Neustadt an der Weinstraße (; ; ), formerly known as Neustadt an der Haardt, is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With 53,300 inhabitants , it is the largest town called Neustadt.
Geography Location
The town itself lies in the western part of the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region between the Haardt mountains, the eastern edge of the Palatinate Forest, and the western edge of the Upper Rhine Plain in the middle of the Palatinate wine region, an area that is around 10 km wide and 85 km long. The Speyerbach river flows through the town from west to east as does the Rehbach, which separates from the Speyerbach within the town at the Winzinger Wassergescheid before emptying into the River Rhine several kilometres further north than the Speyerbach.
The borough, with its incorporated parishes, measures from west to east and from north to south. Its highest point is at the Hohe Loog House at the top of the Hohe Loog mountain and its lowest is in the village of Geinsheim.
Municipal divisions Town and town quarters Over time the original town and its surrounding settlements, hamlets and farmsteads have grown together, blurring the original boundaries of the town. Today these have become the town quarters of Branchweilerhof in the southeast, the Hambacher Höhe to the southwest, the Afrikaviertel (so named because its streets are named after researchers into Africa) and the Schöntal to the west. These quarters do not have any particular privileges and are not legally incorporated districts, although some voting precinct borders match part of the boundaries.
The best-known quarter is Winzingen which was first recorded in 774 and thus much older than the Neustadt or "new town" founded in the early 13th century. It was a wine growing village that lay below the Speyerbach, i.e. to the east of the new settlement. In 1892, it was incorporated into the then Neustadt an der Haardt. Since then the town has grown beyond Winzingen to the east.
Inclusive all its incorporated subdistricts, Neustadt covers an area of 11,713.5 hectares. Of that, 5,020.0 ha is woodland, 2,216.0 ha are vineyards, 2,300.0 ha are used for other agricultural purposes, 1,607.0 is built up and 50.0 ha are industrial and retail areas.
Subdistricts
In 1969 the villages of Diedesfeld, Geinsheim, Gimmeldingen, Haardt, Hambach, Königsbach, Lachen-Speyerdorf and Mußbach were incorporated into the borough, followed in 1974 by Duttweiler. These villages lie between one and ten kilometres from the main town. They are legally constituted subdistricts, are known as Ortsteil and have a parish chair (Ortsvorsteher) to whom some of the functions of the former mayors have been transferred.
Population in 2012 Main town and quarters 26,685 Diedesfeld 2,030 Geinsheim 1,954 Gimmeldingen 2,426 Haardt 2,656 Hambach 5,288 Königsbach 1,144 Lachen-Speyerdorf 5,470 Mußbach 4,184 Duttweiler 1,018 Total 52,855
Neighbouring communities Neustadt's neighbouring municipalities running clockwise from the north are the small town of Deidesheim the municipalities of Ruppertsberg, Meckenheim, Haßloch and Maikammer, the small town of Lambrecht and the municipality of Lindenberg.
Climate
Neustadt has an equable climate, like that of the whole of Anterior Palatinate: warm summers (around ; lower curve of the climatic diagram) during which most of the precipitation falls, albeit the annual total of (upper curve) is quite low, and mild, yet drier winters. Annual precipitation figures are in the lower quartile of those recorded in Germany; only 12% of the monitoring stations of the German Weather Service register lower values. The driest month is March; the most rain falls in June, 1.7 times more than in March. However, they vary only slightly and are very evenly distributed throughout the year; only 3% of the weather stations register lower seasonal variations in precipitation.
However, this climate chart is from a weather station at in the subdistrict of Haardt above the town, which is 25 metres lower. So the values differ, with temperatures being a little lower and rainfall higher. The chart shows an annual average temperatures of to in the summer months dropping during the winter. Its annual precipitation measured .
History Chronological table Period Event 774 First recorded mention of the villages of Winzingen, Lachen and Speyerdorf around 1200 Construction of Wolfsburg Castle by Count Palatine Louis I early 13th Century Founding of the new town (Neue Stadt) by Count Palatine Louis I and his son, Otto II below their Winzingen Castle 1254 Member of the Great Rhenish Town Federation (Großer Rheinische Städtebund) 1275 Granting of town rights until 1797 Part of the Electorate of the Palatinate, seat of the Oberamt of Neustadt an der Haardt 1797–1815 Neustadt in the French (Département du Mont-Tonnerre) 1816–1945 Neustadt part of the Bavarian (Rhenish Palatinate, later Rheinpfalz) 1832 Hambach Festival: Demonstration by 30,000 people at Hambach Castle for democracy and state unity 1847 Opening of the Ludwigshafen am Rhein & Neustadt Railway 1892 Incorporation of the village of Winzingen 1969–1974 Incorporation of nine surrounding parishes
Chronology Early history The oldest traces of settlement and archaeological finds indicate that Celts used to live in the area of the present town. They have left behind ringworks, clay pots, coins and weapons that date to the time around 150 B.C. The Romans probably took possession of the land around 20 A.D. Around 400 it was taken by the Alemanni who were superseded in turn around 500 A.D. by the Germanic Franks.
