1.
Donnersbergkreis
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The Donnersbergkreis is a district in the middle of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are Bad Kreuznach, Alzey-Worms, Bad Dürkheim, Kaiserslautern, the district was created in 1969 by merging the districts Kirchheimbolanden and Rockenhausen. The district is located around the highest mountain of the Palatinate, the Donnersberg with 687 m above sea level
2.
Donnersberg
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The Donnersberg is the highest peak of the Palatinate region of Germany. The mountain lies between the towns of Rockenhausen en Kirchheimbolanden, in the Donnersbergkreis district, which is named after the mountain, the highway A63 runs along the southern edge of the Donnersberg. European walking route E8 runs across the mountain, the highest point of the Donnersberg is the rock Königstuhl at 687 metres above sea level. The mountain has a diameter of about 7 kilometres and covers an area of some 2,400 hectares, the Donnersberg was formed by volcanic activity during the Permian, in the transition period between the lower and upper Rotliegend strata. The name Donnersberg is thought to refer to Donar, the Germanic god of thunder, according to other theories, the name of the mountain was derived from the Celtic dunum or from the name of a Celtic deity, Taranis. During the Celtic La Tène period, around 150 BC, an important settlement was built on the Donnersberg, part of the wall surrounding this settlement has been reconstructed. In the Middle Ages, five castles surrounded the strategically placed mountain, Tannenfels, Wildenstein, Hohenfels, Falkenstein, today, only ruins remain of these five castles. About 900 metres east of the Königstuhl rock, a 27 metres tall tower was constructed in 1864-1865, after World War II, a radio mast for the largest U. S. radio station in western Europe was placed on the Donnersberg. In the early 1960s, a new tower was constructed. The Donnersbergbahn is a line that runs from Alzey to Kirchheimbolanden. Donnersbergverein für Mensch und Natur, Der Donnersberg Dannenfels am Donnersberg, Donnersberg, Geologie
3.
Summit
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A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. Mathematically, a summit is a maximum in elevation. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak, and zenith are synonymous, the UIAA definition is that a summit is independent if it has a prominence of 30 metres or more, it is a mountain if it has a prominence of at least 300 metres. This can be summarised as follows, A pyramidal peak is an exaggerated form produced by ice erosion of a mountain top, Summit may also refer to the highest point along a line, trail, or route. In many parts of the western United States, the term refers to the highest point along a road, highway. For example, the highest point along Interstate 80 in California is referred to as Donner Summit while the highest point on Interstate 5 is Siskiyou Mountain Summit, geoid Hill List of highest mountains Maxima and minima Nadir Summit accordance Peak finder
4.
Rhineland-Palatinate
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Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of 19,846 square kilometres and about four million inhabitants, Rhineland-Palatinate is located in western Germany and borders Belgium, Luxembourg and France, and the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Saarland. The state of Rhineland-Palatinate dates from 30 August 1946, as of 201044. 9% of the population of the state adhered to the Roman Catholic Church,30. 6% to the Evangelical Church in Germany. 22. 0% of the population is irreligious or adheres to other religions, muslims made up 2. 5% of the total. The league of ShUM-cities in the later Rhineland-Palatinate comprised the Jewish communities of Mainz, Speyer, the Takkanot Shum, or Enactments of ShUM were a set of decrees formulated and agreed upon over a period of decades by their Jewish community leaders. Rhineland-Palatinate leads all German states with a rate of approximately 50%. Important sectors are the industry, chemical industry, pharmaceutical industry. Distinctive regional industries includes gemstone industry, ceramic and glass industry, small and medium enterprises are considered the backbone of the economy in Rhineland-Palatinate. The principal employer is the chemical and plastics processing industry which is represented by BASF in Ludwigshafen, boehringer, Joh. A. Benckiser, SGE Deutsche Holding, Schott Glassworks concludes the top 5 companies in the state. Rhineland-Palatinate is Germanys leading producer of wine in terms of grape cultivation, of thirteen wine regions producing quality wine in Germany, six are located in Rhineland-Palatinate, with 65% to 70% of the production of wine grapes in Germany having their origin within the state. 13,000 wine producers generate 80% to 90% of the German wine export, traditional grape varieties and a wide range of varieties developed during the last 125 years are characteristic for the region. Classical white varieties are cultivated at 63,683 hectares and these comprise the famous Rieslings 14,446 hectares, Müller-Thurgau, Silvaner and Kerner. The share of red varieties grew constantly during the last decades, dornfelder, a new cultivar, is the leading red grape cultivated on 7,626 hectares, which is more than a third. Blauer Portugieser and Spätburgunder show also appreciable cultivated shares, the state supports the wine industry by providing a comprehensive consultancy and education program in the service supply centers of the land. The Geilweilerhof Institute for Grape Breeding is fully financed by the state, many well known new breeds, such as Morio-Muskat, Bacchus, Optima and Regent have been created in these institutes. The worldwide leader in sparkling wine production, producing 245 million bottles in 2006, is the renowned Schloss Wachenheim Group and this company is headquartered in Trier, with operations in several locations in Rhineland-Palatinate
5.
Saarland
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The Saarland is one of the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany. With its capital at Saarbrücken, it has an area of 2,570 km², in terms of both area and population size – apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg – it is Germanys smallest state. Prior to its creation as the Territory of the Saar Basin by the League of Nations after World War I, until then, some parts of it had been Prussian while others belonged to Bavaria. The inhabitants voted to rejoin Germany in a referendum held in 1935, from 1947 to 1956 the Saarland was a French-occupied territory separate from the rest of Germany. Between 1950 and 1956, Saarland was a member of the Council of Europe, in 1955, in another referendum, the inhabitants were offered independence, but voted instead for the territory to become a state of West Germany. From 1920 to 1935, and again from 1947 to 1959, Saarland is the result of a regulation of the treaty of Versailles and was created in 1919. Prior to this creation, there never existed a comparable administrative unit or a feeling of togetherness, the region of the Saarland was settled by the Celtic tribes of Treveri and Mediomatrici. The most impressive relic of their time is the remains of a fortress of refuge at Otzenhausen in the north of the Saarland, in the 1st century BC, the Roman Empire made the region part of its province of Belgica. The Celtic population mixed with the Roman immigrants, the region gained wealth, which can still be seen in the remains of Roman villas and villages. Roman rule ended in the 5th century, when the Franks conquered the territory, for the next 1,300 years the region shared the history of the Kingdom of the Franks, the Carolingian Empire and of the Holy Roman Empire. The region of the Saarland was divided into small territories. Most important of the rulers were the counts of Nassau-Saarbrücken. It was not the king of France but the armies of the French Revolution who terminated the independence of the states in the region of the Saarland, after 1792 they conquered the region and made it part of the French Republic. While a strip in the west belonged to the Département Moselle, the centre in 1798 became part of the Département de Sarre, after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the region was divided again. Most of it part of the Prussian Rhine Province. Another part in the east, corresponding to the present Saarpfalz district, was allocated to the Kingdom of Bavaria, a small part in the northeast was ruled by the Duke of Oldenburg. On 31 July 1870, the French Emperor Napoleon III ordered an invasion across the River Saar to seize Saarbrücken, the first shots of the Franco-Prussian War 1870/71 were fired on the heights of Spichern, south of Saarbrücken. The Saar region became part of the German Empire which came into existence on 18 January 1871, in 1920 the Saargebiet was occupied by Britain and France under the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles
6.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
7.
