Gehlweiler

Gehlweiler is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kirchberg, whose seat is in the like-named town.GeographyLocationThe municipality lies on the western slope of the Soonwald, a heavily wooded section of the west-central Hunsrück. Through the village flows the Kellenbach, on whose other side lies the Lützelsoon plateau. Gehlweiler’s population is 254 and its area is 450 ha, of which 249 ha is wooded.HistoryGehlweiler’s history goes back to the 9th and 10th centuries, with the first descriptive mention being found in the Urkunden zur Willigskirche bei Auen from the Church’s Sobernheim rural chapter. Its history is also tightly bound with the former Castle Koppenstein. This castle was under the ownership of the formerly powerful Sponheim dynasty, and as the outlying village, Gehlweiler belonged to the “Koppenstein”, and was thereby itself a Sponheim holding. In 1317, Gehlweiler had its first documentary mention as Gelwilre.