Heinzenhausen - Religion

Religion

It is likely that Heinzenhausen originally belonged to the Church of Lohnweiler, and later the Church of Lauterecken. In the time of the Counts Palatine/Dukes of Zweibrücken, the Reformation was introduced, and all the inhabitants had to convert to Lutheran teaching. A later conversion to Calvinism, as in the villages of the former County Palatine of Zweibrücken, did not come about in Heinzenhausen, for as of 1543, it belonged to the new County Palatine of Veldenz. Nevertheless, at the end of the Thirty Years' War, it became possible to convert to Calvinism, and indeed to Catholicism. Conversions to Catholicism and the coming of Catholic settlers became very common after 1733, after the village became an Electoral Palatinate holding. Of the 146 inhabitants in 1825, 76 were Evangelical and 70 were Catholic. In 1961, of the 336 inhabitants that were counted, 289 were Evangelical and only 45 were Catholic. This can be explained by the arrival of many Evangelical families during the 19th century. Jewish inhabitants do not show up in any available statistics at all.