Bad Dürkheim ( German pronunciation: [ˌbaːt ˈdʏʁkhaɪm] ) is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration. It is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate , Germany , and the site of the discovery of the element caesium , in 1860.
110-581: Bad Dürkheim lies at the edge of Palatinate Forest on the German Wine Route some 30 km east of Kaiserslautern and just under 20 km west of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim . Roughly 15 km to the south lies Neustadt an der Weinstraße . In Bad Dürkheim, Bundesstraßen 37 and 271 cross each other. From west to east through the town flows the river Isenach . Bad Dürkheim's Ortsteile are Grethen, Hardenburg, Hausen, Leistadt, Seebach and Ungstein including Pfeffingen. Bad Dürkheim has
220-698: A 3 ft 6 in ( 1,067 mm ) gauge, whereas Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand have metre-gauge railways . Narrow-gauge trams, particularly metre-gauge, are common in Europe. Non-industrial, narrow-gauge mountain railways are (or were) common in the Rocky Mountains of the United States and the Pacific Cordillera of Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia , Greece, and Costa Rica. A narrow-gauge railway
330-598: A humid subtropical climate ( Köppen climate classification Cfa ). Yearly precipitation in Bad Dürkheim is 574 mm, which is low, falling into the lowest quarter of the precipitation chart for all Germany. Lower figures recorded at only 16% of the German Weather Service's weather stations. The driest month is February. The most rainfall comes in May. In that month, precipitation is 1.6 times what it
440-566: A Palatine geographer and local historian. Prior to 1850, there was no overall name for the Palatine's bunter sandstone mountains Historical territorial factors, rather than geographical ones, governed perceptions at the time. By contrast, the Celts and Romans viewed the entire mountain range west of the Rhine as a single unit, making no distinction between different parts of the region that, today,
550-426: A close connection and ideological proximity to National Socialism . In 2007, 52.8% of the inhabitants were Evangelical , 32.3% Catholic , and 14.8% stated no religion. The rest belonged to other faiths. The council is made up of 32 honorary members, who were most recently elected at the municipal election held on 25 May 2014, and the full-time mayor as chairman. The municipal election held on 25 May 2014 yielded
660-673: A court seal from 1405, which itself was a reference to the arms borne by the Lords of Dürkheim. Between 1540 and 1776, the arms featured a cross and a crozier above the escutcheon , indicating Limburg Abbey's ownership of the town. At the edge of the Palatinate Forest lie the once thriving Limburg Abbey ’s ruins. In the 9th century, the Salian Dukes from Worms built a fortress on the Linthberg as their family seat. In
770-425: A curve with standard-gauge rail ( 1435 mm ) can allow speed up to 145 km/h (90 mph), the same curve with narrow-gauge rail ( 1067mm ) can only allow speed up to 130 km/h (81 mph). In Japan and Queensland, recent permanent-way improvements have allowed trains on 3 ft 6 in ( 1,067 mm ) gauge tracks to exceed 160 km/h (99 mph). Queensland Rail 's Electric Tilt Train ,
880-455: A design speed of 137 km/h (85 mph). Curve radius is also important for high speeds: narrow-gauge railways allow sharper curves, but these limit a vehicle's safe speed. Many narrow gauges, from 15 in ( 381 mm ) gauge to 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ) gauge, are in present or former use. They fall into several broad categories: 4 ft 6 in ( 1,372 mm ) track gauge (also known as Scotch gauge)
990-474: A heavy-duty narrow-gauge line is Brazil's EFVM . 1,000 mm ( 3 ft 3 + 3 ⁄ 8 in ) gauge, it has over-100-pound rail (100 lb/yd or 49.6 kg/m) and a loading gauge almost as large as US non-excess-height lines. The line has a number of 4,000-horsepower (3,000 kW) locomotives and 200-plus-car trains. Narrow gauge's reduced stability means that its trains cannot run at speeds as high as on broader gauges. For example, if
1100-808: A hill), but especially, near the ruins of the Weilach estate, the Teufelsstein ("Devil’s Rock" – another hill) and the Heidenfels ("Heathen Crag"), as well as the Kupferfelsen ("Copper Crags") near the former forester's house Lindemannsruhe. Above all, Bad Dürkheim is well known for the Dürkheimer Wurstmarkt , whose name literally means “sausage market”, although it is in fact the world's biggest wine festival, drawing more than 600,000 visitors each year. The town of Bad Dürkheim awards
1210-592: A line from Eisenberg via Göllheim and Börrstadt to Otterberg near Kaiserslautern . The hill country between the Haardt and the Upper Rhine Plain, where Palatine wines are grown, is known as the Weinstrasse . The German Wine Route runs through this zone of hills. The St. Ingbert-Kaiserslauten Depression runs up to the northwestern Palatinate Forest from west-southwest to east-northeast into which
SECTION 10
#17327909189721320-550: A long time, to refer to the entire range on the west bank of the Rhine, at the beginning of the 20th century, it gradually became restricted to the Alsatian part of the sandstone mountains, whilst the term Pfälzerwald ("Palatinate Forest") became increasingly used to refer to the Palatine part. This led to the Palatinate Forest and Vosges being defined as separate and distinct landscapes. However, in recent decades, in
1430-503: A mine in Bohemia with a railway of about 2 ft ( 610 mm ) gauge. During the 16th century, railways were primarily restricted to hand-pushed, narrow-gauge lines in mines throughout Europe. In the 17th century, mine railways were extended to provide transportation above ground. These lines were industrial , connecting mines with nearby transportation points (usually canals or other waterways). These railways were usually built to
