Weitersbach

Weitersbach
Coat of arms
Weitersbach
Location of Weitersbach within Birkenfeld district
Coordinates: 49°52′26″N 7°19′3″E / 49.87389°N 7.31750°E / 49.87389; 7.31750Coordinates: 49°52′26″N 7°19′3″E / 49.87389°N 7.31750°E / 49.87389; 7.31750
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Birkenfeld
Municipal assoc.	Rhaunen
Government
• Mayor	Karl-Heinz Ripp
Area
• Total	7.75 km2 (2.99 sq mi)
Elevation	405 m (1,329 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	88
• Density	11/km2 (29/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	55624
Dialling codes	06544
Vehicle registration	BIR

Weitersbach 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 Rhaunen, whose seat is in the like-named municipality.

The municipality lies on the Idarbach at the edge of the Idar Forest in the Hunsrück. The municipal area is 77.2% wooded.

Weitersbach borders in the north on the municipality of Laufersweiler (Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis), in the northeast on the municipality of Gösenroth, in the southeast on the municipality of Rhaunen, in the southwest on the municipality of Stipshausen, in the west on the municipalities of Hochscheid (Bernkastel-Wittlich district) and Horbruch and in the northwest on the municipality of Krummenau.

Archaeological digs at several barrows within Weitersbach’s limits have unearthed finely decorated ceramics, bronze weapons and pieces of jewellery. These are grave goods from the prevalent culture about the year 500 BC, when Celtic settlers of Early La Tène times used the favourable location on the Idarkopf’s south slope as their dwelling and farming place. Finds of metal-bearing slag in the forest above the village also suggest that iron was being smelted here even in pre-Roman times.