105-532: The Lauter Valley Railway ( German : Lautertalbahn ) is a branch line in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate . It runs from Kaiserslautern along the Lauter river to Lauterecken . The railway, which was opened in 1883, has only regional importance. Deutsche Bundesbahn planned in the 1980s to close the line. Its existence has now been secured since the establishment of Deutsche Bahn . While freight traffic
210-465: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it
315-402: A second language , and 75–100 million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220 million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90 million people, or 16% of
420-612: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become
525-474: A branch from the Lauter Valley Railway to return passenger services to Weilerbach. However, financial constraints and a lack of political support prevented the implementation of these plans. On 1 January 1994, the German railway reform came into force and ownership of the line was transferred from Deutsche Bundesbahn to Deutsche Bahn AG. As the states were now responsible for local transport,
630-411: A concession for the line on 9 May 1880. The plans were delayed because of disagreements over the route and problems in acquiring the necessary land. On 18 February 1882, work began with a groundbreaking ceremony on the site of today's Kaiserslautern West station. Due to the expected heavy freight traffic at the original Kaiserslautern West station ( Westbahnhof ), the section to this station was designed as
735-559: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from
840-410: A main line railway, while the remaining section to Lauterecken was designed as a secondary line with lighter trackwork. The railway was not built gradually from the south to the north, but instead it was built relatively simultaneously by different companies. The line opened on 15 November 1883 after a test run had confirmed its capacity for operations as early as 17 September. In the first decades there
945-458: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained
1050-412: A pilot project to install a system for controlling train operations by radio, but was unsuccessful. In the period from 16 to 18 December 2005, the previous mechanical interlocking technology on the Lauter Valley Railway, which had been used for over 100 years, was replaced by an electronic interlocking technology of the "Bruchsal G" type, which had originally been planned to be installed in the autumn of
1155-696: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In
SECTION 10
#17327940262221260-514: A railway junction, was the victim of a series of air raids, which among other things burnt down the roundhouse . In March 1945, there was another air raid. After the Second World War Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) took over operations on the line and incorporated them into the railway division of Mainz. The latter received those sections controlled by the former railway division of Saarbrücken that were located within
1365-483: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it
1470-502: A side loading ramp, which was about 200 m (660 ft) long. In the eastern part of the station precinct, there was also a watering point for the steam locomotives of the Palatinate Railway . While in the meantime political circumstances had changed, the construction of a strategic railway from Homburg to Bad Münster was still supported. The Odernheim– Bad Münster am Stein section was finally opened in 1904, which made
1575-595: A station where the line crossed the highway there. It was decided that all ordinary trains would stop there, while express trains would stop only at the neighbouring Sobernheim station in Prussia. After the Bingerbrück – Kreuznach section was opened in 1858, the section between Kreuznach and Oberstein was opened on 15 December 1859, connecting Staudernheim to the rail network. The line was duplicated in 1884. After 20 years of discussions, Bavaria and Prussia signed
1680-594: A treaty on 28 October 1891 that authorised the construction of the Glan Valley Railway. The Lauterecken – Odernheim section was opened in October 1896. Closing the gap to Staudernhiem was delayed because local landowners attempted to obtain high prices for the sale of their land for the railway. Accordingly, the missing section was opened in December 1896. The line between Kaiserslautern and Staudernheim
1785-511: Is Bahnhofstraße 1. The station is not far from the left bank of the Nahe . Residential areas extend to its north and south. It has barrier-free access. The Nahe Valley Railway runs through the municipality in an east-west direction approximately parallel to the Nahe river on its north side. The Glan Valley Railway, which has been disused since 1996, comes from the south at first in a wide arc around
1890-717: Is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and
1995-601: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as
2100-612: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German
2205-558: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic
SECTION 20
#17327940262222310-478: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German
2415-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25 million speak it as
2520-535: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in
2625-611: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as
2730-565: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are
2835-540: Is now a shorter guaranteed time to transfer to and from Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn services in Kaiserslautern. Freight always had a minor role on the line. The Lauter Valley Railway had a greater role in freight only during the two world wars. In the first years of its existence, there were no separate freight trains, but instead there were mixed trains at most. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] )
2940-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and
3045-597: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as
3150-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German
3255-525: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c. 1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period
Lauter Valley Railway - Misplaced Pages Continue
3360-578: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish
3465-485: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers
3570-689: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to
3675-639: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as
3780-711: The Disibodenberg monastery ruin and then connects with the Nahe line just outside the station. In the treaty of 7 June 1856 between the Kingdom of Prussia and the Landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg that authorised the construction of the Nahe Valley Railway, it was agreed in Article 5 to build a bridge over the Nahe in the territory of the landgraviate as close as practicable to Staudernheim and to build
3885-537: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share
3990-417: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language
4095-522: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout
4200-746: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in
4305-666: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c. 765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in
Lauter Valley Railway - Misplaced Pages Continue
4410-753: The Rhine-Nahe Railway , which was completed in 1860. A concession for the line was granted in the mid-1860s. The committee sent a proposal to the Ludwigshafen -based headquarters of the Palatine Ludwig Railway Company ( Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn-Gesellschaft ). The project was in competition with the line along the Alsenz . After the opening, in 1870, of the Alsenz Valley Railway ( Alsenztalbahn ), which at
4515-676: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung
4620-550: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit. ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this
4725-513: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German
4830-461: The branch to Otterbach in 1911, and the Bach Railway ( Bachbahn , so called because all of its stations had names ending in “bach”, i.e. “brook”) to Weilerbach , which was extended in 1920 to Reichenbach , gave the Lauter Valley Railway greater importance, especially its southern stretch, since the passenger trains on either route often continued to Kaiserslautern. On 1 November 1917, during
4935-469: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from
5040-559: The Bach Railway and the line to Otterberg were opened for passengers, their trains ran mostly to Kaiserslautern, so the Kaiserslautern–Lampertsmühle-Otterbach section had increased traffic. From 1966 to 1969, two daily express trains ran towards Kaiserslautern. Sunday services ended in 1975 and Saturday services ended seven years later. Sunday services were restored in 1995. Mostly trains ran via Lauterecken to
5145-723: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In
5250-554: The First World War, the intermediate stops in Kaulbach and Lohnweiler were closed. Eleven months later, however, they were reactivated. In 1920, the line became part of the newly founded Deutsche Reichsbahn . In 1922, there were plans for the stations in Kaulbach, Lohnweiler and Rossbach-Stahlhausen to close due to low use, but local protests prevented this. In 1923 and 1924, so-called Regiebetrieb ("directed operation" of
5355-748: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of
SECTION 50
#17327940262225460-483: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of
5565-604: The German state of Rhineland-Palatinate . It was opened with this line on 15 December 1859 and was the first and only station in the Meisenheim exclave of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg , which was absorbed by Prussia in 1866. The station is located in the network area of the Rhein-Nahe-Nahverkehrsverbund (Rhine-Nahe Transport Association, RNN) and it is in fare zone 420. Its address
5670-399: The German states; the invention of the printing press c. 1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of