Mountain range
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A mountain range is a geographic area containing numerous geologically related mountains. A mountain system or system of ranges, sometimes is used to combine several geological features that are geographically related. Mountain ranges are usually segmented by highlands or mountain passes and valleys, individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geologic structure or petrology. They may be a mix of different orogenic expressions and terranes, for example thrust sheets, uplifted blocks, fold mountains, most geologically young mountain ranges on the Earths land surface are associated with either the Pacific Ring of Fire or the Alpide Belt. The Andes is 7,000 kilometres long and is considered the worlds longest mountain system. The Alpide belt includes Indonesia and southeast Asia, through the Himalaya, the belt also includes other European and Asian mountain ranges. The Himalayas contain the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, mountain ranges outside of these two systems include the Arctic Cordillera, the Urals, the Appalachians, the Scandinavian Mountains, the Altai Mountains and the Hijaz Mountains. If the definition of a range is stretched to include underwater mountains. The mountain systems of the earth are characterized by a tree structure, the sub-range relationship is often expressed as a parent-child relationship. For example, the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Blue Ridge Mountains are sub-ranges of the Appalachian Mountains, equivalently, the Appalachians are the parent of the White Mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains, and the White Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains are children of the Appalachians. The position of mountains influences climate, such as rain or snow, when air masses move up and over mountains, the air cools producing orographic precipitation. As the air descends on the side, it warms again and is drier. Often, a shadow will affect the leeward side of a range. Mountain ranges are constantly subjected to forces which work to tear them down. Erosion is at work while the mountains are being uplifted and long after until the mountains are reduced to low hills, rivers are traditionally believed to be the principle erosive factor on mountain ranges, with their ability of bedrock incision and sediment transport. The rugged topography of a range is the product of erosion. The basins adjacent to a mountain range are filled with sediments which are buried and turned into sedimentary rock. The early Cenozoic uplift of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado provides an example and this mass of rock was removed as the range was actively undergoing uplift
8.
Orogeny
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An Orogeny is an event that leads to a large structural deformation of the Earths lithosphere due to the interaction between tectonic plates. Orogens or orogenic belts develop when a plate is crumpled and is pushed upwards to form mountain ranges. Orogeny is the mechanism by which mountains are built on continents. The word orogeny comes from Ancient Greek, though it was used before him, the term was employed by the American geologist G. K. Gilbert in 1890 to describe the process of mountain building as distinguished from epeirogeny. Formation of an orogen is accomplished in part by the processes of subduction or convergence of two or more continents. Orogeny usually produces long arcuate structures, known as orogenic belts, generally, orogenic belts consist of long parallel strips of rock exhibiting similar characteristics along the length of the belt. Orogenic belts are associated with zones, which consume crust, produce volcanoes. Geologists attribute the arcuate structure to the rigidity of the descending plate and these island arcs may be added to a continent during an orogenic event. The processes of orogeny can take tens of millions of years, frequently, rock formations that undergo orogeny are severely deformed and undergo metamorphism. Orogenic processes may push deeply buried rocks to the surface, sea-bottom and near-shore material may cover some or all of the orogenic area. If the orogeny is due to two continents colliding, very high mountains can result, an orogenic event may be studied, as a tectonic structural event, as a geographical event, and as a chronological event. The foreland basin forms ahead of the orogen due mainly to loading and resulting flexure of the lithosphere by the mountain belt. The basin migrates with the front and early deposited foreland basin sediments become progressively involved in folding and thrusting. Sediments deposited in the basin are mainly derived from the erosion of the actively uplifting rocks of the mountain range. The fill of many such shows an change in time from deepwater marine through shallow water to continental sediments. Although orogeny involves plate tectonics, the tectonic forces result in a variety of associated phenomena, including magmatism, metamorphism, crustal melting, what exactly happens in a specific orogen depends upon the strength and rheology of the continental lithosphere, and how these properties change during orogenesis. In addition to orogeny, the orogen is subject to other processes, for example, the Caledonian Orogeny refers to the Silurian and Devonian events that resulted from the collision of Laurentia with Eastern Avalonia and other former fragments of Gondwana. The Caledonian Orogen resulted from events and various others that are part of its peculiar orogenic cycle
9.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
10.
Palatinate (region)
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The Palatinate, historically also Rhenish Palatinate, is a region in southwestern Germany. It occupies more than a quarter of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate, in the west, the Palatinate borders on Saarland, historically also comprising the states Saarpfalz District. In the northwest, the Hunsrück mountain range forms the border with the Rhineland region, in the south, the German-French border separates the Palatinate from Alsace. One-third of the region is covered by the Palatinate Forest, including the Palatinate Forest Nature Park popular with hikers and it is Germanys largest contiguous forested area with about 1,771 km2 and is part of the Franco-German Palatinate Forest-North Vosges Biosphere Reserve. The western and northern part of the Palatinate is densely forested and its highest mountain is the Donnersberg with a height of 687 m, situated in the North Palatine Uplands near Kirchheimbolanden. Most of the major Palatinate towns lie in the eastern part of the Upper Rhine Plain down to the River Rhine. Here the German Wine Route passes through the renowned Palatinate wine region, major rivers include the Upper Rhine tributaries Lauter, Queich and Speyerbach, as well as Schwarzbach and Glan in the west. Historically the Electoral Palatinate and several territories were part of the Palatinate. The Palatinate is divided into four non-administrative sub-regions, comprising the rural districts and independent towns and cities, North Palatinate. Like most of Europe, the Palatinate is part of the climate zone influenced by the Atlantic. Wet air from the westerly and southwesterly winds leads to precipitation in the Mittelgebirge ranges. Here the clemency of the weather permits the cultivating of almond and fig trees, stone pines, Mediterranean Cypress, palms, the lower hilly regions are known for their extended chestnut forests, sometimes referred to as German Tuscany in tourist advertising. Formerly a Celtic region, this area was conquered by the Roman Empire under Emperor Augustus in about 12 BCE, during the decay of the Empire, Alamanni tribes settled here, their territory was conquered by Francia under King Clovis I about 496. From 511 onwards the area belonged to the part of Frankish Austrasia. From the Middle Ages until 1792, the Palatinate was divided into 45 secular and ecclesiastical territories, the largest and most important of these was the Electorate of the Palatinate, a number of territories on both sides of the Rhine formerly held by the Counts palatine of Lotharingia. In 1214 the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach was enfeoffed with these estates and they lost control with the reunification with Bavaria under Elector Charles Theodore in 1777. The major ecclesiastical territory in the region was the Bishopric of Speyer, the Imperial city of Landau joined the Alsacien Décapole in 1521 to preserve its status. Nevertheless, it was seized by France after the Thirty Years War, other larger regional entities included the Duchy of Zweibrücken and the Prince-Bishopric of Speyer
11.
