Großseifen (or Grossseifen) 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 in the

Westerwald The Westerwald (; literally 'Western forest') is a low mountain range on the right bank of the river Rhine in the States of Germany, German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. It is a part of the Rhenish Ma ...

between Limburg and

Siegen Siegen () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein in the Arnsberg (region), Arnsberg region. The university town (n ...

. The river Nister, which is in the Sieg

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

, flows east to west through the community. Großseifen belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Bad Marienberg, a kind of collective municipality. Its seat is in the like-named town.

History

This community near Bad Marienberg had its first documentary mention on 6 January 1307 when Count Heinrich of Nassau with his wife Adelheid confirmed to the

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

and

convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

of the Marienstatt

Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

Monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

the existing revenue in ''Velde'' (=Fehl/ Fehl-Ritzhausen) and ''Graynsiven''. The community of Großseifen celebrated 700 years of existence on 19 and 20 August 2006. The community's name has undergone many changes over the centuries, at various times being written ''Gransifen'', ''Grassyffen'', ''Grassifen'', ''Graensüffen'', ''Graseiffen'' and then eventually Großseifen, as the community is now known. The name's ending of ''–siven'', ''–sifen'' or ''–seifen'' describes a kind of wetland found in the area. The first syllable ''Grayn–'' or ''Gran–'' might perhaps mean ''Krähn'' (“crows”).

Etymologically Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

, the many spellings cannot be explained. Even misspellings and mishearings over time are suspected.

Politics

Community council

The council is made up of 12 council members who were elected in a

majority vote A majority is more than half of a total; however, the term is commonly used with other meanings, as explained in the "#Related terms, Related terms" section below. It is a subset of a Set (mathematics), set consisting of more than half of the se ...

in a municipal election on 7 June 2009.

Mayors

The following persons have held the office of ''Ortsbürgermeister'' of Großseifen since 1946: * 1946–1954: Wilhelm Hoffmann * 1954–1969: Walter Utsch * 1969–1979: Hermann Wollenweber * 1979–1992: Jürgen Steup * 1992–1994: Günter Thiede * 1994–1996: Günther Uhr * 1996–1999: Günter Thiede * 1999–2009: Thomas Stalp * since 2009: Jürgen Steup

References

External links

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