Mühlpfad
Mühlpfad is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde Hunsrück-Mittelrhein, whose seat is in Emmelshausen. With a population of roughly 70 inhabitants, Mühlpfad is the district’s smallest municipality. It has nonetheless managed to avoid being amalgamated with any of its neighbours.
Geography
Location
The municipality lies in the eastern Hunsrück 7 km south of Emmelshausen, right at the beginning of the Baybach valley. The municipal area measures 139 ha.Politics
Municipal council
The council is made up of 6 council members, who were elected by majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.Mayor
Mühlpfad’s mayor is Florian Kneip.Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: Geteilt durch einen grünen Leistenstab, oben in Silber ein blauer Mühlstein, begleitet rechts und links von einem roten senkrechtstehenden Mühleisen; unten in Gold ein blau gekrönter, -bewehrter und -gezungter, herschauender roter Löwe.The municipality’s arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Per fess a barrulet vert between argent a millstone azure between two millrynds palewise gules, the whole in fess, and Or a lion passant guardant, tail forked, of the fourth, armed, langued and crowned of the third.
The charges in the silver field, together with the barrulet stand as canting charges for the municipality’s name. The millstone and the millrynds are meant to suggest the German word Mühle, or its stem Mühl—, as it appears in both those words, while the barrulet is meant to look like a path. Thus, it is a rebus of sorts: Mühl— + Pfad = Mühlpfad. The lion in the gold field refers to the village’s former allegiance to the Lower County of Katzenelnbogen.