The worst blow struck against the region’s population growth was brought by the Thirty Years' War. In 1635, a cohort of Croatian mercenaries cunningly broke into the town of Kusel. The "Landsknechte" raped many women, massacred most of the townsfolk and set the whole town on fire. These events likewise drew neighbouring villages into danger, although particulars do not appear in the record. One legend, however, says that the farmers in Blaubach, which lay just across the river from Kusel, wrung all their cocks’ necks so that the Croats would take no notice of the village. Whether or not the people of Blaubach momentarily met with any success in doing this, on the whole, only the odd person in the villages around Kusel survived the onslaught. In the Kusel church book in the war's later years and after the war, hitherto unknown names cropped up – newcomers. It can be concluded from the names appearing in the church book that members of only two families in Blaubach survived the war.