Rhineland-Palatinate

[rahyn-land-puh-lat-n-eyt, -it, -luhnd-]

Rhineland-Palatinate, Ger. Rheinland-Pfalz, state (1994 pop. 3,926,000), 7,658 sq mi (19,834 sq km), W Germany. Mainz is the capital. The state was formed in 1946 by the merger of the Rhenish Palatinate, Rhenish Hesse, the southern portion of the former Rhine Province of Prussia (including Koblenz and Trier), and a small part of the former Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau. Rhineland-Palatinate borders on France and the Saarland in the south, on Luxembourg and Belgium in the west, on the German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen in the north, and on the German states of Hessen and Baden-Württemberg in the east. It is drained by the Rhine and Moselle (Mosel) rivers and includes the Hunsrück and Eifel ranges and other divisions of the Rhenish Slate Mts. The majority of the working population is employed in industry, which is centered in Ludwigshafen, Pirmasens, Kaiserslautern, and Zweibrücken. There are major chemical and engineering industries in these and other cities. Grain, potatoes, sugar beets, fruit, and tobacco are grown in the fertile Rhine plain. The portion of the region's population engaged in small-scale agriculture is steadily declining as large-scale farming increases. Some of the most successful German vineyards are found in the Moselle and Rhine valleys in Rhineland-Palatinate; these include the celebrated stretch of vineyards, known as the Weinstrasse, that runs parallel to the Rhine. Bad Ems and Bad Kreuznach are noted spas. Although the state has as yet little historic unity, it does include the historic centers of Mainz, Speyer, Trier, and Worms.

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Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) is one of the 16 federal states (German: Bundesländer) of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz.

History

The federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate was established on 30 August 1946. It was formed from the northern part of the French Occupation Zone, which included parts of Bavaria (the Rhenish Palatinate), the southern parts of the Prussian Rhine Province (including the District of Birkenfeld which formerly belonged to Oldenburg), parts of the Prussian Province of Nassau (see Hesse-Nassau), and parts of Hesse-Darmstadt (Rhinehessen on the western banks of the Rhine); the new state was legally confirmed by referendum on 18 May 1947.

Geography

Rhineland-Palatinate borders (from the north and clockwise) North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, France, Saarland, Luxembourg and Belgium.

The biggest river of the state is the Rhine river, which forms the border with Baden-Württemberg and Hesse in the southeast before running through the northern part of Rhineland-Palatinate. The Rhine Valley is bounded by mountain chains and forms a fascinating landscape containing some of the most historically significant places in Germany.

The Eifel and Hunsrück mountain chains are found on the west bank of the Rhine in northern Rhineland-Palatinate, while the Westerwald and Taunus mountains are found on the east bank. The hilly lands in the southernmost region of the state are covered by the Palatinate forest and the Palatinate.

These mountain chains are separated from each other by the following tributaries of the Rhine: the Moselle (Mosel), the Lahn and the Nahe.

Politics

Rhineland-Palatinate is a parliamentary democracy. Every five years, all Germans residing in the State over the age of 18 elect the members of the Rhineland-Palatinate Landtag. This regional parliament or legislature then elects the premier and confirms the cabinet members. Rhineland-Palatinate is the only German Bundesland to have a cabinet minister for winegrowing (Ministry of Economy, Traffic, Agriculture and Winegrowing)

List of Minister-presidents of Rhineland-Palatinate

13 June 1947 – 9 July 1947: Wilhelm Boden, CDU
1947–1969: Peter Altmeier, CDU
1969–1976: Helmut Kohl, CDU
1976–1988: Bernhard Vogel, CDU
1988–1991: Carl-Ludwig Wagner, CDU
1991–1994: Rudolf Scharping, SPD
since 1994: Kurt Beck, SPD

26 March 2006 state election

Kurt Beck (SPD) remained Minister-President, winning an outright majority. Beck offered the FDP to continue the coalition ("red-yellow"). The FDP, however, declined and went into opposition. The Alliance '90/The Greens lost their representation in the State Parliament.

Party	Party List votes	Vote percentage	Total Seats	Seat percentage
Social Democratic Party (SPD)	750,390	45.2%	53	52.5%
Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	668,610	32.8%	38	37.6%
Free Democratic Party (FDP)	134,709	8.0%	10	9.9%
Alliance '90/The Greens	86,255	4.98%	0	0.0%
Electoral Alternative for Labor and Social Justice (WASG)	47,352	2.7%	0	0.0%
All Others	45,010	2.6%	0	0.0%
Totals	1,732,326	100.0%	101	100.0%

Administration

Rhineland-Palatinate is divided into 24 districts, formerly grouped into the three administrative regions: Koblenz, Trier and Rheinhessen-Pfalz.

