Rhineland-Palatinate

Basic data:

Universities:

Kaiserslautern: Technical University of Kaiserslautern
Koblenz: University of Koblenz-Landau Dept. Koblenz
Landau / Palatinate: University of Koblenz-Landau Dept. Landau
Mainz: Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz
Speyer: German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer
Trier: University of Trier
Vallendar: WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management

Geography:

In the north, Rhineland-Palatinate includes the southern part of the Eifel, the Hunsrück, the western Westerwald and the northwestern part of the Taunus from the Rhenish Slate Mountains. In the southern area, the Mainz Basin, the Rhenish-Hessian hill country, the North Palatinate Uplands, the West Palatinate moorland, the Southwest Palatinate plateau, the Palatinate Forest and part of the Upper Rhine Plain.

Rhineland-Palatinate borders on North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Saarland and Baden-Württemberg, as well as on the states of Belgium, France and Luxembourg as part of the Greater Region.

The federal waterways Rhine, Moselle, Saar and Lahn flow through Rhineland-Palatinate. Other important watercourses are the Nahe, Sauer, Our, Glan and Sieg. The largest lake is the Laacher See, the crater lake of an extinct volcano.

Climate:

Rhineland-Palatinate is located in a zone of temperate climate, characterized by the weather changes.

The daily fluctuations in temperature are relatively small. The average annual temperature is 9 °C. In the high areas of the low mountain ranges such as the Westerwald, Hunsrück and Eifel, the annual mean temperature is 1 to 2 °C lower. The maximum temperatures are highest in July with an average of 23 °C, lowest in January with an average of -1 °C.

Precipitation is almost evenly distributed throughout the year. The regions in Rhineland-Palatinate have very different precipitation values. On the eastern edge of the mountains, such as the Palatinate Forest, there is considerably less rain than in the rest of the country.

history:

In the year 55 BC In the Gallic War between Andernach and Koblenz, Julius Caesar had a Rhine bridge built in just 10 days, two years later the bridge was built again near Urmitz.

Preliminary negotiations that led to a division of the Frankish Empire took place in 843 in the Basilica of St. Castor in Koblenz. The results were sealed in the Treaty of Verdun in the same year. This led to the splitting up of a kingdom in West Francia, an kingdom in East Franconia and a middle kingdom called Lotharingia, which was divided again in 855.

Johannes Gutenberg from Mainz invented the printing press around 1440. On April 17, 1521, Martin Luther stood in front of the Diet of Worms, where he was questioned in front of the assembled princes and imperial estates and asked for the last time to recant. However, it refused and was then outlawed by the Worms Edict.

In the Palatine War of Succession from 1688 to 1697, large parts of what is now Rhineland-Palatinate were devastated. The reason for the war was that the French King Louis XIV claimed the Electoral Palatinate after the death of Charles II. After the French Revolution, the areas on the left bank of the Rhine were occupied by French troops during the First Coalition War, the electors had to flee and their electoral states (except for Mainz) were dissolved in 1803 as part of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss. Protected by French troops, the Mainz Republic was proclaimed in Mainz in 1794.Before the fall of Napoleon, the departments of Rhin-et-Moselle, Saar and Donnersberg were established between 1798 and 1814 on the left bank of the Rhine. After that, the territories fell to Prussia (Rhine Province), the Grand Duchy of Hesse (Rheinhessen), the Duchy of Oldenburg (Birkenfeld) and the Kingdom of Bavaria (Palatinate). However, the liberal spirit of the French Revolution remained in many cities for a very long time. After the German Confederation was created, the fortresses of Mainz and Landau were expanded to become federal fortresses, and the Koblenz Fortress was built in Prussian Koblenz.

The Versailles Treaty of 1918 and the loss of World War I meant the end of the fortresses in today\'s Rhineland-Palatinate. Only a few parts of the fortress were completely preserved, e.g. B. the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress in Koblenz and the Mainz Citadel. From 1918 to 1930, the Rhineland was occupied and demilitarized by French troops. During this economically and politically extremely difficult time, separatist movements and the founding of the Autonomous Palatinate and the Rhenish Republic emerged in some cities. However, both movements were not permanent and disappeared again with the economic upswing.

The subsequent World War II and National Socialism changed people\'s lives and the appearance of the cities, Jewish communities were almost completely wiped out. Most of the larger cities were largely destroyed by bombing. The American forces reached the Rhine in March 1945 and were able to cross the river for the first time via the Remagen Bridge.

After World War II, Rhineland-Palatinate was part of the French occupation zone. It originated from the former Bavarian Palatinate, from the administrative districts of Koblenz and Trier of the former Prussian Rhine province, from the parts on the left bank of the Rhine of the province of Rheinhessen, which formerly belonged to the People\'s State of Hesse, from parts of the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau (Montabaur) and from the former Oldenburg area around Birkenfeld .

On July 15, 1945, according to the resolutions of the Potsdam Conference, the occupation sovereignty in the area of ​​today\'s Rhineland-Palatinate passed from the Americans to the French, who initially divided the area provisionally into 2 \"Oberpraesidia\". These were Rhineland-Hesse-Nassau and Hesse-Palatinate. The state of Rhineland-Palatinate was created on August 30, 1946 as the last federal state in the former western zones of occupation by decree no. 57 of the French military government. As a result, historically and economically related areas of the former Prussian Rhine Province and other territories were separated.

