linear settlement in the Atzelbach valley and most prominently a settlement on the rise between this brook and the Glan towards the south. Nanzdiezweiler lies on the Glan's right bank across the river from Nanzweiler as an enclosed clump village north of the Maulschbach, which empties here into the Glan. A smaller part lying farther south stands across the river from Dietschweiler. On the floor of the valley, the village lies some 220 m above sea level. The mountains on the Glan's left bank reach heights of more than 350 m above sea level (Gardelstein 366 m, Rosengarten 384 m), while those over on the right bank generally are not quite as high as 350 m above sea level.Location
Neighbouring municipalities Nanzdietschweiler borders in the north on the municipality of Glan-Münchweiler, in the northeast on the municipality of Niedermohr, in the southeast on the municipality of Hütschenhausen, in the southwest on the municipality of Gries and in the west on the municipality of Börsborn.
Constituent communities Nanzdietschweiler's Ortsteile are Nanzweiler, Dietschweiler, Nanzdietzweiler and Kreuz, although the last named is usually grouped with Dietschweiler. Nanzdietschweiler was formed on 10 January 1969 (with effect from 7 June 1969) out of these centres. Nanzweiler, Dietschweiler and Nanzdiezweiler were once separate municipalities. Kreuz was part of the makeup, too, but was counted as part of Dietschweiler even then. The municipal limit ran along the Glan (Nanzweiler/Nanzdiezweiler) and over the heights at what is now the sporting ground (Nanzweiler/Dietschweiler). The centre of Kreuz with its old gristmill (the Dietschweiler Mühle), on the other hand, was an exception. It lay on the Glan's right bank (Nanzdiezweiler), but was nevertheless considered part of Dietschweiler. Also belonging to Nanzdietschweiler is the outlying homestead of Lützelbacherhof.Constituent communities
Municipality’s layout Nanzdietschweiler has several centres. The centre called Dietschweiler is concentrated mainly in the area between the Ochsenbach and the Lützelbach, where it is characterized to a great extent by old farmhouses, these being either Einfirsthäuser (houses with a single roof ridge, which are typical of the Westrich, an historic region that encompasses areas in both Germany and France) or Quereinhäuser (combination residential and commercial houses divided for these two purposes down the middle, perpendicularly to the street). Standing in Dietschweiler's south end are the Evangelical church and the former Dietschweiler railway station. The older part of Nanzweiler lies on the Glan, whereas the settled area in the Atzeltal (dale) mostly arose only after the Second World War. In the upper part of the village between the Atzelbach and the Glan stands Sacred Heart Catholic Church (Herz-Jesu-Kirche) with its rectory and youth hall. Nanzdiezweiler on the Glan's right bank is made up in its north end mainly of building development on the slopes east of the Glan, while it also has a settled centre to the south lying on the opposite bank to the formerly self-administering village of Dietschweiler, which is also known as Kreuz (“Cross”). This could have been a name for an old village. This is also where the old mill stands, in Kreuz's south end on the Glan's right bank. A great sporting ground with a multipurpose hall (the Kurpfalzhalle, or “Electoral Palatinate Hall”) and an open-air stage stretches between the centres of Nanzweiler and Dietschweiler. Once standing in each of the centres was a schoolhouse, of which only the one in Dietschweiler still serves its original purpose.Municipality’s layout
History
Antiquity As early as the New Stone Age, the area around what is now Nanzdietschweiler was populated by man, bearing witness to which are various archaeological finds, among which have been a few stone hatchets, made out of hard stone. A barrow on the Rosengarten (which despite its name, meaning “rose garden”, is a mountain), which belongs to a group of others across the municipal limit in Glan-Münchweiler, comes from the Iron Age, as does a small ringwall commonly known as the Schwedenwall (“Sweden Wall” or “Swedish Wall”). Roman finds, too, have come to light within Nanzdietschweiler's limits, such as coins. Historian Karlwerner Kaiser had this to say about monuments to gods that have been unearthed: “Likewise, remnants of god memorials bear witness to the populace’s appearance on the landscape, as with the broken piece of what is believed to be a monument to the great earth-mother Diana and with the matronal monument at the Lichtenstangen (a named rural cadastral area) on the south slope southwest of Nanzweiler. Its front side shows three seated goddesses with fruit baskets in their laps. The remaining Celtic populace’s local gods, wearing Roman clothes, confront them. Particular attention is earned by the relief of a saddled horse on the far side of the matronal stone, which might have stood in a temple.”Antiquity