Since 2000, the employees and assets of the Bezirksregierungen form the Aufsichts- und Dienstleistungsdirektion Trier (Supervisory and Service Directorate Trier) and the Struktur- und Genehmigungsdirektionen (Structural and Approval Directorates) Nord in Koblenz and Süd in Neustadt (Weinstraße). These administrations execute their authority over the whole state, i. e. the ADD Trier oversees all schools.

Map of the districts of Rhineland-Palatinate:

Every district is composed of numerous municipalities, which can consist of cities, villages, or groups of villages known as Verbandsgemeinden. Furthermore there are twelve urban districts which are identified on the map with letters:

Frankenthal (F)
Kaiserslautern (Ka)
Koblenz Coblenz (Ko)
Landau (La, the main city and an enclave)
Ludwigshafen (Rheinpfalz-Kreis) (L)
Mainz (M)
Neustadt (Weinstraße) (N)
Pirmasens (P)
Speyer Spires (S)
Trier (T)
Worms (W)
Zweibrücken (Z)

Economy

Agriculture and viticulture

Rhineland-Palatinate is Germany's leading producer of wine. In terms of grape cultivation as well as wine export Rhineland-Palatinate is the leading federal state. Its capital, Mainz, may be called the capital of the German wine industry, with the home of the German Wine Institute, the German Wine Fund in the Haus des Deutschen Weines (House of the German Wine), as well as the venue of the Verband Deutscher Prädikats- und Qualitätsweingüter Wine Bourse, which brings together the top winemakers of Germany and the wine merchants of the world.

Six out of all thirteen wine regions for quality wine in Germany, Rheinhessen, Pfalz, Mosel, Nahe, Mittelrhein and Ahr are located in Rhineland-Palatinate. Due to this fact 65% to 70% of the whole production output of wine grapes in Germany have their origin within this federal state. 13,000 wine producers generate 80% to 90% of the German wine export, which was 2.6&nbps;million&nbps;hectoliters in 2003.

Traditional grape varieties as well as a wide range of varieties developed during the last 125 years are characteristic for the region. Classical white varieties are cultivated at . These comprise the famous Rieslings , Müller-Thurgau Silvaner and Kerner ().

The share of red varieties grew constantly during the last decades and amounts to . Dornfelder, a new breed, is the leading red grape cultivated on , which is more than a third. Blauer Portugieser and Spätburgunder show also appreciable cultivated shares.

Beside these Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay as white varieties and Regent and St. Laurent as red varieties are increasing their share throughout the years, as the growing conditions improve in Rhineland-Palatinate.

The land supports the wine industry by providing a comprehensive consultancy and education program in the service supply centers (German: DLR) of the land. The Geilweilerhof Institute for Grape Breeding and also the Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute are fully or even partially financed by the land. Many well known new breeds like Morio-Muskat, Bacchus, Optima and Regent have been created in these institutes.

The world wide leader in sparkling wine production, producing 245 million bottles in 2006, is the renowned Schloss Wachenheim Group. This company has its roots and its operations at different places in Rhineland-Palatinate and is headquartered in Trier.

Other renowned sparkling wine producers like Kupferberg, Deinhard and Henkell also had their roots in the land, but now belong to companies outside this federal state, due to business consolidation.

Industry

Important sectors are the chemical industry with the BASF largest chemical company in the world, headquartered in Ludwigshafen, the pharmaceutical industry with Boehringer Ingelheim in Ingelheim am Rhein and the mechanical engineering for important car manufacturers like Opel (engines in Kaiserslautern) or the biggest European truck manufacturer DaimlerChrysler-Truck-Group in Wörth am Rhein, as well as Stabilus, a manufacturer of shock absorbers and world market leader in pneumatic springs and Schottel for nautical engineering. Cookie and cracker specialist Griesson - de Beukelaer is one of the leading biscuit manufacturers in Germany. Bitburger is one of the major brewers in Germany and the Gerolsteiner Brunnen is also a leader in its sector, the mineral water bottlers. The famous electronic organ manufacturer Wersi is headquartered in Halsenbach.

Frankfurt-Hahn Airport is the only international passenger airport in RP.

Emigration

Rhineland-Palatinate has supplied immigrants to many parts of the world. The Hunsrückischen dialect in Brazil bears testimony to this fact, as do the names of the villages of New Paltz and Palatine Bridge in New York and Palatine, Illinois. The Pennsylvania Dutch spoken by the Amish people is (among other dialects) derived from the German dialect spoken in the Rhineland-Palatinate.

Certain colonies in the United States were settled by poor Palatines—then refugees in England—passage paid for by Queen Anne of Great Britain to reduce the number of impoverished families in London. One of the most notable is New Bern, one of the earliest North Carolina colonies settled in 1710 by about 400 Palatines (it was 650, but about half died in passage) and 100 Swiss. This venture was orchestrated by the Swiss-born Christoph von Graffenried after purchasing over from the British Proprieters of Carolana (later called Carolina).