Weilerbach is a municipality in the
district of Kaiserslautern, in
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 ...
. It is situated approximately 11 km north-west of
Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfur ...
.
Weilerbach is the seat of the ''
Verbandsgemeinde
A Verbandsgemeinde (; plural Verbandsgemeinden) is a low-level administrative unit in the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A Verbandsgemeinde is typically composed of a small group of villages or towns.
Rhineland- ...
'' ("collective municipality")
Weilerbach
Weilerbach is a municipality in the district of Kaiserslautern, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated approximately 11 km north-west of Kaiserslautern.
Weilerbach is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality" ...
(population about 14,500).
History of the Town
Founding until 1794
Weilerbach was first mentioned in a document from 1214, in which King
Friedrich II Frederick II, Frederik II or Friedrich II may refer to:
* Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (1194–1250), King of Sicily from 1198; Holy Roman Emperor from 1220
* Frederick II of Denmark (1534–1588), king of Denmark and Norway 1559–1588
* Fr ...
gave the right of patronage to his loyal ''Reinhard von Lautern'', knight of
Hoheneck, for the parish church at
Ramstein with its daughter church in Weilerbach (''Wilrebach'') und
Spesbach (''Spethisbach''). In 1253, Siegfried von Hoheneck gave these rights and the income therefrom to the Teutonic Order in
Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfur ...
. Pope Alexander IV confirmed in 1258 the Order's possession of Ramstein, Weilerbach, und Spesbach. In 1257, the names ''Steinmar'' and ''Diederich von Weilerbach'' appear as do the names ''Hertlin'' und ''Theodor von Weilerbach'' in 1273 as witnesses in documents of the cloister at Lautern and
Enkenbach.
[ Michael Frey: ''Versuch einer geographisch-historisch-statistische Beschreibung des kön. bayer. Rheinkreises'', Band 3, Neidhard, 1837, S. 86 ff.]
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Until the end of the 18th Century, Weilerbach belonged to the
Electoral 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 ...
with its
Oberamt in Lautern. Weilerbach was the local court for the towns of
Erzenhausen,
Eulenbis,
Pörrbach,
Rodenbach Rodenbach may refer to:
* Rodenbach Brewery, a brewery from Roeselare, Belgium
Places
* Rodenbach, Hesse, in the Main-Kinzig district, Hesse, Germany
* Rodenbach, Rhineland-Palatinate, in the district of Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate, Ger ...
,
Schwedelbach, and Weilerbach as well as the hamlets of Atzenhausen (today known as 'Samuelshof'),
Einsiedlerhof, Mückenhof and Schellenberg. The court was composed of the village mayor (a 'Schultheiß'), four laypeople ('Schöffe') and a court reporter from Ramstein. The old roads from Kaiserslautern to
Kusel
Kusel (; written ''Cusel'' until 1865) is a town in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the Kusel-Altenglan ''Verbandsgemeinde'' and is also the district seat.
The well-known operatic tenor Fritz Wunderlich was ...
and from
Zweibrücken
Zweibrücken (; french: Deux-Ponts, ; Palatinate German: ''Zweebrigge'', ; literally translated as "Two Bridges") is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach river.
Name
The name ''Zweibrücken'' means 'two bridges'; olde ...
to
Bingen am Rhein
Bingen am Rhein () is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
The settlement's original name was Bingium, a Celtic word that may have meant "hole in the rock", a description of the shoal behind the ''Mäuseturm'', k ...
intersected in Weilerbach, causing the establishment of a customs station under the Electoral Palatinate.
In 1787, the town had 119 families and 578 inhabitants. The town's buildings included three churches, two parish houses, two school houses, and ninety-three homes.
French and Bavarian Administration
In 1794, the troops of the French Revolution had overtaken
Left Bank of the Rhine. From 1798 to 1814, Weilerbach and the surrounding region belong to the Canton of Kaiserslautern in the Mont-Tonnerre
department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
. Under this French administration, Weilerbach was made into a
Mairie
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
, that in addition to the 751-person town of Weilerbach itself, encompassed the neighboring communities of Erfenbach (298 inhabitants), Erzenhausen (386), Rodenbach (322), Siegelbach (293), and Stockborn (63).
[P. A. Müller: ''Statistisches Jahrbuch für die deutschen Länder zwischen dem Rhein, der Mosel und der französischen Grenze.'' Kupferberg, Mainz 1815, S. 147]
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Pursuant to agreements made at the
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...
and the
Treaty of Munich (1816) {{Short description, 1816 treaty between Austria and Bavaria
The Treaty of Munich (German ''Vertrag von München'') of 14 April 1816 normalized relations between the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Bavaria through several territorial exchanges. ...
between Bavaria and Austria, the Palatinate was transferred in 1816 to the
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German E ...
