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, whose seat is in the like-named town.GeographyLocationHerchweiler 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.