Middle Ages The villages of Nanzweiler and Dietschweiler arose in the Free Imperial Domain (Reichsland) when this stretched broadly over what is now the West Palatinate. From this contiguous block of territory, kings split off certain pieces to make of them donations to both ecclesiastical and secular lordships. Great parts passed into the Salians’ ownership. In 737, Count Werner I of the Salian House endowed the Hornbach Monastery, whose first abbot was Saint Pirmin. This monastery was richly furnished with estates, even with the Münchweiler Tal (dale), which had been split off the Reichsland and given into Count Werner's ownership, whereupon he then gave it to the monastery. The villages of Nanzweiler and Dietschweiler already existed at the time of this donation on each side of the Glan. Laid down as the border of the monasterial landhold in the Münchweiler Tal was the river Glan in the area of what is now the village of Nanzdietschweiler. The centres on the right bank remained in the Reichsland whereas the parts on the left bank passed into the monastery's ownership. Throughout this period in history, the villages each side of the Glan, which then even bore the same names, were set asunder by this border. Nanzweiler and Dietschweiler on the Glan's right bank, which became Nanzdiezweiler by the 19th century, remained in Imperially immediate ownership and over the course of the centuries was pledged several times, in the 14th century to the Electorate of Trier, and in the 15th to Electoral Palatinate. Both villages on the right bank then remained with Electoral Palatinate, thereby sharing a history with the region around Kaiserslautern, generally known as the Reichswald (“Imperial Forest”). An utterly different course was taken by the two villages on the Glan's left bank. As a fief of the Hornbach Monastery whose hub was at Glan-Münchweiler, they passed in the 14th century (1323) first to the Raugraves in the Nahegau, then to the Archbishop of Trier (1344) and to Breidenborn (1383), finally ending up in the 16th century with the Counts of Leyen.Middle Ages In 1350, the Ortsteil of Nanzweiler had its first documentary mention as Nanczvilre, while Nanzdiezweiler was first mentioned in 1437 as Diezwiler and Dietschweiler in 1477 as Dyzweiler. On 17 March 1383, the village of Monchwilr off dem Glan was pledged along with all its appurtenances (and under feudalism this, of course, included the people) for 340 Rhenish guilders to Sir Bechtolff von Flörsheim (Flerßheim), Squire Philips von Breidenborn and their heirs – with the exception, however, of the mountain at Nancwilr. On the same day, however, the agreement seems to have been amended to include this mountain, even mentioning it specifically, and accordingly the monetary amount involved was raised to 480 Rhenish guilders. Less than a month later, on 12 April 1383, another record mentions several people, including three from Nanzweiler (Henne von Nancwilr, Clas von Nancwilr and Henne, Angnesen Sohn) who had sworn an oath of obeisance to Sir Bechtolff, Castle Count at Lutern (Kaiserslautern), Squire Philips and their heirs.
18th Century Until the time of the French Revolution nothing about the existing lordship structure on either side of the Glan changed. Nanzweiler and Diezweiler on the right bank remained with Electoral Palatinate, and the like-named villages on the Glan's left bank remained House of Leyen landholds. The Lords of Leyen, who at first maintained their lordly residence at Koblenz, moved their residence to Blieskastel in 1773.
The Münchweiler Tal was only part of the lordly holdings, with the ancestral castle standing on the Moselle and other holdings widely scattered. Between the House of Leyen and Electoral Palatinate there were tight relations, as there also were in the Late Middle Ages between the Lords of Breidenborn and Electoral Palatinate. Any antagonisms between the villages on each side of the border were thus never very great. All four villages were very small. In 1600, there were 15 hearths (for which read “households” or “families”) in what is now Nanzdietschweiler, three in the villages on the right bank that later became Nanzdiezweiler and in Dietschweiler and Nanzweiler on the Glan's left bank 12 all together. Between 1618 and 1648, however, namely during the Thirty Years' War, Nanzdietschweiler was empty of people. In all the villages at the end of the war, almost nobody lived anymore. Even as late as 1684 (36 years after the war's end), still no settlers had come to the villages on the right bank to repopulate them, but that changed beginning in this year. So many new settlers came, though, and the population grew so quickly that by the mid 18th century, some inhabitants were leaving, emigrating to places such as Eastern and Southern Europe, and even the New World seeking a new homeland. This emigration from these as yet ununified villages reached a peak in 1784, with migrants reaching Hungary, the Balkans and Poland.