Dennweiler-Frohnbach - History - Middle Ages

Middle Ages

Just when the two villages were founded is unknown today. Dennweiler seems to be older than Frohnbach, which itself might have arisen relatively shortly before the first documentary mention, but this is merely speculation. According to the 1355 Grenzscheidweistum (border Weistum, a Weistum – cognate with English wisdom – being a legal pronouncement issued by men learned in law in the Middle Ages and early modern times), Dennweiler and Frohnbach originally belonged to different lordly domains, as the Stegbach – farther downstream called the Kuralb – formed the border of the so-called Remigiusland. The Weistum mentions that the border goes down the brook called the kuralbe. Also worthy of note is that while Frohnbach (Fronenbach in the Weistum), which belonged to the Remigiusland, is clearly mentioned, Dennweiler, which lay on the brook’s left bank, is not. The lands there were held by the Bishopric of Verdun as part of their Baumholder holding. This border lost much of its importance in the 12th century when both the Remigiusland and Verdun’s Baumholder landhold were taken on by the Counts of Veldenz as a Vogtei. Within the County of Veldenz, Frohnbach belonged to the Amt of Lichtenberg, whereas Dennweiler belonged to the Amt of Baumholder. These relations are believed to have held true at the time when Heinrich I of Veldenz issued a document in 1270 that mentioned Dennweiler and Ruppertsweiler (not the place in the Südwestpfalz district, but rather a nearby, long vanished village) for the first time. This document dealt with a dispute among various Burgmannen, among them Bertram von Wadenau, over holdings and rights in several places that all lay in the Amt of Baumholder. From the document in which Frohnbach had its first documentary mention it can be seen that in 1302, the knight Bertram von Wadenau now wanted to give his estate, named Vronebach, back to the Remigiusberg Monastery, after originally having received it from among the monastery’s holdings. Both villages therefore belonged to the County of Veldenz, but lay in different Ämter. In 1444, the County of Veldenz met its end when Count Friedrich III of Veldenz died without a male heir. His daughter Anna wed Count Palatine Stephan, who now founded out of his own holdings and his wife’s inheritance the County Palatine (Duchy) of Zweibrücken.