HOCKENHEIM

History:

The Palatinate was a centre both of the Protestant Reformation (it was at the Palatine city of Worms that Luther refused to recant) and of the Catholic Counter-reformation. The area was almost depopulated in the religious Thirty-Years War of 1618-1648.

The Napoleonic wars brought further devastation to the region, and there was mass emigration in the 19th Century. The industrial towns of the Rheinpfalz were in ruins at the end of World War II.

In 1801 the Palatinate was divided among three kingdoms: The Rheinpfalz west of the Rhine went to France. This area, which includes the cities of Lugwigshafen and Kaiserslautern, is today in the German province of Rheinland-Pfalz (capital at Mainz). The Rheinpfalz east of the Rhine went to Baden. This area, which includes the cities of Mannheim and Heidelberg, is now part of Germany's Baden-Wüttemberg province (capital at Stuttgart). The Oberpfalz went to Bayern/Bavaria (capital at München/Munich).

Mannheim played a major role in the industrial revolution: DaimlerChrysler began there in 1883 as Benz & Cie. Gasmotorenfabrik. Ludwigshafen is home to BASF, one of Germany's largest chemical companies, and Heidelberg is a technology centre.

About 200 years ago, the stretch of the Rhine between Mainz and Bonn was discovered by artists and poets of the Romantic Movement in search of one of nature's works of art. Artists from all over Europe found inspiration here for their works of great emotional passion, one of the highlights being undoubtedly that heart-rending poem, the "Loreley". Their enthusiasm was so infectious that the Romantic Rhine became a tourist attraction and "gave birth" to Germany as a travel destination. Recently the UNESCO honored the beauty of the Upper Romantic Middle Rhine by declaring it world heritage in June 2002. 

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