Moritzheim

Moritzheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Zell, whose seat is in the municipality of Zell an der Mosel.GeographyLocationThe municipality lies in the Hunsrück at an elevation of some 500 m above sea level. The river Moselle lies roughly 12 km away.HistoryAfter a great fire in Senheim on 13 August 1839, thirty families who had been left homeless founded the Kolonie Hoch-Senheim (hoch means “high” in German). The new village was given a new name soon after building work was finished. It was named after the Prussian Landrat (roughly, “district chairman”), Moritz.Soon thereafter came lean years, and between 1846 and 1852, 23 families from the municipality emigrated to the United States for a better life, leaving only five people living in Moritzheim.Since 1946, it has been part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Under the Verwaltungsvereinfachungsgesetz (“Administration Simplification Law”) of 28 July 1970, with effect from 7 November 1970, the municipality was grouped into the Verbandsgemeinde of Zell.