Achtelsbach

Achtelsbach
Coat of arms
Achtelsbach
Location of Achtelsbach within Birkenfeld district
Coordinates: 49°37′32″N 07°05′27″E / 49.62556°N 7.09083°E / 49.62556; 7.09083Coordinates: 49°37′32″N 07°05′27″E / 49.62556°N 7.09083°E / 49.62556; 7.09083
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Birkenfeld
Municipal assoc.	Birkenfeld
Government
• Mayor	Albert Wild
Area
• Total	9.70 km2 (3.75 sq mi)
Elevation	403 m (1,322 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	428
• Density	44/km2 (110/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	55767
Dialling codes	06782
Vehicle registration	BIR

Achtelsbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Birkenfeld, whose seat is in the like-named town.

The municipality lies on the Traunbach, at the foot of the Schwarzwälder Hochwald (High Black Forest) in the Hunsrück. Both north and south of the village lie wooded mountains of 500 and 525 m above sea level respectively. Just west of the village runs the state boundary with the Saarland. Achtelsbach lies some 6 km west of the district seat of Birkenfeld. Idar-Oberstein lies 22 km to the northeast, while Sankt Wendel lies roughly 25 km to Achtelsbach’s south.

Achtelsbach’s neighbours are Brücken, Traunen (an outlying centre of Brücken), Meckenbach and Eisen. The last named place is part of the municipality of Nohfelden in the Saarland’s Sankt Wendel district.

Also belonging to Achtelsbach is the homestead of Forsthaus Neuhof.

In 1256, Achtelsbach had its first documentary mention as Achtelsbach. Soon afterwards, in the decades that followed, the village managed to become a hub among the neighbouring villages, and in 1315 it became the seat of a Pflege (literally “care”, but actually a local geopolitical unit), which, besides Achtelsbach, also administered the neighbouring villages of Meckenbach and Traunen. This Pflege was a subfief from the Electorate of Trier whose immediate lords were the Vögte of Hunolstein. In 1480, this arrangement ended when the Duke of Zweibrücken sent his own Schultheiß out to Achtelsbach. The territory of the Pflege was expanded to encompass first Ellweiler, and beginning in the late 18th century also Eisen and Eckelshausen. In the course of the French takeover of the Rhineland in the French Revolutionary Wars, Achtelsbach became the seat of a mairie (“mayoralty”), which lasted even after the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) as an Oldenburg Bürgermeisterei (also “mayoralty”) until 1876.