Herchweiler

Herchweiler 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 Kusel-Altenglan, whose seat is in Kusel. Herchweiler lies in the Selchenbach valley, upstream from the upper Oster valley, in the Western Palatinate, right at the boundary with the Saarland. The Selchenbach flows into the village from the south after turning in a broad bow towards the west just south of the village, whence it flows onwards towards the southwest, emptying into the Oster near the neighbouring village of Haupersweiler. Smaller brooks empty into the Selchenbach near Herchweiler, among them the Herchweiler Bach and the Judenbach. The village itself lies at an elevation of some 340 m above sea level, although the mountains around it reach 450 m above sea level in the Kahlenberg southeast of the village. North of the village looms the Prenzelberg (398 m). Beginning here is the Naturschutzgebiet Steinberg (conservation area), which stretches from Herchweiler over the Steinberg within Pfeffelbach’s limits, and in which amphibian species that have become rare can be found. Right along the village’s western edge runs the boundary with the Saarland. The Wolfsbornerhof lies northeast of the village, and the Markeicherhof to the south. The municipal area measures 290 ha, of which 76 ha is wooded. The village street In der Gaß (“In the Lane”) long lay within Haupersweiler to the west, in the Saarland, until a state agreement between Rhineland-Palatinate and the Saarland on 27 May 2003 adjusted the boundary between the two states. This went into effect on 1 January 2004, taking In der Gaß from the municipality of Freisen and putting it, along with its 53 inhabitants, in the municipality of Herchweiler in Rhineland-Palatinate. Herchweiler borders in the east on the municipality of Albessen, in the southeast on the municipality of Selchenbach and in the west and north on the municipality of Freisen, which lies in the Saarland.