Graach an der Mosel

Graach an der Mosel
Graach an der Mosel
Municipality
	Coat of arms
	Location of Graach an der Mosel within Bernkastel-Wittlich district
	Graach an der Mosel Graach an der Mosel
	Coordinates: 49°56′6″N 7°3′45″E / 49.93500°N 7.06250°E
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Bernkastel-Wittlich
Municipal assoc.	Bernkastel-Kues
Subdivisions	2
Government
• Mayor (2019–24)	Gerhard Zimmer
Area
• Total	8.64 km2 (3.34 sq mi)
Elevation	105 m (344 ft)
Population (2022-12-31)
• Total	647
• Density	75/km2 (190/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	54470
Dialling codes	06531
Vehicle registration	WIL
Website	www.graach.de

Graach an der Mosel is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

Geography

Location

The municipality belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Bernkastel-Kues, whose seat is in the like-named town.

While Graach's main centre, also called Graach, lies in the Moselle valley, the outlying centre of Schäferei lies above the vineyards at an elevation of some 300 m above sea level.

Constituent communities

Graach's Ortsteile are Graach and Graach-Schäferei.

History

In 975, Graach had its first documentary mention as Gracha.

Politics

The municipal council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected by proportional representation at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.

The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:^[3]

	CDU	VBB	Kemmer	Total
2009	8	2	2	12 seats

Winegrowing

The municipality's appearance is characterized by wineries, mostly built of quarried stone, and wine estates.

Some 90% of Graach's vineyard area is in the form of steep-slope vineyards, and 95% of it is given over to raising Riesling grapes. One peculiarity is the cluster of ecclesiastical names borne by many of the local winemaking locations, such as Himmelreich (“Kingdom of Heaven”), Domprobst (“Cathedral Provost”) and Abtsberg (“Abbot’s Mountain”), which bear lasting witness to the ecclesiastical princes’ and monasteries’ ancient predilection for Graach's wine slopes. Over a road used mainly by winegrowers, Graach is linked to Bernkastel-Kues, where the gate through which the road passes into town is called the Graach Gate (Graacher Tor in German).