Mörschied
Mörschied 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. Geography. Location. The municipality lies on the "Naturpark Saar-Hunsrück". The municipal area is 64% wooded. To the east lies Herrstein. The nearest major town is Idar-Oberstein to the south. Constituent communities. Also belonging to Mörschied are the outlying homesteads of Am Herrsteinerweg, Asbacherhütte, Hahnenmühle and Harfenmühle. Politics. Municipal council. The council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected by  majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman. Mayor. Mörschied’s mayor is Harald Friedrich. Coat of arms. The municipality’s arms might be described thus: Per bend sinister sable issuant from the line of partition a demilion with tail bifurcated argent crowned Or and chequy gules and argent issuant from base a mount of three. Culture and sightseeing. Buildings. The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments: Regular events. Since 1990, Mörschied has had an open-air stage on which the "Karl-May -Festspiele Mörschied" are staged in the summer months each year. In 2010, the play "Winnetou gegen Santer" ("gegen" means “against”; both those named in the title are characters from Karl May’s writings) was produced. Economy and infrastructure. To the south runs "Bundesstraße" 422. Serving nearby Idar-Oberstein is a railway station that, as a Regional-Express and Regionalbahn stop, is linked by way of the Nahe Valley Railway (Bingen–Saarbrücken) to the Saarland and the Frankfurt Rhine Main Region. The "Rhein-Nahe-Express" running the Mainz-Saarbrücken route serves the station hourly. Every other train goes through to the  main railway station in Frankfurt with a stop at Frankfurt Airport. Formerly, fast trains on the Frankfurt-Paris route had a stop at Idar-Oberstein.