Gladbach, Rhineland-Palatinate

Gladbach 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 in the Eifel and belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Wittlich-Land, whose seat is in Wittlich, although that town is itself not in the Verbandsgemeinde.

History

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”This would be the form in the nominative plural or genitive singular in Latin. The “base form” – the nominative singular, would be “fiscus”.) 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 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. Gladbach and Bruch lay on the Salm’s right bank, putting them...
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