St. Wendel
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St. Wendel is a town in northeastern Saarland. It is situated on the river Blies 36 km northeast of Saarbrücken, the capital of Saarland, and is named after Saint Wendelin of Trier. Regarding to a survey by the German Association for Housing, Town Planning and Land Use Regulation, St. Wendel is known to be one of the wealthiest regions in Germany, behind Starnberg. St. Wendel is situated on the river Blies west of the Bosenberg hill at an elevation of 938 feet and its highest elevation is the Bosenberg hill at 1591 feet, the lowest is where the river Blies exits St. Wendel heading for Ottweiler at 853 feet. The center of St. Wendel supposedly was the farm of a lord from the Merovingian period named Baso, so the city was originally named Basonevillare. Basos farm was situated on Bosenbergs western side between the river Todtbach and the river Bosenbach and this term would probably have developed into Bosenweiler were it not for the local admiration of Wendelin. In the mid-7th century the Bishop of Verdun, Paulus, bought Basonvillare and he also inherited the settlement Tholey from the Merovingian nobleman Adalgisel Grimo, Deacon of Verdun. As a result, the St. Wendel area belonged to Verdun for centuries, shortly before that the hermit Wendelin died near Basonvillare. The castle consisted of a hill of earth with a wooden tower on top, surrounded by a palisade. Such an installation was called Mott, which is why part of St. Wendel is named the Mott today. A third area was a church above the grave of Wendelin. At the same time, the Wendels Market developed, a market for the area for cattle, clothing. Noble families and the clergy settled around the church, castle, farm, and church gradually grew together in the 14th century. Until the latter half of the 10th century, St. Wendel was an important outpost of Verdun, in 1326/28 the prince elector and Archbishop Balduin of Luxembourg from Trier bought the castle and the village of St. Wendel. He was trying to suppress the influence of Lorraine on the Rhine area, through this purchase the village soon developed into a medieval city. Jakomin von Monkler became the first magistrate, as a representative of the prince elector, he had a new castle erected. In addition, he counseled Archbishop Balduin to create a new pilgrimage church, in 1332, he bought the city certificate from emperor Ludwig IV, gaining permanent revenues. His successor Werner von Falkenstein had a wall erected around the city in 1388, at this time about 500 people lived in St. Wendel
12.
Alzey
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Alzey is a Verband-free town – one belonging to no Verbandsgemeinde – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the fourth-largest town in Rhenish Hesse, after Mainz, Worms, Alzey is one of the Nibelungenstädte – towns associated with the Nibelungenlied – because it is represented in this work by the character Volker von Alzey. Hence, Alzey is also known as Volkerstadt, Alzey lies in Rhenish Hesse on the western edge of the northern part of the Upper Rhine Plain. It is surrounded by the part of the Alzey Hills, which meets the Rhenish Hesse Hills towards the south. The town is found some 30 km southwest of Mainz and some 22 km northwest of Worms, through Alzey, in places underground, flows the river Selz, a left-bank tributary to the Rhine. Yearly precipitation in Alzey amounts to 586 mm, which is rather low, at 18% of the German Weather Services weather stations, even lower figures are recorded. The most rainfall comes in June, in that month, precipitation is 1.9 times what it is in February. At 41% of the stations, lower seasonal swings are recorded. The earliest traces of settlement in the Alzey area go back as far as the Neolithic, Alzey was founded as a vicus in the Roman province of Germania Superior in the lands surrounding Mogontiacum. The name of Alzey is first mentioned on a Nymphenstein, dedicated on 22 November 223 by the Vicani Altiaienses. The name Altiaia could well originate as the name of an older, pre-Roman Celtic settlement of about 400 BC, over the ruins of the Roman village, which was destroyed about 350, a fort was built about 390. In 406 and 407, the Burgundians, together with the Vandals, crossed the Rhine and settled in Mainz, Alzey, the area was secured for them by treaty. In 436, the Burgundian kingdom was destroyed by the Western Roman magister militum Flavius Aëtius with help from Hunnish troops and these events were worked into the Nibelungenlied and form the origin of the legendary figure Volker von Alzey, the gleeman in the Nibelungenlied. After 450, Alzey passed to the Alamanni and the Franks when they took over the land, after Clovis Is death in 511, the Frankish Empire fell apart into separate smaller kingdoms, and Alzey became part of Austrasia, whose capital was at Metz. Following the unification of the Frankish kingdoms in the century, Alzey was assigned by the 843 Treaty of Verdun to the Kingdom of the East Franks. In 897, Alzey was first mentioned as an Imperial fief, in 1156, Alzey belonged to the Electorate of the Palatinate, and Konrad von Staufen attained the rank of Count Palatine in the Imperial castle, which had been completed in 1118. In 1277, Alzey attained the rank of town from Rudolf von Habsburg, in 1620, Count Spinola sided with the Catholic Emperor in the Thirty Years War against the Protestant Electorate of the Palatinate and also conquered Alzey. In 1689, the town and the castle, under the French troops scorched-earth policy, were burnt down in the Nine Years War, when Louis XIVs armies had to leave areas conquered earlier
13.
