Rutsweiler an der Lauter

Rutsweiler an der Lauter 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 Lauterecken-Wolfstein. Rutsweiler an der Lauter is one of two places in the Kusel district named Rutsweiler. The other is Rutsweiler am Glan, lying some 13 km to the westsouthwest.GeographyLocationThe municipality lies on the river Lauter’s valley in the Western Palatinate. Rutsweiler an der Lauter lies north of Wolfstein at an elevation of some 200 m above sea level on the Lauter’s left bank at the outlying hills of the Königsberg and Selberg. Even within municipal limits, the hillsides reach some 400 m above sea level. Flowing from the Selberg is the Kettenbach, which empties into the Lauter within the village. Lying across the Lauter on the right bank is Stahlhausen, and outlying centre of Wolfstein. Within Rutsweiler’s limits stands the Zweikirche, one of the Western Palatinate’s noteworthiest mediaeval village churches. The municipal area measures 432 ha, of which 95 ha is wooded and roughly 13 ha is settled.