Hinterweiler

Hinterweiler
Coat of arms
Hinterweiler
Location of Hinterweiler within Vulkaneifel district
Coordinates: 50°14′13″N 6°45′25″E / 50.23694°N 6.75694°E / 50.23694; 6.75694Coordinates: 50°14′13″N 6°45′25″E / 50.23694°N 6.75694°E / 50.23694; 6.75694
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Vulkaneifel
Municipal assoc.	Daun
Government
• Mayor	Gerd Mertes
Area
• Total	5.32 km2 (2.05 sq mi)
Elevation	534 m (1,752 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	214
• Density	40/km2 (100/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	54570
Dialling codes	06595
Vehicle registration	DAU
Website	www.hinterweiler.de

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

The municipality lies in the Vulkaneifel, a part of the Eifel known for its volcanic history, geographical and geological features, and even ongoing activity today, including gases that sometimes well up from the earth.

Although Hinterweiler has never had the importance of some other centres, it can look back on a long history. Finds in the area called Im Gemeindewinkel (“In the Municipality’s Corner”) show that there must have been a Celtic settlement there. Traces of settlement from Roman times found to the north of the village at the foot of the Ernstberg and about 500 m west of the village bear witness to the Ernstberg’s having been used as a place of worship in those days. The unearthing of a Frankish grave in Hinterweiler furthermore shows that the Franks, who came after Rome’s downfall, settled Hinterweiler in the latter half of the first millennium AD. It can also be concluded from the name of a rural cadastral area that there was once a monastery within Hinterweiler’s current municipal limits.

Witnessed in documents is Hinterweiler’s early name before the year 349, which was simply Whyler, which meant “place” (its Modern High German descendant, Weiler, means “hamlet”), and it was also certain that the neighbouring place was also called Whyler. Whether the modern name Hinterweiler was derived from hinter Whyler (“behind Whyler”) is unknown. This is presumed, but there is no proof.