1540-825: A number of large 3 ft ( 914 mm ) railroad systems in North America; notable examples include the Denver & Rio Grande and Rio Grande Southern in Colorado; the Texas and St. Louis Railway in Texas, Arkansas and Missouri; and, the South Pacific Coast , White Pass and Yukon Route and West Side Lumber Co of California. 3 ft was also a common track gauge in South America, Ireland and on
1650-628: A plateau bounded by deeply incised valleys. This plateau also runs towards the west at a height of about 500 m before descending gradually to 400 m. It is bisected by the Schwarzbach and Moosalb rivers. To the southwest other ridges separate the valleys of the Merzalbe and the headstreams of the Wieslauter . It is therefore possible to walk from Neustadt an der Weinstraße to Leimen or Kaiserslautern-Mölschbach without dropping below
1760-545: A recreational airfield, the Flugplatz Bad Dürkheim . Local print media are the daily newspaper Die Rheinpfalz (with a local section for the Bad Dürkheim region) and the weekly Stadtanzeiger . On cable television, the public-access channel Offener Kanal Neustadt und Weinstraße can be received. The transmission tower, a 130 m-tall steel-reinforced concrete mast, stands on the Weilerskopf and
1870-400: A result of further depositions of sand, rock layers of up to 500 metres thickness were formed. This led inter alia , through the addition of iron oxide, to a variable colouration of the rock strata – hence the name "bunter" sandstone ( bunter being German for "coloured") – and, depending on the type and binding of the material, (clay-bound sandstone as opposed to silicified quartz sandstone) to
1980-411: A significant decline in population and the total number of settlements fell sharply (leaving abandoned villages ), as a result of wars and economic circumstances. Thus, during the colonization of the mountains, areas were often cleared that, because of the nutrient-poor sandy soils, were unsuitable for farming and had to be abandoned after a short period because of overuse and overexploitation . Also,
2090-679: A significantly different relief and is no longer fully forested. It not only stretches around the western edge of the Palatinate Forest, but also further south around the Vosges. From the area of Lemberg in Lorraine, it also forms the watershed between the Moselle and the Upper Rhine; the southern part of the region being drained completely via the Moder system to the Upper Rhine. To the south,
2200-491: Is a track gauge of 1,000 mm ( 3 ft 3 + 3 ⁄ 8 in ). It has about 95,000 km (59,000 mi) of track. According to Italian law, track gauges in Italy were defined from the centre of each rail rather than the inside edges of the rails. This gauge, measured 950 mm ( 3 ft 1 + 3 ⁄ 8 in ) between the edges of the rails, is known as Italian metre gauge . There were
2310-457: Is in February. Precipitation varies little. Only 1% of the weather stations record lower seasonal swings . The warm climate allows the cultivation of mediterranean plants like the chinese windmill palm , stone pine , mediterranean cypress , fig tree , olive tree and oleander , which can be seen in many gardens and public spaces. Between 1200 and 500 BC, the area around the eastern end of
SECTION 20
#17327909189722420-515: Is no Misplaced Pages article. Characteristic of the Lower and Middle Bunter are V-shaped valleys , with narrow floors and steep sides, cutting deeply into the bedrock. They are the typical valley forms in the central Palatinate Forest, whilst in the southern and northern parts, U-shaped valleys with wider floors predominate. In the southwestern part of the Forest are the so-called woog valleys, in which
2530-590: Is one of the biggest of its kind in Germany. In the wake of a fire on 7 April 2007, in which great parts of the facility were destroyed, the outdoor inhalatorium has reopened as of June 2011. The opportunity is also being taken to modify the spa park. The foremost outing and hiking destinations in the Palatinate Forest are the Isenachweiher (a small reservoir) and the Drachenfels (despite its name,
2640-488: Is one where the distance between the inside edges of the rails is less than 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ). Historically, the term was sometimes used to refer to what are now standard-gauge railways , to distinguish them from broad-gauge railways , but this use no longer applies. The earliest recorded railway appears in Georgius Agricola 's 1556 De re metallica , which shows
2750-512: Is rung by a hand-drawn rope. It is rung each year at 14:00 on 18 March in memory of the air raid on Bad Dürkheim in 1945, and also at 17:00 on the first Saturday in Advent , together with the other bells in the inner town, to usher in the new liturgical year . The Heidenmauer (“Heathen Wall”) is the remnants of a great Celtic settlement with a 2.5 km-long ringwall, which was built about 500 BC. The Roman quarry , Kriemhildenstuhl,
2860-720: Is the Palatinate Forest and the Vosges . 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, the name Vosges emerged in the French-speaking area and Wasgen or Wasigenwald , later also Wasgau , in the German-speaking region. So while the term Wasgen continued, for
2970-530: Is to develop the nature park and its eponymous biosphere reserve equally and to maintain its uniqueness and beauty as well as its national recreational value. Since 1997, the head office of the association has been in Lambrecht . The Palatinate Forest Nature Park was recognized in 1992 by UNESCO as a biosphere reserve . In 1998 it became the German part of the first cross-border UNESCO biosphere reserve, namely
3080-401: Is used by Deutsche Telekom . This standard tower, or Typenturm , was built in 1969. Position: 49°29′26″N 8°7′31″E / 49.49056°N 8.12528°E / 49.49056; 8.12528 . The Richtfunkturm , a 72 m-tall steel-reinforced concrete mast, was formerly used by the military. The operational buildings stood in the outlying centre of Hardenburg. Today the tower
3190-724: Is used for microwave transmission for the O 2 and E+ cellular networks . Position: 49°28′33″N 8°7′27″E / 49.47583°N 8.12417°E / 49.47583; 8.12417 . Bad Dürkheim, as the district seat, hosts the like-named district's administration. It has at its disposal an Amtsgericht that belongs to the Landgerichtsbezirk of Frankenthal and to the Oberlandesgerichtsbezirk of Zweibrücken. Palatinate Forest The Palatinate Forest ( German : Pfälzerwald [ˈpfɛltsɐvalt] ), sometimes also called
