Lohnweiler is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde Lauterecken-Wolfstein.
Geography
Location
The municipality lies in the Lauter valley in the North Palatine Uplands. Lohnweiler lies at an elevation of roughly 165 m above sea level only about a kilometre south of the town of Lauterecken at the mouth of the Koppbach (or Mausbach), whose valley stretches off to the southwest. The elevations around the village reach heights of almost 340 m above sea level (Silberkopf 337 m, Dumpf 318 m, Leienberg 311 m). The municipal area measures 491 ha, of which roughly 20 ha is settled and 139 ha is wooded.
Neighbouring municipalities
Lohnweiler borders in the north on the town of Lauterecken, in the northeast on the municipality of Hohenöllen, in the southeast on the municipality of Heinzenhausen, in the south on the town of Wolfstein, in the southwest on the municipality of Offenbach-Hundheim and in the west on the municipality of Wiesweiler. Lohnweiler also meets the municipality of Aschbach at a single point in the southwest.
Municipality’s layout
The village core lies along with its church and former school on the left bank of the river Lauter's (also called the Waldlauter, to distinguish it from other rivers in German-speaking Europe named Lauter), in the outlet of the Mausbach valley, on both sides of a snaking road that bends to the south and continues as a country lane. From the village core, further streets with new building zones branch off to the north and south. East of this village core on the Lauter's left bank runs the Lauter Valley Railway, and over on the right bank runs Bundesstraße 270 in a less heavily settled area. The graveyard lies south of the village core.
History
Antiquity
It is certain that the area around the village was settled as long ago as prehistoric times, bearing witness to which is a wealth of archaeological finds within the municipality's limits. Two stone hatchets have been unearthed here, one near the village in the field called “Im Flur” and the other towards the municipality's southern limits in the Jungenwald (forest). Further finds from the New Stone Age have been potsherds from the Linear Pottery culture and the Rössen culture. Potsherds have also been found from the Iron Age, as has a bronze ring. Some of these objects were once kept at the former school in its own collection. Moreover, within municipal limits lies several groups of, numbering all together about 20, barrows. In 1884, out towards the boundary with Wolfstein, four Celtic graves were unearthed. Found there were neckrings, armrings and footrings, which can now be found at the Historisches Museum in Speyer. Unearthed in Lohnweiler, too, have been various finds from Roman times that are among the most important in the whole district. There have been Roman pieces of brick, potsherds and bronze coins with the emperor's effigy. Of the finds, author Helmut Bernhard wrote in 1990 “On an eastern slope over the Lauter hollow, an extensive estate complex has been known since 1973, from which, during building work several wall lines with hypocaust heating and cellars were dug up. Quite obviously, in this place the main building of a major estate was struck. On the broad sloped surface going down to the Lauter hollow stood the commercial buildings. In 1988, it was possible to unearth a slope wall and a major house. The complex, judging from the few finds, existed at least until the middle of the 4th century. The manor house’s cellar with two wall niches, a light shaft and stairways is preserved on a private property.”