Amel

Amel (French: Amblève) is a Belgian municipality in the Walloon province of Liège, and is part of the German-speaking Community of Belgium (German: Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft Belgiens). On January 1, 2013, the municipality of Amel had a total population of 5,466. The total area is 125.15 km² which gives a population density of 44 inhabitants per km².

There are eighteen villages in Amel: Amel (village), Born, Deidenberg, Eibertingen, Halenfeld, Heppenbach, Hepscheid, Herresbach, Iveldingen, Medell, Meyerode, Mirfeld, Möderscheid, Montenau, Schoppen, Stephanshof, Valender and Wereth.

Amel is the birthplace of Karl-Heinz Lambertz, current leader (Minister-President) of the community executive of the German-speaking community of Belgium.

Name

The name Amel is of Celtic origin and means water. The river Amblève (German: Amel) flows through the municipality.

History

In 716, the Battle of Amblève, between Charles Martel with the Austrasians on one side and the joined forces of the Frisians and Neustrians under Ragenfrid and Chilperic II on the other side, was the first victory for Charles Martel.

A War memorial erected in the village in 1994.Wereth 11. , the majority of the Black G.I.s in World War II, 260,000 in the European Theatre of Operations, were not forgotten to history, they were simply never acknowledged. They are the 'invisible" soldiers of World War II. They include eleven young artillerymen of the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion (FAB) who were murdered by the SS, after surrendering, during the Battle of the Bulge. Seven of the men were buried in the American Cemetery at Henri-Chapelle, Belgium, and the other four were returned to their families for burial after the war ended. The Wereth 11 remained unknown, it seemed, to all but their families until 1994 and the erection of this memorial.

Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amel

http://www.wereth.org/en/history