3300-473: The Altschlossfelsen , fractures , overhangs and honeycomb weathering can also be observed. By contrast, felsenmeers and blockfields tend to be found more in the central Palatine Forest. The highest points in this low mountain range occur in the central Palatinate Forest, and mainly in the east. Here, in a single, contiguous ridge is a series of peaks exceeding the 600 metre mark, of which
3410-1021: The Isle of Man . 900 mm was a common gauge in Europe. Swedish three-foot-gauge railways ( 891 mm or 2 ft 11 + 3 ⁄ 32 in ) are unique to that country and were once common all over the country. Today the only 891 mm line that remains apart from heritage railways is Roslagsbanan , a commuter line that connects Stockholm to its northeastern suburbs. A few railways and tramways were built to 2 ft 9 in ( 838 mm ) gauge, including Nankai Main Line (later converted to 3 ft 6 in or 1,067 mm ), Ocean Pier Railway at Atlantic City , Seaton Tramway ( converted from 2 ft ) and Waiorongomai Tramway . 800 mm ( 2 ft 7 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) gauge railways are commonly used for rack railways . Imperial 2 ft 6 in ( 762 mm ) gauge railways were generally constructed in
Bad Dürkheim - Misplaced Pages Continue
3520-669: The Kraichgau . Only the Burgundian Gate beyond the Vosges forms an orographically clear border on the left bank of the Rhine. The Palatinate Forest can be divided into three areas. The Palatinate Forest is a major (3rd level) natural region within the Palatine-Saarland Scarplands (a 2nd order major region) and runs south as far as the Col de Saverne , i.e. far into French territory, where it continues as
3630-698: The Limburg-Preis for literature, named after the Abbey, every three years. Every year in August, the Riesenroulette – “Giant Roulette Wheel” – is set up in the spa park as part of the Kurparkgala . It is the world's biggest roulette wheel and uses a ball the size of a football . The “Town Bellringing” is heard once a year at 17:00 on the first Saturday in Advent , and is performed by ringers at
3740-557: The Palatinate Forest-North Vosges Biosphere Reserve . It thus became the 12th of (as at 2009) 15 German biosphere reserves. These are areas that have a special significance for the global conservation of biological diversity and in which the ecological aspects, sustainable economic management, environmental education and environmental research are best linked together. In 2007, the state of Rhineland–Palatinate issued an ordinance by which
3850-783: 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 designated nature park ( German : Naturpark Pfälzerwald ) covering 1,771 km and its highest elevation is the Kalmit (672.6 m). Together with the northern part of the adjacent Vosges Mountains in France it forms the UNESCO -designated Palatinate Forest-North Vosges Biosphere Reserve . The Palatinate Forest, together with
3960-525: The Quaternary period (2.8 to 0.01 million years ago) erosion processes once more dominated. In particular, it was the weathering and removal processes that occurred during the various cold and warm periods that determined the final topographical shape of the Palatinate Forest. Characteristic of this is a system of deeply incised valleys, especially in the north and centre, diverse mountain shapes and bizarre rock formations. Gneisses and slates form
4070-571: The Tyrol and Swabia and the settlement of Huguenot and Mennonite religious refugees from Switzerland, France and the Netherlands. From then to the end of the 18th century, the population expanded as a result of the better design of farms (such as the Frankish house ) and the expansion of villages ( clustered village or Haufendörfer ). This development, however, meant that the resources of
4180-793: The Vosges ridge. 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. The important subdivisions of these bunter sandstone mountains were drawn up in the 1950s and 1960s in the Handbook of the Natural Region Divisions of Germany and 1:200,000 map sheets by the German Federal Institute for Regional Studies. Despite that, some deviation in
4290-670: The Vosges south of the French border, from which it has no morphological separation, is part of a single central upland region of about 8,000 km in area, that runs from the Börrstadt Basin (a line from Winnweiler via Börrstadt and Göllheim ) to the Burgundian Gate (on the line Belfort – Ronchamp – Lure ) and which forms the western boundary of the Upper Rhine Plain . This landscape forms, in turn,
4400-800: The Weinbiet (554.0 m), and the Eckkopf (516.0 m) near Deidesheim . North of the Isenach only the Rahnfels (516.5 m) breaks through the 500 metre contour. In its continuation to the north its descends from 400 to 300 metres above sea level. South of the Queich the countryside changes due to the somewhat different geological situation (see Landscape character ). Here larger erosion surfaces and rather isolated hillforms (conical hills), which on average reach heights of 450 metres, characterize
4510-899: The umlaut ), became part of the Department of Mont-Tonnerre (or Donnersberg in German ). After the Napoleonic Wars , it ended up along with the rest of the Electorate of the Palatinate 's territory on the Rhine 's left bank in the Kingdom of Bavaria . In 1860, Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff discovered the metallic element caesium in the mineral water from the Durkheim springs. For its seven mineral springs , Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim - Misplaced Pages Continue
4620-399: The 19th century (the Ludwig Railway and Landau–Zweibrücken line ) brought some improvement in the situation, because it became possible to commute to towns outside the Palatinate Forest and seek employment in one of the emerging industries (e.g. BASF at Ludwigshafen ) outside the region. In the 20th century, the general economic structural changes in Germany also affected the region of
