Hüffler

Hüffler is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Oberes Glantal. Hüffler is a linear village – by some definitions, a “thorpe” – that lies in the Bledesbach valley (Standard High German name: Bledesbachtal; locally customary name: Saubeeredaal or Saubeeretal) along Landesstraße (State Road) 360 and one other, parallel road. One road links Kusel with Glan-Münchweiler. Running almost parallel to the village is the Autobahn A 62 (Kaiserslautern–Trier). The elevation on the valley floor is 310 m above sea level. This rises to either side of the village. The highest hill is the Dillmeßrech or Dilmersrech at 390 m above sea level. At its highest point, the Autobahn A 62 (Kaiserslautern–Trier) cuts through the hill. To the village’s west, the land rises up to a height of 370 m. The woodlands stretch mainly along the slopes on the Bledesbach’s right bank. Hüffler borders in the north on the municipality of Schellweiler, in the northeast on the municipality of Etschberg, in the southeast on the municipalities of Rehweiler and Quirnbach, in the southwest on the municipality of Wahnwegen and in the northwest on the municipality of Konken. Hüffler’s municipal area, which is not very big, sustained great losses with the building of the Autobahn in the years 1938-1941 and 1966-1970. On the other hand, the work unearthed many fossils from early geological formations. The drawback was that this involved the eastern part of the municipal area being utterly split off from the rest, making it very difficult to reach. From 1974 to 1979, the Cultural Office undertook a classic Flurbereinigung, as part of which the Bledesbach and the Kehlbach were graded, and their banks were reinforced with hard stone. Rural cadastral names were not changed as a result of the work. The pattern of the built-up area can be recognized even in the original cadastral survey undertaken in 1849.