The village was first mentioned in documents in 1169 and was a farming settlement community until the discovery of lignite around 1766. In 1809, Ampflwang, like the rest of the
Hausruckviertel, fell to
Bavaria during the
Napoleonic Wars, where it remained until 1814. As
lignite, and with it the Wolfsegg-Traunthaler-Kohlenwerks AG (WTK), which operated coal mining in the community, became more and more important, the number of inhabitants rose to over 2,000 after
World War I. The consequence was the change from a peasant to an industrial employment structure. Ampflwang was elevated to the status of a
market town in 1969 due to its economic importance in the Hausruckviertel. At the same time, the right to bear the municipal coat of arms was granted. In the 1970s, the community reached a population of over 4000 people. Due to the fact that most of the coal had been mined out, the expiration of purchase contracts, and also the fact that the production costs of Ampflwang coal were higher than the world market prices, the mining operation was liquidated in 1995. Another small open pit mining operation has been closed in the meantime. ==Geography==