1.
Germany
–
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
2.
States of Germany
–
Germany is a federal republic consisting of sixteen federal states. Since todays Germany was formed from a collection of several states, it has a federal constitution. The remaining 13 states are called Flächenländer, the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 was through the unification of the western states created in the aftermath of World War II. West Berlin, while not part of the Federal Republic, was largely integrated and considered as a de facto state. In 1952, following a referendum, Baden, Württemberg-Baden, in 1957, the Saar Protectorate rejoined the Federal Republic as the Saarland. Federalism is one of the constitutional principles of Germany. After 1945, new states were constituted in all four zones of occupation, in 1949, the states in the three western zones formed the Federal Republic of Germany. This is in contrast to the development in Austria, where the Bund was constituted first. The use of the term Länder dates back to the Weimar Constitution of 1919, before this time, the constituent states of the German Empire were called Staaten. Today, it is common to use the term Bundesland. However, this term is not used officially, neither by the constitution of 1919 nor by the Basic Law of 1949, three Länder call themselves Freistaaten, Bavaria, Saxony, and Thuringia. He summarizes the arguments for boundary reform in Germany. The German system of dual federalism requires strong Länder that have the administrative and fiscal capacity to implement legislation, too many Länder also make coordination among them and with the federation more complicated. But several proposals have failed so far, territorial reform remains a topic in German politics. Federalism has a tradition in German history. The Holy Roman Empire comprised many petty states numbering more than 300 around 1796, the number of territories was greatly reduced during the Napoleonic Wars. After the Congress of Vienna,39 states formed the German Confederation, the new German Empire included 25 states and the imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine. The empire was dominated by Prussia, which controlled 65% of the territory, after the territorial losses of the Treaty of Versailles, the remaining states continued as republics of a new German federation
3.
Vehicle registration plate
–
A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate or a license plate, is metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric ID that uniquely identifies the owner within the issuing regions database. The first two letters indicate the state to which the vehicle is registered, the next two digit numbers are the sequential number of a district. Due to heavy volume of vehicle registration, the numbers were given to the RTO offices of registration as well, the third part indicates the year of registration of the vehicle and is a 4 digit number unique to each plate. In some countries, the identifier is unique within the entire country, whether the identifier is associated with a vehicle or a person also varies by issuing agency. In the vast majority of jurisdictions, the government holds a monopoly on the manufacturing of vehicle registration plates for that jurisdiction. Thus, it is illegal for private citizens to make and affix their own plates. Alternately, the government will merely assign plate numbers, and it is the owners responsibility to find an approved private supplier to make a plate with that number. In some jurisdictions, plates will be assigned to that particular vehicle for its lifetime. If the vehicle is destroyed or exported to a different country. Other jurisdictions follow a policy, meaning that when a vehicle is sold the seller removes the current plate from the vehicle. Buyers must either obtain new plates or attach plates they already hold, as well as register their vehicles under the buyers name, a person who sells a car and then purchases a new one can apply to have the old plates put onto the new car. One who sells a car and does not buy a new one may, depending on the laws involved, have to turn the old plates in or destroy them. Some jurisdictions permit the registration of the vehicle with personal plates, in some jurisdictions, plates require periodic replacement, often associated with a design change of the plate itself. Vehicle owners may or may not have the option to keep their original plate number, alternately, or additionally, vehicle owners have to replace a small decal on the plate or use a decal on the windshield to indicate the expiration date of the vehicle registration. Plates are usually fixed directly to a vehicle or to a frame that is fixed to the vehicle. Sometimes, the plate frames contain advertisements inserted by the service centre or the dealership from which the vehicle was purchased. Vehicle owners can also purchase customized frames to replace the original frames, in some jurisdictions licence plate frames are illegal
4.
