Bruch is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

belonging to a ''

Verbandsgemeinde A Verbandsgemeinde (; plural Verbandsgemeinden) is a low-level administrative unit in the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A Verbandsgemeinde is typically composed of a small group of villages or towns. Rhineland- ...

'', a kind of collective municipality – in the

Bernkastel-Wittlich Bernkastel-Wittlich (German: ''Landkreis Bernkastel-Wittlich'') is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Vulkaneifel, Cochem-Zell, Rhein-Hunsrück, Birkenfeld, Trier-Saarbur ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Geography

The municipality lies in the

Eifel The Eifel (; lb, Äifel, ) is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Community of ...

on the long-distance hiking trail, the '' Eifelsteig'', some 10 km west of the district seat, Wittlich, at an elevation of 190 m above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. Bruch also lies on both sides of the river

Salm Salm may refer to People * Constance de Salm (1767–1845), poet and miscellaneous writer; through her second marriage, she became Princess of Salm-Dyck * Salm ibn Ziyad, an Umayyad governor of Khurasan and Sijistan * House of Salm, a European ...

. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Wittlich-Land, whose seat is in

Wittlich The town of Wittlich (; Moselle Franconian: ''Wittlech'') is the seat of the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Its historic town centre and the beauty of the surrounding countryside make the town a centre for tourism in ...

, although that town is itself not in the ''Verbandsgemeinde''.

History

Bruch's beginnings are believed to reach all the way back to

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

times. Finds and remains such as a Roman graveyard, for instance, are clues to this. In 1138, Bruch had its first documentary mention in the name ''Fridelo de Brucha'', who cropped up in the Himmerod Monastery's founding document. Until this Family “von Bruch” died out about 1334, the village's history was tightly bound to this family's. After their days had ended, the lordship passed to Dietrich von Dune (

Daun Daun is a town in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the district seat and also the seat of the ' of Daun. Geography Location The town lies in the , a part of the Eifel known for its volcanic history, geogra ...

). In the 16th century, Bruch was granted its own jurisdiction. The

gallows A gallows (or scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended (i.e., hung) or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks ...

that came along with this stood on the so-called Galgenberg (“Gallows Mountain”) east of the castle, on an old linking road to

Bergweiler Bergweiler is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location The municipality lies so ...

. In the 18th century, the village's geographical situation as outlined above led to a rather odd situation: The village belonged to two separate states, as the lands west of the Salm were part of the Duchy of

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

and those lying east of the river belonged to the

Electorate of Trier The Electorate of Trier (german: Kurfürstentum Trier or ' or Trèves) was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire that existed from the end of the 9th to the early 19th century. It was the temporal possession of the prince- ...

As of 1794, though, the whole of Bruch lay under French rule. In 1815, the village was assigned to the Kingdom of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

at the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

. Since 1946, it has been part of the then newly founded

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Politics

Municipal council

The council is made up of 8 council members, who were elected by

majority vote A majority, also called a simple majority or absolute majority to distinguish it from related terms, is more than half of the total.Dictionary definitions of ''majority'' aMerriam-WebsterKommunalwahl Rheinland-Pfalz 2009, Gemeinderat
/ref>

Coat of arms

The German blazon reads: ''Schild, von oben links nach unten rechts sechsmal von Gold und Rot schräggeteilt, belegt mit einem silbernen Burgturm mit blauem Dach und zwei blauen Fenstern''. The municipality's

arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

might in English

heraldic Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branc ...

language be described thus: Bendy of six Or and gules, a castle argent with roofs and windows azure. The castle is, of course, the local one, the ''Brucher Burg'', and the diagonal-stripe pattern (“bendy”) was the arms borne by the noble Lords of Bruch, who lived at the castle, their family seat, in the first half of the 12th century. Bruch was granted the right to bear its own arms in 1983.

Culture and sightseeing

Moated castle

The moated castle in Bruch, standing in a hollow surrounded by wooded hills on the Salm, dates in its older parts from the early 14th century, and was the seat of the Lords of Bruch, who are witnessed beginning in the 12th century. Today the castle is under private ownership.

Further points of interest

* Burghaus (Hepgesburg) (1413) * Oilmill (from the 19th century, established at one of the oldest mills on the Salm, from 1284) * Potter's workshop with an old kiln from the 17th century *

Saint Roch Roch (lived c. 1348 – 15/16 August 1376/79 (traditionally c. 1295 – 16 August 1327, also called Rock in English, is a Catholic saint, a confessor whose death is commemorated on 16 August and 9 September in Italy; he is especially invoked a ...

’s Parish Church (''Pfarrkirche St. Rochus'', built in 1807) * Disused

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

mine from 1740 * Galgenberg (“Gallows Mountain”), old execution site * Burgstraße 6, sandstone figures and reliefs

References

External links

Municipality’s official webpage

at SWR Fernsehen {{Authority control Bernkastel-Wittlich