Kaiserslautern
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Kaiserslautern is a city in southwest Germany, located in the Bundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century and it is 459 kilometres from Paris,117 km from Frankfurt am Main, and 159 km from Luxembourg. Kaiserslautern is home to 98,166 people, additionally, approximately 45,000 NATO military personnel inhabit the city and its surrounding district, and contribute approximately US$1 billion annually to the local economy. The city is home to football club 1. FC Kaiserslautern that has won the German championship four times, prehistoric settlement in the area of what is now Kaiserslautern has been traced to at least 800 BC. Some 2, 500-year-old Celtic tombs were uncovered at Miesau, a town about 29 kilometres west of Kaiserslautern, the recovered relics are now in the Museum for Palatinate History at Speyer. Kaiserslautern received its name from the hunting retreat of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa who ruled the Holy Roman Empire from 1155 until 1190. The small river Lauter made the old section of Kaiserslautern an island in medieval times, ruins of Fredericks original castle, built 1152–1160, can still be seen in front of the Rathaus. A second castle, Nanstein Castle, was built at Landstuhl to guard the approach to the city. Barbarossas influence on Kaiserslautern remains today, both in its nickname as a Barbarossa city and the open-mouthed pike on the coat of arms. The Stiftkirche, Kaiserslauterns oldest church, was constructed in 1250–1350, as the population of Kaiserslautern grew, King Rudolf von Habsburg chartered the town in 1276. St. Martins Kirche was built from 1300–1350 for an order of monks, today a section of the original city wall still stands in the courtyard of the church. In 1375, the city of Kaiserslautern was pledged to Electoral Palatinate, in 1519, Franz von Sickingen became the owner of Nanstein Castle. He became a Protestant, and in 1522 Nanstein was a stronghold for local nobles favouring the Reformation, Sickingen and the local nobles began their battle against the Archbishop of Trier, but the attack was unsuccessful, and they retreated to Nanstein. Nanstein was then besieged by cannon-armed German Catholic princes, Sickingen died after the castle surrendered, and the Protestant nobility of the Electoral Palatinate were subdued by the Catholic princes. Count of the Electoral Palatinate Johann Casimir, came to Kaiserslautern during the Thirty Years War, spanish occupation in 1621–1632 ended when Protestant Swedish armies liberated the area. In 1635, however, Croatian troops of the Austrian emperors army entered Kaiserslautern, Landstuhl was saved from a similar fate by surrendering without a fight. It took Kaiserslautern about 160 years to repopulate itself, conflict did not end with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648
14.
Bad Kreuznach
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Bad Kreuznach is a town in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It does not lie within any Verbandsgemeinde, even though it is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde, Bad Kreuznach is a spa town and the seat of several courts as well as federal and state authorities. Bad Kreuznach is also officially a große kreisangehörige Stadt, meaning that it not have the district-level powers that kreisfreie Städte enjoy. It is, nonetheless, the seat, and also the seat of the state chamber of commerce for Rhineland-Palatinate. It is classed as a centre with some functions of an upper centre, making it the administrative, cultural. Moreover, the town and the areas are renowned both nationally and internationally for their wines, especially from the Riesling, Silvaner and Müller-Thurgau grape varieties. Bad Kreuznach lies between the Hunsrück, Rhenish Hesse and the North Palatine Uplands some 14 km southsouthwest of Bingen am Rhein and it lies at the mouth of the Ellerbach where it empties into the lower Nahe. Bad Kreuznachs outlying Ortsbezirke or Stadtteile are Bosenheim, Ippesheim, Planig, Winzenheim, yearly precipitation in Bad Kreuznach amounts to 517 mm, which is very low, falling into the lowest third of the precipitation chart for all Germany. Only at 5% of the German Weather Services weather stations are lower figures recorded. The most rainfall comes in June, in that month, precipitation is 1.8 times what it is in January. At only 7% of the stations are lower seasonal swings recorded. As early as the 5th century BC, there is evidence that there was a Celtic settlement within what are now Bad Kreuznachs town limits. Kreuznach lay on the Roman road that led from Metz by way of the Saar crossing near Dillingen-Pachten, about AD250, an enormous, luxurious palace, unique to the lands north of the Alps, was built, in the style of a peristyle villa. It contained 50 rooms on the floor alone. Spolia found near the Heidenmauer have led to the conclusion there were a temple to either Mercury or both Mercury and Maia and a Gallo-Roman provincial theatre. According to an inscription and tile plates that were found in Bad Kreuznach, after Romes downfall, Kreuznach became in the year 500 a royal estate and an imperial village in the newly growing Frankish Empire. Then, the towns first church was built within the old walls, which was at first consecrated to Saint Martin, but later to Saint Kilian. According to this note, Kreuznach once again had a documentary mention in the Annales regni Francorum as Royal Pfalz
15.
Palatinate Forest
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The Palatinate Forest, sometimes also called the Palatine Forest, is a low-mountain region in southwestern Germany, located in the Palatinate in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The forest is a nature park covering 1,771 km2. Together with the part of the adjacent Vosges Mountains in France it forms the UNESCO-designated Palatinate Forest-North Vosges Biosphere Reserve. This landscape forms, in turn, the part of the very extensive eastern scarplands of France, which, on German soil, take in large parts of the Palatinate. The low mountain range of the Palatinate Forest is continued northward by the hilly landscape of the North Palatine Uplands. In the south it is continued by the part of the Vosges Mountains in France. The eastern end of the forest is adjacent to the Palatinate wine growing region, here the German Wine Route stretches through the undulating area that lies between the Palatinate Forest and the Upper Rhine valley. The hill country between the Haardt mountains and the Upper Rhine Plain, where Palatine wine is grown, is known as the Weinstraße, the German Wine Road runs through this area. West of Kaiserslautern is the lowland of Landstuhl. The Palatinate Forest can be divided into three areas and this often goes unrecognized as a result of the French border, hence the French southern part of the natural region is often, wrongly, counted as part of the North Vosges. Despite that, some deviation in the used by the handbook has prevailed. The most important subordinate landscapes are listed with the aid of a map and its use was extended when, in 1902, the Palatinate Forest Club was founded, Fritz Claus, one of the pioneers of the PWV, in particular, strove to promote the name. A more precise, scientifically-based definition of the Palatinate Forest as an independent natural region was introduced in 1911 by Daniel Häberle, a Palatine geographer and local historian. Prior to 1850, there was no name for the Palatines bunter sandstone mountains Historical territorial factors, rather than geographical ones. The range was named after the Celtic forest god Vosegus and is recorded in many Roman manuscripts as silva vosegus or mons vosegus. It was from this linguistic root that, during the Middle Ages and this led to the Palatinate Forest and Vosges being defined as separate and distinct landscapes. However, in recent decades, in the context of European integration, evidence of this changed attitude can be seen, for example, in the establishment in 1998 of the first cross-border biosphere reserve, the Palatinate Forest-North Vosges Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. g. Through the establishment of such as the Cistercian abbeys of Otterberg and Eußerthal
