Oberweiler is a linear village (by some definitions, a "thorpe") with a few sidestreets branching of the main street up into small side dales, and with rather loosely spread building, although the built-up area towards the north end is a bit more tightly packed.

To the south, west of the road at the brook's steep bank and partly within Eßweiler's limits, stand the ruins of the Sprengelburg (also called the Springeburg), a castle that was once the seat of the Lords of Mühlenstein, vassals to the Rhinegraves of Grumbach.

In Johannes Hofmann's 1595 description of the Eßweiler Tal, it says: "In the Oberweiler municipal area, on the right side against the Königsberg, called auf der Huben, years ago copper coins were found, and a field there lies full of pieces of burnt or hewn stone, that may well be supposed to have been a great building that stood there."

[6] Oberweiler to a great extent shares its mediaeval history with all the villages in the Eßweiler Tal, which in many respects form a unit.

Besides Oberweiler itself, these were originally Hundheim (Neuenglan), Hachenbach, Nerzweiler, Aschbach, Horschbach, Hinzweiler, Elzweiler, Eßweiler and the now vanished villages of Letzweiler, Niederaschbach, Nörweiler, Mittelhofen, Zeizelbach, Füllhof, Neideck and Lanzweiler.

It seems likely that the Mühlensteiners lived as robber barons in the 15th century, for according to one of Johannes Hofmann's reports, their trade-hindering activities got them into a feud with the city of Strasbourg.

Professor Higel, from the University of Maryland, and his team stumbled on a young woman's skeleton; she might have died in the castle's destruction.

Dependence on a great number of lords in the dale afforded greater freedom than in other areas where united power and governing relationships prevailed.

Legal matters within the Eßweiler Tal were governed by a whole range of Weistümer (singular: Weistum – cognate with English wisdom – this was a legal pronouncement issued by men learned in law in the Middle Ages and early modern times), which were already in force in the Middle Ages, although they were not actually set down in writing until the early 16th century.

One deals with the court and borders, one is a Kanzelweistum (promulgated at church; Kanzel is German for "pulpit"), one is a Huberweistum (Huber were farmers who worked a whole Hube, which roughly corresponds to an "oxgang"), and one was a municipal Weistum (Gemeindeweistum).

Ludwig had waged several wars against Elector Palatine Friedrich, bringing hardship and woe even to lands not then in Palatinate-Zweibrücken's immediate ownership, like the Eßweiler Tal.

In the proceedings, both parties affirmed, however, that Ludwig was not to pay any damages in money, but rather was to hand over Schloss Bundenbach (a palatial residence) and Hahnweiler to the Count vom Stein as fiefs.

With regard to the ruling class, this brought about a shift in power in 1595 as the high jurisdiction, hitherto held for some 250 years by the Waldgraves and Rhinegraves, was transferred to the Dukes of Zweibrücken.

In return, Count Palatine Johannes I of Zweibrücken transferred the village of Kirchenbollenbach near Idar-Oberstein (nowadays a Stadtteil of that town) to the Rhinegraves.

During the time of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era that followed, the German lands on the Rhine's left bank were annexed by France beginning in 1797.

Oberweiler im Tal passed to the newly founded Mairie ("Mayoralty") of Eßweiler, which itself belonged to the Canton of Wolfstein, the Arrondissement of Kaiserslautern and the Department of Mont-Tonnerre.

[9] Oberweiler im Tal was throughout the Middle Ages a small village whose very existence was threatened in times of war and Plague.

As was generally true of such villages, there were also craftsmen to be found alongside the farmers, such as blacksmiths, shoemakers, wainwrights, tailors and millers.

In the 19th century, Wandermusikanten – travelling musicians – arose in Oberweiler as they also did elsewhere in the dale, plying their trade throughout the world (see the Hinzweiler article for more about this).

With the one exception of Hundheim, every village in the Eßweiler Tal bears this same name ending, which makes it rather difficult to determine their founding dates with any certainty.

The tag "im Tal", German for "in the dale" was added in the earlier half of the 19th century to distinguish the village from the other place in the same district with the same name.

[11] A village called Huntwilre, which is named in a document from the latter half of the 14th century, might have lain within what are now Oberweiler im Tal's limits.

Johannes Hofmann wrote about this place in 1595: "Between the two grounds of Kraulsbach and Zörnberg on the other side of the Hermannsberg lies a great estate on which the old Mühlensteiner Junkers of Springenburg had a farm and a depository, named Neydeks.

On an 1843 map, Neideck was marked as Kratzerhof (perhaps after the Counts Kratz von Scharfenstein, successors to the Mülensteins' lordship over the Eßweiler Tal), north of which lay a field named Hofstatt.

Likewise in the late 16th century, Count Palatine Johannes I of Zweibrücken decreed that all his subjects were to convert to the Reformed faith according to John Calvin.

[1] The German blazon reads: Unter gold-rotem Zickzackschildhaupt in Gold, über einer roten Zinnenburg mit rotem Zinnenturm im Schildfuß, eine rote Geißel.

Another source yields this form: Unter goldrotem Zickzackschildhaupt in Gold, über einer wachsenden roten Zinnenburg mit rotem Zinnenturm eine rote Geißel.

The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Below a chief indented of three Or and gules Or issuant from base a castle embattled with a tower likewise, above which a scourge, all of the second.

[16][17] The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate's Directory of Cultural Monuments:[18] Oberweiler im Tal holds its kermis (church consecration festival) on the third weekend in September.

[20] In the past, agriculture was the main livelihood in Oberweiler im Tal, although working alongside farmers were many kinds of craftsmen, particularly linen weavers.