The parish of Achtelsbach was originally coëxtensive with the "Pflege", until Brücken and Abentheuer were added to it. It lost influence after the Reformation and was ceded to Birkenfeld and Sötern (today an outlying centre of Nohfelden). It is known that there was a parish priest at the Achtelsbach church, which was consecrated to Saint Ulrich, as of 1334, although the church's beginnings stretch back further. The church itself, which has been Evangelical since the 16th century, is, with its churchtower that defines the village's skyline, Achtelsbach's most prominent building. On 9 January 2010, the belltower, and indeed the whole church, were heavily damaged in a fire. The council is made up of 8 council members, who were elected by majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman. Achtelsbach's mayor is Kai Sohns. The German blazon reads:   The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Per fess argent a rose foiled of six gules barbed proper and seeded Or, and sable issuant from base a lion rampant of the third armed, langued and crowned of the second. The German blazon says nothing about the rose's “barbs” (sepals). The rose in the escutcheon’s upper field refers to the Evangelical church in the village, which, with its enormous tower, dominates the skyline. The charge in the field below this is a reference to the village’s former allegiance to the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken. Moreover, the village’s old court seal also showed a lion. The arms have been borne since 5 July 1965, when they were approved by the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of the Interior. The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:  Achtelsbach has no railway link. The nearest railway station lies seven kilometres to the southeast at Neubrücke on the Nahe Valley Railway. There are road links to Birkenfeld, to Nonnweiler in the Saarland and to Hermeskeil beyond the High Forest. The Autobahn A 62 (Kaiserslautern–Trier) runs by Achtelsbach roughly five kilometres to the south; interchanges are to be found in Neubrücke and Nohfelden-Türkismühle.