Sarmersbach

Sarmersbach
Coat of arms
Sarmersbach
Location of Sarmersbach within Vulkaneifel district
Coordinates: 50°14′32″N 6°52′55″E / 50.24222°N 6.88194°E / 50.24222; 6.88194Coordinates: 50°14′32″N 6°52′55″E / 50.24222°N 6.88194°E / 50.24222; 6.88194
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Vulkaneifel
Municipal assoc.	Daun
Government
• Mayor	Dieter Treis
Area
• Total	5.19 km2 (2.00 sq mi)
Elevation	470 m (1,540 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	188
• Density	36/km2 (94/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	54552
Dialling codes	06592
Vehicle registration	DAU
Website	www.sarmersbach.de

Sarmersbach 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 Daun, whose seat is in the like-named town.

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.

Sarmersbach is in the traditional parochial area known as the Struth. The municipality’s namesake river, the Sarmersbach, rises within its bounds, emptying into the river Lieser at Nerdlen.

Sarmersbach had its first documentary mention only in 1316, but its founding may be placed in Frankish times in the 9th and 10th centuries. Even earlier than that, however, Celts and Romans had settled the broad fields. Archaeological finds from a small Roman temple in the “Auf den Steinen” area can today be found in the State Museum in Trier. Right near Sarmersbach ran the former Roman road between Trier and Cologne. An ancient indulgence cross, the so-called Afelskreuz, today stands at a prominent spot, an historical procession point, and nowadays a destination for many hikers and also worshippers.

Sarmersbach experienced Germany’s long history in microcosm in the Middle Ages. They were held by both secular lords, such as the Castle Lords of Daun, the Lords of Winneburg and the Lords of Brohl, and ecclesiastical ones such as the Archbishopric of Trier and Springiersbach Abbey, under whom the unfree peasants toiled away at compulsory labour and paid their tithes. Sarmersbach’s great importance in days of yore in the middle of the Struth villages can also be seen in the 14th-century Schöffenstuhl. This was the seat of seven elected Schöffen (roughly “lay jurists”), who along with their 49 colleagues in Daun and the Daun Amtmann or the Archbishop of Trier held the assizes several times each year, meting out justice for the Amt of Daun.