 During the time of French rule from 1801 to 1814, Rutsweiler an der Lauter belonged to the "Mairie" (“Mayoralty”) of Rothselberg, the Canton of Wolfstein, the Arrondissement of Kaiserslautern and the Department of Mont-Tonnerre (or Donnersberg in German) whose seat was at Mainz.After Napoleonic times and the Congress of Vienna, the whole of the Palatinate on the Rhine’s left bank passed to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1816, and thereafter, Rutsweiler shared its territorial history with Wolfstein.It lay in the "Bürgermeisterei" (“Mayoralty”) of Rothselberg and the Canton of Wolfstein, but now in the "Landkommissariat" (later "Bezirksamt" and then "Landkreis", or district) of Kusel.