At the end of the 8th century, a kingly estate (“fisci”[3]) named Dreyse (Dreis) on the river Salmana (Salm) was donated to the Abbey by Charlemagne’s brother Carloman.

On 28 October 895, King Zwentibold acknowledged the Abbey’s holdings after being requested to do so by Archbishop of Trier Ratbold.

In Gladbach and nearby Bruch, unlike the development in Dreis, the Abbey of Echternach could not extend its lordly authority, as the river Salm formed the boundary between the Duchy of Luxembourg and the Electorate of Trier.

[1] The German blazon reads: In Blau auf einem goldenen Wellenschildfuß, darin ein roter Wellenbalken, ein gekürzter goldener Abtstab, begleitet rechts und links von je einem silbernen fehförmigen Eisenhut.

The municipality’s arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Azure issuant from base a abbot’s staff Or between two vair pips argent in fess, in a base wavy of the second a fess wavy gules.