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Naheland
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The Naheland is the landscape on either side of the River Nahe in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The southern foothills of the Hunsrück and the northern North Palatine Uplands on either side of the Nahe are both described as the Naheland. The Naheland extends for about 80 km from west to east from the source of the river in the Saarland to its mouth on the River Rhine in the town of Bingen. Whilst the narrow strip of land in the west is covered by woods and agricultural land, the Naheland lies in the two counties of Birkenfeld and Bad Kreuznach. The Naheland has a musical culture consisting of many choirs, wind orchestras, big bands. Many professional musicians come from this part of the world or work here, the main transport axes of the region run parallel to the River Nahe. The B41 federal road and the rail service on the Nahe Valley Railway are of statewide significance. The term Naheland is now used in the marketing of the region for tourism purposes. For ramblers there are nine circular walks, the so-called vital tours
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Rhenish Hesse
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The hilly countryside is largely devoted to vineyards, comprising the Rheinhessen wine region. Rhenish Hesse, stretches from the Upper Rhine Plain on the west bank of the Rhine up to the Nahe and Alsenz rivers in the west, the region borders on the Rhineland in the northwest, on the Palatinate in the southwest, and on South Hesse beyond the Rhine. The Rhenish-Hessian Hills along the Selz river, also called the land of the hills, reach up to 358 m at the summit of the Kappelberg. The Mainz Basin, a Cenozoic marine basin, covered the area about 38 to 12 million years ago, the landscape is characterised by large Loess and Marl deposits. Due to the climatic conditions of Rhenish Hesse, agriculture covers most of the region. As the Hunsrück and Taunus ranges protect it from winds, wine. The region comprises the cities of Mainz – the Rhineland-Palatinate capital – and Worms, surrounded by the districts of Mainz-Bingen. Other towns include Bingen, Alzey, Nieder-Olm, Ingelheim, Nierstein, Oppenheim, many inhabitants commute to work in Mainz or Wiesbaden and Frankfurt in the neighbouring state of Hesse. The Rhenish-Hessian lands already gained significant importance, when they were allotted to King Louis the German by the 843 Treaty of Verdun. The region was part of the territory of Rhenish Franconia, it comprised the Imperial Cathedrals of Worms. The Worms Synagogue and the Jewish Cemetery count among the oldest in Europe, because of this addition, he amended his title to Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and the name of the region was created. After World War II, in Allied-occupied Germany, the Rhenish-Hessian lands were incorporated as a district into the established state of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1946. Each region has developed its own cuisine dependent on geography, climate, soils, seasons and these vary from plain home cooking with simple dishes to culinary specialities for festive occasions. Rhenish Hesse also has a number of specialities, with Weck, Worscht un Woi. Outside Germany, it is best known as the home of Liebfraumilch, most is made from white varieties such as Riesling, Silvaner, Müller-Thurgau, Kerner, and Scheurebe. The best-known white wine area is the Rhine Terrace near Oppenheim, some red varieties are grown, particularly around Ingelheim and Gundersheim, including Pinot noir, Blauer Portugieser, Dornfelder, and the recently established Regent. Official website of Rheinhessen with information about wine, tourism and culture Website on the history of Rheinhessen
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Kusel (district)
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Kusel is a district in the south of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are Birkenfeld, Bad Kreuznach, Donnersbergkreis, Kaiserslautern, Saarpfalz, the district of Kusel was created at the beginning of the 19th century. In 1939 it was renamed as Landkreis Kusel, the boundary was altered slightly as part of the communal reform of 1969/72 with some parts of the district of Birkenfeld being added to Kusel. The district of Kusel lies in the North Palatine Uplands, to the north of the areas of the Saarland. The largest rivers are the Lauter and the Glan
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Kaiserslautern (district)
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Kaiserslautern is a district in the south of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are Kusel, Saarpfalz-Kreis, Donnersbergkreis, Bad Dürkheim, the city of Kaiserslautern is almost fully enclosed by, but not belonging to the district. The district of Kaiserslautern was established in 1939, minor changes of the borders occurred in 1969 and 1972. The district includes parts of the Palatinate Forest in the east, since 1962 the district has had a partnership with Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. As part of the partnership of Rhineland-Palatinate with Rwanda, the district has had a partnership with the municipality of Musasa since 1983, in 2002, a partnership with the Polish district of Olesno was started
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Sankt Wendel (district)
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Sankt Wendel is a Kreis in the north of the Saarland, Germany. Neighboring districts are Trier-Saarburg, Birkenfeld, Kusel, Neunkirchen, Saarlouis, the district was created in 1834 when Prussia bought the Lichtenberg area from Saxony-Coburg. After the World War I, the Saar area came under special rulership of the League of Nations, the northern part, the Restkreis Sankt Wendel, was merged into the district Birkenfeld, the southern part stayed in the Saarland in its reduced size. The district is located in the Saar-Hunsrück natural area, an area with elevations between 200 and 600 meters. The main river in the district is the Nahe, the Bostalsee is the biggest tourist lake in the south-west of Germany, covering an area of about 1.2 km²
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Birkenfeld (district)
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Birkenfeld is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Its seat is the town of Birkenfeld and it is bounded by the districts of Sankt Wendel, Trier-Saarburg, Bernkastel-Wittlich, Rhein-Hunsrück, Bad Kreuznach and Kusel. In the early century, the Nahe River was the boundary between two tiny principalities, Birkenfeld, west of the Nahe, and Lichtenberg, east of it. The principality of Birkenfeld was annexed by Oldenburg in 1817, Lichtenberg became an exclave of the Duchy Saxe-Coburg, prussia bought Lichtenberg in 1834 and made it the District of Sankt Wendel. In 1937 the Oldenburgian District of Birkenfeld was merged with the remaining Sankt Wendel District to form the new Prussian District of Birkenfeld, following World War II, on 18 July 1946 by the French Ordinance No. 8, twenty-four more villages were ceded to the new Délégation Supérieure de la Sarre, not until 1970 were the present borders of the district set. The Nahe River runs through the district south to north. The portions west of the river are located on the slopes of the Hunsrück
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Bad Kreuznach (district)
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Bad Kreuznach is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Rhein-Hunsrück, Mainz-Bingen, Alzey-Worms, Donnersbergkreis, Kusel, the region is full of medieval castles, especially along the Nahe River. Best known is the Kyrburg of Kirn, built in the 12th century, in 1815 the district of Kreuznach was established by the Prussian government. In 1932 it was merged with the district of Meisenheim, the name of the district officially changed from Kreuznach to Bad Kreuznach in 1969. The district is located in the country between the mountain chains of the Hunsrück in the north and the North Palatine Uplands in the south. The main axis of the district is the Nahe River, which enters the territory in the west, runs through Kirn, Bad Sobernheim and Bad Kreuznach, the region formed by this district and the adjoining Birkenfeld district is known as the Naheland. The banks of the lower Nahe are used for vineyards, away from the stream there are sparsely populated forests crisscrossed by the narrow affluents of the Nahe River. Official website Naheland touristical website www. KH-lokal. de - local community with more than 1.800 links to homepages of Bad Kreuznach A flickr-group with fotos of Bad Kreuznach