4730-411: The 450 metre contour line. North of the line from Hochspeyerbach to Speyerbach the highest points are the 570.8 m high Drachenfels and the Hoher Stoppelkopf ( Stoppelkopf ; 566.2 m). In the triangle formed by the Isenach to the north and German Wine Route to the east are other hills over 500 metres in height. The most prominent are Neustadt's northern local hill ( Hausberg ),
4840-428: The 500mm gauge tracks of their mine railway ; these locomotives were made by the Deutz Gas Engine Company ( Gasmotorenfabrik Deutz ), now Deutz AG . Another early use of internal combustion was to power a narrow-gauge locomotive was in 1902. F. C. Blake built a 7 hp petrol locomotive for the Richmond Main Sewerage Board sewage plant at Mortlake . This 2 ft 9 in ( 838 mm ) gauge locomotive
4950-448: The Earth's crust occurred (passive rifting ). At the same time the sides of the newly created lowlands were uplifted, in the case of the Palatinate Forest, to a height of about 1000 metres. These processes, which continue today, have had four important implications for the present landscape of the low mountain region: In the later Paleogene (34 to 23.8 million years ago) and Neogene (23.8 to 2.8 million years ago) and also in
5060-407: The Forest descends in a clear escarpment, especially into the boggy lowland of the Landstuhl Bruch west of Kaiserslautern. To the west of the Großer Hausberg, the Westrich Plateau separates from the Palatinate Forest at the sharp southern boundary of the Landstuhler Bruch in a comparatively smooth transition. It reaches comparable heights in the transition area, but as a muschelkalk plateau it has
5170-466: The Great Kalmit , at 672.6 m, is also the highest point of the entire Palatinate Forest. The ridge begins at the Steigerkopf (also called the Schänzel ) (about 500 m) and heads westwards to the Frankenweide region around the Eschkopf (609.9 m) and Weißenberg (609.9 m). This massif extends from the town of Hochspeyer via Johanniskreuz to Hauenstein . Its central area between Johanniskreuz and Hermersbergerhof rather resembles
5280-507: The Isenach valley was settled by Celts , who also built the Heidenmauer ("Heathen Wall"), a Celtic ring wall. The earliest documented appearance of the name of the town is in the Lorsch codex of 1 June 778, as Turnesheim . A letter of enfeoffment from the Bishop of Speyer in 946 mentions Thuringeheim . About 1025, building work on Limburg Abbey, today preserved only as ruins, was begun. Town rights were granted on 1 January 1360, but were withdrawn again in 1471 after Elector Friedrich
5390-429: The Lower and Middle Bunter have produced a scarpland relief, whose cuestas characterize the landscape, especially in the north and east, whilst the southeastern part of the Palatinate Forest is dominated by rather isolated types of hill separated by erosion surfaces. In the bunter sandstone mountains a wide variety of hill shapes may be observed, depending on the various rock strata of which they are composed. Typical of
5500-418: The Mannheim tramway network at Mannheim Hauptbahnhof and then continues to Heddesheim . On Sundays and holidays, the RNV-Express offers a through tramway connection with five two-car units running as far as Heidelberg ; the RNV-Express does not stop everywhere and has no line number. The Pfälzische Nordbahn from Neustadt an der Weinstraße to Monsheim serves the town at a terminal station (although
5610-424: The Palatinate . This time, though, reconstruction was swifter, and Count Johann Friedrich of Leiningen granted Dürkheim town rights again as early as 1700. In 1725, Dürkheim became the main seat of the Counts and later Princes of Leiningen, who resided in Schloss Dürkheim . In the late 18th century, as the French Revolution was beginning to spread into southwest Germany, Dürkheim, as the Canton of Durkheim (without
SECTION 50
#17327909189725720-434: The Palatinate Forest, which was increasingly integrated into the overall economic and transport systems . Secluded forest farming villages became municipalities with a service character through the building of infrastructure (e.g. public transport), and, in many cases, the villagers now no longer worked locally, but in more distant regional centres, such as Ludwigshafen and Kaiserslautern. By contrast local industries in
5830-655: The Philippines demonstrate that if track is built to a heavy-duty standard, performance almost as good as a standard-gauge line is possible. Two-hundred-car trains operate on the Sishen–Saldanha railway line in South Africa, and high-speed Tilt Trains run in Queensland. In South Africa and New Zealand, the loading gauge is similar to the restricted British loading gauge; in New Zealand, some British Rail Mark 2 carriages have been rebuilt with new bogies for use by Tranz Scenic (Wellington-Palmerston North service), Tranz Metro (Wellington-Masterton service), and Auckland One Rail (Auckland suburban services). Another example of
5940-479: The UNESCO guidelines for the design of biosphere reserves would be implemented specifically for the Palatinate Forest Nature Park. This laid down a zoning scheme as its main focus, which envisaged three zones with different objectives and protection functions: The "quiet zones" ( Stillezonen ) also covered in the law are intended to ensure a "recreation in the stillness", but are not part of the UNESCO guidelines for biosphere reserves. The concept originates rather from
6050-404: The Victorious of the Palatinate conquered the town and wrought considerable destruction. After the slow reconstruction, Dürkheim passed to the Counts of Leiningen in 1554. In 1689, the town was almost completely destroyed when French troops in the Nine Years' War (the Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg , or War of the Palatine Succession) carried out a scorched earth campaign in the Electorate of