Heilbronn
–
Heilbronn is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is surrounded by Heilbronn County and, with approximately 123,000 residents, the city on the Neckar is a former Imperial Free City and is the seat of Heilbronn County. Heilbronn is also the center of the Heilbronn-Franken region that includes most of northeast Baden-Württemberg. Heilbronn is known for its industry and is nicknamed Käthchenstadt. Heilbronn is located in the corner of the Neckar basin at the bottom of the Wartberg. It occupies both banks of the Neckar, and the highest spot inside city limits is the Schweinsberg with a height of 372 meters, Heilbronn is adjacent to Swabian-Franconian Forest Nature Park and is surrounded by vineyards. Heilbronn and its surroundings are located in the part of the larger Stuttgart metropolitan area. The city is the center of the Heilbronn-Franken region and is one of fourteen such cities in the Baden-Württemberg master plan of 2002. The city is divided into nine boroughs, The oldest traces of humans in, the fertile Neckar floodplains in the Heilbronn basin aided early settlement by farmers and ranchers. The city limits of present-day Heilbronn contain many sites of Bronze Age finds, later on, but still before AD, the Celts already mined here for salt from brine. Under Roman Emperor Domitian the Romans pushed east away from the Rhine, a castle in todays borough of Böckingen was part of that limes, and nearby numerous Roman villas and plantations were built. Around 260, the Romans surrendered the limes, and the Alamanni became rulers of the Neckar basin, between the 4th and 7th centuries, the area became part of the Frankish Empire, and the first settlement was built in the general vicinity of the present center of town. In 741 Heilbronn is first mentioned in a document of the Diocese of Würzburg as villa Helibrunna. The name Heilbrunna hints to a well that is located not far from the basilica, in 1225 Heilbronn was incorporated into the Hohenstaufen Empire as oppidum Heilecbrunnen. Oppidum signified a city fortified by parapet and trenches, later during the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights obtained ownership of a large area south of Heilbronn which would remain owned by that order until German Mediatisation in 1805. Starting in 1268, the built the Deutschhof there as one of its residences. After the demise of the Staufen dynasty, King Rudolf I returned city status to Heilbronn in 1281, in addition to the advocate he put a council in place that was headed up by a mayor. Around 1300, the first city hall was erected in the market place, the Neckar privilege gave the city the right to modify the flow of the river in 1333, which meant it now had the right to construct dams, harbors and mills
5.
Vineyard
–
A vineyard /ˈvɪnjərd/ is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of production is known as viticulture. The earliest evidence of production dates from between 6000 and 5000 BC. Wine making technology improved considerably with the ancient Greeks but it wasnt until the end of the Roman Empire that cultivation techniques as we know them were common throughout Europe. In medieval Europe the Church was a supporter of wine. They owned and tended the best vineyards in Europe and vinum theologium was considered superior to all others, European vineyards were planted with a wide variety of the Vitis vinifera grape. However, in the late 19th century, the species was nearly destroyed by the plant louse phylloxera accidentally introduced to Europe from North America. Native American grapevines include varieties such as Vitis labrusca, which is resistant to the bug, the quest for vineyard efficiency has produced a bewildering range of systems and techniques in recent years. Due to the much more fertile New World growing conditions. Innovation in palissage and pruning and thinning methods have replaced more general, traditional concepts like yield per unit area in favor of maximizing yield of desired quality. Many of these new techniques have since adopted in place of traditional practice in the more progressive of the so-called Old World vineyards. Other recent practices include spraying water on vines to protect them from sub-zero temperatures, new grafting techniques, soil slotting, such techniques have made possible the development of wine industries in New World countries such as Canada. Today there is increasing interest in developing organic, ecologically sensitive, biodynamics has become increasingly popular in viticulture. The use of irrigation in recent years has expanded vineyards into areas which were previously unplantable. The research includes developing improved grape varieties and investigating pest control, the International Grape Genome Program is a multi-national effort to discover a genetic means to improving quality, increasing yield and providing a natural resistance to pests. The implementation of mechanical harvesting is often stimulated by changes in laws, labor shortages. It can be expensive to hire labor for periods of time. Numbers of New World vineyard plantings have been increasing almost as fast as European vineyards are being uprooted, the size of individual vineyards in the New World is significant
6.
