Haßloch

Haßloch (or Hassloch) is a municipality in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Unlike most municipalities in the district, it does not belong to any ''Verbandsgemeinde'' – a type of collective municipality. It lies near the Mannheim/Ludwigshafen built-up area. The municipality has grown out of a single centre and is thus sometimes styled “Germany’s biggest village”. Haßloch is the Bad Dürkheim district's biggest municipality, exceeding even the namesake district seat. The village has at its disposal well developed infrastructure with educational and shopping facilities; the region's surrounding centres can in the main be reached within 20 minutes.

Geography

Location

Haßloch lies east of Neustadt an der Weinstraße and is part of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration southwest of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen. It also lies on the Mannheim–Kaiserslautern line. At the municipality's northern limit runs Autobahn A 65, and from there it is 25 km to either Ludwigshafen or Mannheim. Haßloch is on the whole a continuous built-up area, although Haßloch's southeasternmost neighbourhood, the Wehlachsiedlung, lies somewhat apart from the main centre.

History

Haßloch's beginnings stretch at least as far back as Roman times with settlement activity by the Romans known to have been taking place about AD 400. About 500, the Alamanni were driven out of the area by the Franks. The village itself came into being sometime about 600, with its first documentary mention – as ''Hasalaha'' – coming in 773 or 774.

In 985, Haßloch was one of the many villages in the region subject to the ''Salischer Kirchenraub'', or “Salian Church Robbery”, a land grab in which Otto I, Duke of Carinthia took over ownership of various landholdings formerly belonging to the Weißenburg Monastery (in the town now called Wissembourg in Alsace, France) on the Upper and Middle Rhine.

Some time between 900 and 1000, Haßloch became an Imperial Village. In 1186, Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa spent the night in Haßloch. In 1330, Emperor Louis the Bavarian pledged Haßloch to the Electorate of the Palatinate, who then in turn pledged three fourths of this pledge to the Counts of Leiningen in the same year.

In 1621, during the Thirty Years' War, Haßloch was laid waste by the Spaniards. In 1689, it met the same fate again, more than once, in the Nine Years' War (known in Germany as the ''Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg'', or War of the Palatine Succession), this time at the hands of the Spaniards and the French.

In 1797 came an end to the joint rule by the Electorate of the Palatinate and the Counts of Leiningen. Haßloch – along with the rest of the region – was annexed to France.

In 1815 or 1816, as a result of the Congress of Vienna, the Leiningen holdings, along with the Palatinate, passed to the Kingdom of Bavaria, remaining Bavarian until the end of the Second World War. In 1843, the ''Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn'' (railway) was built.

In 1945, Haßloch became part of the French Zone of Occupation and the next year, part of the new state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

In 1969, the old district of Neustadt an der Weinstraße was abolished and Haßloch was assigned to the newly created district of Bad Dürkheim.

Religion

Haßloch, because it was ruled by the Counts of Leiningen, is a Protestant community. This can even be seen in the church buildings. All the oldest ones – ''Christuskirche'' (“Christ Church” or “Church of Christ”), ''Lutherkirche'' and ''Pauluskirche'' (“Saint Paul’s”) are Evangelical, whereas only the two newer ones – St. Gallus and St. Ulrich – belong to the Catholic parish.

Population development

(each time at 31 December)

* 1998 – 20,708
* 1999 – 20,747
* 2000 – 20,781
* 2001 – 20,826
* 2002 – 20,809
* 2003 – 20,789
* 2004 – 20,785
* 2005 – 20,722

Origin of the name

The former Old High German city name 'Hasalaha' means something like 'water flowing through hazel bushes'. 'Hasal' is the Old High German term for the hazel bush, 'aha' means something like 'water' or 'stream'. Due to sound shifts and changing the spelling, the name 'Haselach' firs