Rhenish Palatinat

Geography

The west and the north of Rhenish Palatinat are covered with forests and mountains, its culminating point being the Mount-Thunder ( Donnersberg ) (687 m) close to Kirchheimbolanden. The palatine forest ( Pfälzer Wald ) covers more than one third of the area and constitutes the largest main forest of Germany. In the east are the viticultural areas (Vins of Rhenish Palatinat).

The majority of the cities (Ludwigshafen, Whorl, Pram, Frankenthal, Neustadt) are in the Rhenish plain.

Administrative divisions

districts

Bad Dürkheim
Mount-Thunder
Germersheim
Kaiserslautern
Kusel
the Rhine-Palatinat
Südliche Weinstraße
Palatinat-South-West

city-districts

History

important Remark : One should confuse the historical State of the Palatinat of the Rhine or Palatinat Électoral, which had its center on Right Bank of the Rhine and had as principal cities Heidelberg and Mannheim, with the administrative entity of the Rhenish Palatinat , created in 1816, very whole located on left bank, and including territories not having never belonged to historical Palatinat, such as the old one évêché of Whorl or Kirchheimbolanden, which belonged to the Nassau-Weilbourg. Not to confuse “the new” Palatinat of old, as well as Haut-Palatinat, the name of “Rhenish Palatinat” is used non-officiellement. Also sometimes one finds on the old charts the mention of “Rhenish Bavaria” ( Rheinbayern ) .

Until the end of the 18th century, Palatinat was divided into several States of various sizes, of which most important were the Palatinat Électoral or Palatinat of the Rhine ( Kurpfalz ), the Duché of Palatinat-Two-Bridges and the évêché of Whorl.

After the French occupation during the Wars of the Revolution, all the part of Palatinat of the Rhine located on left bank of the the Rhine (most of Palatinat) was annexed by the Royaume of Bavaria in 1816, although separate geographically of the remainder of Bavaria.

As from 1808, the administrative areas of Bavaria took the name of the rivères which ran there: this area was then named “district of the Rhine” ( Rheinkreis ). In 1835, the king Louis Ier of Bavaria, inspired by the romantic ideas of the time, ordered the return to historical designations, and the area was famous “Palatinat” ( Pfalz ).

The Bavarian ones having preserved the Code Napoleon, introduced by the French into Palatinat, this area were characterized then by its particular status within the kingdom from Bavaria. The Wittelsbach tried to affirm the unit of Bavaria by building a royal castle with Edenkoben and by restoring the cathedral of Spire under the direct supervision of Louis Ist Thus Ludwigshafen (founded in 1843) took the name of this king. Other side, the representatives of Palatinat were always proud to come from a country plus progressist, and tried to extend to the remainder of the kingdom the Libéralisme that the French had introduced into Palatinat.

During the revolution of 1848, a separatist movement tried to establish a “palatine République”, attempt destroyed by a violent Prussian intervention .

The union will perdura after Bavaria integrated the German Empire in 1871, and even after the dismissal of Wittelsbach and the proclamation of the free State of Bavaria in 1918.

After the end of the First World War, and in accordance with the terms of the Treated of Versailles, the French troops occupied Rhenish Palatinat. The districts of Hombourg and Saint-Ingbert were separated from Palatinat to be attached to the Territoire of the Basin of the Saar lately created, controlled by the Société of the Nations. These two districts were amalgamated in 1974 to form the district of the Saar-Palatinat.

In 1923, disorders separatist, it is generally allowed that they were supported by France, burst in the remainder of Rhenish Palatinat and in the Prussian Rhineland with an aim of creating a palatine Republic (just as a Rhenish République was proclaimed with Aachen), involving a violent Bavarian reaction: the chief of the secession Franz Josef Heinz was assassinated in Spire in January 1924, while the remainder of the opponents were killed with Pirmasens in February 1924: a treaty between Bavaria and the interallied commission of the the Rhineland (the supreme council of the allied occupying forces) confirmed the membership of Palatinat in Bavaria in February 1924.

This union was finally dissolved at the time of the reorganization of the German territory after the end of the Second world war. Whereas Bavaria itself belonged to the zone of American occupation, Rhenish Palatinat was occupied by the French Forces. Those reorganized their zone of occupation by creating new Länder in 1947, and Palatinat was joined together with the Rhenish Hesse and the Prussian Rhineland to form the Land of the Rhineland-Palatinat.

In 1956, a plebiscite on the return of the area to Bavaria failed. Nowadays, the Foundation Bavaria-Palatinat ( Bayern-Pfalz-Stifung ) preserves the memory of this common history.

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