5775-623: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by
5880-400: The Glan Valley Railway from Lauterecken-Grumbach to Staudernheim in 1986, the Lauter Valley Railway and the Landstuhl–Kusel railway were the only lines that were spared from the wave of closure of branch lines in the region. On 9 June 1986, Deutsche Bundesbahn and Rhineland-Palatinate entered into an agreement, which divided all the railway lines in the state into three categories. This allowed
5985-415: The Glan Valley Railway on a more complex and expensive route through Lauterecken. Until the completion of Glan Valley Railway in 1904, there were through trains from Kaiserslautern to Staudernheim. The former Lauterecken station was then reduced to the status of a halt and the Lauterecken halt opened in 1896 just to the south of the junction was closed. On 1 January 1909, the Lauter Valley Railway, along with
6090-403: The Homburg–Glan-Munchweiler section in 1981, on the Altenglan–Lauterecken-Grumbach section in 1985 and on the Lauterecken-Grumbach–Staudernheim section on 30 May 1986. The Lauterecken-Grumbach–Staudernheim section was officially closed on 1 July 1996. Since 2000, there have been draisine operations on the Glan Valley Railway from Altenglan to its junction with the Nahe Valley Railway east of
6195-547: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are
6300-644: The Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ), the Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German
6405-409: The Karlsruhe–Kaiserslautern Regional-Express service was extended to Lampertsmühle-Otterbach to cope with the number of visitors. Train crossings took place in Lampertsmühle and Wolfstein until 2008. Since the timetable change in December 2008, trains no longer cross at these stations, but instead cross mainly at Olsbrücken station. Thus, the average travel time was shortened by six minutes, but there
SECTION 60
#17327940262226510-399: The Lampertsmühle-Otterbach–Otterberg branch line (1954) and the line to Reichenbach (1972)—and the closure of the Lauter Valley Railway was also under discussion. This intention was expressed mainly by the railway division of Saarbrücken, which also gradually ended services on the adjacent Glan Valley Railway at the same time. After passenger services were discontinued on the northern section of
6615-410: The Lauter Valley Railway and replaced by buses in 1975. The operation of steam locomotives on the line ended on 26 September 1975. In 1983, the Lauter Valley Railway celebrated its 100th anniversary with a Trans Europ Express service between Kaiserslautern and Lauterecken. Since the 1950s, passenger services have been abandoned on several adjacent lines in the western North Palatine Uplands —including
6720-572: The Lauter Valley Railway had belonged, was dissolved in 1936. Apart from Lauterecken-Grumbach station, which henceforth belonged to the Reichsbahndirektion Mainz , along with the adjacent northern Glan Valley Railway, the line came under the control of the Reichsbahndirektion Saarbrücken . Since the timetable could often not be met during the Second World War, a "list of essential services" appeared in 1941. Therefore, at least three trains had to run between Kaiserslautern and Lauterecken. In December 1944, Lauterecken-Grumbach station, due to its function as
6825-434: The Lauter valley, advocated a route through Otterberg. A new petition of the communities on the Lauter in 1877 supported a route along the Lauter. It was decided to build the Lauter Railway as a secondary line and the plan for a branch to Otterberg was postponed. The Palatine Northern Railway Company ( Gesellschaft der Pfälzischen Nordbahnen ), which had been part of the Palatinate Railway ( Pfalzbahn ) since 1870, received
6930-408: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c. thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c. 1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy
7035-408: The Odernheim–Staudernhein section into a feeder service. While the Glan Valley Railway was duplicated from Homburg to Bad Munster, the connecting line from Stdaudernheim remained as a single track. As part of the modernisation of the Nahe Valley Railway, the mechanical signalling systems at the station were decommissioned around 1980. Passenger services on the Glan Valley Railway were discontinued on
7140-406: The beginning was seen as a route for long-distance traffic, the probability of a rail link via the Lauter dropped significantly. A plan for a main line railway was prepared in 1874. The estimated cost of a line along the Lauter including a branch to Otterberg totalled 3.58 million guilders . At first, there was a dispute over the route. For example, the town of Otterberg, which is located outside
7245-420: The completion of the lower Glan Valley Railway in 1897, through services ran from Staudernheim trains to Kaiserslautern and vice versa on the Lauterbrunnen Valley Railway, which was opened in 1883, leading to an increase in traffic at the station. After the Glan Valley Railway was opened in 1904 for its full length between Homburg and Bad Münster, these services were cancelled. Subsequently, the line to Odernheim
