Bengel

Bengel is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.GeographyLocationThe municipality lies at the foot of the Eifel on the river Alf near the Moselle valley, has some 900 inhabitants and is found in the Middle Moselle-Kondelwald holiday region. The municipal area is 78% wooded. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Traben-Trarbach.Constituent communitiesBengel’s Ortsteile are Springiersbach and Neithof.HistoryIn Springiersbach in 1102, the Augustinian Springiersbach Monastery was founded, to which the village of Bengel and also Neithof were assigned. Beginning in 1794, Bengel lay under French hegemony. In 1802, the church and the monastery in Springiersbach were secularized. To save the almost new church from being torn down, the Bishop of Trier raised it to Parish Church of Bengel. In 1815, the municipality was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna. Since 1947, it has been part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate.