Selchenbach

Geschichte

Selchenbach 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.GeographyLocationSelchenbach is a linear village – by some definitions a thorpe – that lies at the Oster valley in the Western Palatinate, right on the boundary with the Saarland. Selchenbach lies at an elevation of 380 to 390 m above sea level on the upper reaches of the Selchenbach. The Selchenbach itself rises south of the municipal area near the Königreicher Hof, flows through the village of Selchenbach and then the village of Herchweiler to the north and then turns in a broad bow back south, emptying near Haupersweiler into the Oster. This puts Selchenbach within the Saar-Blies drainage basin, with the mountains east of the village marking the watershed between this and the Glan-Nahe drainage basin on the other side. The heights on either side of the valley rise to more than 400 m above sea level; the greatest elevation is the Eichelberg at 465 m above sea level. A major contiguous forested area stretches to the village’s north (the Schachenwald). The municipal area measures 479 ha, of which 100 ha is wooded.