7350-456: The cost of the modernisation totalled €2.5 million. The work was completed in June 2012 and the official opening of the modernised station subsequently took place with the participation of several state and local politicians. With the completion of the Nahe Valley Railway in 1860 a total of four pairs of train services ran between Saarbrücken and Bingerbrück. Due to its insignificance, express trains stopped only in neighbouring Sobernheim. With
7455-430: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with
7560-456: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in
7665-519: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of
7770-415: The efficiency of the Lauter Valley Railway to be verified. In the following years the Lauter Valley Railway was threatened with closure, but the public and local politicians managed to preserve the line. In 1969, Deutsche Bundesbahn ended passenger services at Kaiserslautern West station and replaced it with a new station of the same name. This is right at the junction of the spur to the original terminus. In
7875-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,
7980-481: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. 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-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of
8085-541: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Staudernheim station Staudernheim station is a through station, located 35.3 km (21.9 mi) from Bingen on the Nahe Valley Railway (Bingen– Saarbrücken ), in Staudernheim in the district of Bad Kreuznach in
8190-492: The late 1980s, the terminus was closed as a freight yard, but for several years it still operated as a siding. In 1991, plans were developed to allow the Lauter Valley Railway to run within Kaiserslautern as a "City Railway" ( Citybahn ). The trains from the West Station would operate on a route through the city centre to terminate near the town hall at a newly built "City Station” ( Citybahnhof ). There would also have been
8295-579: The line was no longer under the threat of closure. On 20 August 1995, the first "car-free day in the Lauter valley" ( Autofreies Lautertal ) was celebrated with the reintroduction of Sunday services. The trains were very busy that day. In 2000, the Lauter Valley Railway, along with the entire Western Palatinate, was initially part of the Westpfalz-Verkehrsverbundes (Western Palatinate Transport Association, WVV), but six years later this
8400-616: The lower Glan Valley Railway. Thus, the summer timetable of 1971 included two pairs of trains on the line bound for Staudernheim or Meisenheim . The line is listed in the Deutsche Bahn time table as route number (KBS) 673 and as Regionalbahn line 66 of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar (Rhine-Neckar Transport Association, VRN) network. In 2000, during the State Garden Show in Kaiserslautern,
8505-454: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted
8610-536: The newly created federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. In 1951 a new station called Kaiserslautern-Pfaffwerk was opened at the Pfaff factory between the Kaiserslautern Hauptbahnhof and Kaiserslautern West station. As part of the dissolution of the railway division of Mainz in 1971, the line was transferred to the control of the railway division of Saarbrücken again. Sunday traffic was abandoned on
8715-653: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from
8820-471: The occupiers in the operation of the railway, so the French took rail operations into their own hands. Since the military officers involved did not fully understand the German operating instructions and the safe-working systems, railway operation during this time were hazardous. The time required to travel over the whole Lauter Valley Railway at that time was almost two hours. The Reichsbahndirektion ( railway division of) Ludwigshafen founded in 1922, to which
8925-457: The opening of the lower Glan Valley Railway to Odernheim and its extension to Staudernheim in 1897. Continuous services from the Lauter Valley Railway to Staudernheim ended with the opening of the remaining sections of the Glan Valley Railway in 1904. From 1906, some trains ran only on part of the line, such as between Lauterecken and Wolfenstein, between Kaiserslautern and Olsbrücken and between Kaiserslautern West and Lampertsmühle-Otterbach. After
9030-580: The other railway lines within the Palatinate, was taken over by the Royal Bavarian State Railways . In 1912, the stations of Kaisersmühle, Sambach, Oberweiler-Tiefenbach and Lauterecken were abandoned for lack of profitability. By May 1912, the barriers had been removed at 42 level crossings, as a result of rationalisation. Two years later, Stahlhausen- Rutsweiler station also had to be closed because of low usage. The opening of
