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124-764: In the southern and central Palatine Forest the effect of the Palatine Watershed is especially clear. There it separates the catchment areas of its four major drainage systems into an eastern and a western region: The Lauter , referred to in its upper reaches as the Wieslauter , the Queich and the Speyerbach flow eastwards, directly into the Upper Rhine; the Schwarzbach collects the water from

248-465: 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

372-402: 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

496-612: 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

620-648: A "special protected landscape" has come to the forefront. This change in attitude found visible expression, inter alia, through 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

744-546: 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 the southeast. The southern Palatinate sandstone formations of the Zechstein are divided into four strata having

868-559: 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

992-462: 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 the Quaternary period (2.8 to 0.01 million years ago) erosion processes once more dominated. In particular, it

1116-590: 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 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

1240-458: 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

1364-696: 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

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1488-532: 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 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

1612-483: 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

1736-627: 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 the northern and central Palatinate Forest are prominent hill "blocks" ( Bergklötze ) and elongated trapezium-shaped ridges, frequently with rocky summit areas (e. g.

1860-581: 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 the UNESCO guidelines for the design of biosphere reserves would be implemented specifically for the Palatinate Forest Nature Park. This laid down

1984-529: 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 the Lower and Middle Bunter have produced

2108-438: 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 the old protected area regulation for the Palatinate Forest Nature Park (1984) and therefore overlaps with

2232-699: 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 the Vosges south of the French border, from which it has no morphological separation,

2356-729: 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 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

2480-601: 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

2604-612: 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

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2728-558: 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

2852-462: 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 the 450 metre contour line. North of the line from Hochspeyerbach to Speyerbach the highest points are

2976-478: 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

3100-430: 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

3224-475: 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

3348-611: 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

3472-565: 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

3596-463: 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

3720-435: 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

3844-597: 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

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3968-643: 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, the eastern part of the very extensive eastern scarplands of France, which, on German soil, take in large parts of

4092-401: 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

4216-462: 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) the first sandstone formations, some 100 metres thick, were deposited in

4340-525: 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

4464-578: 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

4588-485: 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

4712-689: 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

4836-639: 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

4960-568: 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

5084-537: 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 a line from Eisenberg via Göllheim and Börrstadt to Otterberg near Kaiserslautern . The hill country between

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5208-537: 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

5332-480: 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

5456-619: 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 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 ),

5580-539: 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 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

5704-522: 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

5828-746: 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

5952-532: 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 the appearance of the countryside. Over the millennia, the weathering and erosion of

6076-1033: The Moosalb , Rodalb , Wallhalb and Hornbach ) with the Nahe tributary of the Glan . The drainage divide runs from the Lower Frankenweide westwards through the Imperial Forest (the Reichswald ) past the Großer Humberg (430 m) in the area of the Großer Hausberg (471 m) between Kaiserslautern and Landstuhl . On the Sickingen Heights it runs close to its northern edge to the Saarland border at Homburg . In

6200-439: 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

6324-419: 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

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6448-427: 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

6572-422: 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

6696-400: 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

6820-466: The Wiesbach , and heads into the region of Rheinhessen . In the south the Palatine Watershed lies below 500 m, its highest point being in the central Palatine Forest northwest of the Hortenkopf at 591 m and in the vicinity of Eschkopf and Mosisberg , in both cases reaching 596m above NHN. The two branches further north vary considerably in height: the western branch lies well under 500 m. The northern branch reaches more than 600 m at

6944-408: 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

7068-453: 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 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

7192-455: 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 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

7316-406: 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 ), the Weinbiet (554.0 m), and the Eckkopf (516.0 m) near Deidesheim . North of the Isenach only

7440-407: 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, 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,

7564-441: The Donnersberg, from where its elevation reduces on the last 8 kilometres to the Rheinhessian border still at an elevation of 300 m. --> Palatine Forest The Palatinate Forest ( German : Pfälzerwald [ˈpfɛltsɐvalt] ), sometimes also called the Palatine Forest , is a low-mountain region in southwestern Germany , located in the Palatinate in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . The forest

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7688-614: 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

7812-414: 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

7936-417: 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

8060-399: 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

8184-623: 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

8308-418: The Großer Schiffelskopf (457 m) and reaches the region of Gräfenstein Land . From there it runs up the Hortenkopf (606 m) in the central Frankenweide . Several kilometres it passes through the hamlet of Johanniskreuz (470 m), one of the highest settlements in the Palatine Forest. The watershed then reaches the area west of Waldleiningen in the Lower Frankenweide. There are two options for

