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Johanniskreuz is a tiny
hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
in the middle of the Palatine Forest in
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and belongs to the municipality of Trippstadt in the district of Kaiserslautern in the state of
Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
.


Geography


Location

Johanniskreuz lies in a
saddle The saddle is a supportive structure for a rider of an animal, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is equestrian. However, specialized saddles have been created for oxen, camels and other animals. It is not k ...
at about , north of the midpoint of the central massif of the Palatine Forest, the Frankenweide, whose surrounding peaks are only a little higher. The Frankenweide, across which the Palatine Watershed runs, is bounded to the west, north and east in the area of Johanniskreuz by the valleys of streams that rise near the hamlet. Immediately west of Johanniskreuz is the source of the Moosalb, a tributary of the Schwarzbach, which itself rises one kilometre southwest of Johanniskreuz. The waters of these streams initially flow westwards through the
Blies The Blies () is a right tributary of the Saar in southwestern Germany (Saarland) and northeastern France (Moselle). The Blies flows from three springs in the Hunsrück near Selbach, Germany. It is roughly 100 km long, ending in the French c ...
and
Saar Saar or SAAR has several meanings: People Given name *Saar Boubacar (born 1951), Senegalese professional football player * Saar Ganor, Israeli archaeologist *Saar Klein (born 1967), American film editor Surname * Ain Saar (born 1968), Est ...
rivers into the river Moselle and then on to the
Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...
. A little to the east of Johanniskreuz is the source of another Schwarzbach, this time the left-hand headstream of the
Speyerbach The Speyerbach is a left tributary of the Rhine in the Palatinate part of Rhineland-Palatinate. In Speyer, the river split into ''Gießhübelbach'' and ''Woogbach''. The Woogbach changes its name to ''Nonnenbach'', then flows into Gießhübe ...
; which flows eastwards, directly to the Rhine. The municipal centre of Trippstadt is about 4.5 kilometres away
as the crow flies __NOTOC__ The expression ''as the crow flies'' is an idiom for the most direct path between two points, rather similar to "in a beeline". This meaning is attested from the early 19th century, and appeared in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel ''Oliver ...
. The municipal boundary between Trippstadt and
Elmstein Elmstein is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location Elmstein lies in the Palatinate ...
, as well as the county boundary between Kaiserslautern and
Bad Dürkheim Bad Dürkheim () is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration, and is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location Bad Dürkheim lies at the edge of Palatinate Forest on the German Win ...
, runs immediately east of the hamlet.


Climate

The annual
precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...
in Johanniskreuz is 1,005 mm and thus lies in the upper quadrant of values within Germany. The driest month is September; the most precipitation falls in December, i.e. 1.6-times as much as in September.


History


Name

The name of the parish may go back to
Johannes von Wilenstein Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as "John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, ''Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' Yeh ...
. He was a liege lord (German: ''
Lehnsherr Feudalism in the Holy Roman Empire was a politico-economic system of relationships between liege lords and enfeoffed vassals (or feudatories) that formed the basis of the social structure within the Holy Roman Empire during the High Middle Ages. ...
'') at the nearby castle and, in 1269, he had his coat of arms inscribed as a boundary marker – apparently illegally – on an existing
wayside cross Wayside may refer to: * Wayobjects, trackside objects *Wayside (band), an early version of As Friends Rust * ''Wayside'' (TV series), a television show based on the children's book ''Sideways Stories from Wayside School'' *A rest area Places ; ...
(''Flurkreuz'') which belonged to the lords of Hohenecken. Lord John's Cross (''Herrn Johanns Creutz'') is first mentioned in the records in 1551. Only remnants of the oldest cross have survived; two crosses of more recent date were placed beside it. Since the district reform of 1972 Johanniskreuz has belonged entirely to the municipality of Trippstadt; before that several of the houses, based on the historic boundaries, were in the parish of Wilgartswiesen.


Palatine Forest

At a meeting of Palatine forest officials in Johanniskreuz in August 1843 the name ''Pfälzerwald'' ("Palatine Forest") was given to the northern part of the
Vosges The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single ...
mountains. In a way Johanniskreuz is thus the "birthplace" of the Palatine Forest which, until the early 20th century was counted as part of the Vosges or ''Wasgenwald'' in most travel literature.


Roman Catholic Convention

Johanniskreuz is part of the Roman Catholic parish of Trippstadt. In 1908, after the theology graduate, Anton Fooß, had taken over the benefice there in 1906, he initiated the first Speyer Diocesan Catholic Convention (''Speyerer Diözesan-Katholikentag'') in Johanniskreuz. This Catholic Convention was a firm tradition in the
Diocese of Speyer The Diocese of Speyer (lat. Dioecesis Spirensis) is a diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. The diocese is located in the South of the Rhineland-Palatinate and comprises also the Saarpfalz district in the east of the Saarland. The bishop's ...
and took place annually at the venue selected by Fooß in Johanniskreuz until 2007. Many well known bishops, churchmen, politicians and otherwise notable Roman Catholics since 1908 went to the annual convention in Johanniskreuz as guests, celebrants, preachers or speakers. On 19 July 1931, Anton Fooß, now living in Würzburg as an initiator, joined the event again as its keynote speaker. He gave a speech on the 40th anniversary of the death of
Ludwig Windthorst Baron Ludwig von Windthorst (17 January 181214 March 1891) was a German politician and leader of the Catholic Centre Party and the most notable opponent of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck during the Prussian-led unification of Germany and the K ...
entitled "Windthorst and Our Time". It was to be the last of these conventions before the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. In 1932 it was cancelled because on the same day Reich Chancellor
Heinrich Brüning Heinrich Aloysius Maria Elisabeth Brüning (; 26 November 1885 – 30 March 1970) was a German Centre Party politician and academic, who served as the chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic from 1930 to 1932. A political scienti ...
was speaking at a major event of the Centre Party in Ludwigshafen. From 1933, during the Nazi era, these diocesan conventions could no longer take place. Only after the Second World War was the tradition revived. In 2007 it came to light that most of the old deciduous and pine trees at the woodland venue were in danger of falling. Because no funding is available to carry our safety work, the Roman Catholic Convention is no longer held in Johanniskreuz.


Economy and infrastructure


Transport

Johanniskreuz has always been a central communication hub in the Palatine Forest. Whilst the most important historic link from
Speyer Speyer (, older spelling ''Speier'', French: ''Spire,'' historical English: ''Spires''; pfl, Schbaija) is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the river Rhine, Speyer li ...
to
Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...
ran from east to west and the area around Johanniskreuz was also part of the northern route of the Palatine St. James' Ways, today the main transport axis is the B 48 federal highway from
Annweiler Annweiler am Trifels (), or Annweiler is a town in the Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the river Queich, 12 km west of Landau. Annweiler am Trifels station is on the Landau–Saarbrücken r ...
to
Hochspeyer Hochspeyer is a municipality in the district of Kaiserslautern, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated in the Palatinate forest (Pfälzer Wald), approx. 10 km east of Kaiserslautern. Hochspeyer was the seat of the former Verban ...
which runs from north to south. From the Queich valley to Hochspeyer, Johanniskreuz is the only settlement on this very route, which is very winding especially in the north. Also important from a transport perspective is the equally winding state road through the Elmstein Valley towards Neustadt an der Weinstraße. Other road links in a western direction through the
Karlstal The Karlstal is the valley of the Moosalb (Schwarzbach), Moosalb stream located near Trippstadt in the Palatine Forest in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is registered as a nature reserves of Germany, nature reserve - number 335  ...
to Trippstadt and southwest – Heltersberg, Waldfischbach-Burgalben – in places follow paths that were used in the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
. As the hub of several scenic routes Johanniskreuz has become a meeting place for motorcyclists. However, the road through the Elmsteiner Tal is closed to motorcycles at weekends during the summer months due to the high number of accidents. The nearest railway stations are Schopp on the
Biebermühl Railway The Biebermühl Railway (german: Biebermühlbahn)—sometimes called the Moosalbbahn (Moosalb Railway)—is a 35.9 km long railway line from Kaiserslautern to Pirmasens in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, which was built between 1 ...
and
Elmstein Elmstein is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location Elmstein lies in the Palatinate ...
on the Cuckoo Railway (''Kuckucksbähnel'').


Tourism

Since the first attempts at developing
tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...
in the Palatine Forest in the 19th century, Johanniskreuz has been a top destination for visitors to the region. Spa houses (''Kurhäuser'') were established early on that, today, function as hotels. In 2004 the
House of Sustainability The House of Sustainability (german: Haus der Nachhaltigkeit) is a project run by the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection. The house is in the hamlet of Johanniskreuz in the German municipality of Trippstadt i ...
(''Haus der Nachhaltigkeit'') opened, with permanent exhibitions about sustainable economics and future
energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of hea ...
concepts as its main attraction. The latest tourist facility is the Palatine Forest Mountain Bike Park (''Mountainbikepark Pfälzerwald''), for which 5 routes, together over 300 kilometres long, have been marked out. Johanniskreuz is also the intersection of all footpaths marked with a cross by the
Palatine Forest Club The Palatine Forest Club (german: Pfälzerwald-Verein) is a hiking club in the former Bavarian Palatinate, i.e. the southern part of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the Saarland county of Saarpfalz-Kreis. In 2011 it had 221 local ...
.


Literature

*


External links


Trippstadt: Sights in Johanniskreuz

''Haus der Nachhaltigkeit''
{{Authority control Villages in Rhineland-Palatinate