Obersülzen lies at an elevation of just over 150 m above sea level in the northeastern Palatinate, just south of the boundary with Rhenish Hesse.

Continuing clockwise, the other neighbours are Obrigheim in the north, Dirmstein in the east, Laumersheim in the southeast, Großkarlbach and Bissersheim in the south and Kirchheim in the southwest.

At the northern edge of the residential built-up area flows the drainage ditch, which was renaturated in 2008 and which farther downstream is called the Floßbach; it empties into the Eckbach in the neighbouring municipality of Dirmstein.

The village's later fate is shared with the rest of the Electorate of the Palatinate lands on the Rhine’s left bank: After the French Revolution it was annexed by France and passed in 1816, after Napoleon’s final defeat, to the Kingdom of Bavaria, remaining Bavarian until the end of the Second World War.

The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:[4] The German blazon reads: In Blau die ganzfigurige Gestalt eines Mitraträgers – Bischofs oder Abtes – mit goldbordierter silberner Mitra, silberner Albe und schwarzer Cappa, in der Rechten ein goldenes Buch mit silbernen Schließen, in der Linken einen goldenen Krummstab haltend.

At the west wall are Gothic spolia from the former church: a vault keystone, a head-corbel, the end of a sacramental niche and even a Baroque gravestone.

A guild pole (German: Zunftbaum), whose figures were created by local artist Udo Marker, stands between the fortress church and the village community centre.

In the municipality is Germany's biggest viticultural school; it concerns itself with propagating existing grape varieties and developing new ones.