Cleebronn
–
Cleebronn is a municipality in the district of Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. Cleebronn is in the Zabergäu in the south of the district of Heilbronn, the landscape is characterized by wine-growing. The symbol of the municipality and even the whole Zabergäu is the Michaelsberg with an elevation of 394 metres, neighbouring towns of Cleebronn are, Güglingen, Brackenheim, Bönnigheim and Sachsenheim. Cleebronn has combined with Brackenheim to form a joint association of administrations, Cleebronn includes the villages of Treffentrill and Katharinenplaisir. Cleebronn was first mentioned documentary in 1279 as Kleberen, in the 13th century there were some possessions of the Principality of Mainz around the Michaelsberg being rent to Cleebronns Lords of Magenheim. In the 14th century Württemberg acquired around two thirds of the village as Württembergisch Cleebronn, the other third stayed in possession of the principality as Mainzisch Cleebronn. In 1785 Württemberg acquired this last third but stayed independent and these municipalities staying independent until 1843 had been called Alt-Cleebronn and Neu-Cleebronn until 1811. These two parts were not united until January 1,1844, in Cleebronn there is a Protestant parish. Following the municipal election of 13 June 2004, the council of Cleebronn has 12 seats. The election result is as follows, The mayor is also a member of the district council, the Protestant Raphaelskirche consists of Gothic parts and got redeveloped in 1900–01. Next to the church is the old vicarage, the current town hall was built in 1736 and has been redeveloped several times. The Bürgerhaus got built in 1902 as a school instead of the old town hall, school ended in 1994, after it got moderned until 1997. The wine-press of the village is of 1907 and formerly has been the biggest wine-press of Württemberg, the Backhaus got built in 1930 and redeveloped in 1985, it contains two functional ovens. Above the village on a hill is Magenheim Castle, a building of the Staufers built in 1250, on the Michaelsberg there is a Romanic church and a spital of 1739. The hamlet Katharinenplaisir is a Baroque estate built in 1733 and named after the builders wife, situated at the communal land of Cleebronn with an elevation of 472 metres, there is the highest point of the Stromberg mountain ridge. On top of it a tower was built in 1969. On the Michaelsberg people grow wine for 1200 years, there are growing different varietals like blaufränkisch, trollinger, riesling and Kerner. Most wine-growers belong to the Weingärtnergenossenschaft Weingärtner Cleebronn-Güglingen eG, there are connections to the long-distance network via Lauffen and Kirchheim
7.
Schwaigern
–
Schwaigern is a town in the district of Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 12 km west of Heilbronn, the neighbouring towns and municipalities of Schwaigern are, Leingarten, Nordheim, Brackenheim, Eppingen, Gemmingen and Massenbachhausen. Schwaigern consists of Schwaigern itself and its districts Massenbach, Stetten am Heuchelberg, finds of the Neolithic era and during the Roman period show an early settlement of this area. The town was first mentioned in writing in the Lorsch codex of 766, bertilo, Lord of Schwaigern, is first mentioned in 1120. The construction of a church is proved in the 13th century, bertilos descendants took on the name Lords of Neipperg in 1241, after their castle of Neipperg near Brackenheim. In 1407 they also acquired the Lordship of Klingenberg near Heilbronn, in 1702, Schwaigern became the residence of the Lords of Neipperg, who were elevated to the rank of counts in 1726. In 1766, the County of Neipperg became an Imperial State of the Holy Roman Empire, the last ruling count, Adam Albert von Neipperg, married Napoleons widow Marie Louise. The village received the right to hold a market in 1486, after 1630 the Black Death killed a large proportion of the inhabitants. In 1690, during the War of the Grand Alliance, the then Schwaigern Castle was burned down, in 1806, the town came to Württemberg by mediatization and Reichsdeputationshauptschluss. The castle was rebuilt until 1839 and is today owned by the comital family of Neipperg. Several fires destroyed large areas of the town centre in the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1971/1972 Massenbach, Stetten am Heuchelberg and Niederhofen were incorporated, the Lords of Neipperg became Protestants around 1530. Therefore, each of Schwaigern, Stetten am Heuchelberg and Niederhofen is a Protestant parish, Massenbach and Massenbachhausen have a common Protestant parish. In 1717, Wilhelm Reinhard von Neipperg, the first count, the Catholic parish St. Martinus Schwaigern is responsible for Schwaigern, Stetten, Niederhofen and Neipperg. The Catholic parish St. Kilian Massenbachhausen is responsible for Massenbachhausen, also the New Apostolic Church has a parish in Schwaigern. The Young Peoples Society of Christian Endeavour has local groups in Schwaigern, in Massenbach there is a local group of the YMCA. Massenbach, Massenbach was first mentioned in writing in 773, in the Thirty Years War the castle was destroyed and rebuilt in 1760. Stetten am Heuchelberg, Stetten was mentioned in 1140 and came to Württemberg in 1571, Niederhofen, Niederhofen is the youngest district, since it was first mentioned in 1332
8.
