Kleinich 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

Location

The municipality lies in the

Hunsrück The Hunsrück () is a long, triangular, pronounced upland in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the valleys of the Moselle-Saar (north-to-west), the Nahe (south), and the Rhine (east). It is continued by the Taunus mountains, past ...

between the ''Hunsrückhöhenstraße'' (“Hunsrück Heights Road”, a scenic road across the Hunsrück built originally as a military road on Hermann Göring’s orders) and the Middle

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...

. The nearest middle centres are Bernkastel-Kues and

Morbach Morbach is a municipality that belongs to no ''Verbandsgemeinde'' – a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is also a state-recognized climatic resort (''Luftkurort''). G ...

. Frankfurt-Hahn Airport lies only a few kilometres to the east. Kleinich belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Bernkastel-Kues, whose seat is in the like-named town.

Constituent communities

Kleinich’s ''

Ortsteil A village is a clustered human settlement or Residential community, community, larger than a hamlet (place), hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population t ...

e'' are Kleinich, Oberkleinich, Thalkleinich, Fronhofen, Götzeroth, Emmeroth, Pilmeroth and Ilsbach.

History

In 1220, Kleinich had its first documentary mention. Together with the surrounding hamlets, it was part of the

County of Sponheim The County of Sponheim (german: Grafschaft Sponheim, former spelling: Spanheim, Spanheym) was an independent territory in the Holy Roman Empire that lasted from the 11th century until the early 19th century. The name comes from the municipality ...

. On 15 May 1936, the name was changed from ''Cleinich'' to Kleinich. Until municipal administrative reform in Rhineland-Palatinate in 1969, the village belonged to the Bernkastel district, whose seat was at Bernkastel-Kues. On 7 June 1969, the municipality of Kleinich was newly founded out of the dissolved municipalities of Kleinich and Thalkleinich. Today’s municipality arose from a merger of the dissolved municipalities of Kleinich, Emmeroth, Fronhofen, Götzeroth, Ilsbach, Oberkleinich and Pilmeroth on 17 March 1974. Today, Kleinich is part of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Bernkastel-Kues. In 1996, Kleinich reached second place in Rhineland-Palatinate in the contest ''Unser Dorf soll schöner werden'' (“Our village should become lovelier”).

Population development

Politics

The municipal council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman. The 2004 election was not determined by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

; the council members 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-WebsterGemeinderat
/ref> The ''

e'' have elected advisory bodies (''Ortsbeiräte'') and each has a head (''Ortsvorsteher''). For these purposes, the ''Ortsteile'' of Götzeroth and Ilsbach are counted as one.

References

Other sources

Population figures at
''verwaltungsgeschichte.de''
Population figures in
''Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis Rheinland-Pfalz 2006'' (PDF file; 2.03 MB)

External links

Municipality’s official webpage

Kleinich-Emmeroth
Bernkastel-Wittlich {{BernkastelWittlich-geo-stub