Lohnweiler | |
|---|---|
 Coat of arms | |
Location of Lohnweiler within Kusel district
| |
 Location of Lohnweiler | |
  Lohnweiler  Lohnweiler | |
| Coordinates:49°38′9″N7°35′51″E / 49.63583°N 7.59750°E /49.63583; 7.59750 | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Rhineland-Palatinate |
| District | Kusel |
| Municipal assoc. | Lauterecken-Wolfstein |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2019–24) | Thomas Knecht[1] |
| Area | |
• Total | 4.91 km2 (1.90 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 190 m (620 ft) |
| Population (2023-12-31)[2] | |
• Total | 372 |
| • Density | 75.8/km2 (196/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| Postal codes | 67744 |
| Dialling codes | 06382 |
| Vehicle registration | KUS |
Lohnweiler is anOrtsgemeinde – amunicipality belonging to aVerbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in theKuseldistrict inRhineland-Palatinate,Germany. It belongs to theVerbandsgemeinde Lauterecken-Wolfstein.
The municipality lies in theLauter valley in theNorth Palatine Uplands. Lohnweiler lies at an elevation of roughly 165 m abovesea level only about a kilometre south of the town ofLauterecken at the mouth of the Koppbach (or Mausbach), whose valley stretches off to the southwest. The elevations around the village reach heights of almost 340 m above sea level (Silberkopf 337 m, Dumpf 318 m, Leienberg 311 m). The municipal area measures 491 ha, of which roughly 20 ha is settled and 139 ha is wooded.[3]
Lohnweiler borders in the north on the town ofLauterecken, in the northeast on the municipality ofHohenöllen, in the southeast on the municipality ofHeinzenhausen, in the south on the town ofWolfstein, in the southwest on the municipality ofOffenbach-Hundheim and in the west on the municipality ofWiesweiler. Lohnweiler also meets the municipality ofAschbach at a single point in the southwest.
The village core lies along with itschurch and formerschool on the left bank of the riverLauter's (also called the Waldlauter, to distinguish it from other rivers inGerman-speaking Europe namedLauter), in the outlet of the Mausbach valley, on both sides of a snaking road that bends to the south and continues as a country lane. From the village core, further streets with new building zones branch off to the north and south. East of this village core on the Lauter's left bank runs theLauter Valley Railway, and over on the right bank runsBundesstraße 270 in a less heavily settled area. The graveyard lies south of the village core.[4]
It is certain that the area around the village was settled as long ago asprehistoric times, bearing witness to which is a wealth ofarchaeological finds within the municipality's limits. Twostone hatchets have been unearthed here, one near the village in the field called “Im Flur” and the other towards the municipality's southern limits in the Jungenwald (forest). Further finds from theNew Stone Age have been potsherds from theLinear Pottery culture and theRössen culture. Potsherds have also been found from theIron Age, as has abronze ring. Some of these objects were once kept at the former school in its own collection. Moreover, within municipal limits lies several groups of, numbering all together about 20,barrows. In 1884, out towards the boundary withWolfstein, fourCeltic graves were unearthed. Found there were neckrings, armrings and footrings, which can now be found at theHistorisches Museum inSpeyer. Unearthed in Lohnweiler, too, have been various finds fromRoman times that are among the most important in the whole district. There have been Roman pieces of brick, potsherds andbronze coins with the emperor's effigy. Of the finds, author Helmut Bernhard wrote in 1990 “On an eastern slope over the Lauter hollow, an extensive estate complex has been known since 1973, from which, during building work several wall lines withhypocaust heating and cellars were dug up. Quite obviously, in this place the main building of a major estate was struck. On the broad sloped surface going down to the Lauter hollow stood the commercial buildings. In 1988, it was possible to unearth a slope wall and a major house. The complex, judging from the few finds, existed at least until the middle of the 4th century. The manor house’s cellar with two wall niches, a light shaft and stairways is preserved on a private property.”[5]