The French government originally wanted to leave open the possibility of annexing further areas on the left bank of the Rhine after the Saarland had been converted into a protectorate. However, the French came under increasing pressure as the Americans and British had gone ahead with the formation of German lands. Finally, with the states of Baden and Rhineland-Palatinate, they followed the example of the other Western Allies. However, connecting the Saarland to Rhineland-Palatinate was forbidden by the French military government.

On November 22, 1946, a draft constitution was drawn up in the course of the \"Advisory State Assembly\", before which there had been municipal elections. dr Wilhelm Boden was born on December 2nd. appointed provisional prime minister of the newly formed state of Rhineland-Palatinate by the French occupation authorities. Adolf Süsterhenn submitted a draft constitution to the advisory state assembly, which was passed on April 25, 1947 in a final vote by name with the absolute majority of the CDU against the SPD and KPD. On May 18, 1947, the constitution for Rhineland-Palatinate was approved in a referendum by 53% of those entitled to vote.

At the same time, the 1Elections to the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament took place, the constituent session took place on June 4th, 1947 in Koblenz, the capital of the new state. Wilhelm Boden became the first prime minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, and just a month later Peter Altmeier succeeded him in this office. A tank car explosion at BASF in Ludwigshafen on July 28, 1948 killed 207 people, injured 3,818 and damaged 3,122 buildings.

In 1950, the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament decided to relocate the state government from Koblenz to Mainz. A sense of community developed very slowly in the state and Rhineland-Palatinate was given only a few chances of survival. The settlement of numerous military bases brought about a certain economic upswing. In 1956, based on Article 29 of the Basic Law, referendums were held in the then administrative districts of Koblenz, Trier, Montabaur, Rheinhessen and Palatinate, which involved the incorporation of the regions concerned into North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse or Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. All (except those in the administrative district of Palatinate) received the necessary majority, but it took almost 20 years before the referendums that this required were finally carried out.

In the vote on January 19, 1975, a majority for reorganization could not be achieved in any of the affected regions, which ended a decade-long discussion.

As part of the NATO double-track decision, a total of 96 ready-to-launch cruise missiles with nuclear warheads were stationed at the Pydna missile base in the Hunsrück in 1986. The popular protest culminated in a large demonstration on October 11, 1986, in which around 200,000 people peacefully protested against the stationing. On August 28, 1988, the Ramstein Air Day accident happened. According to official figures, 70 people died in this air disaster at Ramstein Air Base and another 345 were seriously injured. After 1989, the withdrawal of numerous garrisons, especially US troops, created a serious economic problem for Rhineland-Palatinate.

Since the country was founded, there have been 13 electoral periods, and the state parliament voted during this time 7 prime ministers who headed a total of 34 cabinets. In the state elections on May 17, 1987, the Greens entered parliament for the first time, and the CDU lost its absolute majority after 16 years.

After Hans-Otto Wilhelm was elected chairman of the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU at the state party conference on November 11, 1988 in Koblenz, Bernhard Vogel announced his resignation as Prime Minister on December 2, 1989 and left the party conference. On December 8th, 1988 Dr. Carl Ludwig Wagner elected.

After the SPD had already become the strongest party in the country in the local elections of 1989, the CDU lost its position as the strongest political force in the country, which it had held since 1947, in the state elections of April 21, 1991. The SPD was able to form a governable majority together with the FDP, and on May 21 Rudolf Scharping was elected prime minister of an SPD/FDP government. With him, the SPD provided the Prime Minister of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate for the first time. Rudolf Scharping was in office from May 21, 1991 until he moved to Bonn 10/15/1994.

After his decision to devote himself exclusively to federal politics, Kurt Beck was elected his successor on October 20, 1994, who also had the majority for the SPD in the elections for the 13th state parliament on March 24, 1996 and for the 14th state parliament on March 25, 2001 could assert in coalition with the FDP. The SPD emerged from the elections for the 15th state parliament with an absolute majority.

In the election on March 26, 2006, the SPD under Beck was able to win the absolute majority of seats and form a one-man government.

Economy:

The industry with the highest turnover in Rhineland-Palatinate is the chemical industry (focus on Ludwigshafen am Rhein.This is followed by road vehicle construction, the food and beverage industry, mechanical engineering, office machines, EDP, plastic goods manufacture, the iron, sheet metal and metal goods industry as well as the electrotechnical, iron-producing and stone and earth industries.

Regional focal points are the shoe industry (Pirmasens area), fine ceramics (Westerwald) and the precious stone industry (Idar-Oberstein area). The country has few mineral resources, but is rich in usable stones and earth and has numerous mineral springs.

The area used for agriculture in 2005 was around 7,100 km², of which around 56% is used as arable land. Grains occupy the largest area under cultivation. The most important special culture is viticulture with about 627 km² of cultivated area. Rhineland-Palatinate produces around 66% of the German wine harvest. Livestock farming is of little importance. The forest covers 40.8% of the area of ​​Rhineland-Palatinate.

Rhineland-Palatinate is part of one of the most important north-south railway connections in Germany, the route Ruhrgebiet-Alps, which runs along the Middle and Upper Rhine. The Palatinate Gebrüch is an important east-west traffic route. Motorways improve the country\'s infrastructure, and there are inland waterways on the Rhine, Moselle and Saar.