people of Birkenfeld. Both his predecessors, Manfred Dreier and Erich Mörsdorf, headed both the town and the Verbandsgemeinde of Birkenfeld at once. Werner Käufer was the last professional mayor of the town of Birkenfeld. Indeed, he was acclaimed in the office in 1968 with a great majority for another 12 years, but by 1970, he had to give up his professional office when, under administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate, towns with fewer than 7,500 inhabitants were merged into Verbandsgemeinden. The following have served as mayor of Birkenfeld: Eugen Ruppenthal from 1923 to 1933 and from 1949 to 1953 Oswald Morenz from 1953 to 1961 Werner Käufer from 1961 to 1970 Erich Mörsdorf from 1971 to 1990 Manfred Dreier from 1990 to 2000, (SPD) Peter Nauert from 2000 until 2014 (CDU) Miroslaw Kowalski since 2014, (CDU) Coat of arms The town's arms might be described thus: Azure on a mount vert a birch tree with roots proper surmounted by an inescutcheon chequy gules and argent. The main charge, the birch tree, is canting for the town's name (“birch” is Birke in German). The inescutcheon with the red and silver “chequy” pattern is the coat of arms formerly borne by the “Hinder” County of Sponheim, thus bearing witness to that time in the town's history. This composition is based on an old court seal from 1577. The arms have been borne since 29 October 1923, when they were approved by the Ministry of the Interior at Oldenburg. Town partnerships Birkenfeld fosters partnerships with the following places: Roerdalen, Limburg, Netherlands Château-Salins, Moselle, France Culture and sightseeing Lambdacism in the local dialect In bygone days, the local Birkenfeld dialect was marked by the peculiarity of often replacing the sounds /d/ and /t/ – and sometimes /r/ as well – with /l/, a shift known as lambdacism. For example, a Birkenfelder in those days would have said Fulerlale where Standard High German would have Futterladen (“fodder shop”). A full-sentence example can be seen in a remark made by the Birkenfeld sexton “Fuchs Karl” to the church councillor and parish priest Haag: Jo, jo, Herr Kirjerot, pririje kann e jela, awa noch lang net loule!, or in Standard High German, Ja, ja, Herr Kirchenrat, predigen kann ein jeder, aber noch lange nicht läuten! (“Yes, yes, Mr. Church Councillor, preaching is something anyone can do, but bellringing, not for long”). Lambdacism, though, long ago vanished from the Birkenfeld