Because of the lively breaking-up of the landscape into scattered, wooded hillocks and ridges, hollows and open plateau remnants, the countryside is also described as “humpy land”.
On 6 December 1363, Bärweiler had its first documentary mention in an agreement that was reached on that day: Waldgrave Friedrich von Kyrburg was to allow the knights Johann Fust, Lamprecht and Conrad, Brothers of Stromberg, the rental rights that had been sold them, after four years had gone by.
On 14 February 1375, Thilman, Lord at Heyntzenberg (Heinzenberg), sold Otto, Waldgrave at Kirburg, and his wife Agnes many holdings, which were listed by name, in Lympach (Limbach), Berwilre (Bärweiler), Leylbach (Löllbach), Schwinscheit (Schweinschied), Seibach, Syende, Nieder-Meckenbach, Medersheym (Meddersheim), Meckenbach and Oberhondsbach among other places.
Even as far back as 1377, the Langenstein (a local menhir) was mentioned in a Weistum (cognate with English wisdom, this was a legal pronouncement issued by men learned in law in the Middle Ages and early modern times) dealing with the Kirner Marktmeile (“Kirn Market Mile”, actually a boundary description).
The pertinent passage from the Weistum reads as follows (in archaic German):Dis ist die martmyle und get an zu Oberhosenbach an dem cruze, und gein Wapenrot an den lichten bule, und vort gein Sessebach an die velse, von dort zu Viller an die Ruhe und vort gein Berwiller an den langen Stein, von dannen an Lympachs crutz und vort gein Perich an den hane… In translation, this comes out as follows:This is the market mile and (it) goes on to Oberhosenbach at the cross, and towards Woppenroth at the gentle rise, and forth towards Seesbach at the crag, from there to Weiler at the rest spot and forth towards Bärweiler at the Long Stone (that is, the menhir), from there to Limbach’s cross and forth towards Perich at the grove… The Weistum only mentions the main points (among which Perich is a bit of a mystery) of the boundary of a zone within which high jurisdiction over robbers and murderers was subject to the Waldgraves as the landholders.
[8] On 26 July 1412, Johann Waldgrave at Dunen (Dhaun) and at Kirburg gave Rorich von Merxheim a holding in pledge to free up 100 Rhenish guilders.
The lordly dominium directum over three villages in the area of the Heidenweistum had from yore belonged to the Counts of Veldenz: Hundsbach, Merzweiler and Nieder-Eisenbach.
According to the old Veldenz Mannbuch, Johann Boos von Waldeck held the following fiefs on 11 February 1417: his share of the Hundeszbach (Hundsbach) court, people, taxes (public-lawful levies), rental (general payment mainly from harvests) and whatever belonged thereto as well as a share in the freedom of action at Huntsbach (Hundsbach), Berwilre (Bärweiler), Merxheim, Mederszheim (Meddersheim) and Langenhard (vanished village of Langert near Bärweiler).
Lamprecht Fust von Stromberg on 13 May 1427 imposed a yearly corn rental of 24 Malter in Bärweiler as part of the Kyrburg fief that he held.
He arranged a widow’s fund for his wife Schonette von Sien of 10 Rhenish guilders from the fief that he held from Friedrich Count of Veldenz, among other things, in Hundsbach, at Luschet (Lauschied) and at Berwiler (Bärweiler) the people who were assigned to his Schultheiß, Fogler.
In the way that was typical for this family, the Waldgravine and Rhinegravine Anna von Kyrburg, according to a 1542 sworn statement by the gatherers of the Türkensteuer (“Turk tax”, imposed in the Holy Roman Empire ostensibly to help the Emperor ward off the “Turkish threat”), had lent out church holdings and assumed the lease herself.
Ir wystum ist gar irrig, deshalb nit dann wie itz gehort ufgeschr.
When the family Merxheim died out in 1440, the Fuste raised a claim on the succession to the Ganerbenschaft, which not surprisingly led to a dispute between them and the Waldgraves, which was still not settled by 1508.
A document from 13 July of that year mentions Philipp Reichardt Fust von Stromberg as the holder of the lordship over the fief at Berweiler.
On hand at the Kirn town archive are extracts about taxes from 1589 to 1606 that the village of Bärweiler had to pay yearly to the bursar in Kyrburg.
On 17 December 1709, “Carl, Waldgrave at Dhaun Kirburg, Rhinegrave at the Stein, Count at Salm, Lord at Vinstingen and Püttlingen” let his estate, which lay within Bärweiler’s limits, to the Lauschied Schultheiß, Johann Michel Hoffmann, for a term of 18 years.
In 1745, official acts at Schloß Anholt on 28 February and at Dhaun on 24 March yielded documents stating that Christian Otto, Waldgrave at Dhaun and Kyrburg, Rhinegrave at the Stein, Count at Salm, Lord of Vinstingen, Püttlingen and Dimmeringen had received, among other things, the Faust fief at Beerweiler along with many other rights to tithes and clergy appointments in other villages, for they had all passed back to him.
Not only in Kirn did he have many buildings built and maintained (for example the Piarist monastery and the College), but also in the villages of his Oberamt, where many churches and schools arose through his efforts.
Until the French occupation of the lands on the Rhine’s left bank towards the end of the 18th century, Bärweiler belonged to the Waldgraves and Rhinegraves at Kyrburg.
After the Treaty of Paris (30 May 1814), the region between the Rhine and the Moselle on the one side and the French border on the other – an area within which lay Bärweiler – was jointly ruled by the Emperor of Austria and the King of Bavaria.
When industrialization began in the region towards the end of the 19th century, Bärweiler took no part in it, for then there was no good transport link with the Nahe valley.
After an order from the French general of the Rhine Army, the live shooting exercises were restricted to Sundays, Mondays and Fridays until noon.
Most neighbouring villages, on the other hand, from 1919 to 1920 and in later years, had to put up with billeting of a great number of occupational troops when exercises were being conducted.
The National Socialist régime’s Gleichschaltung set in right after the seizure of power and even in the smallest villages, it did not spare club life.
Documents were compiled as to who had joined which mass Nazi organization, and when (that is, the Hitler Youth, the League of German Girls, the Deutsches Jungvolk or whatever).
[1] The German blazon reads: In Rot-Gold geschachten Schild eine schwarze Spitze, belegt mit goldenem Löwenkopf.
The municipality’s arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Chequy gules and Or a pile transposed sable charged with a lion’s head erased of the second langued of the first.
Fust (Faust) von Stromberg bore arms chequy gules and Or (with a chequered pattern, with alternating squares of red and gold).
The “pile transposed” (the wedge-shaped element) symbolizes the Langenstein (local menhir), while the charge thereon, the lion’s head, is a reference to the village’s former allegiance to the Waldgraves of Kyrburg.
[21] The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:[22] Hiking trails around Bärweiler and to the Langenstein (local menhir) invite hikers to view and explore the village.