Berschweiler bei Kirn
Municipality
Coat of arms
Location of Berschweiler bei Kirn within Birkenfeld district
Berschweiler bei Kirn Show map of Germany Berschweiler bei Kirn Show map of Rhineland-Palatinate
Coordinates: 49°46′14″N 07°23′28″E / 49.77056°N 7.39111°E / 49.77056; 7.39111
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Birkenfeld
Municipal assoc.	Herrstein-Rhaunen
Government
• Mayor (2019–24)	Hubert Paal[1]
Area
• Total	7.53 km2 (2.91 sq mi)
Elevation	415 m (1,362 ft)
Population  (2022-12-31)[2]
• Total	263
• Density	35/km2 (90/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	55608
Dialling codes	06752
Vehicle registration	BIR

Berschweiler bei Kirn 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 Herrstein-Rhaunen, whose seat is in Herrstein. Berschweiler bei Kirn is one of two municipalities in the district with the name Berschweiler. The two are distinguished from each other by their geographical “tags”; the other one is called Berschweiler bei Baumholder.

The municipality lies west of the Nahe between Kirn and Herrstein. Berschweiler bei Kirn lies roughly 8 km north of Idar-Oberstein and 5 km west of Kirn. Almost half the municipal area is wooded.

As of 31 December 2010, Berschweiler's 7.53 km² were by use apportioned thus:^[3]

• Agriculture 44.2%
• Woodland 48.4%
• Open water 0.2%
• Settlement and transport 6.9%
• Other 0.2%

The council is made up of 6 council members, who were elected by majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.^[4]

Berschweiler's mayor is Hubert Paal.^[1]

The municipality's arms might be described thus: Per bend azure a bear's head sinister erased Or langued gules and Or a lion rampant of the third armed and langued of the first.

The charge on the sinister (armsbearer's left, viewer's right) side is the lion borne as an heraldic device by the Waldgraves and Rhinegraves, who held the village in the Middle Ages. The charge on the dexter (armsbearer's right, viewer's left) side, a bear's head, is canting. “Bear” is Bär – both words are pronounced rather similarly – in German, which sounds like the first three sounds in “Berschweiler”.

The arms have been borne since 16 May 1962.^[5]

The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:^[6]

• Evangelical church, Hauptstraße 3 – Gothic Revival yellow sandstone block building, 1866-1868, architect Scheepers, Simmern; décor
• Hauptstraße 21 – estate with buildings on three sides of a yard; house, partly timber-frame (plastered), marked 1830, commercial wings newer

Berschweiler is on both the Hunsrück Schiefer- und Burgenstraße (“Hunsrück Slate and Castle Road”) and the Sirona-Weg, a road whose focus is on the region's Celtic-Roman heritage.

Between Berschweiler and Fischbach is the historic Fischbacher Kupferbergwerk, one of Germany's biggest and most important copper mines. To the south stands a memorial stone to the now vanished village of Staufenberg.

To the southeast runs Bundesstraße 41. In Kirn is the nearest railway station. It lies on the Nahe Valley Railway (Bingen–Saarbrücken).

• Brief portrait of Berschweiler with film at SWR Fernsehen (in German)