Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate was established in 1946 after World War II from territory of the historically separate regions of the Free State of Prussia, People's State of Hesse, and Bavaria, by the French military administration in Allied-occupied Germany. Rhineland-Palatinate became part of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, and shared the country's only border with the Saar Protectorate until it was returned to German control in 1957. Rhineland-Palatinate has since developed its own identity built on its natural and cultural heritage, including the extensive Palatinate winegrowing region, its picturesque landscapes, and many castles and palaces.
Schmittweiler
After the Congress of Vienna (1815), Schmittweiler belonged to the Rheinkreis, an exclave of the Kingdom of Bavaria, in which it remained through Bavarian times, Imperial times, Weimar times and the time of the Third Reich, becoming part of the newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate only after the Second World War. To distinguish itself from the outlying centre of Schönenberg-Kübelberg also known as Schmittweiler, the village once bore the official tag “Amtsgericht Lauterecken”. In the course of administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate in 1969, Schmittweiler was transferred from the Kusel district to the Bad Kreuznach district. From an ecclesiastical standpoint, Schmittweiler still belongs to the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate (Evangelical) and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Speyer.