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130-628: The municipality lies in the Eßweiler Tal (dale) northwest of the Königsberg (mountain) in the North Palatine Uplands at an elevation of some 200 m above sea level . Elevations on the right bank at the Königsberg reach above 500 m above sea level (Leienberg 524 m). On the left bank, they reach only a bit more than 300 m above sea level (Spenzelberg 305 m). The municipal area measures 532 ha, of which roughly 32 ha

260-456: A widow's estate . After 1446, 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

390-677: A "feudal society". Although it is derived from the Latin word feodum or feudum (fief), which was used during the Medieval period, the term feudalism and the system it describes were not conceived of as a formal political system by the people who lived during the Middle Ages. Since the publication of Elizabeth A. R. Brown 's "The Tyranny of a Construct" (1974) and Susan Reynolds 's Fiefs and Vassals (1994), there has been ongoing inconclusive discussion among medieval historians as to whether feudalism

520-400: A brilliant warrior who secularized church lands for the purpose of providing precarias (or leases) for his followers, in return for their military service. Martel's military ambitions were becoming more expensive as it changed into a cavalry force, thus the need to maintain his followers through the despoiling of church lands. Responding to Brunner's thesis, Paul Fouracre theorizes that

650-518: A chief wavy gules Or in base a mount of three vert above which a lyre of the first. The central charge , the lyre , stands for the history of travelling musicians – Wandermusikantentum – that was well represented in Hinzweiler. The wavy line at the bottom of the chief represents the dale – the Eßweiler Tal – in which Hinzweiler lies. The mount of three ( Dreiberg in German ) is supposed to symbolize

780-523: A consensus viewpoint is that England before the Conquest had commendation (which embodied some of the personal elements in feudalism) while William the Conqueror introduced a modified and stricter northern French feudalism to England incorporating (1086) oaths of loyalty to the king by all who held by feudal tenure, even the vassals of his principal vassals (holding by feudal tenure meant that vassals must provide

910-416: 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 . In Johannes Hofmann's description of the Eßweiler Tal , one reads: “In Hinzweiler’s municipal area, up at

1040-418: A feudal order not limited solely to the nobility. It is his radical notion that peasants were part of the feudal relationship that sets Bloch apart from his peers: while the vassal performed military service in exchange for the fief, the peasant performed physical labour in return for protection – both are a form of feudal relationship. According to Bloch, other elements of society can be seen in feudal terms; all

1170-415: A feudal relationship with agreed obligations to one another. The vassal's principal obligation to the lord was to provide aid or military service. Using whatever equipment the vassal could obtain by virtue of the revenues from the fief, the vassal had to answer calls to military service by the lord. This security of military help was the primary reason the lord entered into the feudal relationship. In addition,

1300-533: 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

1430-528: A general upswing beginning in the time of the Reformation . As early as 1604, the Eßweiler Tal church community made an application to the Zweibrücken government to hire a teacher who could teach the children Latin , while a teacher for the “German school” had already been hired. If this actually did lead to the founding of a Latin school, it did not last very long. An end would have been put to it no later than

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1560-504: A great many schoolchildren to teach in the original one-room schoolhouse and thus he asked to be allowed to hire an assistant. Drumm was also a sexton , received a great deal of free firewood and was allowed to use the school's extensive lands. Among other things, he had the right to keep six wethers . His rent and the benefits offered him actually worked out to only a small net amount afterwards. Adam Drumm died in November 1863. His successor

1690-465: A land grant in exchange for service was called a beneficium (Latin). Later, the term feudum , or feodum , began to replace beneficium in the documents. The first attested instance of this is from 984, although more primitive forms were seen up to one-hundred years earlier. The origin of the feudum and why it replaced beneficium has not been well established, but there are multiple theories, described below. The term "féodal"

1820-535: A means of political gain. For them "feudalism" meant seigneurial privileges and prerogatives. When the French Constituent Assembly abolished the "feudal regime" in August 1789, this is what was meant. Adam Smith used the term "feudal system" to describe a social and economic system defined by inherited social ranks, each of which possessed inherent social and economic privileges and obligations. In such

1950-441: A portrait of Hercules with abundant hair and beard. It may once have been part of a dedication stone at a sanctuary somewhere nearby. 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

2080-555: A provision that was later extended to various parts of Italian kingdom following the invasion by French troops. In the Kingdom of Naples , Joachim Murat abolished feudalism with the law of 2 August 1806, then implemented with a law of 1 September 1806 and a royal decree of 3 December 1808. In the Kingdom of Sicily the abolishing law was issued by the Sicilian Parliament on 10 August 1812. In Piedmont feudalism ceased by virtue of

2210-577: A quarter of the farmland in France and provided most of the income of the large landowners. The majority refused to pay and in 1793 the obligation was cancelled. Thus the peasants got their land free, and also no longer paid the tithe to the church. In the Kingdom of France , following the French Revolution, feudalism was abolished with a decree of 11 August 1789 by the Constituent Assembly ,

2340-448: 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

2470-573: A set of reciprocal legal and military obligations of the warrior nobility based on the key concepts of lords, vassals, and fiefs. In broad terms a lord was a noble who held land, a vassal was a person granted possession of the land by the lord, and the land was known as a fief. In exchange for the use of the fief and protection by the lord, the vassal provided some sort of service to the lord. There were many varieties of feudal land tenure , consisting of military and non-military service. The obligations and corresponding rights between lord and vassal concerning

2600-400: 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

2730-510: A system, wealth derived from agriculture, which was arranged not according to market forces but on the basis of customary labour services owed by serfs to landowning nobles. Heinrich Brunner , in his The Equestrian Service and the Beginnings of the Feudal System (1887), maintained that Charles Martel laid the foundation for feudalism during the 8th century. Brunner believed Martel to be

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2860-756: 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

2990-706: Is a railway station on the Lautertalbahn , roughly 8 km away. North Palatine Uplands The North Palatine Uplands ( German : Nordpfälzer Bergland ), sometimes shortened to Palatine Uplands ( Pfälzer Bergland ), is a low mountain range and landscape unit in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and belongs mainly to the Palatinate region. It is part of the Saar-Nahe Uplands . The North Palatine Uplands lie – roughly stated – between St. Wendel in

3120-460: Is a useful construct for understanding medieval society. The adjective feudal was in use by at least 1405, and the noun feudalism was in use by the end of the 18th century, paralleling the French féodalité . According to a classic definition by François Louis Ganshof (1944), feudalism describes a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations of the warrior nobility that revolved around

3250-421: Is either Nußbach or Obermoschel . The region is very rural in character and has no towns with more than 10,000 inhabitants. Important places are the county towns of Kirchheimbolanden and Kusel , and the collective municipalities of Alsenz , Altenglan , Lauterecken , Meisenheim , Rockenhausen , Winnweiler and Wolfstein . Motorways Federal roads Feudalism Feudalism , also known as

3380-500: Is feudalism?", 1944; translated in English as Feudalism ). His classic definition of feudalism is widely accepted today among medieval scholars, though questioned both by those who view the concept in wider terms and by those who find insufficient uniformity in noble exchanges to support such a model. Although Georges Duby was never formally a student in the circle of scholars around Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre , that came to be known as

3510-483: Is found. The church stands in the south of this old village centre. The great Königslandhalle with its civic centre dominates the view in the village centre's north. The sporting ground lies to the village's west on the Talbach's left bank, while the graveyard lies at the village's south end by the road to Horschbach . Going by the many archaeological finds from the broader area around Hinzweiler, it can be assumed that

3640-508: Is not always clear. A rough guide is the heavily folded ridge north of the Glan river with a height different of as much as 300 metres in place. The North Palatine Uplands fall mainly within the districts of Kusel and Donnersbergkreis . To a lesser extent it also falls within parts of Kaiserslautern , St. Wendel , Birkenfeld and Bad Kreuznach . The North Palatine Uplands is characterised by numerous mountains, hills and valleys which lend

3770-424: 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

3900-466: 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. The village's name, Hinzweiler, has the common German placename ending —weiler , which as

4030-430: Is settled and 200 ha is wooded. Hinzweiler borders in the north on the municipality of Nerzweiler , in the east on the municipality of Aschbach , in the south on the municipality of Oberweiler im Tal , in the west on the municipality of Horschbach and in the northwest on the municipality of Glanbrücken . Also belonging to Hinzweiler is the outlying homestead of Mühlbergerhof. Landesstraße 372 runs through

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4160-555: Is that early forms of 'fief' include feo , feu , feuz , feuum and others, the plurality of forms strongly suggesting origins from a loanword . The first use of these terms is in Languedoc , one of the least Germanic areas of Europe and bordering Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain). Further, the earliest use of feuum (as a replacement for beneficium ) can be dated to 899, the same year a Muslim base at Fraxinetum ( La Garde-Freinet ) in Provence

4290-524: The Führerprinzip . In 1974, the American historian Elizabeth A. R. Brown rejected the label feudalism as an anachronism that imparts a false sense of uniformity to the concept. Having noted the current use of many, often contradictory, definitions of feudalism , she argued that the word is only a construct with no basis in medieval reality, an invention of modern historians read back "tyrannically" into

4420-639: The Annales school , Duby was an exponent of the Annaliste tradition. In a published version of his 1952 doctoral thesis entitled La société aux XIe et XIIe siècles dans la région mâconnaise ( Society in the 11th and 12th centuries in the Mâconnais region ), and working from the extensive documentary sources surviving from the Burgundian monastery of Cluny , as well as the dioceses of Mâcon and Dijon , Duby excavated

4550-532: 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

4680-740: The Inca Empire , in the pre-Columbian era , as 'tributary' societies . In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, J. Horace Round and Frederic William Maitland , both historians of medieval Britain, arrived at different conclusions about the character of Anglo-Saxon English society before the Norman Conquest in 1066. Round argued that the Normans had brought feudalism with them to England, while Maitland contended that its fundamentals were already in place in Britain before 1066. The debate continues today, but

4810-444: The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). When no teacher was available to teach lessons in Hinzweiler in the late 16th century, the pastor had to take over the teaching duties. It is likely that a candidate for a pastoral post was hired as a teacher. Records from 1762 show that Hinzweiler had not only a Reformed (Calvinist) school but also a Lutheran “main school”, that is to say, a school with year-round classes, supported by villages in

4940-512: 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

5070-454: The dove as a symbol of peace. Worthy of note in the tower area are a piece of Roman spolia set in the outer wall bearing a representation of Hercules and remnants of late mediaeval paintings inside. These fresco-secco paintings were only discovered – and uncovered – in 1974. They show Jesus Christ enthroned with Mary as intercessor for the faithful. The council is made up of 8 council members, who were elected by majority vote at

5200-441: The feudal system , was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour. The classic definition, by François Louis Ganshof (1944), describes a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations of

5330-545: The peasantry , which was bound by a system of manorialism . This order is often referred to as a feudal society , echoing Bloch's usage. Outside its European context, the concept of feudalism can be extended to analogous social structures in other regions, most often in discussions of feudal Japan under the shoguns , and sometimes in discussions of the Zagwe dynasty in medieval Ethiopia , which had some feudal characteristics (sometimes called "semifeudal"). Some have taken

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5460-645: The territorial state . This form of statehood, identified with the Holy Roman Empire , is described as the most complete form of medieval rule, completing conventional feudal structure of lordship and vassalage with the personal association among the nobility. But the applicability of this concept to cases outside of the Holy Roman Empire has been questioned, as by Susan Reynolds. The concept has also been questioned and superseded in German historiography because of its bias and reductionism towards legitimating

5590-469: The "Old World" ( German : alte Welt or in Palatinate German : die alt Welt or bucklige Welt ). However, sometimes the term alte Welt just refers to a strip of land on the border of the districts of Kusel and Kaiserslautern , which is roughly demarcated by the 420 , 270 and 48 federal highways and the A 6 and A 63 motorways. Depending on how the region is defined, its largest village

5720-459: The 10th century it was common to value land in monetary terms but to pay for it with objects of equivalent value, such as arms, clothing, horses or food. This was known as feos , a term that took on the general meaning of paying for something in lieu of money. This meaning was then applied to land itself, in which land was used to pay for fealty, such as to a vassal. Thus the old word feos meaning movable property would have changed to feus , meaning

5850-697: The 14 feudal lords 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 ,

5980-679: The 16th-century basis or incorporate what, in a Marxist view, must surely be superficial or irrelevant features from it. Even when one restricts oneself to Europe and to feudalism in its narrow sense it is extremely doubtful whether feudo-vassalic institutions formed a coherent bundle of institutions or concepts that were structurally separate from other institutions and concepts of the time. The term feudal has also been applied to non-Western societies, in which institutions and attitudes similar to those of medieval Europe are perceived to have prevailed (see Examples of feudalism ). Japan has been extensively studied in this regard. Karl Friday notes that in

6110-687: The 1850s. Slavery in Romania was abolished in 1856. Russia finally abolished serfdom in 1861. More recently in Scotland, on 28 November 2004, the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 entered into full force putting an end to what was left of the Scottish feudal system. The last feudal regime, that of the island of Sark , was abolished in December 2008, when the first democratic elections were held for

