Salm (Eifel)

Salm is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Gerolstein, whose seat is in the like-named town.GeographyLocationThe municipality lies in the Vulkaneifel, a part of the Eifel known for its volcanic history, geographical and geological features, and even ongoing activity today, including gases that sometimes well up from the earth.Near the village rises the river Salm, which empties into the Moselle near Klüsserath.HistoryIn 1225, Salm had its first documentary mention in an agreement between Gerhard von Blankenheim and Abbot Heinrich von Himmerod dealing with the donation of an estate to Himmerod Abbey, which was reached on the cobbled road between the abandoned village of Hundswinkel and Bremescheit (Prümscheid). It is reasonable to conclude, therefore, that the village’s beginnings reach back somewhat further, but an entry in Prüm Abbey’s directory of holdings, the Prümer Urbar, that supposedly mentions Salm is at the very best doubtful. It would, however, make the village centuries older, since it dates from 803.