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.
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).
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.
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.
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. All these “minstrels” brought good 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. After the
French Revolution, the situation for Jews changed. Despite a certain limitation imposed by one of
Napoleon’s edicts, they could engage in trade and were seen in the
agricultural realm mostly as livestock and horse dealers. Hinzweiler citizens esteemed the Jews as tradesmen. Some even learnt “Hebrew” (actually
Yiddish) so that they could better deal with the Jews. Under
Bavarian rule, the situation improved appreciably. In 1836, there were 36 Jews living in Hinzweiler. They were becoming ever more integrated and felt themselves to be Germans, simply ones with a different religion. In the
First World War there was no dearth of volunteers from among the Jews, who went to war for Germany. Growing
antisemitism, however – even before the beginning of the
Third Reich – made many Jews choose
emigration, while some also moved to Germany's cities. However, those who could not get themselves to safety in time were rounded up by the
Nazis on 22 October 1940 and deported to
Gurs in southwestern France, whence they were further sent to the
death camps. The picture shows the Jewish graveyard in Hinzweiler with 38 gravestones, which dates from 1870. In 1963, the stones were “fetched out of the wilderness”, as reported by Heinz Mahler. In the early 1970s, the graveyard was given a makeover. The last burial there was in the mid 1920s, a young man from Eßweiler.
Population development Hinzweiler was throughout the
Middle Ages a small village, whose very existence was often threatened by such things as
Plague and war. After the Plague of 1564, Hinzweiler had only 15 inhabitants left. People earned their livelihoods mainly at farming. Some may have sought a living in the ore mines at the Königsberg. In the area right near Hinzweiler itself was a
limestone pit, which employed a few people. In a 1735 statistical publication, of the 25 men who headed families, 22 were said to be free subjects and 3 were said to be
Hintersassen (roughly, “dependent peasants”). Among craftsmen, who only worked the land as a secondary occupation, there were four
shoemakers, three
linen weavers, two
tailors, one
blacksmith, one
miller and one
wainwright. This basic structure remained in place even well into the 20th century. Nevertheless, in the late 19th century until
Weimar times, the regional industry involving local musicians travelling to many parts of
Europe and beyond, called
Wandermusikantentum, was quite well developed in Hinzweiler. The first of these “wandering minstrels” known to have come from Hinzweiler were Georg Volles (1823), Heinrich Werner and Karl Krebs. It was in this time that a firm of
piano builders arose in the village, named Eichler. All these customary craft occupations have since disappeared. Most of the villagers nowadays must seek their livelihoods outside the village. In the late 18th century,
Jews settled in Hinzweiler. At times in the 19th century, their share of the population reached 10%. Current population trends are influenced by the village's quiet location, and partly also by the location's favourability to the
shopping and commercial centre of
Kaiserslautern. Nonetheless, what can be observed today is a stagnation in the population figures and at the same time a rise in the inhabitants’ average age. The following table shows population development over the centuries for Hinzweiler, with some figures broken down by religious denomination: In 1563, the village had been wholly wiped out by the
Plague, which struck and depopulated the whole
Eßweiler Tal. The figure for 1609 represents 20 families. No exact population figure for 1675 is known, but it is recorded that there were 13 families in Hinzweiler in the years after the
Thirty Years' War. The second source listed contradicts the figure for 1802 by listing 244 inhabitants for that year. Whether the 1961 total includes one irreligious person is unclear. It could also be a typographical error in the source.
Municipality’s name The village's name, Hinzweiler, has the common
German placename ending
—weiler, which as a standalone word means “
hamlet” (originally “homestead”), to which is prefixed a syllable
Hinz—, believed to have arisen from a personal name,
Hinzo, suggesting that an early settler named Hinzo founded the village. Nevertheless, it is only with difficulty that anyone can confirm when the villages in the
Eßweiler Tal with names ending in
—weiler were founded. The time period in question is quite a long one, from the 8th century to the 12th. With the exception of
Nerzweiler, their first documentary mentions came in the latter half of the 13th century. The foundings of these villages might arguably be put about 300 years earlier than the first documentary mentions. Hinzweiler had its first documentary mention in 1263 as
Hennesweiler. The content of the document in question has only been handed down as a copy. Among other names that the village bore through the ages were
Hinzwiller (original document, 1336),
Huntzwilre (1393),
Huntzwyler (1451),
Hintzweyler (1566) and
Hintzweiller (1666). The forms with
—u— might suggest that the village was the seat of a lower official named
Hun or
Hund.
Vanished villages In Johannes Hofmann's description of the
Eßweiler Tal, one reads: “In Hinzweiler’s municipal area, up at the rectory near
an den Kreuzäckern (a rural cadastral name) not far from the
Zeßelbacher Grund, hewn stone blocks from old buildings, also old coins and other things have also been found, indicating that long ago a village stood right there, called Zeßelbach”. Hence, this village was no longer there by 1595. No further information about Zeselbach near Hinzweiler is available. ==Religion==