9135-522: The previous year. Since then the railway facilities have been controlled by an electronic interlocking at Neustadt an der Weinstraße . This has reduced costs on the line. The route follows the entire length of the Lauter river. Shortly before Kaiserslautern West, it runs through a cutting and then passes under the Lauter viaduct of Autobahn 6 . The only tunnel along the line is the 91 metre-long Eisenknopf Tunnel in Wolfenstein. Shortly before reaching
9240-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation
9345-717: The railways by the Allied military during the Occupation of the Ruhr ) was imposed under the control of France, which had occupied the Palatinate. The local population boycotted the railway during the occupation. Therefore, reinforced German Post Office bus routes and private trucks were used as an alternative to the French-controlled railways. In addition, the German Ministry of Transport refused to cooperate with
9450-458: The residents at the northern edge of the town and to the central Glan valley. From 1897, it was connected to the Rhine-Nahe Railway at Staudernheim . In order to link the Altenglan –Lauterecken section of the Glan Valley Railway opened in 1904, Lauterecken-Grumbach station was opened at the junction in the same year as an interchange station. Otherwise, it would have been necessary to build
9555-546: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,
9660-448: The station. There are plans to extend this service to the station. Plans to modernise the station fundamentally were finalised in 2008. This included the provision of disabled access in the form of raising the height of the platforms to 55 cm (22 in), the installation of two lifts, a ramp for wheelchairs and the renewal of the stairs including the adaptation of the stairs to the new platform height. Construction began in 2010 and
9765-493: The terminus at Lauterecken-Grumbach, the line crosses a bridge over the Glan . First, the line runs through the city of Kaiserslautern, from Lampertsmühle-Otterbach to Olsbrücken it runs through the district of Kaiserslautern . The rest of the line is located in the district of Kusel . At the time beginning of operations, three pairs of trains services ran between Kaiserslautern and Lauterecken. In 1896, services were extended with
9870-500: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in
9975-555: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during
10080-600: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching
10185-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of
10290-413: Was a structural and operational oddity at Kaiserslautern West station: the part handling passenger services was built as a terminal station so that passenger trains to Lauterecken had to reverse into the station. Trains running in the opposite direction had to reverse out the station and run backwards to Kaiserslautern Hauptbahnhof ( Hauptbahnhof ). In 1895, the superstructure of the Lauter Valley Railway
10395-562: Was absorbed by the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar (Rhine-Neckar Transport Association, VRN). In the same year, the Kreimbach-Kaulbach station was opened, replacing the existing stations in Kreimbach and Kaulbach. Also in 2005, the platforms at the stations of Olsbrücken , Lampertsmühle-Otterbach, Heinzenhausen and Wolfenstein were upgraded to make them accessible for the disabled. At the same time Deutsche Bahn, carried out
10500-547: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially
10605-675: Was discontinued in the 1990s, there has been growth in passenger demand. In about 1860, a committee was formed called the Notabeln des Glan- und Lautertales (Notables of the Glan and Lauter valleys), which was based in Wolfstein . It campaigned for a railway line that would branch off from the Palatine Ludwig Railway in Kaiserslautern and continue along the Lauter and the lower Glan valleys, connecting in Staudernheim with
10710-492: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which
10815-422: Was opened over its whole length on 1 July 1897. In the course of the opening of the line, the station underwent a major expansion. In this context, it received, among other things, an additional eight sets of points , three terminal tracks with a total length of 1,500 m (4,900 ft), a turntable with a diameter of 16.07 m (52.7 ft), 297 m-long (974 ft) sidings, a head loading ramp and
10920-459: Was operated by steam railcars . Through connections via Odernheim were only restored later. After the closure of the Glan Valley Railway between Odernheim and Bad Münster in 1961, all services on the line ran through Staudernheim; until recently many of them continued to Sobernheim. Until the early 1990s Staudernhiem was a stop for RegionalSchnellBahn (regional rapid transit, a precursor of Regional-Express ) services, before this type of service
11025-414: Was reinforced to adapt to the requirements for the operation of freight trains because of the construction of the lower Glan Valley Railway from Lauterecken. The Lauterecken– Odernheim line opened in 1896 was the direct continuation of the Lauter Valley Railway. To the north of the original terminus at Lauterecken an additional halt ( Haltepunkt ) was built in the district of Veldenzstadt to give access for
#221778