Dunzweiler - History - Modern Times

Modern Times

Dunzweiler, as part of the Schultheißerei of Waldmohr, now shared a history with the County Palatine of Zweibrücken right up until that state’s dissolution at the time of the French Revolution. In 1547, the first detailed information about Dunzweiler and its environs was to be found in the so-called Oberamtsbuch kept by the Oberamt of Zweibrücken, which was compiled on Duke Wolfgang’s orders, and by way of the archaeological listings, the village appears repeatedly in Tilemann Stella’s (a surveyor and cartographer from Siegen) 1564 Beschreibung der Ämter Zweibrücken und Kirkel (“Description of the Ämter of Zweibrücken and Kirkel”, a territory also known as the Dunzweiler Bann). It says, for instance, on page 28, in archaic German: “Fortan gehet die grenitz berguber biß zu einem Ort, im Hohen Teich genannt. Dieser Ort schaidet Duntzweiller und Ditweiller. Von dan gehet die oberkait gemach bergin bis zu einem marckstein. Dieser marckstein wirt genannt oben am Hundthauser teich bei der Krelesaichen. Er hatt ein creutz unnd schaidet Duntzweiller und Diweiller, diß ist Pfältzisch unndt höret inns Reich.” (“Henceforth the border goes over the mountain to a place named ‘im Hohen Teich’. This place divides Duntzweiller and Ditweiller. Thence, the authority goes into the mountains to a borderstone. This borderstone is named up above at the Hundthaus pond near the Krelesaichen. It has a cross and divides Duntzweiller and Ditweiller, this is Palatine and belongs in the Empire.”). During the course of the 16th century, Count (Duke) Johann of Zweibrücken finally managed to acquire all foreign lordly rights in Dunzweiler, completing the acquisition on 27 April 1577. In 1609 came the first complete list of Dunzweiler’s inhabitants in the form of a directory of parishioners belonging to the parish branch of Dunzweiler. It was compiled by the Reverend Simon Metzler, the parish priest at Ohmbach, to which Dunzweiler was parochially attached. This list may well also represent the village’s population figure – roughly 120 persons – just before the Thirty Years' War, which brought great hardship, misery and sickness (foremost, the Plague) along with it. Dunzweiler was not spared in the Conquest of Kaiserslautern, either, falling victim to plundering and being set on fire. Most of the village’s farmers and craftsmen likely died in this time. The war was brought to an end in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia. After great fluctuations in the population in the years that followed, the first population figures known from the years after the Thirty Years’ War were 7 families in 1675 and 14 in 1704, whereas some villages in the broader area had died right out in the war. Some inhabitants had fled and were now staying in faraway places. On 12 February 1673, the municipality, which had been settled once again, enacted its own municipal code (Gemeindeordnung), which prescribed a police force. The code, which was read aloud every year, was officially confirmed by the Amt of Zweibrücken.

In the early 18th century there was a serious dispute with the neighbouring village of Dittweiler. The land that was the subject of this dispute is still known today as Streitgewann (roughly “Dispute Strip”). This comes from a hitherto unknown entry in a church book. Closer examination of this source has also brought to light that during the Inquisition in the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken under Heinrich Kramer (c. 1430-c. 1505), Dunzweiler was the scene of local violent crimes. A “stock book” has survived from 1756 or 1759. It was compiled by the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken and used information gathered by land surveyors to determine who owned how much land, and in which fields. Also listed in this book was a figure of 30 to 35 houses in Dunzweiler.

Following in 1776 were the Huldigungslisten (“homage lists”), a list of Dunzweiler subjects at that time in homage to Charles II August, Duke of Zweibrücken, who had just (on 5 November 1775) assumed the Duchy’s leadership after his predecessor’s death. This list, which came into being shortly before the French Revolution, counted 48 fathers heading families, 16 fully grown, unwed young men and two older inhabitants who, owing to age or infirmity, could not show up for the counting.

In 1793, the Duchy was conquered by invading French troops, putting Charles II August to flight, shortly whereafter his palace was burnt down. By 1805, Dunzweiler, along with the rest of the German lands on the Rhine’s left bank, had been annexed to Napoleon’s empire, within which the Commune de Dunzweiler found itself until 1814 in the Canton of Waldmohr, the Arrondissement of Sarrebruck (Saarbrücken) and the Department of Sarre, whose seat was at Trèves (Trier). In 1805, the French administration had a plan géometrique of Dunzweiler laid out, that is, a map with building areas and divisions of farm fields drawn in. This makes it clear that there was a great upswing in the village’s population in the 19th century. While there had been only 50 houses in Dunzweiler in 1805, there were 96 in 1845.