Oberweiler im Tal 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.
In the south at the municipal limit with Eßweiler stands a ruined castle, the Sprengelburg, which was built about 1300.
Geography
Location Oberweiler im Tal, in the North Palatine Uplands, lies in the Eßweiler Tal (dale) at an elevation of some 205 m above sea level against the backdrop of the Königsberg to the east, up from a narrowing in the dale where the water from the Jettenbach flows down a steep slope onto the flatter land on the floor of the dale. Within Oberweiler's limits, the 568-metre Königsberg's outliers reach heights of more than 500 m above sea level. The hills on the dale's left bank, which rise up towards the Herrmannsberg, a 536-metre-high hill to the west, reach heights of some 350 m above sea level within Oberweiler's limits. The municipal area measures 461 ha, of which 108 ha is wooded and roughly 10 ha is settled.Location
Neighbouring municipalities Oberweiler im Tal borders in the north on the municipality of Hinzweiler, in the east on the municipality of Aschbach, in the south on the municipality of Eßweiler and in the west on the municipality of Horschbach.
Municipality's layout Oberweiler im Tal lies in the Eßweiler Tal on Landesstraße 372, which runs north–south along the brook's left bank here. Oberweiler is a linear village (by some definitions, a "thorpe") with a few sidestreets branching of the main street up into small side dales, and with rather loosely spread building, although the built-up area towards the north end is a bit more tightly packed. Here, during the 19th century, a small residential area grew up over on the brook's right bank. All together, there was little or no expansion of the village's built-up area in the 20th century. Former farmhouses often still bear the features of an Einfirsthaus ("house with a single roof ridge"), also known as a Quereinhaus (a combination residential and commercial house divided for these two purposes down the middle, perpendicularly to the street). The graveyard lies in the village's north on the left side of the road. To the south, west of the road at the brook's steep bank and partly within Eßweiler's limits, stand the ruins of the Sprengelburg (also called the Springeburg), a castle that was once the seat of the Lords of Mühlenstein, vassals to the Rhinegraves of Grumbach.Municipality's layout
History
Antiquity Going by the many prehistoric archaeological finds in the broader area around Oberweiler im Tal, it may be assumed that the area right near the village was inhabited as far back as the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, and perhaps even as early as the New Stone Age. Currently, nothing is known about definite finds within Oberweiler's limits. In Roman times, too, the area was settled. In Johannes Hofmann's 1595 description of the Eßweiler Tal, it says: "In the Oberweiler municipal area, on the right side against the Königsberg, called auf der Huben, years ago copper coins were found, and a field there lies full of pieces of burnt or hewn stone, that may well be supposed to have been a great building that stood there." It cannot be ruled out that a Gallo-Roman times villa rustica once stood there.Antiquity
Middle Ages In 1290, Oberweiler im Tal had its first documentary mention.Daniel Hinkelmann: Die Ritter Mülenstein von Grumbach (1318-1451) und ihr Schloß Springeburg (nach Erkenntnissen bis April 1978). Westrich Kalender 1979 Oberweiler to a great extent shares its mediaeval history with all the villages in the Eßweiler Tal, which in many respects form a unit. Besides Oberweiler itself, these were originally Hundheim (Neuenglan), Hachenbach, Nerzweiler, Aschbach, Horschbach, Hinzweiler, 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 Hirsau Church, 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. What is known, however, is that after that year, it was never again mentioned in Prüm Abbey's documents. The highest feudal lord now became the Electors of the Palatinate who at first enfeoffed the Waldgraviate-Rhinegraviate with the high court jurisdiction, and all together 14 feudal lords with rights in the Eßweiler Tal 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 Hirsau Church (Hirsauer Kirche) and at the Springeburg (or Sprengelburg; the ruin still stands today between Eßweiler and Oberweiler im Tal). The name is commonly taken to mean the seat over a Sprengel, a word meaning "parish". Johannes Hofmann used the name form Springeburg for the castle. Hermann and Johann von Mühlensteiner are named in a series of Veldenz documents between 1377 and 1439. It seems likely that the Mühlensteiners lived as robber barons in the 15th century, for according to one of Johannes Hofmann's reports, their trade-hindering activities got them into a feud with the city of Strasbourg. "The oft-named Mühlsteiner Junkers," reads one account, "have become foes of the city of Strasbourg ... who in a hostile way have struck over the countryside and in the towns, robbed them violently, brought them great damage and markedly hindered them in their mercantile activities and other dealings, as they have now done the city of Strasbourg great disruption and harm." According to one of Hofmann's later reports, the citizens of Strasbourg through cunning managed to thrust their way into the castle and destroy it, supposedly sometime before 1415. The Sprengelburg might thus by the early 15th century have been a ruin. In 1977 and 1978, however, under American historian Thomas E. Higel's leadership, the ruin was unearthed and surveyed. Professor Higel, from the University of Maryland, and his team stumbled on a young woman's skeleton; she might have died in the castle's destruction. They also found jewellery. Yet another of Hofmann's reports stated that the last Mühlensteiner's still young widow wed a Lord Cratz von Scharfenstein. This lordly house exercised in the centuries that followed much the same function as the Lords of Mühlenstein, choosing as their seat, however, the so-called Oberhof ("Upper Estate") near the Hirsauer Kirche. 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 1451 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 1451, 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). In 1481, Oberweiler was mentioned in connection with a dispute that Duke Ludwig I pursued with Count Johannes vom Stein. Ludwig had waged several wars against Elector Palatine Friedrich, bringing hardship and woe even to lands not then in Palatinate-Zweibrücken's immediate ownership, like the Eßweiler Tal. It goes without saying that both Oberweiler and Sankt Julian were destroyed in this dispute. The Count vom Stein demanded damages. In the proceedings, both parties affirmed, however, that Ludwig was not to pay any damages in money, but rather was to hand over Schloss Bundenbach (a palatial residence) and Hahnweiler to the Count vom Stein as fiefs.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 Eßweiler Tal, depopulating the villages. In Oberweiler im Tal 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 (which already held the lower jurisdiction), 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. Oberweiler 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 im Tal, 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. Oberweiler thereafter remained in the Rhinegraviate until the collapse of the old feudal order in the course of the French Revolution.Modern times Between 1700 and 1789, mercury was mined within Oberweiler's limits.
Recent times