Girkenroth

Girkenroth lies 7 km south of Westerburg at the foot of the Watzenhahn woodland. Since 1972 it has belonged to what was then the newly founded Verbandsgemeinde of Westerburg, a kind of collective municipality. In 1516, Girkenroth had its first documentary mention as Gergerode. The council is made up of 13 council members, including the extraofficial mayor (Bürgermeister), who were elected in a majority vote in a municipal election on 13 June 2004. The three blue bends on a golden background come from the arms formerly borne by the lesser noble family of Ottenstein, whose seat, albeit already forsaken in the 14th century, lay within Girkenroth's current limits. A field's name still recalls this seat. In the village itself the von Ottensteins had property in the Late Middle Ages and early modern times. The background tincture green refers to the woodlands growing around the municipality and the pasture farming that is important here to this day (there was a communal livestock herd until the 1960s). Agriculture, as the most important basis for food production into the 20th century, is also symbolized by the golden grain ear.