Faid is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Cochem, whose seat is in the like-named town. Geography The municipality lies at the edge of the Eifel near the river Moselle, 6 km west of the district seat of Cochem. Faid's municipal area comprises 823 ha, of which 363 ha is wooded and another 261 ha is used for agriculture. The nearby mountain, the “Galgenkopf” (“Gallows Head”), has an elevation of 413 m above sea level. History About Faid's beginnings, nothing can be said with any certainty. According to a legend, the village's name comes from Fett – German for “fat” – from the story that holds that the village once had to supply the lordly kitchen with fat. It seems likelier, though, that the name comes from the Latin word feudum, which means “fief” (and which also yields the English word “feudal”). Another scholarly opinion, however, holds that the name is indeed of Latin origin, but that it rather comes from fagus, the word for “beech”. In 943, Faid had its first documentary mention in a donation document made out for the Stablo Monastery. A further document from 1255 states that a lady was donating her holdings at Vyde to Himmerod Abbey. In a 1518 agreement between Feudt and townsmen from Klotten, the latter party ceded a piece of land lying before Serberg to the Feudter (the former party). For this service, Faid was obliged to deliver to the church in Klotten three fourths of a pound of wax each year. Faid formed together with Cochem a single municipality. In a 1678 Electoral decree, it was declared that the Faid dwellers were fellow townsmen of the town of Cochem, and as such, they were spared levies imposed by the Amt, although they had to do compulsory labour in Cochem. As seen in a bill that has come down from 17 November 1695, any townsman from Faid who went to live in Cochem needed to pay only half for this privilege that those from other places paid. Faid shared woodlands and wilderness with the town of Cochem, and from time to time, this caused problems. On 29 March 1546, Elector Ludwig von Hagen decreed that each townsman from Faid who wanted to build a new house had leave to