Ludwigsstadt is a municipality

Municipalities of Germany

Municipalities are the lowest level of territorial division in Germany. This may be the fourth level of territorial division in Germany, apart from those states which include Regierungsbezirke , where municipalities then become the fifth level.-Overview:With more than 3,400,000 inhabitants, the...

 in the district of Kronach

Kronach (district)

Kronach is a district in Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Hof, Kulmbach, Lichtenfels and Coburg, and the state of Thuringia .-History:...

, in the Upper Franconia

Upper Franconia

Upper Franconia is a Regierungsbezirk of the state of Bavaria, southern Germany. It forms part of the historically significant region of Franconia , all now part of the German Federal State of Bayern .With more than 200 independent breweries which brew...

n region of Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It is situated at the state's northern border in the Franconian Forest mountain range, 28 kilometres (17.4 mi) north of Kronach

Kronach

Kronach is a town in Oberfranken, Bavaria, Germany, located in the Frankenwald area. It is the capital of the district Kronach.Kronach is the birthtown of Lucas Cranach the Elder and Maximilian von Welsch, as well as Johann Kaspar Zeuss and Josef Stangl....

, and 18 kilometres (11.2 mi) south of Saalfeld in Thuringia

Thuringia

The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....

, the only Bavarian municipality north of the Rennsteig

Rennsteig

The Rennsteig is a ridge walk as well as an historical boundary path in the Thuringian Forest, Thuringian Highland and Franconian Forest in central Germany....

 ridge.

History

The settlement was first mentioned in a 1269 deed as Ludwichsdorf, probably named after a local vogt

Vogt

A Vogt ; plural Vögte; Dutch voogd; Danish foged; ; ultimately from Latin [ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire was the German title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice...

 official of the Thuringian counts of Weimar

Weimar

Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...

-Orlamünde

Orlamünde

Orlamünde is a town in the Saale-Holzland district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated at the confluence of the rivers Saale and Orla, 17 km south of Jena. It was the centre of a county, often united to Weimar, in the Early Middle Ages....

. In 1427 the area around historic Lauenstein Castle was acquired by the Hohenzollern

House of Hohenzollern

The House of Hohenzollern is a noble family and royal dynasty of electors, kings and emperors of Prussia, Germany and Romania. It originated in the area around the town of Hechingen in Swabia during the 11th century. They took their name from their ancestral home, the Burg Hohenzollern castle near...

 Elector Frederick I of Brandenburg

Frederick I, Elector of Brandenburg

Frederick was Burgrave of Nuremberg as Frederick VI and Elector of Brandenburg as Frederick I. He was a son of Burgrave Frederick V of Nuremberg and Elisabeth of Meissen, and was the first member of the House of Hohenzollern to rule the Margraviate of Brandenburg.- Biography :Frederick entered...

, who added it as a northern exclave to his Franconian Principality of Kulmbach

Principality of Bayreuth

The Principality of Bayreuth or Brandenburg-Bayreuth was a reichsfrei principality in the Holy Roman Empire centered on the Bavarian city of Bayreuth. Until 1604 its capital city was Kulmbach; then the margraves used their palaces in Bayreuth as their residence...

. Ludwigsstadt received town privileges

German town law

German town law or German municipal concerns concerns town privileges used by many cities, towns, and villages throughout Central and Eastern Europe during the Middle Ages.- Town law in Germany :...

 in 1490, which it again lost in 1525, as the citizens joined a rebellion against the landlords during the Peasants' War

Peasants' War

The Peasants' War was a popular revolt that took place in Europe during 1524–1525...

.

In 1622 Margrave Christian of Brandenburg-Bayreuth

Christian, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth

Christian, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth was a member of the House of Hohenzollern and Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach ....

, colonel of the Imperial Franconian Circle

Franconian Circle

The Franconian Circle was an Imperial Circle established in 1500 in the centre of the Holy Roman Empire. It comprised the eastern part of the former Franconian stem duchy — roughly corresponding with the present-day Bavarian Regierungsbezirke of Upper, Middle and Lower Franconia — while western...

, purchased Ludwigsstadt. When his descendant Margrave Charles Alexander resigned in 1791, he sold his possessions to his Hohenzollern relatives in the Kingdom of Prussia

Kingdom of Prussia

The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...

. In the course of the German Mediatisation

German Mediatisation

The German Mediatisation was the series of mediatisations and secularisations that occurred in Germany between 1795 and 1814, during the latter part of the era of the French Revolution and then the Napoleonic Era....

 in 1803, Ludwigsstadt fell to the Electorate of Bavaria

Electorate of Bavaria

The Electorate of Bavaria was an independent hereditary electorate of the Holy Roman Empire from 1623 to 1806, when it was succeeded by the Kingdom of Bavaria....

.

Transportation

In 1885 Ludwigsstadt achieved access to the Franconian Forest Railway

Franconian Forest Railway

The Franconian Forest Railway , route no. KBS 840, is an 88 kilometre long, electrified, double-tracked main line from Lichtenfels via Kronach to Saalfeld. It is part of the Munich–Nuremberg–Bam­berg–Jena–Halle/Leipzig–Berlin trunk route...

 line, connecting the Bavarian Ludwig South-North Railway

Ludwig South-North Railway

The Ludwig South-North railway , built between 1843 and 1854, was the first railway line to be constructed by Royal Bavarian State Railways...

 near Lichtenfels

Lichtenfels

Lichtenfels is German placename and surname:Germany:There are two towns named Lichtenfels in Germany* Lichtenfels, Hesse* Lichtenfels, Bavaria ** Lichtenfels station** 1...

 with the Thuringian Saal Railway

Saal Railway

The Saal Railway is a 153 kilometre-long double-track main line in the German state of Thuringia. It connects the Thuringian Railway at Großheringen with the Franconian Forest Railway at at Saalfeld and is part of the north-south main line, Munich–Nuremberg–Halle / Leipzig–Berlin...

 at Saalfeld. It soon evolved to one of the most important north-south railway connections in Germany, linking the Prussian capital Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 with Nuremberg

Nuremberg

Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...

 and Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

.

Between 1945 and 1990 Ludwigsstadt station served as West German checkpoint for crossing the inner German border

Crossing the inner German border

Crossing the inner German border remained possible throughout the Cold War; it was never entirely sealed in the fashion of the border between the two Koreas, though there were severe restrictions on the movement of East German citizens...

 by rail with its counterpart at Probstzella station

Probstzella station

- External links :...

. The border crossing was open for trains travelling from West

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 to East Germany or West Berlin

West Berlin

West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...

. The traffic was subject to the interzonal traffic

Interzonal traffic

The term inter-zonal traffic was used to describe the cross-border traffic between the four designated garrison zones in Germany between 1945 and 1973 that were created in 1945 by the victors of the Second World War.- History :...

 regulations, that regarding trains between West Germany and West Berlin followed the special regulations of the Transit Agreement (1972)

Transit Agreement (1972)

The Transit Agreement of 26 May 1972 arranged access to and from West Berlin from West Germany and secured the right of West Berliners to visit East Berlin and East Germany also secured the rights of GDR citizens to visit the FRG, but only in cases of family emergency.-References:*...

.

After German Reunification

German reunification

German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...

, the railway was restored and since 2000 is part of the Inter-City Express (ICE) network with hourly trains linking Berlin and Munich. As the winding line however does not allow fast travelling, it is to be replaced by the Nuremberg–Erfurt high-speed railway.