Rennerod

Rennerod is a town in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Rennerod, a kind of collective municipality. Within the municipal area, until German Reunification on 3 October 1990, lay the Federal Republic’s geographical centre.GeographyLocationRennerod lies in the Westerwald on Bundesstraße 54 between Limburg an der Lahn to the south and Siegen 30 km to the north. Bad Marienberg lies 10 km to Rennerod’s northwest. Through the town flows the Holzbach. Northeast of the town is found the 613 m-high Alsberg, some 2 km northnortheast of the Breitenbach Reservoir on the Breitenbach, an eastern tributary to the river Nister.HistoryIn 1217, Reynderode had its first documentary mention. Its founding, however, might go back to Carolingian times. The settlement’s importance stemmed from its location on several trading roads that linked the Siegerland, Koblenz, Frankfurt, the Lahn area and Mainz. Referring to the salt trade are field names such as Seltzerweg and Selßer Heck. Supposedly, the settlement would have been enclosed in the mid-11th century by the Counts of Diez, likely also to defend the Niederlahngau’s northern border.