Breit

Breit 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 in the Hunsrück on a knoll about 400 m above sea level and thereby some 150 m above the bottom of the Kleine Dhron river valley. Breit belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Thalfang am Erbeskopf, whose seat is in the municipality of Thalfang.HistoryIn the early 13th century, Breit had its first documentary mention in the name “Conrad von Breit” in a record from St. Maximin’s Abbey. After the French Revolution, the Rhine’s left bank, and along with it Breit, were ceded to France in 1794 and 1795. Through a law from 26 March 1798, the French abolished feudal rights in their zone of occupation. After French rule ended, the village passed in 1814 to the Kingdom of Prussia. Since 1947, it has been part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Since administrative reform in Rhineland-Palatinate in 1969, Breit has belonged to the Verbandsgemeinde of Thalfang am Erbeskopf in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district. Formerly it had been part of the Amt of Klüsserath, which in the course of the administrative reform was abolished.