6240-515: The 21st century historians of Japan rarely invoke feudalism; instead of looking at similarities, specialists attempting comparative analysis concentrate on fundamental differences. Ultimately, critics say, the many ways the term feudalism has been used have deprived it of specific meaning, leading some historians and political theorists to reject it as a useful concept for understanding society. Historian Richard Abels notes that "Western civilization and world civilization textbooks now shy away from

6370-506: The 57 km long Alsenz . The 116 km long Nahe , into which the other two discharge, is no longer included in this region. The area of the Donnersberg is drained towards the east by the 43 km long Pfrimm , which itself rises in the northern Palatine Forest, and the 61 km long Selz . Both flow into the Upper Rhine . The North Palatine Uplands is also referred to locally as

6500-457: The 9th and 10th centuries receded and gave way to a new feudal order wherein independent aristocratic knights wielded power over peasant communities through strong-arm tactics and threats of violence. In 1939, the Austrian historian Theodor Mayer subordinated the feudal state as secondary to his concept of a Personenverbandsstaat (personal interdependency state), understanding it in contrast to

6630-553: 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 the Hirsauer Kirche and at

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6760-572: The Enlightenment wrote about feudalism to denigrate the antiquated system of the Ancien Régime , or French monarchy. This was the Age of Enlightenment , when writers valued reason and the Middle Ages were viewed as the " Dark Ages ". Enlightenment authors generally mocked and ridiculed anything from the "Dark Ages" including feudalism, projecting its negative characteristics on the current French monarchy as

6890-512: The French Revolution, on just one night of 4 August 1789, France abolished the long-lasting remnants of the feudal order. It announced, "The National Assembly abolishes the feudal system entirely." Lefebvre explains: Without debate the Assembly enthusiastically adopted equality of taxation and redemption of all manorial rights except for those involving personal servitude—which were to be abolished without indemnification. Other proposals followed with

7020-677: The Hinzweiler church was subject, at first opposed Reformist efforts. In 1555, though, the Rhinegraves of Grumbach, too, introduced the Reformation, and in 1588, the Offenbach Monastery was dissolved. After the Counts Palatine of Zweibrücken had become absolute fiefholders over the Eßweiler Tal in 1595, worshippers then had to convert to Calvinism in line with developments in the County Palatine. Beginning in 1601, Hinzweiler became

7150-488: 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. Hinzweiler was throughout the Middle Ages a small village, whose very existence was often threatened by such things as Plague and war. After

7280-514: 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

7410-426: The Jews had their own graveyard laid out. Many gravestones with mostly Hebrew inscriptions are preserved. Catholic Christians were not found in Hinzweiler until the early 19th century, and even thereafter, only sporadically. Of the church in Hinzweiler, only the quire under the tower actually goes back to the original building date, about 1450. About 1600, a tower was built over the quire. The original Gothic nave

7540-533: 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

7670-614: The Kusel district to the Verbandsgemeinde of Wolfstein . 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

7800-582: The Königsberg. The tinctures gules and Or (red and gold) are a reference to the village's former allegiance to the Rhinegraves. An older coat of arms was “Vert a bezant” (that is, a green field with a gold orb). The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate ’s Directory of Cultural Monuments: Hinzweiler holds its kermis (church consecration festival) on the third weekend in October. No other special customs are known to be observed in

7930-457: The Latin of the Frankish laws. One theory about the origin of fehu was proposed by Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern in 1870, being supported by, amongst others, William Stubbs and Marc Bloch . Kern derived the word from a putative Frankish term *fehu-ôd , in which *fehu means "cattle" and -ôd means "goods", implying "a movable object of value". Bloch explains that by the beginning of

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8060-525: 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

8190-606: The Rhinegraviate until the collapse of the old feudal order in the course of the French Revolution . 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

8320-595: The Springeburg (or Sprengelburg; the ruin still stands today between Eßweiler and Oberweiler im Tal ). 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 1446 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

8450-507: The Western European societies commonly described as feudal. The word feudal comes from the medieval Latin feudālis , the adjectival form of feudum 'fee, feud', first attested in a charter of Charles the Fat in 884, which is related to Old French fé, fié, Provençal feo, feu, fieu, and Italian fio . The ultimate origin of feudālis is unclear. It may come from a Germanic word, perhaps fehu or *fehôd , but these words are not attested in this meaning in Germanic sources, or even in

8580-428: The area sharp variations in height from about 200 to over 600 m above  sea level (NN) . The highest point is the Donnersberg which, at 687 m is also the highest mountain in the Palatinate. The following is a list of prominent mountains and hills in the Uplands, sorted by height in metres above sea level (NHN): Important rivers in the west and north of the range are the 90 km long Glan and