Lauffen am Neckar
–
Lauffen am Neckar is a town in the district of Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Neckar,9 kilometres southwest of Heilbronn, the town is famous as the birthplace of the poet Friedrich Hölderlin and for its quality wines – in particular the “Lauffener Katzenbeißer Schwarzriesling“. Lauffen is located in the part of the district of Heilbronn,9 km south of Heilbronn and 50 km north of the capital of Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart. The small river Zaber flows into the Neckar at this point, the old circular riverbed is now dry, apart from one small artificial lake. Along the old riverbed, a hill was formed – its slopes now partially covered by the Kaywald forest. There is a hill on the bank of the Neckar at the centre point of the ancient river bow. This hill became separated from another on the present eastern bank when the river broke through, Lauffen grew up on the western bank, on the ridge which is the site of today’s Regiswindis Church. This hill settlement became known as Lauffen-Dorf, in the middle of the river, between the two hills, is an island with a castle. This castle, originally the seat of the Earls of Lauffen, is now home to the town hall – the island itself is a nature reserve, another settlement, Lauffen-Stadt, later established itself on the hill on the eastern bank. The two districts, Lauffen-Dorf and Lauffen-Stadt, are joined by a bridge, a smaller bridge from Lauffen-Stadt leads to the island and the town hall. Yet another district, the so-called Lauffen-Dörfle, grew up around a convent and is situated on the bank to the north of Lauffen-Dorf. An exclave of Lauffen, the towns forest of Etzlenswenden, is located further east in the Löwenstein Mountains. It is here, in the exclave, that the highest point is situated 452 m above sea level, neighbouring towns and villages of Lauffen are, Brackenheim, Nordheim, Heilbronn, Talheim, Isfeld, Neckarwestheim and Kirchheim am Neckar. The exclave Stadtwald Etzlenswenden is surrounded by Abstatt, Untergruppenbach, Löwenstein and Beilstein, all neighbouring villages as far as Heilbronn and Kircheim come under the Landkreis Heilbronn. Lauffen has combined with Neckarwestheim and Nordheim to form a joint association of administrations, the localities of Lauffen-Stadt and Lauffen-Dorf were combined on 1 April 1914 to create todays Lauffen am Neckar. The outlying farmsteads of the Landturm, an old house on the former Württemberg boundary, are included as part of the town. The defunct hamlets of Osterhofen and Talhofen originally lay within its bounds and it is presumed that the area around Lauffen had already been settled in pre-Christian times, although the only evidence consists of a few bones. The settlement’s high level of frequentation can be attributed to the water between the present old Neckar bridge and the cliffs by the castle and Regiswindis Church
9.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
10.
Gers
–
The Gers is a department in the Occitanie region in the southwest of France named after the Gers River. In the Middle Ages, the Lordship of LIsle-Jourdain was nearby, the Gers is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the provinces of Guyenne. In 1808 it lost Lavit on its side to the newly created department of Tarn-et-Garonne. The culture is largely agricultural, with emphasis on the local gastronomical specialties such as, Armagnac brandy, Côtes de Gascogne, Floc de Gascogne, Foie gras. Also, some prominent cultivated crops are corn, colza, sunflowers, the Gascon language is a dialect of Occitan, but it is not widely spoken. The department is characterised by sleepy bastide villages and rolling hills with the Pyrenees visible to the south, alexandre Dumas, père created the famous Gersois dArtagnan, the fourth musketeer of The Three Musketeers. A museum to dArtagnan is found in the Gersois village of Lupiac, a horse race at the Auteuil Hippodrome has been named after André Boingnères, a notable local race-horse owner and the successful mayor of Termes-dArmagnac between 1951 and 1976. The President of the General Council is Jean-Pierre Pujol of the Socialist Party, located in southwestern France, the Gers is part of the Occitanie region. It is surrounded by the departments of Hautes-Pyrénées, Haute-Garonne, Tarn-et-Garonne, Lot-et-Garonne, Landes, the Gers is often referred to as amongst the least densely populated, or most rural, areas in all of Western Europe. List of the 10 most important cities of the département, The annual rain varies from more than 900 mm in the south-west of the department, to less than 700 mm in the North-East. The winters vary, with only occasional freezing temperatures, but the climate mild and dry. The summers are hot and dry, the temperatures often is exceeding 40°. Auch is together with Toulouse and Millau one of the hottest cities of France, with often more than 300 sunny days in the year
Brackenheim (help·info) is a town in the Landkreis Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is 15 kilometres (9 mi) southwest of Heilbronn.
With 826 hectares (2,040 acres) of vineyards, it is the biggest grape-growing municipality of Württemberg.
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small}
(in German)
