Eßweiler has only one outlying centre, called the Schneeweiderhof (Hof means “estate” in German, and the name takes the definite article), lying some 3 km from the village at an elevation of about 500 m above sea level on the Bornberg.

Owing to the great number of schoolchildren (all together 25 of them in seven grades in 1952), a school was set up at the Kolonie in 1952 in a purpose-built building, thus sparing the children the daily walk to the village and back.

Leading out of both the former and current village core is the street “Im Läppchen”, the part of which on the Talbach's right bank is known even today as the Judengasse (“Jews’ Lane”), a reference to the once important Jewish sector of the population in Eßweiler.

Just beyond the junction where the road branches off to the Schneeweiderhof, a new building development sprang up along Krämelstraße in the 1950s, which pushed the village's built-up area outwards towards Jettenbach.

Work on a further building development, “Auf Herrmannsmauer”, began in 1980 on the road leading out of the village towards Oberweiler im Tal, above Landesstraße 372.

After the original idea of running a training centre for ecological farming fell through, the two buildings served as a way station for Aussiedler from East European countries.

Unearthed in 1904, and bearing witness to Roman-Gaulish times, was a silver spoon decorated with doves, grapes and grapeleaves and inscribed “Lucilianae vivas”.

On the Trautmannsberg in 2002 and 2003, workers with the Office for Archaeological Monument Care (Amt für archäologische Denkmalpflege) undertook diggings to observe and preserve a Roman estate.

In 1393, the Dale passed as a Wittum (widow’s estate) to Margarete von Nassau, Count of Veldenz Friedrich III’s wife.

Only in a 1595 description of the Eßweiler Tal written by state scrivener and geometer Johannes Hofmann on behalf of John I, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken, can anything be read about the Sprengelburg and its eventual destruction by merchants from Strasbourg.

It was restored by the municipality of Eßweiler in the 1980s after an American academic, Professor Thomas Higel from the University of Maryland, had unearthed some remnants in the 1970s that had lain under a heap of rubble.

archaeological digs brought to light a rectangular arrangement of outer walls (roughly 15 × 20 m) with a round tower standing in the middle with a diameter of 8 m. This suggests that the complex was not a castle as such, but rather a well-developed watchtower.

Only at the foot of the hill were potsherds found, although in the summer of 1978, Professor Higel’s team stumbled on a young woman’s skeleton; she might have died in the castle’s destruction.

In the Thirty Years' War, there was no great amount of fighting, but many times various armies marched through the area, plundering and destroying; one mill in Eßweiler fell victim to their destructive ways (it was restored in 1661).

Famines drove a great deal of the inhabitants to migrate to Habsburg-ruled Eastern Europe, Prussian Brandenburg, Pomerania and eventually overseas to North America.

In the early 19th century, the inhabitants fed themselves mainly by agriculture, but the population was rising markedly, which made poverty in Eßweiler all the more acute as there was a dearth of employment opportunities in the region.

The diorite out of which these were being made was distinguished by its ability to bear up against stresses, which led to the local paving stones becoming a sought-after product, much favoured by many cities and towns.

Particularly tragic was an accident that happened in February 1945, when some children and youths found a Panzerfaust left behind by retreating German soldiers and began playing with it.

With the establishment of the Verbandsgemeinde of Wolfstein on 1 January 1972, the Bürgermeisterei (“Mayoralty”) of Eßweiler, which was also responsible for the neighbouring municipality of Oberweiler im Tal, was dissolved.

[32] In 1595, the Dale passed to the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, which required, under the principle of cuius regio, eius religio, that everyone convert to the Reformed faith.

It was in this time that the parish of Hinzweiler, which was also responsible for Eßweiler, was headed by a pastor from Austria named Pantaleon Weiß (he called himself Candidus).

The remaining Jewish inhabitants, the two families of Isidor and his brother Sigmund (or Siegmund) Rothschild, joined the Kusel worship community.

The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Or a bend sinister wavy azure between a castle and a tower both embattled gules masoned sable and a hammer and pick per saltire of the last.

[42] The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:[43] Between Eßweiler and Oberweiler im Tal on an outlying hill of the Königsberg, right on Landesstraße (State Road) 372, stands the Sprengelburg (or Springeburg).

The ruin's current appearance is the result of restoration measures undertaken from 1976 to the mid-1980s initiated by the State Office for Monument Care (Landesamt für Denkmalpflege) in Speyer.

Also enjoying fame were Jakob Hager who, among other things, played at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and Rudolph Schmitt, who worked for many years as a clarinettist for the world-famous orchestras in Chicago and San Francisco.

In the early 1970s, the Heimat- und Verkehrsverein (“Local History and Transport Club”) was founded, which runs the Landscheidhütte and to which the theatre group also belongs.

Beginning about 1830, the Wandermusikantentum – the “minstrel” tradition for which the area is famous – was growing in importance in the West Palatinate, and Eßweiler was becoming one of the great centres of the Musikantenland (see above).

As well, a four-hectare area was given over to a solar plant in November 2008; its output is 1.5 MW, and it is run by Neue Energie Pfälzer Bergland GmbH, a joint venture by Pfalzwerke AG and the District of Kusel.

In 1604, the Eßweiler parishioners sent a petitionary letter to the lord who was responsible, namely Duke Johannes II (“the Young”), asking for a Latin school to be established.