6160-443: The appearance of the countryside. Over the millennia, the weathering and erosion of the sandstone, with its varying degrees of hardness, have produced bizarre rock formations, e. g. rock pinnacles , rock faces, rock walls and rock blocks. In addition, the small-scale weathering of strata of differing hardness has produced caves , natural arches and table rocks ( Devil's Table ). On the almost two-kilometre-long rock terrace of
6270-442: The bedrock of the Palatinate Forest today, but they are generally covered by younger rock formations, cropping out only in a few places on the eastern edge of the mountains. These rock strata cover the bedrock and consist, in addition to sandstone , of shale and marl . They generally have a softer consistency and therefore form broad valleys and erosion surfaces in the northern Palatinate Forest (the Stumpfwald ) as well as in
6380-457: The beginning of the Palaeogene period of the Cenozoic era (66 to 23.8 million years ago) the formation of the Alps led to considerable tensions in the Earth's crust , which, in their forelands to the north of the Alps, caused a bulge in the mantle and crust. At the apex of the arch so formed, there were considerable tensile stresses, so that the rock layers were stretched and about 35 million years ago, deep cracks and depressions in
6490-445: The cities in the Rhine valley which were then suffering badly from air pollution. The nature park expansion programme envisaged 95 car parks, 13 camp sites, seven observation towers and five open-air pools. In fact, 62 woodland car parks were created in the first seven years as well as 530 benches and as many waste bins. A total of 370 km of walking routes were added or created and 45 signed circular walks laid out. The management of
6600-813: The coal industry. Some sugar cane lines in Cuba were 2 ft 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 699 mm ). 2 ft ( 610 mm ) gauge railways were generally constructed in the former British colonies. The U.S. had a number of railways of that gauge , including several in the state of Maine such as the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway . 1 ft 11 + 3 ⁄ 4 in ( 603 mm ), 600 mm ( 1 ft 11 + 5 ⁄ 8 in ) and 1 ft 11 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 597 mm ) were used in Europe. Gauges below 1 ft 11 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 597 mm ) were rare. Arthur Percival Heywood developed 15 in ( 381 mm ) gauge estate railways in Britain and Decauville produced
6710-427: The context of European integration (the Schengen Agreement ), there has been an increasing trend to regard the entire mountain complex as a single geographical entity again. 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 . Whilst there are traces of human activities in
SECTION 60
#17327909189726820-455: The core area in the biosphere reserve, with its mixed stands of primeval beech, oak and pine. The Palatinate Forest is primarily characterised by a block of bunter sandstone and its underlying formations of Zechstein . The tectonically formed bedding of these rock types and their subsequent erosion led to the topography of this low mountain range that we see today. In the Permian geological period (about 296–251 million years ago)
6930-400: The early 11th century, the fortress was converted into a monastery with a basilica . It existed until the mid-16th century. Above the like-named constituent community are spread the castle ruins of Hardenburg. Beginning in the 13th century, the castle was the seat of the Counts of Leiningen , but was built in its current shape only in the 16th century. It was destroyed once and for all in
7040-401: The eastern part of the very extensive eastern scarplands of France, which, on German soil, take in large parts of the Palatinate and the Saarland, with older (e.g. on the Donnersberg ) and younger strata ( muschelkalk , e.g. the Westrich Plateau ). While the boundaries of the Palatinate Forest are comparatively clearly defined to the north and east, the transition to neighbouring landscapes to
7150-489: The edges of today's Palatinate Forest, there was increasing population pressure in the Middle Ages (10th to 13th century), especially through the initiatives of the nobility and the church , e.g. through the establishment of monasteries such as the Cistercian abbeys of Otterberg (1144) and Eußerthal (1148), the colonization and development of the mountains. Areas that could be used for agriculture were cleared and settled permanently. This development reached its peak in
7260-418: The establishment of the Palatinate Forest Nature Park and, later the Palatinate Forest-North Vosges Biosphere Reserve . The Palatinate Forest Nature Park was created in 1958 as the third nature park in Germany. In accordance with the requirements of the originator of the nature park concept, Alfred Toepfer , the Palatinate Forest was to be a place of recreation and exercise for the stressed office workers of
7370-446: The expansion of recreational facilities was viewed as complete and attention switched to the care of biotopes and the landscape in the centre. Increasingly there was also a desire to replace the many coniferous monocultures , planted as a result of war, wartime reparations and times of crisis, with species rich site-specific mixed forests . On 20 July 1982 the Palatinate Forest Nature Park Association ( Verein Naturpark Pfälzerwald )
7480-427: The fastest train in Australia and the fastest 3 ft 6 in ( 1,067 mm ) gauge train in the world, set a record of 210 km/h (130 mph). The speed record for 3 ft 6 in ( 1,067 mm ) narrow-gauge rail is 245 km/h (152 mph), set in South Africa in 1978. A special 2 ft ( 610 mm ) gauge railcar was built for the Otavi Mining and Railway Company with
7590-424: The first sandstone formations, some 100 metres thick, were deposited in the area of today's Palatinate Forest; in particular, the rock units of the Rotliegendes and the Zechstein (about 256–251 million years ago) are important. At the beginning of the Germanic Triassic , i.e. from the Lower to the beginning of the Middle Triassic, there was (about 251–243 million years ago) a desert-like climate, so that as
