Weidenthal
Encyclopedia
Weidenthal is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim
district in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
.
, whose seat is in the like-named town
.
In 2011, this was the location of the last known sighting of the Palatinate Dragon, possibly the last Dragon in Europe.
Together with the neighbouring municipality of Frankenstein
, Weidenthal forms a Protestant
parish. The Christuskirche (“Christ Church” or “Church of Christ”) is found in the village centre at the fairground on Hauptstraße.
In 2007, 45.5% of the inhabitants were Evangelical
and 38.5% Catholic. The rest belonged to other faiths or adhered to none.
The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:
The municipality’s arms
might in English heraldic
language be described thus: Argent issuant from base a crozier palewise Or, the crook to sinister.
The arms were approved by the Bavarian
king in 1845 and go back to a court seal from 1747. The single charge
recalls the former feudal lord, the Bishop of Speyer. The Bishop’s rule ended in 1803. Formerly, seals also bore the letters W and D (for Weiden Dal, an old form of the municipality’s name), but these were eventually dropped and never included in the arms.
club with its own competition ground and track, a tennis
club with three sand courts, one tar court and a tennis wall, and a shooting club with its own shooting ranges of various sizes.
Moreover, there is a gymnastic and multipurpose hall used by all clubs as well as the two kindergarten
s and the primary school.
Since August 2007 a nighttime mountainbike race called Schlaflos im Sattel (“Sleepless in the Saddle”) has been held. The circuit of just under 10 km begins in the Erdbeertal (“Strawberry Dale”) and runs over the Stempelweg into the Weissenbach and then over the Maifeld back into the Erdbeertal.
trains on the Saarbrucken–Mannheim line. Lines S1 and S2 afford direct links to Kaiserslautern
in the west and Ludwigshafen, Mannheim
and Heidelberg
in the east. Public transport is integrated into the VRN
, whose fares therefore apply.
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...
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
Verbandsgemeinde
A Verbandsgemeinde is an administrative unit in the German Bundesländer of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt.-Rhineland-Palatinate:...
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim (district)
Bad Dürkheim is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Kaiserslautern, Donnersbergkreis and Alzey-Worms, the city of Worms, the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, the city of Neustadt/Weinstraße, the districts of Südliche Weinstraße, the city of Landau , the district...
district in Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
, 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...
.
Location
The municipality lies in the middle of the Palatinate Forest in the region of the Palatinate. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of LambrechtLambrecht (Verbandsgemeinde)
Lambrecht is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Bad Dürkheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Lambrecht....
, whose seat is in the like-named town
Lambrecht
Lambrecht is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany lying roughly 6 km northwest of Neustadt an der Weinstraße. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde.- Location :...
.
History
In 1247, Weidenthal had its first documentary mention as Wydentall and was held by the Lords of Frankenstein as a fief from the Limburg Monastery. Later, Weidenthal belonged to Electoral Palatinate.In 2011, this was the location of the last known sighting of the Palatinate Dragon, possibly the last Dragon in Europe.
Religion
Weidenthal has an autonomous Catholic parish. The Catholic parish church, St. Simon und Judas Thaddäus, and the rectory, Maximilian Kolbe-Haus, are found on Hauptstraße (“Main Street”).Together with the neighbouring municipality of Frankenstein
Frankenstein, Rhineland-Palatinate
Frankenstein is a municipality in the district of Kaiserslautern, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany....
, Weidenthal forms a Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
parish. The Christuskirche (“Christ Church” or “Church of Christ”) is found in the village centre at the fairground on Hauptstraße.
In 2007, 45.5% of the inhabitants were Evangelical
Evangelical Church in Germany
The Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 Lutheran, Unified and Reformed Protestant regional church bodies in Germany. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding because of the denominational differences. However, the member churches share full pulpit and altar...
and 38.5% Catholic. The rest belonged to other faiths or adhered to none.
Municipal council
The council is made up of 16 council members, who were elected at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:
| SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... |
CDU | LINKE The Left (Germany) The Left , also commonly referred to as the Left Party , is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The Left is the most left-wing party of the five represented in the Bundestag.... |
FWG Free Voters Free Voters is a German concept in which an association of persons participates in an election without having the status of a registered political party. Usually it is a locally organized group of voters in the form of a registered association . In most cases, Free Voters are active only at the... |
WG Weilacher | Total | |
| 2009 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 5 | - | 16 seats |
| 2004 | 4 | 4 | - | 7 | 1 | 16 seats |
Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: In Silber ein aufrecht gestellter wachsender goldener Krummstab mit linksgewendeter Krümme (Bischofsstab).The municipality’s arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
might in English heraldic
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
language be described thus: Argent issuant from base a crozier palewise Or, the crook to sinister.
The arms were approved by the Bavarian
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Bavarian Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria in 1806 as Maximilian I Joseph. The monarchy would remain held by the Wittelsbachs until the kingdom's dissolution in 1918...
king in 1845 and go back to a court seal from 1747. The single charge
Charge (heraldry)
In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an escutcheon . This may be a geometric design or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant, object or other device...
recalls the former feudal lord, the Bishop of Speyer. The Bishop’s rule ended in 1803. Formerly, seals also bore the letters W and D (for Weiden Dal, an old form of the municipality’s name), but these were eventually dropped and never included in the arms.
Culture and sightseeing
- The Planetenwanderweg (“Planetary Hiking Trail”) is a trail laid out with informational plaques. It begins at the graveyard at the end of Klingentalstraße. In about an hour, one can hike through the solar systemSolar SystemThe Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
at a scale of 1:1,500,000,000. - Once each year the Weidenthal kermis (church consecration festival, locally known as the Kerwe) is held.
- Weidenthal has a natural bathing pond as a swimming pool.
- The Warriors’ Memorial on the Köpfchen is one of Weidenthal’s landmarks, and from the memorial’s location, there is a wonderful panoramic view over the whole village.
- The Catholic church is one of the Palatinate’s most important Gothic RevivalGothic Revival architectureThe Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
churches.
Sport
There are a football club with its own hard sporting ground (Karl-Heinz Sportplatz), a gymnasticsGymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
club with its own competition ground and track, a tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
club with three sand courts, one tar court and a tennis wall, and a shooting club with its own shooting ranges of various sizes.
Moreover, there is a gymnastic and multipurpose hall used by all clubs as well as the two kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
s and the primary school.
Since August 2007 a nighttime mountainbike race called Schlaflos im Sattel (“Sleepless in the Saddle”) has been held. The circuit of just under 10 km begins in the Erdbeertal (“Strawberry Dale”) and runs over the Stempelweg into the Weissenbach and then over the Maifeld back into the Erdbeertal.
Transport
Stopping at Weidenthal station are RheinNeckar S-BahnRheinNeckar S-Bahn
The Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn forms the backbone of the urban rail transport network of the Rhine Neckar Area, including the cities of Mannheim, Heidelberg and Ludwigshafen....
trains on the Saarbrucken–Mannheim line. Lines S1 and S2 afford direct links to Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern is a city in southwest Germany, located in the Bundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate forest . The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfurt am Main, and from Luxembourg.Kaiserslautern is home to 99,469 people...
in the west and Ludwigshafen, Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
and Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
in the east. Public transport is integrated into the VRN
Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar
Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar is a public transport network covering parts of the German states of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse in south-west Germany...
, whose fares therefore apply.