As early as 830, the Aacher Hof (estate) had a documentary mention. Emperor Louis the Pious, Charlemagne�s son, donated Traben with all its rights and privileges, and its appurtenances, namely Litzig, Ri�bach, Irmenach and Beuren, to the minster at Aachen (Aachen Foundation of Mary), where German kings were crowned.
All today�s Stadtteile � with the exception of a part of Kautenbach � belonged to the �Hinder� County of Sponheim, whose main centre was Trarbach, which remained such even after the comital family of Sponheim had died out, and even though both the then landholders � the County had become a Palatine-Badish condominium � had their residences elsewhere in the County, namely in Birkenfeld and Kastellaun. At the same time, Trarbach was, however, the seat of the like-named Oberamt. In 1816, the area around Trarbach was annexed to Prussia, with Trarbach itself becoming the seat of a B�rgermeisterei (�Mayoralty�). Against expectations, however, Zell, rather than Trarbach, was made the district seat, even though the latter was the biggest place in the new District of Zell. The B�rgermeisterei of Trarbach was dissolved in 1884, and Trarbach no longer belonged to any B�rgermeisterei. It was, rather, administered thereafter in personal union with the new B�rgermeisterei of Traben. In 1898, the first bridge was built between the two centres, one built to plans drawn up by Bruno M�hring. This bridge, which was blown up in the dying days of the Second World War in 1945, was at the same time also the first roadbridge between Bernkastel and Koblenz. The next bridges were built only in 1924, in Cochem, and between 1951 and 1953 in Zell. In the late 19th century, Traben and Trarbach were also, together with Reichenhall, the first municipalities in Germany that, instead of having gaslamps, had electric street lighting from the Edison Company, today AEG, installed, although the odd stretch of street in Berlin had already been outfitted with electric lighting. In 1904