7700-434: The following results: On the town council, the CDU , the FDP and the Greens form a coalition , making Bad Dürkheim the only town in Germany governed by a so-called Jamaica coalition . This special arrangement was concluded in 1999 after the SPD lost its majority. It has been twice extended by five years after municipal elections in 2004 and 2009. Wolfgang Lutz (CDU) was the Mayor of Bad Dürkheim from 2000 to 2015; he
7810-445: The formation of rock layers of different hardness. This resulted in the subgroups of lower, middle and upper bunter sandstone. These bunter sandstone formations were buried by various types of sediments in the adjacent sections of muschelkalk (243–235 million years ago) and keuper (234–200 million years ago), and also during the Jurassic (200–142 million years ago) and Cretaceous (142–66 million years ago). At
7920-575: The former British colonies . 760 mm Bosnian gauge and 750 mm railways are predominantly found in Russia and Eastern Europe. Gauges such as 2 ft 3 in ( 686 mm ), 2 ft 4 in ( 711 mm ) and 2 ft 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 724 mm ) were used in parts of the UK, particularly for railways in Wales and the borders, with some industrial use in
8030-481: The further impoverishment of the population. Occupations that the forest itself supported, such as lumberjacks , charcoal burners , rafters , resin burners (pitch boilers) and ash burners, supported only a meagre existence. After large population losses during the Thirty Years' War , the population was initially restored and stabilized in the late 17th century, initially as a result of settler migration from
8140-476: The highest points in the southwest. The category structure of the list is based on the concept for the natural region division of the Palatine Forest . The important summits of the range are annotated with their corresponding landscape subdivision and arranged according to their height in metres (m) above sea level (NHN) . The nearest settlement is given for lesser known hills or those for which there
8250-634: The landscape. The highest points on the German side of the Wasgau are the Rehberg (576.8 m) near Annweiler, the castle hill of the ruins of Wegelnburg (570.9 m) near Nothweiler , followed by the Hohe Derst (560.5 m) west of Bad Bergzabern and the Großer Eyberg (513.0 m) southwest of Dahn . The Hohe List (475.8 m) and Erlenkopf (472.1 m) near Eppenbrunn are
8360-458: The last few decades have caused further structural problems, especially affecting remote communities in sparsely populated areas through population decline, aging and migration. At the same time, the forested highlands has gained increasing importance in the second half of the twentieth century as a place for recreation and leisure activities of special ecological status . This is reflected in various touristic concepts and activities to offer
8470-463: The late 13th century. Its tower, with a height of 70 m, is the Further (or “Anterior”, that is, East) Palatinate's third tallest churchtower. The Castle Church ( Burgkirche ) was built in the 18th century, destroyed in 1945 and thereafter built once again. Today it serves as a Protestant community centre. In its tower hangs a 317 kg bell poured in 1758. It underwent improvements in 2006 and
8580-426: The late 18th century. In the town’s woodlands, nobles built the hunting lodges ( Jagdschlösser ) Kehrdichannichts (whose name means “Do-not-mind-anything”), Murrmirnichtviel (“Do-not-grumble-at-me-much”) and Schaudichnichtum (“Do-not-look-about”). While the first is still used today as a forester's house, there is nothing but ruins left of the other two. Saint Louis's Catholic Parish Church ( Ludwigskirche )
8690-641: The more habitable regions of what is now the Palatinate, taking place since the Neolithic period (5,500-4,500 BC), and especially in Celtic (800 to 10 BC) and Roman (10 BC to 450 AD) times, the mountains on the west bank of the Rhine were practically uninhabited and covered by dense, ancient forest until the end of the Migration Period (about 600 AD). After the Frankish conquests in the Early Middle Ages (7th to 10th century) took them to
8800-424: The mountains became rarer or were closed, as can be seen in the example of the footwear industry. Since its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, globalization has seen the relocation of shoe production abroad, resulting in the almost total collapse of the industry, reinforced especially in the 1980s and 1990s by increasing unemployment and induced migration trends. In addition, the far-reaching demographic changes of
8910-465: The mountains were rapidly exhausted and over-population and poverty, in particular in the 19th century, led to increased emigration to the New World . Apart from the modest level of iron extraction and processing, work in the forests and the operation of paper mills , the shoemaking industry in the region Pirmasens was the only real source of income. This meant that the railway in the second half of
9020-441: The names used by the handbook has prevailed. The most important subordinate landscapes are listed with the aid of a map; the map only showing the names of well-known landscapes and only the more significant landscape boundaries. The name Pfälzerwald was first used in 1843 – when the Palatinate was part of the Kingdom of Bavaria – by foresters in the centrally-located municipality of Johanniskreuz , who used it to refer to
9130-460: The narrow Zaberner Steige forms a border between the Palatinate Forest, which continues into France as the North Vosges ( Vosges du Nord or Nordvogesen ) and the "actual" Vosges . Geomorphologically and geologically, this dividing line is less pronounced than is the case on the right bank of the Rhine, where the Odenwald and Black Forest are clearly separated from each other by the lowland of
9240-454: The native population additional work and income opportunities and to assist in counteracting the structural changes described above. Whereas the Palatinate Forest was earlier seen mainly as a source of raw materials and energy supply, today, in addition to its recreation and leisure function, its ecological importance as a "special protected landscape" has come to the forefront. This change in attitude found visible expression, inter alia, through
