Niederstaufenbach

Niederstaufenbach
Coat of arms
Niederstaufenbach
Location of Niederstaufenbach within Kusel district
Coordinates: 49°31′43″N 7°31′05″E / 49.52849°N 7.51813°E / 49.52849; 7.51813Coordinates: 49°31′43″N 7°31′05″E / 49.52849°N 7.51813°E / 49.52849; 7.51813
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Kusel
Municipal assoc.	Altenglan
Government
• Mayor	Werner Kraus
Area
• Total	2.01 km2 (0.78 sq mi)
Elevation	240 m (790 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	259
• Density	130/km2 (330/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	66879
Dialling codes	06385
Vehicle registration	KUS

Niederstaufenbach 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 Altenglan, whose seat is in the like-named municipality.

Niederstaufenbach lies in the Western Palatinate between the Walbersberg and the Krämel (mountains), on both sides of the Reichenbach in a broad hollow roughly a kilometre and a half up from where the Bosenbach empties into the Reichenbach. The village sits at an elevation of roughly 240 m above sea level between the villages of Oberstaufenbach and Friedelhausen. On the dale’s west side, the ground climbs up steeply to the Potzberg (mountain) and to the neighbouring village of Föckelberg. Stretching east of the dale is a somewhat higher mountain ridge (Hertelwald 338 m) between the Reichenbach valley and the Walsbach and Bosenbach valleys. Rising in the south, within neighbouring Oberstaufenbach’s limits, is the mountain Heidenburg, from which the village might have got its name (see Municipality’s name below). The municipal area measures 201 ha, of which 31 ha is wooded and roughly 6 ha is settled.

Niederstaufenbach borders in the north on the municipality of Bosenbach, in the east on the municipality of Reichenbach-Steegen, in the south on the municipality of Oberstaufenbach and in the west on the municipality of Föckelberg.

Niederstaufenbach’s old village core lies on the Reichenbach’s left bank on a small side brook known in old border descriptions as the Limbach, but it is not to be confused with another stream by that name near Oberstaufenbach. The Limbach at Niederstaufenbach rises near Föckelberg on the slope of the Potzberg. In this part of the village stand Einfirsthäuser (“single-roof-ridge houses”), a kind of farmhouse found throughout the Westrich, an historic region that encompasses areas in both Germany and France. An extensive new building zone stretches out on the brook’s right bank next to the road going towards Bosenbach. The Niederstaufenbacher Mühle (mill) stands down the dale, likewise on the right bank at the old millrace. Towards the end of the 20th century, the municipality opened a building zone on the way to Friedelhausen. A further new building zone was laid out up from the graveyard.