Sehlem, Rhineland-Palatinate

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

Location
The municipality lies in the Eifel and belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Wittlich-Land, whose seat is in Wittlich, although that town is itself not in the Verbandsgemeinde.

History
Sehlem was part of the Electorate of Trier. Beginning in 1794, Sehlem lay under French rule. In 1814 it was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna. Since 1947, it has been part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Municipal council
The 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:

Mayors
The mayor of Sehlem is Gregor Zehe.

Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: Über grünem Schildfuß, darin zwei silberne Leisten, in Silber ein rotes Balkenkreuz, belegt mit grünem sechsspeichigem Rad.

The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Argent a cross gules, surmounting the whole a wheel spoked of six vert, in a base of the third two bars of the first.

Transport
Sehlem lies on the Autobahn A 1 and has at its disposal a railway station on the Koblenz-Trier line.