Selchenbach is a linear village – by some definitions a thorpe – that lies at the Oster valley in the Western Palatinate, right on the boundary with the Saarland.

From south to north, these are Alte Hohl, Im Eck and Birkenweg (branching from each other after a short distance), Osterbrücker Weg and, somewhat longer, Siedlungsweg with the village community centre, the graveyard and the chapel.

[6][7] Even though Selchenbach was grouped into the so-called Remigiusland in a 14th-century Grenzscheidweistum (“border Weistum”, a Weistum – cognate with English wisdom – being a legal pronouncement issued by men learned in law in the Middle Ages and early modern times), this did not mean that the village had lain within the Remigiusland since its founding.

The village of Selchenbach is known with certainty only to have arisen a few hundred years after a Frankish king donated the lands to the Archbishoprics of Reims and Mainz.

In 1127, Count Gerlach I from the Nahegau founded the County of Veldenz and became at the same time the Schutzvogt over the ecclesiastical properties in question.

Not long before Gerlach's death, his daughter Agnes had been born, and her grandfather, Count Heinrich of Zweibrücken, assumed the regency for her.

As the Middle Ages went on, the placename Selchenbach cropped up mainly in taxation rolls (mostly the Wörschweiler Monastery's), in Weistümer and also in enfeoffment documents, as for example in one from 1430, according to which Syfrit Bliek von Lichtenberg bestowed upon his wife Katerine von Sötern, among other things from his feudal holdings, “13 Hahnen of the forests at Selchenbach”.

Already by the late 13th century, the family Blick von Lichtenberg had taken over the Vogtei over the Wörschweiler Monastery's ecclesiastical holdings within the County of Veldenz.

It was a great swath of land stretching from Marth to Bubach, taking in part of Selchenbach's municipal area, too.

In the 1588 description of the Oberamt of Lichtenberg by geographer Johannes Hoffmann, the village of Selchenbach, too, is named, specifically in a description of the course of the local brook, although Hoffmann called this “Die große Herchweiler Bach” (große means “great”), and not the Selchenbach as it is known today.

After Napoleon was driven out, Selchenbach remained at first in the Birkenfeld district, but in 1816 it passed to the Kingdom of Bavaria, within which it was grouped into the Bürgermeisterei (“Mayoralty”) of Niederkirchen in 1818.

During Bavarian times, Selchenbach, along with six other places in the Oster valley, belonged to the Landcommissariat and Canton of Kusel in this mayoralty.

By the time of the 1933 Reichstag elections, after Hitler had already seized power, local support for the Nazis had swollen to 63.9%.

Hitler's success in these elections paved the way for his Enabling Act of 1933 (Ermächtigungsgesetz), thus starting the Third Reich in earnest.

This was followed by a steady rise towards the end of the 19th century, although this in turn was followed by a fall in population due mainly to migration to industrial centres in the nearby Saarland.

The following table shows population development over the centuries for Selchenbach, with some population counts giving a breakdown by religious affiliation:[14] The placename ending —bach is combined in the municipality's name with the element Salicho, possibly meaning that a Frankish settler by this name founded a settlement here.

[16] Selchenbach lay in the Remigiusland, thereby putting it under the authority of the Bishopric of Reims; parts were later owned by the Wörschweiler Monastery.

Oberselchenbach, which belonged to the parish of Niederkirchen, had its own, small church, but this was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War, and was never built again.

By the traditional rule of cuius regio, eius religio, all the inhabitants had to convert in the days of the Reformation according to their ducal rulers’ demands first to Lutheranism, and then later, in 1588, on Count Palatine Johannes I's orders, to Calvinism.

After the Thirty Years' War, religious freedom was theoretically in force, although in practice the great majority of the population remained Protestant (Calvinist or Evangelical).

[1] The German blazon reads: Über einem durch einen silbernen Wellenbalken abgeteilten, grünen Schildfluß in Blau ein schreitendes, silbernes Roß.

[19] The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Azure a horse passant argent on a fess abased wavy of the same below which a base vert.

[20] Standing at Selchenbach's graveyard, which was laid out in 1843 and has been expanded considerably since, is a mortuary, built in 1970, whose tower houses the village bell.

According to its charter, its goal was to promote comradeship and the love of the Fatherland for the Kaiser and the Prince Regent through social gatherings, and beyond that, the club was to help any member who found himself in need.

[23] For recreation and leisure, Selchenbach offers good hiking opportunities with circuit paths in the forest and fields, complete with benches for resting.

With the rise of industry beginning in the 19th century, though, ever more people sought work in it, mainly in the neighbouring Saarland.

In the latter half of that century, a man named Hans Morgen lived in Selchenbach, who ran a mill at the ponds near what later became the Königreicher Hof, and two others in Osterbrücken.

The fields of the Ostergrube and the Grube Leimgraben (mines) reached partly into Selchenbach's municipal area.

[25] For some years now, because of people's greater mobility, there has been no grocery shop in Selchenbach, and the inns once found in the village have closed.

When after a century of use this building was no longer up to the task at hand, a new schoolhouse was built, which still stands on Hauptstraße today, although it is now under private ownership.