Dierscheid

Dierscheid 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 wooded Meulenwald hill range, southwest of Wittlich at an elevation of some 400 m above sea level. Near Dierscheid lies the Kellerberg, at 448 m the highest mountain in the Verbandsgemeinde of Wittlich-Land, to which Dierscheid belongs, and whose seat is in Wittlich, although that town is itself not in the Verbandsgemeinde.HistoryEarly settlement is witnessed by remnants of a Roman wall. Some of the finds to this effect are displayed in the local history museum.In 1150, Dierscheid had its first documentary mention in a document from St. Maximin’s Abbey in Trier. In the 13th century, the village had the name Dyrseit. The Lords of Bruch held the tithing rights in the parish of Heidweiler, to which the branch parish of Dierscheid also belonged. In January 1417, the name changed to Diescheit. The spelling for the placename changed very often: Dierscheid, Dierschet, Dischet, Dirscheit, Dierscheydt, Dierscheit, Dyrseit and Derseit.