| Official Name: | Nemška Loka |
| Pushpin Map: | Slovenia |
| Pushpin Label Position: | right |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in Slovenia |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Slovenia |
| Subdivision Type1: | Traditional region |
| Subdivision Name1: | Lower Carniola |
| Subdivision Type2: | Statistical region |
| Subdivision Name2: | Southeast Slovenia |
| Subdivision Type3: | Municipality |
| Subdivision Name3: | Kočevje |
| Area Total Km2: | 4.75 |
| Population As Of: | 2002 |
| Population Total: | 42 |
| Population Blank1 Title: | Ethnicities |
| Population Blank2 Title: | Religions |
| Coordinates: | 45.5581°N 15.0442°W |
| Elevation M: | 466.7 |
| Postal Code: | 1330 |
| Footnotes: | [1] |
Nemška Loka (in Slovenian pronounced as /ˈneːmʃka ˈloːka/; German: Unterdeutschau[2] [3]) is a settlement in the Municipality of Kočevje in southern Slovenia. It was inhabited mostly by Gottschee Germans. During the Second World War its original population was expelled. The area is part of the traditional region of Lower Carniola and is now included in the Southeast Slovenia Statistical Region.[4]
Nemška Loka was attested in historical sources as Teutschau in 1574.[5] The Slovene name Nemška Loka literally means 'German flood-meadow' and corresponds to the German name Unterdeutschau (literally, 'lower German flood-meadow'). The name refers to the local geography and the original ethnic German settlers that arrived in the 14th century.[6]
In 1574 the village had twelve half-farms and one tenant farmer. During the Ottoman raids, the villagers were responsible for carrying letters to Kočevje and Poljane Castle in Predgrad. Straža Hill (834 m) west of the settlement was used for bonfires and cannons fired as signals during these raids. An elementary school was established in the village in 1860 (and discontinued in 1947). In 1965 there were 10 families living in the village: five Slovenian, three Bosnian, one Croatian, and one Romani.[6]
The local parish church was dedicated to Mary Help of Christians and was a large Baroque pilgrimage church. It was demolished after the Second World War.[7] A second church, dedicated to Saint Margaret in the hamlet of Tanči Vrh northwest of the main village was burned down in 1942 when the entire previously abandoned settlement was set on fire. It was not restored after the war. In 1980 the remaining nave collapsed and in 1992 the unsafe sanctuary was removed.[8]