8710-465: The area that had Lutheran winter schools (schools geared towards an agricultural community's practical needs, held in the winter, when farm families had a bit more time to spare) with payments in money and kind. Hence, the Lutheran school in Hinzweiler received from Horschbach one Malter , three barrels and one Sester of corn (meaning rye in this case) and in cash, four Rhenish guilders , 13 Batzen and seven Pfennig. The Reformed school in Hinzweiler

8840-478: The aspects of life were centred on "lordship", and so we can speak usefully of a feudal church structure, a feudal courtly (and anti-courtly) literature, and a feudal economy. In contradistinction to Bloch, the Belgian historian François Louis Ganshof defined feudalism from a narrow legal and military perspective, arguing that feudal relationships existed only within the medieval nobility itself. Ganshof articulated this concept in Qu'est-ce que la féodalité? ("What

8970-440: The authority and powers held by feudal lords , overlords , and nobles , and preferred the idea of autocratic rule where a king and one royal court held almost all the power. Feudal nobles regardless of ethnicity generally thought of themselves as arbiters of a politically free system, so this often puzzled them before the fall of most feudal laws. Most of the military aspects of feudalism effectively ended by about 1500. This

9100-424: 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

9230-437: The church itself held power over the land with its own precarias . The most commonly utilized precarias was the gifting of land to the church, done for various spiritual and legal purposes. Although Charles Martel did indeed utilize precaria for his own purposes, and even drove some of the bishops out of the church and placed his own laymen in their seats, Fouracre discounts Martel's role in creating political change, that it

9360-560: The complex social and economic relationships among the individuals and institutions of the Mâconnais region and charted a profound shift in the social structures of medieval society around the year 1000. He argued that in early 11th century, governing institutions—particularly comital courts established under the Carolingian monarchy—that had represented public justice and order in Burgundy during

9490-415: 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 ). As early as 1526, the Reformation was introduced into the Eßweiler Tal . In the course of the 16th century, the Plague raged in

9620-502: 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

9750-418: The dale to attend services, all weddings were held there, and so were all funerals and burials. It was also the thingstead , and on certain days, market was held there, too. Hirsau lost this central role when in 1451 the church in Hinzweiler was built, although originally this only functioned as a chapel of ease to Hirsau's parish church. This actually brought about competition between the two churches in

9880-495: The death of its author Thomas Madox , in 1727. In 1771, in his book The History of Manchester , John Whitaker first introduced the word "feudalism" and the notion of the feudal pyramid. Another theory by Alauddin Samarrai suggests an Arabic origin, from fuyū (the plural of fay , which literally means "the returned", and was used especially for 'land that has been conquered from enemies that did not fight'). Samarrai's theory

10010-424: The edicts of 7 March, and 19 July 1797 issued by Charles Emmanuel IV , although in the Kingdom of Sardinia , specifically on the island of Sardinia , feudalism was abolished only with an edict of 5 August 1848. In the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia , feudalism was abolished with the law of 5 December 1861 n.º 342 were all feudal bonds abolished. The system lingered on in parts of Central and Eastern Europe as late as

10140-500: The election of a local parliament and the appointment of a government. The "revolution" is a consequence of the juridical intervention of the European Parliament , which declared the local constitutional system as contrary to human rights , and, following a series of legal battles, imposed parliamentary democracy . The phrase "feudal society" as defined by Marc Bloch offers a wider definition than Ganshof's and includes within

10270-661: The exact opposite: landed property. Archibald Ross Lewis proposes that the origin of 'fief' is not feudum (or feodum ), but rather foderum , the earliest attested use being in Vita Hludovici (840) by Astronomus. In that text is a passage about Louis the Pious that says annona militaris quas vulgo foderum vocant , which can be translated as "Louis forbade that military provender (which they popularly call "fodder") be furnished." Initially in medieval Latin European documents,

10400-403: The feudal structure not only the warrior aristocracy bound by vassalage, but also the peasantry bound by manorialism, and the estates of the Church. Thus the feudal order embraces society from top to bottom, though the "powerful and well-differentiated social group of the urban classes" came to occupy a distinct position to some extent outside the classic feudal hierarchy. The idea of feudalism

10530-729: The feudalism analogy further, seeing feudalism (or traces of it) in places as diverse as Spring and Autumn period China, ancient Egypt , the Parthian Empire , India until the Mughal dynasty and the Antebellum South and Jim Crow laws in the American South . The term feudalism has also been applied—often pejoratively—to non-Western societies where institutions and attitudes similar to those in medieval Europe are perceived to prevail. Some historians and political theorists believe that