. Under Bavarian administration, Weilerbach remained in the Canton of Kaiserslautern, subpart of the Landkommissariat of Kaiserslautern that in 1862 was renamed to the Bezirksamt Kaiserslautern within the
Circle of the Rhine
The Circle of the Rhine (german: Rheinkreis) or Rhine Circle, sometimes the Bavarian ( or ), was the name given to the territory on the west bank of the Rhine from 1816 to 1837 which was one of 15 (later 8) administrative districts of the Kingdom ...
. In 1837, Weilerbach had 1286 inhabitants of whom 525 were
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
, 746 were
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
, and 15 were
Mennonite
Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...
.
In 1932, the town of Einsiedlerhof was redistricted from Weilerbach to Kaiserslautern.
Proposed American Military Hospital
The Verbandsgemeinde Weilerbach is the site for a new American hospital intended to replace the
Landstuhl Regional Medical Center
The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC), also known as Landstuhl Hospital, is a U.S. Army medical center, located in the German town of Landstuhl, near Ramstein Air Base. The installation is an amalgamation of Marceau Kaserne (german: Infan ...
(LRMC) on the Landstuhl Army Base, in nearby
Landstuhl, Germany
Landstuhl () is a town in the Kaiserslautern district of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. It is the seat of ''Verbandsgemeinde Landstuhl'', a kind of "collective municipality." Landstuhl is situated on the north-west edge of the Palatinate F ...
.
The LRMC has been active since 1953; Citing the difficulty of maintaining the aging structure, officials have proposed replacing the LRMC with a new facility. Ground breaking took place in October 2014, and the planned completion date is summer 2020.
Controversy
In 2008, the
Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to:
Current departments of defence
* Department of Defence (Australia)
* Department of National Defence (Canada)
* Department of Defence (Ireland)
* Department of National Defense (Philipp ...
approved $400 million to expand and renovate the existing hospital, contingent upon congressional support for the funding. In 2010, the proposal was changed to total replacement and relocation from Landstuhl to Weilerbach,
with increased funding of up to $1.2 billion (USD).
Both plans were met with some opposition, both within the US and in Germany. Congressional leaders and
Pentagon
In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°.
A pentagon may be simpl ...
officials have questioned the need and costs of the new hospital, in light of the reduction of forces in Germany, the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, and the reduction of the military presence in Afghanistan.
Some Germans who deem the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan illegal and are opposed to continued US military presence in Germany consider the significant financial commitment to medical facilities to imply an intention for long-term occupation.
Concerns about deforestation at the new site,
as well as potential for groundwater pollution have also been expressed.
The suggested removal of the hospital from Landstuhl has led to concerns that the economy of Landstuhl will suffer.
A different view is that a new hospital would be advantageous to the local economy; it would stimulate the state's building industry, with estimates of putting up to one billion dollars (USD) into the local economy over the long term.
Scope of the new facilities
The proposed new hospital would combine the medical facilities from nearby Ramstein Air Base, and the existing LRMC hospital into one co-located medical center.
The LRMC provides treatment for more than 245,000 U.S. military personnel and their families within the European Command. LRMC is also the evacuation and treatment center for all injured U.S. service members and contractors as well as members of 44 coalition forces serving in Afghanistan, Iraq, as well as Africa Command, Central Command, European Command and Pacific Command.
Transport
* Local public transport is integrated in the public transportation network
Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar
The Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar (VRN) is a transport association covering parts of the German states of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse in south-west Germany. Founded in 1989, it initially served the Rhein Neckar Area, but ha ...
(VRN). Busses connect Weilerbach to
Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfur ...
and
Ramstein-Miesenbach
Ramstein-Miesenbach is a town in the district of Kaiserslautern in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany, adjacent to the U.S. Ramstein Air Base.
History
As a result of the State of Rheinland-Pfalz administrative reform, Ramstein-Miesenbach, which ...
.
* Between 1912 and 1972 the '
Bachbahn', a local railway system, connected Weilerbach to its surrounding municipalities.
* The municipality of Weilerbach is linked to the
Autobahn
The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...
A6 (interchange: Kaiserslautern-West).
Twin cities
*
Kingsbridge
Kingsbridge is a market town and tourist hub in the South Hams district of Devon, England, with a population of 6,116 at the 2011 census. Two electoral wards bear the name of ''Kingsbridge'' (East & North). Their combined population at the abo ...
,
*
Isigny-sur-Mer
Isigny-sur-Mer (, literally ''Isigny on Sea'') is a commune in the Calvados department and Normandy region of north-western France.
It is part of the communauté de communes Isigny-Omaha Intercom, the 59 communes of which have a combined pop ...
,
* Gatonde,
References
{{Authority control
Kaiserslautern (district)