Gladbach is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a '' Verbandsgemeinde'', 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 ...
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 ...
The municipality’s first documentary mention goes back to directories of holdings at the Abbey of Echternach. At the end of the 8th century, a kingly estate (''“fisci”'') named Dreyse ( Dreis) on the river Salmana ( Salm) was donated to the Abbey by Charlemagne’s brother Carloman. To this estate also belonged a few nearby places.
On 28 October 895, King Zwentibold acknowledged the Abbey’s holdings after being requested to do so by Archbishop of Trier Ratbold. Listed in this directory of holdings is, among other places, Gladbach.
Gladbach was a lordly domain of the
Duchy of Luxembourg
The Duchy of Luxemburg ( nl, Luxemburg; french: Luxembourg; german: Luxemburg; lb, Lëtzebuerg) was a state of the Holy Roman Empire, the ancestral homeland of the noble House of Luxembourg. The House of Luxembourg, now Duke of Limburg, becam ...
and was assigned to the lordship of Bruch. In Gladbach and nearby Bruch, unlike the development in Dreis, the Abbey of Echternach could not extend its lordly authority, as the river Salm formed the boundary between the Duchy of Luxembourg and 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- ...
. Gladbach and Bruch lay on the Salm’s right bank, putting them on the Luxembourg side.
Beginning in 1794, Gladbach lay under
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
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-Websterproportional representation at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.Kommunalwahl Rheinland-Pfalz 2009, Gemeinderat /ref>
Mayor
The mayor is Sylvia Krones.
Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: ''In Blau auf einem goldenen Wellenschildfuß, darin ein roter Wellenbalken, ein gekürzter goldener Abtstab, begleitet rechts und links von je einem silbernen fehförmigen Eisenhut.''
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 language be described thus: Azure issuant from base a abbot’s staff Or between two vair pips argent in fess, in a base wavy of the second a fess wavy gules.
Culture and sightseeing
* Flour mill on the Gladbach (also the local river’s name), mentioned in a written record in 1409
* Oil mill, newly built in 1785
* ''Martinsbrunnen'' (fountain)
References
Sources
*Andreas Wisniewski: ''Kreisjahrbuch Bernkastel-Wittlich.'' o. J.
{{Authority control
Bernkastel-Wittlich