What has today become the village of Lohnweiler was likely founded only in theEarly Middle Ages, thus making any more precise dating of the founding impossible. The village lay in theNahegau and later passed to theCounty of Veldenz when this arose in the earlier half of the 12th century. From this epoch comes a whole series of documents, according to which the Counts of the younger County of Veldenz granted theirvassals rights in Lohnweiler. Count Heinrich II of Veldenz thus enfeoffed the “Persuna von Muntfort” with awidow's endowment, made up of the “court and people atLonewilre, the people atOffenbach and all their migrant workers”. In 1379, the Veldenz vassal Mohr von Sötern declared that he had received from a series of places belonging to His Grace, theJunker Friedrich (actually Count Friedrich II of Veldenz, 1378-1396) holdings, along with some in Lohnweiler. In 1380, Gerhard von Alsenz acknowledged all his Veldenzfiefs, including the income that he drew from levies in Lohnweiler. In turn, his shares in the court and in the people of Lohnweiler were acknowledged in 1417 by the knight Sir Johann Boos von Waldeck to Count Friedrich III of Veldenz (1396-1444). This last fief was newly confirmed in 1422. In 1444, the County of Veldenz met its end when Count Friedrich III of Veldenz died without a male heir. His daughterAnna wedKing Ruprecht's sonCount Palatine Stephan. By uniting his own Palatine holdings with the now otherwise heirless County of Veldenz – his wife had inherited the county, but not her father's title – and by redeeming the hitherto pledged County of Zweibrücken, Stephan founded a new County Palatine, as whose comital residence he chose the town ofZweibrücken: the County Palatine – later Duchy – ofPalatinate-Zweibrücken. Lohnweiler belonged to this new county palatine or duchy.[6]
Under the terms of the Treaty of Marburg of 18 November 1543, a state known as the County Palatine of Veldenz – later Veldenz-Lützelstein – came into being, established by DukeWolfgang for his uncleRuprecht as thanks for earlier having taken on, together with Wolfgang's mother (Count Palatine Ludwig II'swidow), the regency for the underage Wolfgang, ruling the County Palatine of Zweibrücken for him. Lohnweiler now lay in this new County of Veldenz. Its ruler, Count Palatine Ruprecht, did not enjoy his new lordship for long, dying the very next year.Georg Johannes I of Veldenz-Lauterecken was to succeed him, but having been born in 1543, he was only a baby. During his childhood, Wolfgang ruled the county palatine for him as administrator. Like most of the villages in the Glan area, Lohnweiler, too, had much to suffer in the 17th century's wars, both theThirty Years' War andFrenchKing Louis XIV's wars of conquest. Nevertheless, the nearby residence town ofLauterecken offered the villagers shelter, especially in the Thirty Years' War. Lauterecken was not overrun. Death nonetheless reaped a rich harvest through hunger and thePlague. The County Palatine of Veldenz-Lützelstein was “orphaned” in 1694 by the last ruling Count Palatine,Leopold Ludwig's death, whereupon a dispute arose as to whether the county – and thereby Lohnweiler too – should pass toElectoral Palatinate or the Duchy ofPalatinate-Zweibrücken. At first, Zweibrücken, which was then ruled by King ofSwedenKarl XI, took ownership of theÄmter of Veldenz and Lauterecken as well as the Remigiusberg. In 1697, Electoral Palatinate troops showed up, and theAmt of Lauterecken was now ruled by Electoral Palatinate. The dispute was