10660-401: The fief form the basis of the feudal relationship. Before a lord could grant land (a fief ) to someone, he had to make that person a vassal. This was done at a formal and symbolic ceremony called a commendation ceremony , which was composed of the two-part act of homage and oath of fealty . During homage, the lord and vassal entered into a contract in which the vassal promised to fight for

10790-461: The highly profitable rights of justice, etc. (what Georges Duby called collectively the " seigneurie banale " ). Power in this period became more personal. This "fragmentation of powers" was not, however, systematic throughout France, and in certain counties (such as Flanders , Normandy , Anjou , Toulouse ), counts were able to maintain control of their lands into the 12th century or later. Thus, in some regions (like Normandy and Flanders ),

10920-520: The historical record. Supporters of Brown have suggested that the term should be expunged from history textbooks and lectures on medieval history entirely. In Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted (1994), Susan Reynolds expanded upon Brown's original thesis. Although some contemporaries questioned Reynolds's methodology, other historians have supported it and her argument. Reynolds argues: Too many models of feudalism used for comparisons, even by Marxists, are still either constructed on

11050-578: 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

11180-498: The key concepts of lords , vassals and fiefs , though Ganshof himself noted that his treatment was only related to the "narrow, technical, legal sense of the word." A broader definition, as described in Marc Bloch 's Feudal Society (1939), includes not only the obligations of the warrior nobility but the obligations of all three estates of the realm : the nobility, the clergy , and those who lived off their labour, most directly

11310-420: 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 ,

11440-411: 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

11570-524: 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

11700-416: The lord at his command, whilst the lord agreed to protect the vassal from external forces. Fealty comes from the Latin fidelitas and denotes the fidelity owed by a vassal to his feudal lord. "Fealty" also refers to an oath that more explicitly reinforces the commitments of the vassal made during homage; such an oath follows homage. Once the commendation ceremony was complete, the lord and vassal were in

11830-478: The lord for criminal offences, including capital punishment in some cases. Concerning the king's feudal court, such deliberation could include the question of declaring war. These are examples of feudalism ; depending on the period of time and location in Europe, feudal customs and practices varied. In its origin, the feudal grant of land had been seen in terms of a personal bond between lord and vassal, but with time and

11960-515: The middle of the 18th century, as a result of works such as Montesquieu 's De L'Esprit des Lois (1748; published in English as The Spirit of Law ), and Henri de Boulainvilliers 's Histoire des anciens Parlements de France (1737; published in English as An Historical Account of the Ancient Parliaments of France or States-General of the Kingdom , 1739). In the 18th century, writers of

12090-415: The municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman. Hinzweiler's mayor is Gunter Suffel, and his deputies are Karl-Heinz Kondratiuk and Fredi Klein. Sources differ on how the German blazon reads. The first listed appears on the website, while the second is that published by Debus: Either way, the municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Under

12220-571: The municipality hired a second teacher, and the schoolhouse had to be expanded. In 1934, the eighth grade level was to be introduced, but the Nazi régime would not approve the application to do so. Today, primary school pupils and Hauptschule students attend their respective schools in Wolfstein . Hinzweiler has one kindergarten and an event and sport hall. Hinzweiler lies on Landesstraße 372, which links Rothselberg to Offenbach-Hundheim . North of

12350-455: 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

12480-463: 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 . 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,

12610-782: The oppression of feudal subjects with a holistic integration of political and economic life of the sort lacking under industrial capitalism. He also took it as a paradigm for understanding the power-relationships between capitalists and wage-labourers in his own time: "in pre-capitalist systems it was obvious that most people did not control their own destiny—under feudalism, for instance, serfs had to work for their lords. Capitalism seems different because people are in theory free to work for themselves or for others as they choose. Yet most workers have as little control over their lives as feudal serfs." Some later Marxist theorists (e.g. Eric Wolf ) have applied this label to include non-European societies, grouping feudalism together with imperial China and

12740-400: The order coming before capitalism . For Marx, what defined feudalism was the power of the ruling class (the aristocracy ) in their control of arable land, leading to a class society based upon the exploitation of the peasants who farm these lands, typically under serfdom and principally by means of labour, produce and money rents. He deemed feudalism a 'democracy of unfreedom', juxtaposing

12870-489: The quota of knights required by the king or a money payment in substitution). In the 20th century, two outstanding historians offered still more widely differing perspectives. The French historian Marc Bloch , arguably the most influential 20th-century medieval historian, approached feudalism not so much from a legal and military point of view but from a sociological one, presenting in Feudal Society (1939; English 1961)

