Also, named after the municipality is the Altenglan Formation, a lithostratigraphic entity, and by extension, so is Altenglanerpeton, a microsaur whose fossil remains were found therein.

The municipality lies in the uplands in the Western Palatinate on the river Glan, which is the village's namesake, at an elevation in the valley of some 200 m above sea level, although the elevations within municipal limits reach almost 400 m (Bistersberg 387 m on the Glan's left bank; Kalmet 390 m on the Glan's right bank), and on the slopes of the Potzberg within the formerly self-administering municipality of Mühlbach almost 500 m. Altenglan lies roughly 5 km northeast of the district seat and nearest town, Kusel, and 25 km northwest of Kaiserslautern.

Likewise already standing by the 18th century were houses in the area of today's Ringstraße, which the stock book describes as a gemeiner Weg – “common way”.

Thus, a big triangle stretching back from the forks of the Glan and Kuselbach was settled at the time when the original cadastral survey was done in 1848.

The mediaeval church stands in the middle of the graveyard in the village's northeast at the end of Glanstraße and across Kuseler Straße.

As a very old village, Altenglan has a relatively large municipal area, great swathes of which were opened up to development after the Second World War.

Besides cropraising and livestock breeding, the municipality also worked at winegrowing to a limited extent in the time before the Second World War.

[4] The Altenglan area was settled as early as the last period in the New Stone Age and on into Gallo-Roman times, bearing witness to which are archaeological finds.

According to the greater Remigiustestament, which is included in this work, the so-called Remigiusland with Kusel and Altenglan had supposedly already been bequeathed by King Clovis to Saint Remigius as a donation.

This forgery was made possibly with the object of reinforcing the claim to Reims holdings in what is today the Western Palatinate through a reference to the famous bishop Remigius.

It is highly likely that King Childebert II transferred the Remigiusland with the villages of Cosla and Gleni to Bishop Giles about 590.

The name’s first mention in an original document, one bearing witness to an exchange of holdings by the Bishop of Worms, dates from 992.

It is likewise disputed whether a knight named Straßenraub lived in Altenglan or indeed in Neuenglan, believed to have been the same place as today’s Hundheim.

[6] Johannes Hoffmann’s 1588 description of Altenglan may be exaggerated, but it nevertheless gives today’s reader a little glance at the village’s original importance.

As in the whole swathe of countryside around Kusel, especially because of the wartime events of 1635, very few people in Altenglan survived this frightful war, and almost all the houses had been destroyed.

The village now belonged to the Department of Sarre, the Arrondissement of Birkenfeld, the Canton of Kusel and the Mairie (“Mayoralty”) of Ulmet.

Post-war times brought a new territorial arrangement and Altenglan was grouped into newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

The original plan had called for Bedesbach to be part of this municipality, too, but the residents there successfully fought a campaign to keep themselves out of it.

There was a drop in population, however, even before the Thirty Years' War, likely due to the Plague and other epidemics, and there were only 30 families living in Altenglan by 1630.

The following table shows population development over the centuries for Altenglan, with some figures broken down by religious denomination:[9] The oldest form of the municipality's name, Gleni, appears in the history of the Archbishopric of Reims by the mediaeval historical writer Flodoard, in a forgery of Archbishop Remigius's will no less, likely put together by Archbishop of Reims Hinkmar.

Other older forms of the name Altenglan are as follows: Aldenglane (992), Glene (1124), Glana (1138), Glannam (1154), Glayna (1342), Alden Glane (1364), Alttenglahn (1629).

He set about defending himself against the change, not only carrying out his ecclesiastical duties but also farming his glebe and taking the vineyards into the church's care.

[1] The municipality's arms might be described thus: Tierced in mantle dexter azure Saint Remigius proper vested and mitred argent garnished Or bearing in his dexter hand a book gules garnished of the second and in his sinister hand a bishop's staff of the third, over his dexter shoulder a dove displayed reversed wings inverted proper, sinister argent a lion rampant of the first armed, langued and crowned of the third, in base gules the letter V surmounted by the letter V reversed, both of the third.

Saint Remigius on the dexter (armsbearer's right, viewer's left) side is a reference to the village's former allegiance to the Bishopric of Reims.

However, another source identifies the charge as the letters A and V (although the crossbar seems to be missing from the A), supposedly standing for “Altenglan” and the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde.

[13][14] The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:[15] Altenglan is the starting and ending point of the Draisinenstrecke (railway upon which visitors can ride draisines).

The outlying centre of Mühlbach lies at the foot of the Potzberg, on whose summit stands the Potzbergturm (tower); a game park can also be found here.

Industrial operations arose as early as the time after the Thirty Years' War, when chalk deposits within the municipal area were worked.

Beginning in 1962, children from several neighbouring villages once again attended classes in Altenglan when attempts to set up a central school had been carried to fruition.

The number of firefighters, however, is shrinking steadily, as it is in other Verbandsgemeinden, leading thus far to the closure of three local fire stations in the Verbandsgemeinde of Altenglan.