Dienstweiler

Dienstweiler
Coat of arms
Dienstweiler
Location of Dienstweiler within Birkenfeld district
Coordinates: 49°38′20″N 7°11′5″E / 49.63889°N 7.18472°E / 49.63889; 7.18472Coordinates: 49°38′20″N 7°11′5″E / 49.63889°N 7.18472°E / 49.63889; 7.18472
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Birkenfeld
Municipal assoc.	Birkenfeld
Government
• Mayor	Helmut Finck
Area
• Total	6.69 km2 (2.58 sq mi)
Elevation	397 m (1,302 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	329
• Density	49/km2 (130/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	55765
Dialling codes	06782
Vehicle registration	BIR
Website	www.dienstweiler.de

Dienstweiler is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Birkenfeld, whose seat is in the like-named town.

Dienstweiler lies at the edge of the Hunsrück, southeast of the district seat of Birkenfeld, 2 km away. The old village centre is nestled in a dale on a small brook at an average elevation of 400 m above sea level. Outlying centres can be reached from the crossroads in the middle of the village, as can the “old new” building development called Auf dem Ellenberg, which sits at 450 m above sea level. The municipal area measures 667 ha, of which some 320 ha is wooded.

Also belonging to Dienstweiler are the outlying homesteads of Eborn and Eborner Berg.

Until the 17th century, the village went by the names Dintzwilr, Dyntzwilr, Dynczwiller and Dientzweiler before settling on the current form of the name, Dienstweiler. In 1367, Dienstweiler had its first documentary mention, and belonged to the “Hinder” County of Sponheim. The homestead of Eborn, which still exists today (roughly a kilometre outside the village itself) was formerly a self-administering municipality, but it merged with Dienstweiler sometime about 1544.

As early as the time around 1000 BC, the area where Dienstweiler now lies took its first steps into the realm of history. It is known from archaeological finds made in the “Auf Brand” barrow fields that quite a few people must have lived here then. These were the Treveri, a people of mixed Celtic and Germanic stock, from whom the Latin name for the city of Trier, Augusta Treverorum, is also derived. They were followed by the Romans (58 BC to AD 400) from whose time come the foundations of a country house – a villa rustica – unearthed in the municipality. Also brought to light at this site was a bronze wine service, which today is a major draw at the Birkenfelder Landesmuseum (Birkenfeld State Museum).