Irmenach

Irmenach 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 east of Bernkastel-Kues at an elevation of 445 m above sea level. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Traben-Trarbach, whose seat is in the like-named town.Constituent communitiesIrmenach’s Ortsteile are Irmenach and Beuren, which lie only about a kilometre from each other.HistoryIrmenach’s and Beuren’s beginnings are shrouded in darkness. There are known to have been settlers in the area as early as Roman times. An old local tradition has it that the name Irmenach goes back to Saint Irmina, which is, however, hardly likely. A far greater likelihood is that it came from Herminiachus (“Herminius’s Estate”), in which Herminius was a Celtic nobleman who had Latinized his name. Originally, Irmenach formed, together with Beuren and Thalkleinich, now an outlying centre of Kleinich, the greater municipality of Irmenach, which existed until 1828.