Südliche Weinstraße ( pfl, Siedlischi Woischdrooß; en, "Southern Wine Route") is a district (''Kreis'') in the south 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 ...

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 ...

. Neighboring districts are (from west clockwise)

Südwestpfalz Südwestpfalz is a district (''Kreis'' or more precise ''Landkreis'') in the south of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from west clockwise) Saarpfalz, the district-free city Zweibrücken, the districts Kaiserslautern and Ba ...

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 Wine ...

, the district-free city Neustadt (Weinstraße),

Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis The Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis is a district (''Kreis'') in the east of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from north clockwise) the district-free city Worms, the district Bergstraße, district-free Mannheim, Frankenthal and Ludw ...

Germersheim Germersheim () is a town in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, of around 20,000 inhabitants. It is also the seat of the Germersheim (district), Germersheim district. The neighboring towns and cities are Speyer, Landau, Philippsburg, Karlsru ...

, and the French ''

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivity, territorial collectivities"), between the regions of France, admin ...

Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...

. The district-free city

Landau Landau ( pfl, Landach), officially Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990 ...

is surrounded by the district.

History

On May 27, 1832 the

Hambacher Fest The Hambacher Festival was a German national democratic festival celebrated from 27 May to 30 May 1832 at Hambach Castle, near Neustadt an der Weinstraße, in present-day Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The event was disguised as a nonpolitical co ...

took place in the castle of Hambach, an event which marks the beginning of the German democracy. The district was formed in 1969 by merging the districts Landau and Bergzabern. At first the name of the new district was ''Landau-Bad Bergzabern'', it was renamed to ''Südliche Weinstraße'' in 1978.

Geography

The district is named after the first touristic route built in Germany in the 1930s, the

German Wine Route The German Wine RouteScheunemann J., Stewart J., Walker N. and Williams C. (2011), ''Back Roads Germany'', Dorling Kindersley, London. . or Wine Road (german: Deutsche Weinstraße) is the oldest of Germany's tourist wine routes. Located in th ...

''(Deutsche Weinstraße)''. It starts in Bockenheim an der Weinstraße, goes through

Deidesheim Deidesheim ( pfl, Daisem) is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with some 3,700 inhabitants. The town lies in the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration and since 1973 it has been the seat of the ''V ...

, and after 85 kilometers ends in Schweigen-Rechtenbach (near Bad Bergzabern). The river

Lauter Lauter may refer to: People * Lauter (surname) Places *Lauter, Saxony, town in the district of Aue-Schwarzenberg, Saxony, Germany * Lauter, Bavaria, village in the district of Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany Rivers * Lauter (Baunach), tributary to th ...

forms part of the boundary with France in the south.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms is very similar to the one of the previous district Landau. In the top-left is the lion of the

Electorate of the Palatinate The Electoral Palatinate (german: Kurpfalz) or the Palatinate (), officially the Electorate of the Palatinate (), was a state that was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The electorate had its origins under the rulership of the Counts Palatine of ...

. The white bar in the middle symbolizes the ''Weinstraße'', the touristic route which gave the district its name. The bottom-right show two bunches of

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

s, again symbolizing the route. The cross stands for

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 ...

, as the diocese of Speyer owned land in the district historically. The crown in the middle is taken from the coat of arms of the Bad Bergzabern district, symbolizing the Trifels and Annweiler areas.

Towns and municipalities

References

External links