Ulmen | ||
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Coordinates: 50°12′31.28″N 6°58′46.52″E / 50.2086889°N 6.9795889°ECoordinates: 50°12′31.28″N 6°58′46.52″E / 50.2086889°N 6.9795889°E | ||
Country | Germany | |
State | Rhineland-Palatinate | |
District | Cochem-Zell | |
Municipal assoc. | Ulmen | |
Government | ||
• Stadtbürgermeister | Günther Wagner (SPD) | |
Area | ||
• Total | 28.62 km2 (11.05 sq mi) | |
Elevation | 452 m (1,483 ft) | |
Population (2015-12-31) | ||
• Total | 3,401 | |
• Density | 120/km2 (310/sq mi) | |
Time zone | CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) | |
Postal codes | 56766 | |
Dialling codes | 02676 | |
Vehicle registration | COC | |
Website | www.gemeinde-ulmen.de |
Ulmen is a town in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde – a kind of collective municipality – to which it also belongs.
The town lies in the Eifel some 11 km northwest of Cochem.
To Ulmen belong the outlying centres – Stadtteile – of Meiserich, Vorpochten and Furth.
The Ulmener Maar, only about 11,000 years old, is not only a maar but also Continental Europe’s newest volcano north of the Alps. It is 37 m deep. Volcanic activity can be observed at depths of more than 4 m in the form of rising gas bubbles. The Ulmener Maar has no natural water inflow or outflow. The two tunnels that hold the water at a constant level today were dug in the 19th century.
Another maar in town is the 118,000-year-old Jungferweiher, which is considerably bigger than the Ulmener Maar. Formerly used as a fishpond for the lords of the castle, it dried up over the centuries until in the 1930s, it had become a peat bog. In 1942, however, the maar was flooded once again to regulate the water level in the nearby maar.
In 1074, Ulmen had its first documentary mention, though Merovingian graves south of the castle bear witness to earlier habitation within town limits. There have also been suspected Roman finds, but these have not yet been verified.
Sir Heinrich von Ulmen, a knight, went on the Fourth Crusade to Constantinople, whence he brought valuable treasures back, among others the famous Limburger Staurothek (“Limburg Reliquary of the True Cross”), which can still be seen in the cathedral in Limburg an der Lahn. His successors were in the 15th century subject to the Trier Archiepiscopal Foundation’s public peace (Landfrieden). The “Sun King” Louis XIV of France conquered Ulmen twice and burnt it down. Both times, the castle and the town were built up again. Beginning in 1794, Ulmen lay under French rule. In 1815 it was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna. Since 1946, it has been part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate.