Blaubach

Blaubach
Coat of arms
Blaubach
Location of Blaubach within Kusel district
Coordinates: 49°33′27″N 7°23′46″E / 49.55750°N 7.39611°E / 49.55750; 7.39611Coordinates: 49°33′27″N 7°23′46″E / 49.55750°N 7.39611°E / 49.55750; 7.39611
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Kusel
Municipal assoc.	Kusel
Government
• Mayor	Martin Pfeiffer
Area
• Total	3.14 km2 (1.21 sq mi)
Elevation	280 m (920 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	392
• Density	120/km2 (320/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	66869
Dialling codes	06381
Vehicle registration	KUS
Website	blaubach.de

Blaubach 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. Blaubach is also a state-recognized tourist community.

The municipality lies in the Western Palatinate, at elevations from 275 to 290 m above sea level in the valley of the Blaubach, which rises a few kilometres away, northeast of the village near the Mayweilerhof, is also known in its upper reaches as the Dambach, and empties into the Kuselbach south of Blaubach in Kusel’s outlying centre of Diedelkopf. Flowing from the west to the Blaubach is the Röhrbach. The broadening of the valley where this stream ends originally favoured the establishment of a settlement. The elevations around the village reach up to 375 m above sea level. The municipal area measures 314 ha, of which 75 ha is wooded.

Blaubach borders in the north on the municipality of Oberalben, in the east on the municipalities of Erdesbach and Altenglan, in the south on the town of Kusel and in the west on the municipality of Körborn.

Also belonging to Blaubach are the outlying homesteads of Hotel Reweschnier and Rothengründerhof.

The old village core near where the Röhrbach empties into the Blaubach spread out considerably, bit by bit, first up the dale through which the Röhrbach flows, also up the Blaubach’s right bank, and then downstream as well to the mountain slopes (Matzenberg), later spreading, too, to the left bank with extensive new building areas (Am Äckerchen). The old schoolhouse from the 19th century with its gable, belltower and clock on Matzenberg (a street) is held to be a village landmark. This building is today used as a house. A new schoolhouse, now a village community centre, was built between 1958 and 1960. In the older built-up area are found the farmhouses that typefy the West Palatinate (Einfirsthaus – literally a house with one roof ridge). On the road going towards Mayweilerhof, one comes first to the renowned Hotel Reweschnier on the brook’s left bank, and then to the Rothengründerhof, an Aussiedlerhof (that is, postwar outlying agricultural settlement) that arose in 1957. The graveyard lies south of the village, on the Blaubach’s right bank.