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Normalnull
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Normalnull or Normal-Null is an outdated official vertical datum used in Germany. Elevations using this system were to be marked Meter über Normal-Null. Normalnull has been replaced by Normalhöhennull, in 1878 reference heights were taken from the Amsterdam Ordnance Datum and transferred to the New Berlin Observatory in order to define the Normalhöhenpunkt 1879. Normalnull has been defined as a level going through an imaginary point 37,00 m below Normalhöhenpunkt 1879, when the New Berlin Observatory was demolished in 1912 the reference point was moved east to the village of Hoppegarten
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Nahe (river)
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The Nahe is a river in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, Germany, a left tributary to the Rhine. It has also given name to the wine region Nahe situated around it, the name Nahe is derived from the Latin word Nava, which is supposed to be based upon the Celtic origin for the wild river. The Nahe separates the northern part of the Palatinate from the Hunsrück and it rises in the area of Nohfelden, flowing through Rhineland-Palatinate and joining the Rhine in Bingen. Towns along the Nahe include Idar-Oberstein, Kirn, Bad Kreuznach, the drainage basin of the river covers an area of 4,067 square kilometres. Due to this large area compared to the rivers length high floods can occur along its middle and lower course within only a few hours. In 1993 and 1995 in Bad Kreuznach a flow of more than 1,000 cubic metres per second was measured, the dimensions of the drainage basin are shown in the map. At that time, an impetuous volcanism appeared in the region, huge deposits of the reddish volcanic rock Rhyolite and of the more alkaline volcanic rock Andesite were left. This led to a decline of all waters and hence to strong erosion activities. Particularly strong erosion occurred in warmer melting periods during the ice ages, when tundra climate reigned, depending on the underground, narrow gorges with cliffy precipices arose in areas with hard volcanic rocks or wide gentle valleys with flood plains in areas with soft sedimentary deposits. The frequent change between both forms is charming along the Nahe, in the Nahe valley a huge number of thermophile species appear which usually can only be found in the mediterranean region or Eurasian steppe habitats. Characteristical species of plants are e. g, alyssum montanum, Aster linosyris, Dictamnus albus, Dianthus grationopolitanus, Gagea bohemica subsp. Saxatilis, Galium glaucum, Oxytropis pilosa or Stipa tirsa and these plants immigrated in a postglacial warm period to Europe but became extinct in most regions when the climate changed again to significantly cooler and more humid conditions. They only survived in small but still warm and dry due to special geographic situations. In the Nahe valley and its tributaries these are mostly rocky precipices towards South or South-East, furthermore sunny slopes with shrubs, bushes, on hot summer days the soil temperatures in these places can reach 60 °C/140 °F and above with truly steppe-like circumstances. A characteristical thermophile animal species is the population of the dice snake that exists along the Nahe. The snake is very addicted to water and captures small fishes, places of botanical and/or zoological significance are classified as nature protection areas and accompany the course of the Nahe. The Nahe region offers various touristic attractions, Nahe bicycle route – The route leads along the river from its spring to its entry, wine region Nahe – The wine producing area surrounding the middle and lower river is famous for its white wines, dominated by the Riesling. Castles and monasteries – On the heights on both shores numerous medieval castles and abbeys can be visited, most of them fallen into ruin, most noted are the Kyrburg Castle in Kirn, the castles Ebernburg and Rheingrafenstein in Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg and the Klopp Castle in Bingen
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Pfrimm
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The Pfrimm is a 42. 7-kilometre long, left or western tributary of the Rhine in the Rhineland-Palatinate. The Pfrimm rises in the part of the Donnersbergkreis. The spring is in a surrounded by the hills Sperberhöhe in the east, Salweidenkopf in the south. In 1927, the spring was encased in basalt stones, about 10 metres north of the spring, the Pfrimm river flows through a pond named Pfrimmweiher and subsequently through a pond named Sippersfelder Weiher. It does not flow thought the nearby pond Retzbergweiher, which lies nearby to the west, the Pfrimm flows primarily through agricultural areas, and mostly about parallel to the federal road B47. The upper part of the river drains the northern parts of the North Palatine Uplands, after entering the Alzey hills, the Pfrimm takes up the Bornbach and then flows northeastward past Standenbühl, while the Donnersberg mountains are a few kilometers further northeast. Between Standenbühl and Dreisen, the Münsterhof, the former Premonstratensian abbey Münsterdreisen, is situated on the Pfrimms southern shore, an old bulging sandstone bridge from 1770 spans the river at this point. Below Dreisen, the Häferbach joins from the west, in Marnheim, the Gerbach joins, also from the west, at this point the Pfrimm Valley Viaduct used to span the river, until it was demolished in 1945. From here, the Pfrimm flows past Albisheim, then the Leiselsbach joins from the northwest and it then flows east to Harxheim, where the Ammelbach joins from the south. The Pfrimm continues flowing east, into the Landkreis Alzey-Worms and thereby into Rhenish Hesse and it flows via Wachenheim to Monsheim, where it crosses under federal road B121. The section between Marnheim and Monsheim is known as the Zellertal valley, within the municipality Monsheim, the Pfrimm largely forms the boundary between the wards Monsheim and Kriegheim. The Pfrimm then reaches the district of Worms. It flows through the ward of Pfeddersheim, where in 1525 the Battle of Pfeddersheim took place. To the west of the village, we find the reacrational area Wiesenbrünnchen, the Pfrimm then crosses under the 30-metre high and 1,471. 4-metre long Pfeddersheim Viaduct of the Autobahn A61. The Pfrimm then flows through the city of Worms itself and this is the most straightened and canalized section of the river. It follows the Leiselheimer Damm, which was constructed in the Middle Ages, a footpath runs on top of the Damm alognside the river since 1890. The Pfrimm flows through the 300-metre long Pfrimmweiher pond and into the Karl-Bittel-Park, the Pfrimm then flows through the city center of Worms and turns north-northeast. It crosses under the federal highway B9 and the Worms Port Railway, about 3 kilometres north of the city center, it flows into the Upper Rhine at Rhine kilometer 446.7
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Selz
