Ötzingen is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a community belonging to a ''

Verbandsgemeinde A (; plural ) is a low-level administrative division, administrative unit in the Germany, German States of Germany, federal states of Brandenburg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A is typically composed of a small group of Municipalitie ...

'' – in the

Westerwaldkreis The Westerwaldkreis ("District of Westerwald") is a district (''Kreis'') in the north-east of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighbouring districts are (from north clockwise) Altenkirchen (district), Altenkirchen, Lahn-Dill, Limburg-Weilburg, Rhein ...

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) 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 sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Geography

The community lies at the foot of the Malberg, a wooded

volcanic cone Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcanic landforms. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depending upon the nature and s ...

found within the neighbouring community of Moschheim. Other neighbouring communities are Leuterod, Niederahr, Oberahr, Ettinghausen, Kuhnhöfen, Niedersayn and Helferskirchen. Along the edge of the community winds the Aubach, which rises in the outlying centre of Sainerholz some 3 km from the community's main centre. Ötzingen belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Wirges, a kind of collective municipality. Its seat is in the like-named town. As is so throughout the so-called

Kannenbäckerland The Kannenbäckerland (; 'potters' land', ) is a cultural landscape in central Germany, which extends from Wirges in the Westerwald hills to Bendorf and Vallendar in the Middle Rhine valley. The Kannenbäckerland owes its name to the fact that, ...

(“Jug Bakers’ Land”, a small region known for its traditional Toilet chicken industry),

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

ing plays an important role. Somewhat outside the community is found a production centre for world-famous clay

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

s. Ötzingen has one outlying centre called Sainerholz.

History

The community's name comes from the

Old High German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

''Uitzingen'', most likely meaning some such thing as “Uitzo’s (or Utz’s) Offspring”. The ending ''–ingen'' leads to the supposition that at the time the land was taken, it had already been cleared, or there were no woods found there, in turn leading to the conclusion that the community's founding time was somewhere between the late 6th century and the 11th century. The name has appeared in various spellings over the centuries: *About 1362: ''Ozingen'' *About 1385: ''Oezingin'' *About 1386: ''Oitzingen'' *About 1417: ''Oytzingen'' *About 1476: ''Uitzingen'', ''Ober-Otzingen'' *About 1589: ''Oezingin''

Politics

The municipal council is made up of 17 council members, including the extraofficial mayor (''Bürgermeister''), who were elected in a municipal election on 13 June 2004.

References

External links

Ötzingen in the collective municipality’s Web pages
Municipalities in Rhineland-Palatinate Westerwaldkreis {{Westerwaldkreis-geo-stub