9350-640: The nature park took over the Palatinate Forest Club (PWV). The 20 open shelters, built for walkers in log house style, were named "Fischer Huts" after the managing director of the Palatinate Forest Club, Ludwig Fischer. In the mid-1960s, the PWV came to the conclusion that the work required could not be done by volunteers and handed the management of the nature park to the Palatinate provincial government. By 1974, 3.7 million euros had been spent on improving recreational opportunities. Around 1975
9460-617: The northern and central Palatinate Forest are prominent hill "blocks" ( Bergklötze ) and elongated trapezium-shaped ridges, frequently with rocky summit areas (e. g. the Kesselberg , 661.8 m) whilst, in the western part of the range, plateau-like hill formations with clearings predominate. In the southeastern Palatinate Forest, by contrast, the sediments of the Rotliegendes and Zechstein (erosion surfaces), and especially resistant Trifels and Rehberg beds (conical hills) influence
9570-750: The number of Jews in Bad Dürkheim reduced drastically, due to the economic boycott, constantly increasing repression and dehumanization (1933: 184, 1937: 98, 1938: 40). During the Night of Broken Glass in 1938, the synagogue was plundered. The 19 Jews still surviving here in 1940 were deported to the Gurs concentration camp in October of that year. On 18 March 1945, Bad Dürkheim was badly hit by an Allied air raid in which more than 300 people died. In Rhineland-Palatinate 's administrative reform, Hardenburg and Leistadt were amalgamated with Bad Dürkheim on 7 June 1969, as
9680-492: The old protected area regulation for the Palatinate Forest Nature Park (1984) and therefore overlaps with the other three zones. Core, buffer and transition zones are representatively distributed over the area of the biosphere reserve. As part of this, some 16 core zones were defined, together covering about 2.3 percent of the area. The source region of the Wieslauter (2,296 ha) being the largest of
9790-570: The region during the era of the Salian (10th-12th centuries) and Hohenstaufen (12th and 13th century) emperors, with the construction of Trifels Castle and other castles in the surrounding area that, for a time, made it the centre of power of the empire. This development took place in the Late Middle Ages (13th to 15th centuries) and Early Modern Period (16th to 18th century), because disease (e.g. The Plague ) and famine led to
9900-665: The right-of-way branches both ways after a short distance). The excursion train, the Elsass-Express (“Alsace Express”), also begins its run here, taking passengers all the way to the Alsatian town of Wissembourg just inside France . Until 1981, there was also a gondola lift that whisked riders from the Wurstmarkt grounds to the Teufelsstein (“Devil’s Stone” – a mountain). Since 2005, the town has been preparing its reintroduction. To Bad Dürkheim's north-east lies
10010-550: The same narrow gauge as the mine railways from which they developed. The world's first steam locomotive , built in 1802 by Richard Trevithick for the Coalbrookdale Company, ran on a 3 ft ( 914 mm ) plateway . The first commercially successful steam locomotive was Matthew Murray 's Salamanca built in 1812 for the 4 ft 1 in ( 1,245 mm ) Middleton Railway in Leeds . Salamanca
10120-540: The southeast. The southern Palatinate sandstone formations of the Zechstein are divided into four strata having a total thickness of about 80 to 100 metres. The rock unit of bunter sandstone is divided into three strata: Weathering and erosion of the different rock strata of the Palatine Forest with their variable hardness have resulted in a low mountain landscape with a dense, deeply incised system of valleys and wide variety of hill shapes. The hard and resistant rocks of
10230-612: The town's three churches, the Burgkirche , the Schlosskirche and the Ludwigskirche . Bad Dürkheim's main industry is winegrowing . With 855 ha (3.3 square miles) of vineyards under cultivation, the town is the Palatinate ’s third biggest winegrowing centre. In Rhineland-Palatinate as a whole, it ranks fourth. Nevertheless, tourism and health promotion play an important role. Some spa clinics have located in
10340-714: The town. Furthermore, Bad Dürkheim was one of the few places in Germany with a graduation tower that was still being run, until it all but burnt down in 2007. It was rebuilt in 2010. Among midsize businesses, the paper and wood industry is represented, along with various technology businesses. Bad Dürkheim is linked to the long-distance road network by Bundesstraßen 37 ( Kaiserslautern – Mosbach ) and 271 (Neustadt– Monsheim ). The four-lane Autobahn A 650 has still not been built quite as far as Bad Dürkheim. The Rhein-Haardtbahn (a narrow-gauge tramway ), which now runs as “Line 4”, runs through Maxdorf and links Bad Dürkheim with Ludwigshafen and Mannheim, where it joins with
10450-475: The traffic potential would not justify the cost of a standard- or broad-gauge line. Narrow-gauge railways have specialised use in mines and other environments where a small structure gauge necessitates a small loading gauge . In some countries, narrow gauge is the standard: Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Australian states of Queensland , Western Australia and Tasmania have
10560-401: The use of the forest to obtain firewood and timber did not follow the principles of sustainability . On the one hand, the production of straw ( foliage as bedding for cattle) and wood pasture damaged the soils and forests; on the other hand the manufacture of iron , glass and potash , which needed a lot of wood, led for centuries to the overuse and destruction of the forest and thus to
