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.

In the village, there was on Electoral-Trier-held lands a Virneburg high court occupied by 3 Heimburgen – roughly equivalent to “mayors” – from Retterath, Mannebach and Lirstal and 7 Schöffen (roughly “lay jurists”), according to a Weistum from 1468[3] (a Weistum – cognate with English wisdom – was a legal pronouncement issued by men learned in law in the Middle Ages and early modern times).

A stone's throw from the gallows lies the Grüner Weiher, a pond where once women who had killed their child were drowned.

[1] The German blazon reads: Durch Wellenschnitt von Blau über Gold geteilt, oben eine fliegende weiße Taube mit weißem Ölkrug im Schnabel, unten 7 (4:3) rote Rauten balkenweise.

The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Per fess wavy, azure a dove volant bearing an oil jug in its beak argent, and Or seven lozenges gules, four and three.