13000-469: 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. The old Hirsauer Kirche

13130-412: The same period or later: Counties and duchies began to break down into smaller holdings as castellans and lesser seigneurs took control of local lands, and (as comital families had done before them) lesser lords usurped/privatized a wide range of prerogatives and rights of the state, including travel dues, market dues, fees for using woodlands, obligations, use the lord's mill and, most importantly,

13260-434: The same success: the equality of legal punishment, admission of all to public office, abolition of venality in office, conversion of the tithe into payments subject to redemption, freedom of worship, prohibition of plural holding of benefices ... Privileges of provinces and towns were offered as a last sacrifice. Originally the peasants were supposed to pay for the release of seigneurial dues; these dues affected more than

13390-531: 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. Named in later times were only

13520-803: 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,

13650-478: The state of Saarland to the west and three towns belonging to Rhineland-Palatinate : Alzey to the east, Kaiserslautern to the south and Bad Kreuznach to the north, although these towns are not actually within the region itself. The North Palatine Uplands thus links the landscapes of the Palatine Forest , Saar-Hunsrück Nature Park , Naheland and Rheinhessen . To the northwest its boundary with Naheland

13780-456: The temporary parish seat, but already by 1610, it once again had to yield this function to Hirsau, only to get it back after the Thirty Years' War . This structure remains in place to this day. In earlier days, Hinzweiler's inhabitants were mainly Reformed , according to John Calvin ’s teachings. As minorities, there were Lutherans , who in 1818 merged with the Calvinists, and Jews . In 1870,

13910-465: The term feudalism has been deprived of specific meaning by the many ways it has been used, leading them to reject it as a useful concept for understanding society. The applicability of the term feudalism has also been questioned in the context of some Central and Eastern European countries, such as Poland and Lithuania, with scholars observing that the medieval political and economic structure of those countries bears some, but not all, resemblances to

14040-433: The territory came to encompass the social, political, judicial, and economic spheres. These acquired powers significantly diminished unitary power in these empires. However, once the infrastructure to maintain unitary power was re-established—as with the European monarchies—feudalism began to yield to this new power structure and eventually disappeared. The classic François Louis Ganshof version of feudalism describes

14170-508: The time that followed for the function of parish church. As early as 1526, the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken introduced the Reformation into the church of the Oberamt of Meisenheim, replacing Catholic belief with Martin Luther ’s teachings so that bit by bit, church services in the Eßweiler Tal , too, began to be conducted in accordance with the Reformation. The Offenbach Monastery, to which

14300-508: The transformation of fiefs into hereditary holdings, the nature of the system came to be seen as a form of "politics of land" (an expression used by the historian Marc Bloch ). The 11th century in France saw what has been called by historians a " feudal revolution " or "mutation" and a "fragmentation of powers" (Bloch) that was unlike the development of feudalism in England or Italy or in Germany in

14430-440: The vassal could have other obligations to his lord, such as attendance at his court, whether manorial , baronial, both termed court baron , or at the king's court. It could also involve the vassal providing "counsel", so that if the lord faced a major decision he would summon all his vassals and hold a council. At the level of the manor this might be a fairly mundane matter of agricultural policy, but also included sentencing by

14560-472: The vassal/feudal system was an effective tool for ducal and comital control, linking vassals to their lords; but in other regions, the system led to significant confusion, all the more so as vassals could and frequently did pledge themselves to two or more lords. In response to this, the idea of a "liege lord" was developed (where the obligations to one lord are regarded as superior) in the 12th century. Around this time, rich, "middle-class" commoners chafed at

14690-404: The village of Hinzweiler from north to south, on the brook's right bank in the north of the village and on its left in the south. Nevertheless, the village cannot be considered a true linear village, for in the village centre, where the road crosses the brook, other built-up streets branch off the thoroughfare to the southeast and east. Indeed, it is also here that the older part of the built-up area

14820-596: 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

14950-544: The village, Landesstraße 368 branches off Landesstraße 372, forming a link to the east, by way of Aschbach to the Lauter valley. Another road that branches off, Landesstraße 368, leads from the village's south end by way of Horschbach and Welchweiler to Altenglan . To the east runs Bundesstraße 270. The nearest Autobahn interchanges , at Kusel and Kaiserslautern , lie 18 km and 30 km away respectively. Serving Wolfstein's outlying centre of Reckweilerhof

