Leisel

Leisel is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Birkenfeld, whose seat is in the like-named town.GeographyLocationThe municipality lies on the Leiselbach at the Idar Forest in the Hunsrück. The municipal area is 65% wooded.Neighbouring municipalitiesLeisel borders in the northeast on the municipality of Siesbach, in the southeast on the municipality of Wilzenberg-Hußweiler and in the southwest on the municipality of Schwollen.HistoryIn 1180, Leisel had its first documentary mention as Lucei in a document dealing with legal relationships in the Archbishopric of Trier, under whose sovereignty Leisel lay at that time. In 1328, Archbishop of Trier Baldwin acknowledged the Sponheim lordship over the Birkenfelder Land (the country around Birkenfeld). The countercompony base (that is, with two rows of squares of alternating tinctures) in the municipality’s coat of arms recalls this time, for the Counts of Sponheim bore arms that were chequy (completely covered with squares of alternating tinctures).