The municipality lies in the Vulkaneifel, a part of the Eifel known for its volcanic history, geographical and geological features, and even ongoing activity today, including gases that sometimes well up from the earth.

Katzwinkel lies in the Gäsbach valley stretching up from the upper Üßbach’s right bank, just under 500 m west of Bundesstraße 257 between Kelberg and Ulmen.

[3] The municipality lies at the forks of three brooks, the Burbach, the Lanzbach and the Ringelbach, which together form the Gäsbach in the middle of the village.

The German blazon reads: In Silber ein schwarzes Balkenkreuz, bewinkelt von vier grünen dreizackigen Kronen.

The black cross on a silver field is the arms formerly borne by the village's feudal overlord, the Electorate of Cologne, to which, of the formerly 98 municipalities in the district, only Katzwinkel and Hörschhausen belonged.

The cross has what is described in the German blazon as "green, three-spiked crowns" (…grünen dreizackigen Kronen), although they more closely resemble a charge known as a cronel,[5] set in each of its angles.

In German heraldry, the term for the arrangement of four like charges around a cross in this fashion is bewinkelt, thus suggesting part of the name Katzwinkel (the name ending actually means "corner", "angle" or, as in this case, "place framed by hills and mountains").