15080-515: The village. The following clubs are active in Hinzweiler: Agriculture is still an important branch of the economy in Hinzweiler even today. The biggest craft business in the village is one that lays floors. Among service-sector businesses are two inns and some full-time insurance agencies. One dentist is in practice in the village. Another business in Hinzweiler buys, sells and restores antique furniture . Schooling experienced

15210-405: The warrior nobility and revolved around the key concepts of lords , vassals , and fiefs . A broader definition, as described by Marc Bloch (1939), includes not only the obligations of the warrior nobility but the obligations of all three estates of the realm : the nobility, the clergy , and the peasantry , all of whom were bound by a system of manorialism ; this is sometimes referred to as

15340-547: 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

15470-451: Was Friedrich Maurer, who was chosen by the municipality out of eight applicants. In 1869, Maurer petitioned the Royal government for leave to marry Maria Eberhard from Kindenheim . Maurer's relationship with the municipality did not remain untroubled for long. There was a dispute over the service to the church, which Maurer no longer wanted to do. In 1870, a knitting school was opened. In 1913,

15600-409: 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

15730-633: Was established. It is possible, Samarrai says, that French scribes, writing in Latin, attempted to transliterate the Arabic word fuyū (the plural of fay ), which was used by the Muslim invaders and occupiers at the time, resulting in a plurality of forms – feo, feu, feuz, feuum and others—from which eventually feudum derived. Samarrai, however, also advises to handle this theory with care, as Medieval and Early Modern Muslim scribes often used etymologically "fanciful roots" to support outlandish claims that something

15860-494: Was first used in 17th-century French legal treatises (1614) and translated into English legal treatises as an adjective, such as "feodal government". In the 18th century, Adam Smith , seeking to describe economic systems, effectively coined the forms "feudal government" and "feudal system" in his book The Wealth of Nations (1776). The phrase "feudal system" appeared in 1736, in Baronia Anglica , published nine years after

15990-489: Was of Arabian or Muslim origin. Feudalism, in its various forms, usually emerged as a result of the decentralization of an empire: such as in the Carolingian Empire in the 9th century AD, which lacked the bureaucratic infrastructure necessary to support cavalry without allocating land to these mounted troops. Mounted soldiers began to secure a system of hereditary rule over their allocated land and their power over

16120-541: Was originally the spiritual hub for all villages in the Eßweiler Tal . When it was that a church was first built in Hirsau (not to be confused with Hirsau in Baden-Württemberg ) cannot be determined today. It can be assumed nonetheless that there had been an earlier church standing at the same spot centuries before the one that still stands now was built (about 1100); it may have been wooden. Churchgoers came from throughout

16250-566: Was overseen then by an ecclesiastical school inspector (a clergyman) from Odenbach . In general there were not yet actual schoolhouses in the villages, and classes were conducted in private houses or on municipally owned premises. The first in Hinzweiler was built in 1844, and another was built in 1905. It is known from Bavarian times that beginning in 1840 Johann Adam Drumm, born on 26 March 1817 in Erdesbach , taught school in Hinzweiler after having been discharged from military service in 1839. He had

16380-569: Was partly since the military shifted from armies consisting of the nobility to professional fighters thus reducing the nobility's claim on power, but also because the Black Death reduced the nobility's hold over the lower classes. Vestiges of the feudal system hung on in France until the French Revolution of the 1790s. Even when the original feudal relationships had disappeared, there were many institutional remnants of feudalism left in place. Historian Georges Lefebvre explains how at an early stage of

16510-407: 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

16640-417: Was simply a military move in order to have control in the region by hording land through tenancies, and expelling the bishops who he did not agree with, but it did not specifically create feudalism.   Karl Marx also uses the term in the 19th century in his analysis of society's economic and political development, describing feudalism (or more usually feudal society or the feudal mode of production ) as

16770-529: Was torn down in the 18th century, likely because it had fallen into disrepair, and a new nave was built in 1727 north of the tower in an aisleless configuration with a three-sided end wall and a flat ceiling. Impressive is the painting on the ceiling from 1974 by Günter Humbert with its colour symbolism and representations of the Four Evangelists with the Lamb of God , the pelican as a symbol of self-sacrifice and

16900-491: Was unknown and the system it describes was not conceived of as a formal political system by the people living in the medieval period. This section describes the history of the idea of feudalism, how the concept originated among scholars and thinkers, how it changed over time, and modern debates about its use. The concept of a feudal state or period, in the sense of either a regime or a period dominated by lords who possess financial or social power and prestige, became widely held in

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