Kleinich is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

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 ...

'', a kind of collective municipality – in the

Bernkastel-Wittlich Bernkastel-Wittlich (German language, German: ''Landkreis Bernkastel-Wittlich'') is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Vulkaneifel, Cochem-Zell, Rhein-Hunsrück, Birkenfeld ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

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

Location

The municipality lies in the

Hunsrück The Hunsrück () is a long, triangular, pronounced mountain range, upland in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the valleys of the Moselle (river), Moselle-Saar (north-to-west), the Nahe (south), and the Rhine (east). It is continued ...

between the ''Hunsrückhöhenstraße'' (“Hunsrück Heights Road”, a scenic road across the Hunsrück built originally as a military road on

Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician, aviator, military leader, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which gov ...

’s orders) and the Middle

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; ; ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A sm ...

. The nearest middle centres are

Bernkastel-Kues Bernkastel-Kues () is a town on the Middle Mosel in the Bernkastel-Wittlich Districts of Germany, district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is well-known for its winegrowing. The town is a state-recognized health resort (''Erholungsort''), ...

and

Morbach Morbach is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality that belongs to no ''Verbandsgemeinde'' – a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich Districts of Germany, district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is also a state ...

Frankfurt-Hahn Airport Hahn Airporthahn-airport.de
retrieved 30 April 2025 () , also colloquially known and formerly officially br ...

lies only a few kilometres to the east. Kleinich belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Bernkastel-Kues, whose seat is in the like-named town.

Constituent communities

Kleinich’s ''

Ortsteil A village is a human settlement or Residential community, community, larger than a hamlet (place), hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located ...

e'' are Kleinich, Oberkleinich, Thalkleinich, Fronhofen, Götzeroth, Emmeroth, Pilmeroth and Ilsbach.

History

In 1220, Kleinich had its first documentary mention. Together with the surrounding

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

, it was part of the

County of Sponheim The County of Sponheim (, former spelling: Spanheim, Spanheym) was an independent territory in the Holy Roman Empire that lasted from the 11th century until the early 19th century. The name comes from the municipality of Sponheim, where the cou ...

. On 15 May 1936, the name was changed from ''Cleinich'' to Kleinich. Until municipal administrative reform in Rhineland-Palatinate in 1969, the village belonged to the Bernkastel district, whose seat was at

. On 7 June 1969, the municipality of Kleinich was newly founded out of the dissolved municipalities of Kleinich and Thalkleinich. Today’s municipality arose from a merger of the dissolved municipalities of Kleinich, Emmeroth, Fronhofen, Götzeroth, Ilsbach, Oberkleinich and Pilmeroth on 17 March 1974. Today, Kleinich is part of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Bernkastel-Kues. In 1996, Kleinich reached second place in Rhineland-Palatinate in the contest ''Unser Dorf soll schöner werden'' (“Our village should become lovelier”).

Population development

Politics

The municipal council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman. The 2004 election was not determined by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

; the council members were elected by

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 ...

. The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:Kommunalwahl Rheinland-Pfalz 2009,
Gemeinderat
/ref> The ''

e'' have elected advisory bodies (''Ortsbeiräte'') and each has a head (''Ortsvorsteher''). For these purposes, the ''Ortsteile'' of Götzeroth and Ilsbach are counted as one.

References

Other sources

Population figures at
''verwaltungsgeschichte.de''
Population figures in
''Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis Rheinland-Pfalz 2006'' (PDF file; 2.03 MB)

External links

Municipality’s official webpage

Kleinich-Emmeroth
Bernkastel-Wittlich {{BernkastelWittlich-geo-stub