Kerschenbach

Kerschenbach 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 Verbandsgemeinde of Obere Kyll, whose seat is in the municipality of Jünkerath.

Geography

Location

The municipality lies in the Vulkaneifel, a part of the Eifel known for its volcanic history, geographical and geological features, and even ongoing activity today, including gases that sometimes well up from the earth.

Kerschenbach sits at an elevation of 550 m above sea level, and has an area of 691 ha. In the north, it borders on the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

History

When Kerschenbach came into being is lost in the mists of time. The placename ending —bach points to beginnings in the time of the clearings in the Eifel, putting them in the 12th century.

The name “Kerschenbach” is closely tied to the like-named brook. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the village was called Kirschembach. The determinative Kerschen— goes back to the Old High German word kar, meaning “dale” or “hollow”. Kerschenbach therefore means “Dalebrook”