10670-1081: The valley floor is wide and they are therefore especially well suited for the construction of ponds, or woogs , reservoirs and small lakes (see below). Narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway ( narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) standard gauge . Most narrow-gauge railways are between 600 mm ( 1 ft 11 + 5 ⁄ 8 in ) and 1,067 mm ( 3 ft 6 in ). Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves , smaller structure gauges , and lighter rails ; they can be less costly to build, equip, and operate than standard- or broad-gauge railways (particularly in mountainous or difficult terrain). Lower-cost narrow-gauge railways are often used in mountainous terrain, where engineering savings can be substantial. Lower-cost narrow-gauge railways are often built to serve industries as well as sparsely populated communities where
10780-625: The west and south is less sharp. To the north, the Palatinate Forest is adjoined by the North Palatine Uplands , including the Donnersberg ( 686.5 m ). This is where the bunter sandstone formations typical of the Palatinate Forest end, being replaced by other types of rock such as those of the Rotliegendes . This results in a clear geomorphological separation of the two landscape areas, which runs approximately along
10890-482: The woods of the bunter sandstone region of the Palatinate. Its use was extended when, in 1902, the Palatinate Forest Club ( Pfälzerwald-Verein or PWV) 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,
11000-621: The world; 19th-century mountain logging operations often used narrow-gauge railways to transport logs from mill to market. Significant sugarcane railways still operate in Cuba, Fiji, Java, the Philippines, and Queensland, and narrow-gauge railway equipment remains in common use for building tunnels. In 1897, a manganese mine in the Lahn valley in Germany was using two benzine -fueled locomotives with single cylinder internal combustion engines on
11110-448: Was Ungstein along with its outlying hamlet of Pfeffingen on 22 April 1972. Moreover, the town, having belonged to the old district of Neustadt an der Weinstraße, became the district seat of the newly formed district of Bad Dürkheim and also lay in the likewise newly formed Regierungsbezirk of Rheinhessen-Pfalz , which was later abolished in 2000. In September 2023, 73.7 percent voted against renaming street names whose namesakes had
11220-525: Was adopted by early 19th-century railways, primarily in the Lanarkshire area of Scotland. 4 ft 6 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 1,384 mm ) lines were also constructed, and both were eventually converted to standard gauge. 1,067 mm ( 3 ft 6 in ) between the inside of the rail heads, its name and classification vary worldwide and it has about 112,000 kilometres (70,000 mi) of track. As its name implies, metre gauge
11330-563: Was also the first rack-and-pinion locomotive. During the 1820s and 1830s, a number of industrial narrow-gauge railways in the United Kingdom used steam locomotives. In 1842, the first narrow-gauge steam locomotive outside the UK was built for the 1,100 mm ( 3 ft 7 + 5 ⁄ 16 in )-gauge Antwerp-Ghent Railway in Belgium. The first use of steam locomotives on a public, passenger-carrying narrow-gauge railway
11440-462: Was built in 1828 and 1829 in the Classicist style. The plans were inspired by a master builder from Baden named Weinbrenner. The building work was backed and financially supported by King Ludwig I of Bavaria (Bad Dürkheim was part of Bavaria's Palatine exclave at the time). The Protestant Castle Church ( Schlosskirche ) – formerly Saint John's Church ( Kirche St. Johannis ) – was built in
11550-441: Was founded as a support organization. The members of the association are those counties and independent towns whose territories are covered by the nature park as well as the Palatinate regional association, various rambling and sports clubs and environmental organizations. Many social organisations are involved in the work of the nature park, ensuring the independence of academic and regional individual interests. The association's goal
11660-501: Was given the epithet Solbad (" brine bath"), and in 1904 it was given leave to change its name to Bad Dürkheim ( Bad is German for "bath", and a place may only bear this epithet on state recognition of its status as a spa town). In 1913, the Rhein-Haardtbahn (a narrow-gauge tramway ) was opened, linking Bad Dürkheim with Ludwigshafen and Mannheim . In 1935, Grethen, Hausen and Seebach were amalgamated. After 1933
11770-560: Was in 1865, when the Ffestiniog Railway introduced passenger service after receiving its first locomotives two years earlier. Many narrow-gauge railways were part of industrial enterprises and served primarily as industrial railways , rather than general carriers. Common uses for these industrial narrow-gauge railways included mining, logging, construction, tunnelling, quarrying, and conveying agricultural products. Extensive narrow-gauge networks were constructed in many parts of
11880-548: Was in use in the 4th century. On the western edge of the Wurstmarkt grounds stands the Dürkheimer Riesenfass ("Giant Barrel"), the world's biggest barrel. It houses a restaurant. The Kurhaus (“spa house”) holds not only catering rooms and lounges but also the Dürkheim casino . The graduation tower , known locally as Saline , is part of Bad Dürkheim's spa facilities. With a length of some 330 m, it
11990-649: Was probably the third petrol-engined locomotive built. Extensive narrow-gauge rail systems served the front-line trenches of both sides in World War I . They were a short-lived military application, and after the war the surplus equipment created a small boom in European narrow-gauge railway building. The heavy-duty 3 ft 6 in ( 1,067 mm ) narrow-gauge railways in Australia (Queensland), New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia and
12100-581: Was re-elected on 6 May 2007 for a further eight years with 75.3% of the vote. His successor was Christoph Glogger (SPD), who was elected in July 2015 with 52.83% of the votes. He was succeeded by Natalie Bauernschmitt (CDU), elected in June 2023. The German blazon reads: In Silber ein schwarzer Maueranker (Türangel). This might be rendered in English as: Argent, a wall brace (hinge) sable. The arms go back to
#971028