Oberweiler-Tiefenbach 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.
Geography
Location
Oberweiler-Tiefenbach lies on the river Lauter's right bank northeast of the Königsberg in the North Palatine Uplands. Originally two separate villages, the municipality's two centres lie at an elevation of some 185 m above sea level, Oberweiler lying farther upstream at the mill, and Tiefenbach lying farther downstream at the church standing near the mountain slope. Between the two centres flows the Breitbach, which then empties into the Lauter. The elevations east of the village reach heights of up to roughly 370 m above sea level (Eichelberg 368 m). The municipal area measures ha, of which roughly 15 ha is settled and 80 ha is wooded.
Neighbouring municipalities
Oberweiler-Tiefenbach borders in the north on the municipality of Hohenöllen and the Reckweilerhof (which belongs to Wolfstein), in the east on the municipality of Einöllen and in the south and west on the town of Wolfstein. Oberweiler-Tiefenbach also meets the municipality of Heinzenhausen at a single point in the northwest.
Constituent communities
Oberweiler-Tiefenbach's Ortsteile are Oberweiler and Tiefenbach.
Municipality’s layout
The two villages, which over time have grown together into one, stretch as a long linear village (or by some definitions, a “thorpe”) along the Lauter's right bank. The river here also forms Wolfstein's town limit. The road along which the village stretches, nowadays known as Landesstraße 49, was originally the main link in the Lauter valley. A small concentration of building stands in Oberweiler's south end near the mill, where a bridge over to the river's left bank is also to be found. Another bridge linking to Bundesstraße 270 and the stop on the Lauter Valley Railway (Lautertalbahn) is found in the village's north. Likewise in the north end stands the old church, an eye-catching sight in the Lauter valley. The church is surrounded by the graveyard. The former school, which for a time was used as a special school, stands in the Breitbach valley. Part of the industrial property owned by the firm K. O. Braun, a textile factory, lies within Oberweiler-Tiefenbach's limits.
History
Antiquity
It is certain that the area around Oberweiler-Tiefenbach was settled in prehistoric times, bearing witness to which is a wealth of prehistoric archaeological finds, especially from the neighbouring municipalities. Within Einöllen’s limits, near the municipal limit with Oberweiler-Tiefenbach, roughly a dozen stone hatchets were unearthed before the First World War, which are now believed to be in private ownership. No finds from Roman times in Oberweiler-Tiefenbach are directly known.