In 1134 or 1135, Bernhard von Clairvaux founded the Cistercian Himmerod Abbey near the village.

The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:[2] The German blazon reads: Unter silbernem Schildhaupt, darin ein rotes Balkenkreuz, durch eingeschweifte goldene Spitze, darin ein schwarzer Löwe, gespalten: rechts in Rot ein silbernes Schwert, links in Rot zwei ineinander geschlungene goldene Ringe.

The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Tierced in mantle, dexter gules a sword bendwise sinister argent, sinister gules two annulets embraced in pale Or, in base Or a lion rampant sable, in a chief of the second a cross of the first.

The cross charge in the chief is Electoral Trier's old armorial bearing.

The sword and also the division of the field, which resembles a mantle spread open at the bottom, are references to Saint Martin of Tours, long the municipality's patron saint, the former being his attribute and the latter a reference to the story of Martin cutting off a piece of his mantle for a beggar.