settled in 1733 with the Veldenz Succession Treaty ofMannheim, under whose terms theÄmter of Veldenz and Lauterecken passed wholly to Electoral Palatinate, and the former Palatine-VeldenzAmt of Lauterecken was permanently given the status of an Electoral PalatinateOberamt, after it had already been occupied by Electoral Palatinate troops in 1697 anyway. Johann Goswin Widder wrote in 1788 in his workGeographische Beschreibung der Kur=Pfalz the following about Lohnweiler, among other things: “The current populace is made up of 54 families, working out to 220 souls. The buildings of one church and a school, 45 civic and common houses. The municipal area of 722Morgen of cropfields, 28Morgen ofvineyards, 55Morgen of meadows, two and a halfMorgen of gardens and 252Morgen of forest. … Thetithes are drawn by the Barons of Boos zu Waldeck in the Dumpf, the landgravial house ofHesse-Darmstadt in the Leyenberg and the Electoral Court Chamber of the New Quarries.” Thus it may be assumed that the Lords Boos von Waldeck held rights in Lohnweiler from theLate Middle Ages to the end offeudal times.[7]
During the time of theFrench Revolution and theNapoleonic Era that followed, the German lands on theRhine’s left bank wereannexed byFrance. Running along theGlan was the boundary between theDepartments ofSarre andMont-Tonnerre (or Donnersberg inGerman). Lohnweiler lay in the latter, and also in theArrondissement of Kaiserslautern, theCanton of Lauterecken and theMairie (“Mayoralty”) of Lauterecken. In 1814, the French were driven out of the German lands that they had overrun, and the French departments were soon dissolved and the victorious powers imposed yet a new regional order. TheCongress of Vienna annexed the Palatinate to theKingdom of Bavaria. This brought the unwelcome presence of a border running along the river Glan between Bavaria and, eventually, after acession,Prussia. Lohnweiler found itself on the Bavarian side, in theexclave known first as theBaierischer Rheinkreis and then later as theBaierische Rheinpfalz (“Bavarian Rhenish Palatinate”), and more locally in theLandcommissariat (laterBezirksamt andLandkreis or district) of Kusel, the Canton of Lauterecken and theBürgermeisterei (“Mayoralty”) of Lauterecken. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, theNazi Party (NSDAP) became quite popular in Lohnweiler. In the1928 Reichstag elections, 14.2% of the local votes went toAdolf Hitler’s party, but by the1930 Reichstag elections, this had grown to 32.1%. By the time of the1933 Reichstag elections, after Hitler had alreadyseized power, local support for the Nazis had swollen to 70.9%. Hitler’s success in these elections paved the way for hisEnabling Act of 1933 (Ermächtigungsgesetz), thus starting theThird Reich in earnest. After theSecond World War, the old Bavarian exclave, which had continued to exist even after the 1871Unification of Germany and throughImperial times, theFirst World War,Weimar times, the Third Reich and the Second World War, was now grouped into the then newly foundedstate ofRhineland-Palatinate. Lohnweiler now lay in theRegierungsbezirk of Pfalz within this state, and then after restructuring in theRegierungsbezirk ofRheinhessen-Pfalz, which has since been dissolved along with Rhineland-Palatinate’s otherRegierungsbezirke. In the course of administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate in 1968, Lohnweiler passed as a self-administeringOrtsgemeinde to theVerbandsgemeinde of Lauterecken.[8]
The village has remained rurally structured. Even today, the land is still used foragriculture, though the number of farmers has become small. Lohnweiler is thus a small residential community with good employment opportunities in the area’s towns (Lauterecken,Wolfstein). The great majority isEvangelical. The relatively great share of the population held byCatholicChristians is explained by the municipality’s formerly having belonged toElectoral Palatinate.