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The Selz is a river in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, and a left hand tributary of the Rhine. It flows through the largest German wine region, Rheinhessen or Rhenish Hesse, there the river passes a pond, and disappears underground, flowing through ditches under the town. On its way it passes through Gau-Odernheim, Nieder-Olm and Ingelheim, the Selz has a catchment area of 375 square kilometres characterised by a warm, dry climate with an average annual precipitation of around 500 millimetres. Despite its low, and often irregular water flow, the Selz is regarded as the river in the rather dry rolling countryside of Rhenish Hesse. During periods of low water, its waters consist of a significant amount of effluent from sewage farms. For a number of decades of the 20th century there was a lot canalisation of rivers, the loss of the floodplain and shorter sections of river caused higher water levels and risk of flood than in the past. Some floods that caused a disaster were the reason for a restoration concept. The concept includes flood protection, river bed stabilization and renaturization measures, during the past 25 years, the village of Hahnheim has planted 27,000 trees and hedges along the Selz within its boundaries. Since the Selz renaturation project covers several miles of the Selzs riverbank, both trackbeds now have a tarmac surface. Sometimes the cycle path along the bed may be used in dry weather. Both routes are covered in placed by tall trees, shading the cycleway from the hot sun, restoring Selz River pathways along the Selz
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Upper Rhine
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The Upper Rhine is the section of the Rhine in the Upper Rhine Plain between Basle in Switzerland and Bingen in Germany. The river is marked by Rhine-kilometres 170 to 529, the Upper Rhine is one of four sections of the river between Lake Constance and the North Sea. The countries and states along the Upper Rhine are Switzerland, France, the largest cities along the river are Basle, Mulhouse, Strasbourg, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Mainz. The Upper Rhine was straightened between 1817 and 1876 by Johann Gottfried Tulla and made navigable between 1928 and 1977, the Treaty of Versailles allows France to use the Upper Rhine for hydroelectricity in the Grand Canal dAlsace. On the left bank are the French region of Alsace and the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on the bank are the German states of Baden-Württemberg. The first few kilometres are in the Swiss city of Basle, around 35 million years ago, a rift valley of about 300 kilometres long and 50 kilometres wide came into being between the present cities of Basle and Frankfurt. This was due to stresses in the Earths crust and mantle. The moat has been filled up again by sedimentation. On the edges we find mountain ridges, the rift flanks. On the eastern side, they are the Black Forest and Odenwald mountains, in the west the Vosges, during the tertiary, the High Rhine continued west from Basle and flowed via the Doubs and the Saône, into the Rhône. The rift diverted the Rhine into the newly formed Upper Rhine Valley, the two largest tributaries come from the right, the Neckar in Mannheim, the Main across from Mainz. In 1685, Louis XIV started a project to move the Upper Rhine, change its course, by 1840, the river had been moved up to 1.5 kilometres to the east, taking territory away from Baden. Around 1790, large parts of the Rhine Valley were deforested, creating arable land, fields, the length of the Upper Rhine was reduced by 81 kilometres. Some cut-off river arms and ox-bows remain, they are called the Old Rhine or Gießen. The Rhine between Basle and Iffezheim is almost entirely canalised, on a stretch of 180 kilometres, there are 10 dams, provided with hydropower stations and locks. Only when there is a supply of water, then the old river bed will receive more water than the canal. The straightening and channeling reduced the water table by up to 16 metres and thus had an effect on flora. Gravel is also missing from the river, due to the dams and this has caused erosion below the dam at Iffezheim
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Bundesautobahn 6
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Bundesautobahn 6, also known as Via Carolina is a 477 km long German autobahn. It starts at the French border near Saarbrücken in the west, the first plans for the A6 were laid out in 1935, construction on several parts began in 1938. In 1940, construction near Mannheim was stopped when the bridge across the Rhine collapsed, a new bridge, the Theodor Heuss Bridge, was opened in 1953. Other parts of the A6 were completed in 1941, a part near Kaiserslautern was used as an airstrip by the Luftwaffe during World War II. After the war, it was taken over by US forces and became the Ramstein Air Base, in the 1960s, construction was continued. One new section cut through the Hockenheimring, requiring a redesign of the race track which resulted in the construction of the Motodrom stadium. Much like its counterpart, the A8, the A6 is relatively old and has received little upgrading, making it difficult for it to handle todays traffic. The section around Mannheim is currently being widened and modernised from a four-lane to a six-lane motorway requiring the construction of a new bridge over the River Neckar, about the Kocher Viaduct near Schwäbisch Hall, the Autobahn 6 crosses the Kocher valley between Heilbronn and Nuremberg. With its maximum height of 185 m above the valley bottom, the direct motorway connection between Prague and Paris was completed when the last missing section between junction Amberg-Ost and interchange Oberpfälzer Wald was inaugurated on 10 September 2008. Geographic data related to Bundesautobahn 6 at OpenStreetMap Bundesautobahn 6 – Detailed route plan
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Bundesautobahn 63
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Bundesautobahn 63 is an autobahn in southwestern Germany. It connects the Mainz area to Kaiserslautern and the A6 and is therefore an important connection between the Rhine/Main and the Saar areas and this relieved the heavy traffic on the two lane Bundesstraße 40. Bundesautobahn 63 – Detailed route plan
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Altstadt
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Altstadt is the German language word for old town, meaning historical city centre within the city wall, in contrast to younger suburbs outside. Neustadt, the logical opposite of Altstadt, mostly stands for a part of the Altstadt in modern sense, sometimes only a few younger than the oldest part. Most German towns have an Altstadt, even though the ravages of war have destroyed many of them, especially during the Thirty Years War. In the War of the Palatinian Succession of 1688, the order to Brûlez le Palatinat. was executed by Mélac, devastating many cities and large parts of South Western Germany, like the Heidelberg castle. Allied Strategic bombing during World War II destroyed nearly all large cities, many smaller towns remained intact, for example Tübingen, Dinkelsbühl, Quedlinburg and Wismar. Some Altstadt parts in Freiburg, Berlin, Münster, Rothenburg ob der Tauber and famously Weimar, but most destroyed bigger German old towns were not reconstructed. Important old towns like those of Hildesheim, Braunschweig, Frankfurt, Kassel, recent efforts of Altstadt reconstructions can be found in Dresden, Potsdam and Frankfurt
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Kirchheimbolanden
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Kirchheimbolanden, the capital of Donnersbergkreis, is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, south-western Germany. It is situated approximately 25 km west of Worms, and 30 km north-east of Kaiserslautern, the first part of the name, Kirchheim, dates back to 774. It became a town in 1368, and the Sponheim family improved its security with many towers, William, Duke of Nassau, ancestor of the royal families of Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, and of the grand-ducal family of Luxembourg, was born in Kirchheimbolanden. It was also ruled by First French Empire between 1792 and 1814 before passing to Kingdom of Bavaria in 1815 and it was a rural district centre in the Rheinkreis which was renamed Pfalz in 1835. Princess Henriette of Nassau-Weilburg, an ancestor of both Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and his brother Prince Harry, was born in Kirchheimbolanden on 22 April 1780
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Altenglan