8432-430: 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 the Forest descends in a clear escarpment, especially into the boggy lowland of the Landstuhl Bruch west of Kaiserslautern. To

8556-547: 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

8680-408: 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

8804-413: 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 the west and south is less sharp. To the north, the Palatinate Forest is adjoined by the North Palatine Uplands , including

8928-538: The Palatine part. This led to the Palatinate Forest and Vosges being defined as separate and distinct landscapes. However, in recent decades, in the context of European integration (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

9052-614: 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, 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

9176-480: 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 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

9300-716: 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 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

9424-610: 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 a result of further depositions of sand, rock layers of up to 500 metres thickness were formed. This led inter alia , through

9548-619: 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 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

9672-468: 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 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

9796-535: 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

9920-456: 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

10044-519: 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

10168-457: 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 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,

10292-466: 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 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

10416-650: 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 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),

10540-686: The first cross-border biosphere reserve, the Palatinate Forest-North Vosges Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO . Whilst there are traces of human activities in 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

10664-491: 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 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

10788-593: The forest of Stumpfwald in the northern Palatine Forest the watershed enters the North Palatine Uplands , passing immediately west of the summit of the highest point in the Uplands, the Donnersberg (686.5 m). North of Kirchheimbolanden , near Orbis (327 m), it leaves the Palatinate between the source of the Selz , which flows into the Upper Rhine, and the upper reaches of the Nahe tributary,

10912-468: 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 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

11036-458: 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 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

11160-411: 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

11284-435: 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,

11408-434: The industry, reinforced especially in the 1980s and 1990s by increasing unemployment and induced migration trends. In addition, the far-reaching demographic changes of 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

11532-481: 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

11656-647: 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 ) was founded as a support organization. The members of the association are those counties and independent towns whose territories are covered by

11780-634: 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

11904-454: 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 the expansion of recreational facilities was viewed as complete and attention switched to the care of biotopes and

12028-595: The more rarely postulated second case, the watershed runs from the Lower Frankenweide onwards in a northeasterly, later more northerly direction. In doing so, it separates the catchment area of the Nahe in the west, to which the Lauter (locally Waldlauter ) , Alsenz and Appelbach belong, from the sources of the smaller, west Upper Rhine tributaries, namely the Isenach , Eckbach , Eisbach and Pfrimm . From

12152-402: 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

12276-422: 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, 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

12400-582: 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 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

12524-402: The name. A more precise, scientifically based definition of the Palatinate Forest as an independent natural region was introduced in 1911 by Daniel Häberle, a Palatine geographer and local historian. Prior to 1850, there was no overall name for the Palatine's bunter sandstone mountains Historical territorial factors, rather than geographical ones, governed perceptions at the time. By contrast,

12648-469: 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 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,

12772-401: The nature park concept, Alfred Toepfer , the Palatinate Forest was to be a place of recreation and exercise for the stressed office workers of 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

12896-653: 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

13020-513: 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 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

13144-552: The northern course of the Palatine Watershed, depending on whether the confluence of the Nahe at Bingen is counted as part of the Upper Rhine or is seen as belonging to the Middle Rhine. If the former is assumed, it runs south of the catchment area of the Nahe; if the latter, it runs to the east of it. In the first, more usually accepted case, the watershed is identical with that of the Schwarzbach and its headstreams (especially

13268-420: 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 the core area in the biosphere reserve, with its mixed stands of primeval beech, oak and pine. The Palatinate Forest

13392-462: 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

13516-590: 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 the Altschlossfelsen , fractures , overhangs and honeycomb weathering can also be observed. By contrast, felsenmeers and blockfields tend to be found more in

13640-525: 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 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

13764-402: 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 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

13888-546: 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,

14012-500: 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

14136-544: 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). German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] ) 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

14260-405: The villagers now no longer worked locally, but in more distant regional centres, such as Ludwigshafen and Kaiserslautern. By contrast local industries in 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

14384-579: 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 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

14508-638: The western Palatine Forest and sends it via the Blies , Saar and Moselle rivers to the Middle Rhine. In the southern Palatine Forest, the German part of the Wasgau , the Palatine Watershed begins on the French border in the area of the Erlenkopf hill (473 m above NHN ), where it is a continuation of the watershed in the northern Vosges . Always generally running from southwest to northeast it initially heads eastwards past Eppenbrunn and Pirmasens over

14632-555: 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

14756-600: 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

14880-429: 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

15004-547: 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

15128-492: 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

15252-556: 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 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

15376-473: 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 the bedrock of the Palatinate Forest today, but they are generally covered by younger rock formations, cropping out only in

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