There are no precise details for the centuries after the end of Roman rule, but it is known that villages already existed before the actual town of Neustadt was founded: Winzingen, today a town quarter, was already mentioned in 774. The subdistricts of Mußbach, Lachen-Speyerdorf, Geinsheim, Duttweiler and Hambach are also considerably older than the main town. In general it is fair to say that the history of Neustadt is closely linked to that of the Palatinate region.
Middle Ages Just a few decades after its foundation in the early 13th century, Neustadt was granted town rights on 6 April 1275 based on those given to Speyer.
Town quarters In the Late Middle Ages Neustadt was divided into four town quarters, whose names indicate the status and occupations of their inhabitants or give important local information:
In the Lauerviertel (from Loheviertel = "Tanbark Quarter") next to the Speyerbach worked the tanners. The Kesselringviertel was named after an influential family of the 14th century. In the Frauenviertel ("Women's Quarter") were ecclesiastical possessions under the patronage of Saint Mary's. The Jewish community lived in the Judenviertel ("Jewish Quarter").
Towards the end of the 15th century, other quarters were established outside the town fortifications: the Stadtgasserviertel, the Kirschgartenviertel and the Ägyptenvorstadt.
Reformation
In the Peasants' Uprising, rebellious peasant bands entered the town unopposed on 6 May 1525. During the Reformation, Louis the Pacific ruled the Palatinate until 1544 and strove for reconciliation. His 1538 religion edict allowed Lutherans to preach and take communion. Equally even-handed was his brother and successor, Frederick the Wise. Not until his successor were there strict Protestant rulers. When Frederick III died in 1576, he left a clause in his will that his Lutheran son, Louis VI should not inherit the Ämter of Kaiserslautern and Neustadt, but that they should go instead to his Calvinist brother, John Casimir.
In 1578, Count Palatine John Casimir founded the Neustadt College that was named after him, the Casimirianum, because his Lutheran brother, Louis V, had cleared the university in Heidelberg of Calvinists; John Casimir was active as an advocate of the reformed faith and offered the exiled professors and students asylum. When he moved to Heidelberg in 1583 in order to take over the regency for his still under-age son there after the death of the brother's reign, Neustadt's short time as a university seat ended.
17th century
Denominational disputes over the following century were no longer pursued purely by argument, but with weapons, and the Palatinate was invaded by one campaign after another. Neustadt was conquered six times during the Thirty Years' War; in 1622 by the Spaniards, in 1631 by Sweden, in 1635 by Imperial troops, in 1638 by troops of Duke Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, in 1639 by the French under Field Marshal Henri II d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville and 1644 again by the French. After each occasion, the occupying forces attempted to enforce their confession.
Unlike other Palatine towns, Neustadt survived the War of the Palatine Succession (1689–1697) almost unscathed.
18th and 19th centuries In 1744 of the town population of 2,496; 1,676 were reformed, 620 were Roman Catholics and 200 were Lutherans. Jews were not included in these statistics.
In the 18th century, the town lost its medieval appearance, because its militarily obsolete and superfluous town walls were demolished. When, in 1722, the state road to Mannheim, the new residence of the Elector had been built (today the B 38), in 1723 the northern town wall was pierced.
Following the seizure of the Left Bank of the Rhine during the French Revolution in 1797–98, Neustadt became just an insignificant administrative centre, the canton capital of the département of Donnersberg. Napoleon passed through the town on his retreat from Erfurt to Paris and its official celebrated his visit. When, five years later, parts of the emperor's army, defeated near Leipzig, marched through the town the sentiment was, however, quite the opposite.
In 1815, Neustadt became part of the Kingdom of Bavaria until 1945, along with the rest of the Palatinate which was one of 8 Bavarian districts (Rhine District). As of 1837, the district was renamed as Pfalz. As a result of this resubordination, in 1818 the town became the seat of a Landkommissariat (called a Bezirksamt from 1862 and a Landkreis from 1939). In 1832, the Hambach Festival took place near the town. In 1847, Neustadt was connected to the railway network by the Palatine Ludwig Railway.
20th century
A Workers and Soldiers Council was established during the German Revolution of 1918. Three delegates were sent to see Kurt Eisner, the premier of newly founded People's State of Bavaria. These delegates consisted of a member of the Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany, a member of the emergent German People's Party and a third linked to the interests of the local wine trade. However, Eisner failed to take notice of their concerns and despite his subsequent assertion that the Pfalz was an integral part of Bavaria, this indifference helped fuel separatist sentiment in the area.
According to the Armistice Agreement the Pfalz region fell within the French zone during the occupation of the Rhineland. The Siamese Expeditionary Forces occupied Neustadt following the end of World War I.
In 1920, Neustadt, like six others in the Palatinate, separated from its Bezirksamt and became an independent town.Wilhelm Volkert, Richard Bauer: Handbuch der bayerischen Ämter, Gemeinden und Gerichte 1799–1980. Munich, 1983, p. 90.