The Circle of the Rhine or Rhine Circle ( German : Rheinkreis ), sometimes the Bavarian Rheinkreis ( Bayerischer Rheinkreis or Baierischer Rheinkreis ), was the name given to the territory on the west bank of the Rhine from 1816 to 1837 which was one of 15 (later 8) administrative districts of the Kingdom of Bavaria . Before the French revolutionary wars (1792) most of the land had belonged to the Electoral Palatinate . At the Congress of Vienna in 1815 it was initially promised to the Austrian Empire after having been under a provisional joint Austro-Bavarian administration since 1814. However, in the Treaty of Munich (1816), Austria relinquished the territory to Bavaria.
17-667: In 1837, the Circle of the Rhine was renamed the Palatinate ( Pfalz ). It was also referred to as the Rhenish Palatinate ( Rheinpfalz ). The territory remained Bavarian until 30 August 1946, with the exception of the area detached in 1920, which roughly corresponded to the present day Saarpfalz-Kreis . It then became part of the newly formed federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate . The Rhine Circle largely covered
34-741: A total of 45 secular and ecclesiastical territories , some of which were very small. The largest were the Electoral Palatinate , the Duchy of Zweibrücken and the Prince-Bishopric of Speyer . The Electoral Palatinate and the Electorate of Bavaria had dynastic links through the House of Wittelsbach for centuries and from 1777 were ruled in a personal union under Elector Charles Theodore . The House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken
51-695: Is a Kreis (district) in the south-east of the Saarland , Germany. Neighboring districts are (from west clockwise) Saarbrücken , Neunkirchen , Kusel , Kaiserslautern , Südwestpfalz , district-free Zweibrücken , and the French département Moselle . After the Treaty of Versailles , the Saar basin was placed under the administration of the League of Nations for 15 years. The Palatinate area, then part of Bavaria ,
68-807: The département of the Sarre and Bas-Rhin . Following the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 and the capture of the Left Bank of the Rhine by the Allies in January 1814, from 2 February 1814 the region was initially under the provisional authority of the General Government of the Middle Rhine, but, from 16 June that same year, it was placed under the administration of
85-650: The Diocese of Speyer and the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate still exist today largely based on the historical boundaries of the Circle of the Rhine. In 1974 the two Saarland districts were dissolved and their territory largely merged into the new Saarpfalz-Kreis ( Saar-Pfalz-Kreis until 1989). The territory of the Rhine Circle, established in 1816, had been divided before 1792 into
102-609: The First World War as the districts ( Landkreise ) of Homburg [ de ] and Sankt Ingbert [ de ] . After the Second World War there were smaller losses of territory to the Saar Protectorate , especially in the area of Sankt Wendel . As part of the 1969 land reform the region designated as the Palatinate with Rhineland-Palatinate had its northern border changed somewhat;
119-576: The Imperial-Royal Austrian and Royal Bavarian Joint Land Administration Commission ( k. k. östreichischen und k. bairischen gemeinschaftliche Landes-Administrations-Kommission ). In the main treaty agreed at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and dated 9 June 1815, Article 51 stated that ( inter alia ) on the Left Bank of the Rhine the former départements of the Sarre and Mont-Tonnere , except where stated in
136-562: The Ottoman Empire , was a condominium of Cis- and Transleithania). Common institutions of both halves of the empire were described from 1867 to 1918 as kaiserlich und königlich /k. u. k. ("imperial and royal"). Contrary to the regulations, the Common Army continued to use the abbreviation k. k. to describe itself until 1889. Today, the abbreviation k. k. is often loosely replaced by k. u. k. ("k and k"), but
153-504: The cross in the top right is the symbol of Trier , both owned a large part of the district in the past. The crosier is the bottom left represents the clerical possessions of the monasteries, while the silver lion in the bottom right is the symbol of the county of Homburg. 49°15′N 7°15′E / 49.25°N 7.25°E / 49.25; 7.25 Imperial-Royal The adjective kaiserlich-königlich (usually abbreviated to k. k. ), German for imperial–royal ,
170-540: The former French administrative structure, the subdivision of the region into cantons, mayoralties and municipalities was retained. As his first provincial governor, King Maximilian selected the Privy Councillor ( Hofrat ) Franz Xaver von Zwackh [ de ] , whose name is responsible for the popular Palatinate nickname for Bavarian officials, Zwockel [ de ] . Saarpfalz-Kreis Saarpfalz ( Saar-Palatinate )
187-632: The same area as the present Palatinate region , which lies west of the Rhine in the south of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate . Until 1919 it also included some territory around Homburg and Sankt Ingbert (parts of the Bezirksämter of Homburg [ de ] and Zweibrücken [ de ] ), which was incorporated into the Territory of the Saar Basin after the end of
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#1732779554921204-461: The same treaty, were to go "with full sovereignty" and ownership rights under the overlordship of the Emperor of Austria ( Herrschaft Sr. Maj. des Kaisers von Oesterreich ). The joint Austro-Bavarian administration was initially retained, however. On 14 April 1816, a treaty was signed between Austria and Bavaria , in which the various territorial changes were agreed. According to Article 2 of
221-492: The treaty, Emperor Francis I of Austria ceded various regions to Maximilian I of Bavaria . These included, in addition to various regions east of the Rhine, the following regions west of the Rhine: The effective date for these changes was stated as 1 May 1816. In accordance with the prevailing Bavarian administrative structure, the region was given the name "Rhine Circle" ( Rheinkreis ) with Speyer as its capital. Of
238-610: The two terms are historically and legally distinct. The prefix k. u. k. ( kaiserlich und königlich ) only properly referred to the authorities and institutions of both halves of the empire. The first k. ( kaiserlich = "imperial") referred to the Emperor of Austria . In k. k. , the second k. ( königlich = "royal", literally "kingly") referred, from 1867, to the King of Bohemia (the Kingdom of Bohemia / Lands of
255-563: Was also a Wittelsbach branch. In 1794, the Left Bank of the Rhine , including the Palatinate, was occupied by French revolutionary troops . As a result of the Treaty of Campo Formio (1797) the First French Republic annexed the region and introduced an administrative system in 1798. The subsequent Circle of the Rhine included considerable portions of the département of Mont-Tonnerre as well as smaller parts of
272-767: Was applied to the authorities and state institutions of the Austrian Empire until the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 , which established the Austro-Hungarian Empire . Thereafter the abbreviation k. k. only applied to institutions of the so-called Cisleithania (i.e. those lands not part of the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen /Transleithania: Hungary and Croatia-Slavonia ; Bosnia and Herzegovina , annexed in 1878 from
289-467: Was therefore split in two parts. The part which went into the Saar became commonly known as Saarpfalz, and was administered by the two Bezirksamt St. Ingbert and Homburg. The Saarpfalz district was created in 1974 when the St. Ingbert and Homburg districts were merged. Since 1997 the district has had a partnership with Henrico County, Virginia . The lion in the top left is the symbol of the Palatinate (Pfalz),
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