Arbach
Encyclopedia
Arbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
Municipalities of Germany
Municipalities are the lowest level of territorial division in Germany. This may be the fourth level of territorial division in Germany, apart from those states which include Regierungsbezirke , where municipalities then become the fifth level.-Overview:With more than 3,400,000 inhabitants, the...

 belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
Verbandsgemeinde
A Verbandsgemeinde is an administrative unit in the German Bundesländer of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt.-Rhineland-Palatinate:...

, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district
Districts of Germany
The districts of Germany are known as , except in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein where they are known simply as ....

 in Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kelberg
Kelberg (Verbandsgemeinde)
Kelberg is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district Vulkaneifel, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Kelberg....

, whose seat is in the like-named municipality
Kelberg
Kelberg is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the like-named Verbandsgemeinde, and is home to its seat...

.

Location

The municipality lies in the Vulkaneifel
Vulkan Eifel
The Vulkan Eifel is a region in the Eifel Mountains in Germany, that is defined to a large extent by its volcanic geological history. Characteristic of the Vulkan Eifel are its typical explosion crater lakes or maars, and numerous other signs of volcanic activity such as volcanic tuffs, lava...

, a part of the Eifel
Eifel
The Eifel is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the south of the German-speaking Community of Belgium....

 known for its volcanic history, geographical and geological features, and even ongoing activity today, including gases that sometimes well up from the earth.

History

In 1336, Arbach had its first documentary mention as Arrebarre or Arrebach, in which the prefix Arre – cognate with the English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 “ear” in the same meaning
Ear (botany)
An ear is the grain-bearing tip part of the stem of a cereal plant, such as wheat or maize. It can also refer to "a prominent lobe in some leaves".The ear is a spike, consisting of a central stem on which grows tightly packed rows of flowers...

 – referred to ears of cereal grains (this is Ähre in Modern High German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

).

Municipal council

The council is made up of 6 council members, who were elected by majority vote
Plurality voting system
The plurality voting system is a single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member constituencies...

 at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.

Coat of arms

The German blazon reads: In Gold, durch einen schrägrechten blauen Wellenbalken geteilt, vorn drei schwarze Getreidehalme, hinten ein rotes durchgehendes Kreuz.

The municipality’s arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 might in English heraldic
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...

 language be described thus: Or a bend wavy azure between three wheat stalks, the one in dexter bent to dexter below the ear and the one in sinister bent to sinister at the ear sable, and a cross gules.

Buildings

  • Catholic church on Wiesenweg – aisleless church
    Aisleless church
    An Aisleless church is a single-nave church building that consists of a single hall-like room. While similar to the hall church, the aisleless church lacks aisles or passageways either side of the nave separated from the nave by colonnades or arcades, a row of pillars or columns...

     rebuilt in 1952, although possibly incorporating parts of its forerunner from 1766.
  • Hauptstraße 5 – residential part of a timber-frame
    Timber framing
    Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...

     Quereinhaus (a combination residential and commercial house divided for these two purposes down the middle, perpendicularly to the street), with a partly slated roof, reputedly from 1766.
  • Hauptstraße 9 – timber-frame house, partly solid, from about 1900.
  • Wayside cross – southwest of the village at the municipal limit with Retterath
    Retterath
    Retterath is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...

    .

Natural monuments

As in many municipalities in this area that long stood under Napoleonic hegemony, the hundredth anniversary of the liberation from the “Frenchman’s Yoke” was also celebrated here in 1913 with the planting of a so-called Kaiserlinde (“Emperor’s limetree
Tilia
Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The greatest species diversity is found in Asia, and the genus also occurs in Europe and eastern North America, but not western North America...

”) in Kaiser Wilhelm II’s honour and the placing of a memorial stone. The stone can still be seen on Schulstraße at the old school.

External links

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