sentences:  In the course of the 16th century, the Plague raged in the dale and the villages’ inhabitants were largely wiped out.In Hinzweiler itself, only 15 people were left by 1575.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.