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Altenglan is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Altenglan, and is also its seat, Altenglan is a recognized tourism community. Also, named after the municipality is the Altenglan Formation, an entity, and by extension, so is Altenglanerpeton. Altenglan lies roughly 5 km northeast of the seat and nearest town, Kusel. In Altenglan, the Kuselbach and the Reichenbach empty into the Glan, the dale here forms a broad bowl, although the pattern is broken somewhat by the two streams that meet the Glan here, one from each side. Part of the Potzberg massif lies within Altenglan as does part of the long Remigiusberg ridge, the municipal area measures 1362 ha, of which 237 ha is wooded. Altenglan also meets the municipalities of Elzweiler and Haschbach am Remigiusberg at single points in the east, Altenglan’s Ortsteile are Altenglan, Mühlbach am Glan and Patersbach. This can clearly be seen in a book compiled in the mid-18th century. Other settlements on Bahnhofstraße had also arisen by the 18th century. The last house before the bridge was the one that is now the rectory, likewise already standing by the 18th century were houses in the area of today’s Ringstraße, which the stock book describes as a gemeiner Weg – “common way”. Thus, a big triangle stretching back from the forks of the Glan, the settlement began to spread out in the 19th century towards Eckstraße and Tränkstraße, towards Neuwiesenstraße and today’s Schulstraße. In the early 20th century, houses were built on Kuseler Straße, Altenglan station was built in 1868 along with the railway line between Kusel and Landstuhl. New, bigger residential areas arose after the Second World War west of Bahnhofstraße, a new rectory was built in 1934 on Kuseler Straße, after the old one had been sold. The town hall, in its form, the then municipality had built after the Second World War. Expansions took place after the founding of the Verbandsgemeinde, adjoining the school is a sporting ground. The sport and leisure swimming pool lies east of the village off the road going towards Bosenbach. The mediaeval church stands in the middle of the graveyard in the village’s northeast at the end of Glanstraße, as a very old village, Altenglan has a relatively large municipal area, great swathes of which were opened up to development after the Second World War. The biggest tract of woodland is the Bruderwald, a mixed forest once owned by the Remigiusberg Monastery
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Lauterecken
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Lauterecken is a town in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde Lauterecken-Wolfstein, to which it also belongs, Lauterecken bears the nickname Veldenzstadt, after the comital family that once held sway here. It is also a tourism resort town, and in terms of state planning is laid out as a lower centre. The town lies in the North Palatine Uplands in a hollow at the mouth of the Lauter, where it empties into the Glan, and likewise at the mouth of the Grumbach, Lauterecken lies at an elevation of some 170 m above sea level. Elevations on each side of the dales mostly reach some 300 m above sea level, Lauterecken is found roughly 20 km northeast of Kusel, and 25 km northwest of Kaiserslautern. The municipal area measures 893 ha, of which 307 ha is wooded, yearly precipitation in Lauterecken amounts to 707 mm, which falls into the middle third of the precipitation chart for all Germany. Only at 41% of the German Weather Service’s weather stations are lower figures recorded, the most rainfall comes in June. In that month, precipitation is 1.4 times what it is in April, precipitation varies only slightly and is spread very evenly over the year. At none of the stations are lower seasonal swings recorded. The very dense settlement in Lauterecken’s inner town in a location can be traced back to the mediaeval town fortifications. This old town centre was crossed by the known as the Obere Gasse with its marketplace. Further important buildings on Hauptstraße are the former bursary office from 1897, the beginning of this street also marks the former palace area, which stretched on down to Hauptstraße. One important street, which branches off Hauptstraße near the Evangelical church in the old town towards the slope, is Bergstraße. Still preserved on the lands of the graveyard on the Igelskopf is the imposing warriors’ memorial. A new graveyard was laid out in the town’s northeast, as early as the late 18th century, Lauterecken was growing beyond the area within the fortifications. In the southwest, the centre of Überlauterecken, already an independent municipality by the Middle Ages, was swallowed up into the spreading town. Originally, this Stadtteil could only be reached across the Rheingrafenbrücke, but nowadays it can be reached by way of a street, Schillerstraße. In the north end, off Hauptstraße, Herrenstraße and Schulstraße were built, standing on the latter are the former Amt courthouse and, of course, the old schoolhouse, which nowadays houses a school for children with learning difficulties
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Meisenheim
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Meisenheim is a town in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the like-named Verbandsgemeinde, and is also its seat, Meisenheim is a state-recognized recreational resort and it is set out as a middle centre in state planning. Meisenheim lies in the valley of the River Glan at the edge of the North Palatine Uplands. The municipal area measures 1 324 ha, also belonging to Meisenheim are the outlying homesteads of Hof Wieseck, Keddarterhof and Röther Hof. Meisenheim is believed to have arisen in the 7th century AD, in 1154, Meisenheim had its first documentary mention. Sometimes cited as such, however, is a document dated 14 June 891 from the West Frankish king Odo, in the 12th century, Meisenheim was raised to the main seat of the Counts of Veldenz and in 1315 it was granted town rights by King Ludwig IV. Both buildings were only after the Counts of Veldenz had died out in 1444. This noble house, too, at first kept their seat at Meisenheim, from 1538 to 1571, Duke Wolfgang of Zweibrücken maintained in Meisenheim a mint, with one interruption, although this was then moved to Bergzabern. The Doppeltaler, Taler and Halbtaler coins minted in the time when the mint was in Meisenheim remain among the highest-quality mintings from Palatinate-Zweibrücken. In 1799, Duke of Zweibrücken Maximilian IV inherited besides the land that he held the long united lands of the Electorate of Bavaria. From 1816 onwards, Meisenheim was the seat of the Oberamt of Meisenheim. In 1866, the Grand Duchy of Hesse inherited the territory, but after losing a war later that same year. The town of Meisenheim itself was not wholly reunited until after the Second World War when state of Rhineland-Palatinate was founded, until then, the lands just across the Glan had been Bavarian since the Congress of Vienna. Meisenheim had a Jewish community possibly even as far back as the Middle Ages, the first documentary mention of a Jew, however, did not come until 1551 when a “Jud Moses” cropped up in the record. He was selling a house on Schweinsgasse, in 1569, the Jews were turned out of the town. After the Thirty Years War, two Jewish families were allowed to live in the town, in 1740, the number of Jewish families was still supposed to be kept down to four, but this rule was often not upheld. The reasons given for these restrictions were mainly economic, the “grocers” and above all the butchers could thus not be wholly free of their competition, especially as the government knew enough to prize good taxpayers. This shift also applied across borders, and thus not only to the belonging to the canton of Meisenheim
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Rockenhausen
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Rockenhausen is a town in the Donnersbergkreis, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the river Alsenz, approx, Rockenhausen is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde Rockenhausen. As well as the town of Rockenhausen the municipality includes the villages of Marienthal, uta Frith, DBE FRS FBA FMedSci - developmental psychologist
