Through it flows the like-named river, the Hintertiefenbach, among whose local tributaries are the Gilzbach, the Bach an der Bismarckeiche, the Waldbach and the Edemisbach.

The village then belonged, along with the other “abbey municipalities”, Gerach, Göttschied, and Regulshausen (Höhweiler and Ritzenberg) – the last two of which are now outlying centres of Idar-Oberstein – to the Mettlach Monastery.

After Napoleon's downfall, the Congress of Vienna assigned Hintertiefenbach to the Principality of Birkenfeld, an exclave of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, most of whose territory was in what is now northwest Germany, with a coastline on the North Sea.

The two charges on the dexter (armsbearer's right, viewer's left) side, the miner's lamp and the ear of wheat, stand for traditional or historical economic mainstays, namely mining and agriculture respectively.

The abbot's staff recalls Hintertiefenbach's former membership as one of the “abbey municipalities”, while the “chequy” pattern on the sinister (armsbearer's left, viewer's right) side is a reference to the village's former allegiance to the “Hinder” County of Sponheim.

It could be that the name – which means “Powder Hole” in German – arose from the common practice of calling mineral deposits such a thing, after the gunpowder used to blast galleries into the rock.