The following table shows population development over the centuries for Lohnweiler:[9]
| Year | 1788 | 1815 | 1860 | 1871 | 1905 | 1939 | 1961 | 2000 | 2010 |
| Total | 220 | 398 | 462 | 446 | 481 | 445 | 439 | 460 | 457 |
In 1326, Lohnweiler had its first documentary mention asLonewilre off der Lutern, which is known today from a copy of the original document from the early 15th century. Other forms of the name that have cropped up over time areLonewijlre (1364),Lonwiler undLoenwiler (1483),Loinwiller (1506),Lonwiller (1578) andLohweiller (1643). The current form first cropped up in 1824. According to researchers Dolch and Greule, the name must have arisen originally from a settlement founded by a man named Lono. Another interpretation holds that the first syllable of the name is from theGerman wordLoh, an archaic word for “woods” (and alsocognate with theEnglish word “lea”). The village's name, Lohnweiler, has the commonGerman placename ending—weiler, which as a standalone word means “hamlet” (originally “homestead”).[10]
Originally, Lohnweiler was an autonomous parish with achurch (theNikolauskirche, orSaint Nicholas’s Church), which stood from theMiddle Ages until the 19th century. It is certain that this church was built by Count Friedrich II of Veldenz about 1380, and it is highly likely that there had been forerunners to this church. AfterLauterecken had been raised to town, likely in 1349, it might well have been that the nearby village of Lohnweiler could no longer hold its own with regard to religion and became a branch church of the one in Lauterecken. About 1530, under the Dukes ofZweibrücken, theReformation was introduced, and everybodyhad toconvert toLutheran belief. A further conversion toCalvinism as in villages in the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken did not come about in Lohnweiler, for it had been since 1543 grouped into the new County Palatine of Veldenz. Nonetheless, after theThirty Years' War, conversion to Calvinism, and even back toCatholicism, was allowed. Conversions to Catholicism and settling of Catholics were quite extensive after 1733, after Lohnweiler had become anElectoral Palatinate holding. The church was said throughout the 18th century and right up until it was torn down in 1837 to be asimultaneous church. It was torn down because the faithful could attend church in nearby Lauterecken without too much trouble. Of the 398 inhabitants in 1825, 315 wereEvangelical and 52 were Catholic.Jews do not appear in the available statistics.[11]
The council is made up of 8 council members, who were elected bymajority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.[12]
Lohnweiler's mayor is Thomas Knecht.[1]
The municipality'sarms might be described thus: Per bend Or a linchpin sable and sable a lion rampant of the first armed, langued and crowned gules.
Thecharge on the sinister (armsbearer's left, viewer's right) side is the Palatine Lion, a reference to the village's former allegiance to the Dukes of the Palatinate. The charge on the dexter (armsbearer's right, viewer's left) side is supposed to be alinchpin, such as might be found on the hub of an old spoked wheel. This is apparentlycanting for the village's name, for “linchpin” isLunen in the local speech, or archaically,Lonse (although it isAchsnagel in standardModern High German). This same device can be seen on village boundary stones from 1750.[13] Another source, though, has a different explanation for this charge, naming it aLohnen and describing it as a tanner's scraping tool, although it, too, mentions the “linchpin” meaning, and also the meaning of a tool used to bark oaktrees (more useful to the barker than the tanner). The arms have been borne since 7 August 1980 when they were approved by the now defunctRheinhessen-PfalzRegierungsbezirk administration inNeustadt an der Weinstraße.[14]
The following are listed buildings or sites inRhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:[15]
The village church – formerly theschoolhouse – has in its belltower two bronzebells that were poured in either the 14th or 15th century at theDisibodenberg Monastery.
Lohnweiler holds itskermis (church consecration festival) on the first weekend in September. Old customs such as were once practised in all Glan area villages can still be found today.[16]
The following clubs are active in Lohnweiler:[17]
ThePfälzerwald-Verein also maintains a hiking cabin in Lohnweiler.
Besidesagriculture, there were formerly also in Lohnweiler the customary craft occupations. Attempts to minecoal within Lohnweiler's limits were unsuccessful. On theLauter once stood agristmill and anoilmill. Only a few operations actually work the land nowadays, and the old craft occupations are gone. Instead, there is anadvertising agency. There is also still aninn in the village. As a general rule, those seeking work must do so outside the village.[18]
It is highly likely that as early as the 16th century, there were efforts to teach the village's children toread and write, because the Counts Palatine ofZweibrücken had introduced theReformation and had a particular interest in having children read theBible. At first, classes were held in an ordinary house, though according to Widder's report (seeModern times above), Lohnweiler already had a schoolhouse by the late 18th century. In 1837, when the church was torn down, a new schoolhouse arose on the church's former site and still stands today. It was still being used forprimary school classes as late as the 2002/2003 school year. Today, all primary school pupils,special school pupils,Hauptschule students andGymnasium students attend their respective schools in Lauterecken.[19]
Lohnweiler lies onBundesstraße 270 which linksIdar-Oberstein withKaiserslautern. The town ofLauterecken lies only 2 km away, while to each ofKusel and Kaiserslautern it is 30 km. It is also as far to the nearestAutobahninterchanges. Lohnweiler has arailway station on theLauter Valley Railway (Lautertalbahn, Lauterecken—Kaiserslautern).[20]
