This is part 13 of 16 of a journey through my home country: Germany.

I invite everyone to take a closer look at what I call home. I will show you sides of today-Germany you didn't know of - especially when you are not German.
A lot of "foreigners" (actually I don't really like this word) connect Germany with beer, cars, lederhosen and sauerkraut. I admit these are parts of Germany and important ones too (especially the beer and the cars), but they by far are not everything!

This article serie will show you the 16 countries of Germany, some quite similar to each other, some totally different. Sure, this serie will mainly feature photography, but perhaps I will link to other styles of art like modern German music or so.

Our journey leads us through (click the ones in italic to see that article):

_{Bavaria
Saxony
Brandenburg
Berlin
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Schleswig-Holstein
Hamburg
Lower Saxony
Saxony-Anhalt
Thuringia
Hesse
Baden-Wuerttemberg
Rhineland-Palatinate
Saarland
North Rhine-Westphalia
Bremen}

... or if you want to take a look at our southern neighbour, Austria, please read Exploring Austria by =Glasperlenspielerin.

Please, come and see...



Hi and welcome back...
It's been more then 4 months since my last journal of this kind. I really apopogize for that, but as I stated before: I'm very busy and these journals really take some time. Furthermore, deviantART somehow lost some of it's attractiveness to me - don't ask why, I couldn't make an educated guess myself.

Today, I invite you to take a closer look at Rhineland-Palatinate or Rheinland-Pfalz, neighbour of France, Belgium and Luxembourg, so being a state in the very west of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Rheinland-Pfalz gets a rather average position in both, area and population: It ranks 9th in area with 19,846 square kilometres (7,663 sq mi) and seventh in population with about 4 million inhabitants. Yet, this kind of 'mediocrity' definately ends, when it comes to Rheinland's rich culture, gorgeous landscapes and excellent food and wine specialities.



The capital of Rheinland-Pfalz is Mainz. With not even a quarter million inhabitants, Mainz is one of the smaller German capitals. But it's among Germany's oldest cities: About 25,000 years ago, the Mainz-area near the Rivers Rhine and Main served as a resting place for hunters, and a stable settlement can be proven for around the year 500BC or little later. The Celt's settlement was taken over by Romans shortly before the birth of Jesus, supposedly 13BC. Since then, Mainz played an important role in German and European history.
For centuries, the Archbishops of Mainz were archchancellors of the Holy Roman Empire and the most important of the seven electors of the German Emperor. They also were socalled primas germaniae, the substitutes of the Pope north of the Alps. This power still manifests in the 1,000 years-old Mainz Cathedral or 'Hoher Dom zu Mainz', an impressive red building dominating the city.
On a cultural level, Mainz must be called one of the most important cities for western societies at all: Johannes Gutenberg was born here, lived here and invented movable type printing in 1439. His Gutenberg-Bible started the Gutenberg-Revolution, which made literature and education affordable for a wider, yet still very limited audience. The same technology helped spreading the Reformation about half a century later.
In World War II, 80% of Mainz's buildings were destroyed. So today, when walking through the remaining Altstadt, you can easily spot places that were hit by bombs: ugly modernistic buildings in the middle of wunderful medieval architecture.
Today, Mainz is mostly known as a tourist attraction and a center for excellent German wines. There is an academy for wines in Mainz, a wine-institute and the state even has it's wine minister. Apart from that and a few larger companies such as Schott AG, the economic importance of Mainz is rather small. Oh, but Mainz has Karneval! If you like this kind of amusement (as a protestant North German I don't!), you definately HAVE to visit Mainz.



The second biggest city of Rheinland-Pfalz is Ludwigshafen, birthplace of Helmut Kohl.
Ludwigshafen is a really young city. Originally build in the early 17th century as a protective castle for neighbouring Mannheim, Ludwigshafen began to prosper in the 18th century. It was not before 1843 that the city was officially founded. But soon after that, the rise of Ludwigshafen began. After a small dye-producer moved to Ludwigshafen, the company and the city started growing. The small dye-producer today is called BASF, still has it's headquarter in Ludwigshafen and is the world's largest chemical company.
Hosting this company, Ludwigshafen was one of the main targets of Allied attacks in WWII: 13,000 Allied bombers bombed the city in 121 separate raids, dropping 53,000 high explosive bombs and 2.5 million 4-pound magnesium incendiary bombs. The production of BASF went down to zero.
Yet, soon after the war, the company made huge profits again and the taxes helped rebuilding Ludwigshafen - in a 1950-1965 style. Who ever likes this, today. As you already may realize: tourist attractions in Ludwigshafen are rather rare. Yet, that does not mean that Ludwigshafen does not produce any high quality perspectives and motifs for photographers. They just don't have famous names and decades of history.



This city may not be what one would call "typical German tourist-town", but the following ones are:
Koblenz, Trier and Worms are cities that can be found on every foreign tourist's route through the south of Germany. The cities have between 80,000 and 110,000 inhabitants and they all are older than 2,000 years. Trier and Worms are fighting for the title "Oldest Town in Germany". Trier is the first settlement on German ground to own the title "city" (30BC) - and accoring to a legend, it was founded by expelled Assyrian prince Trebeta 1,300 years before Rome was founded. This would make it over 4,000 years old!
On the other side, Worms can prove permanent settlement for at least 5,000 years, but only got city-like structures under Roman rule at about 20BC.
For the same time, Roman fortifications can be proven to have existed in Koblenz. Newer digs show that even here, Celts had built fortified structures about 1,000 years earlier.
Sure, today you won't find any real buildings that are this old, but due to their rather unspectaular size, Trier and Worms were not hit as bad as other towns were in WWII, but unfortunately Koblenz lost over 85% of it's buildings.
All three cities are full with wonderful old catherals and churches, but as well have other buildings that are simply impressive. The "Deutsches Eck" (German Corner) or Castle Philippsburg in Koblenz are examples for this, as well as Trier's famous Porta Nigra or the Römerbrücke (Roman Bridge) and Niebelungenbrücke in Worms, where you can also find the Dome St. Peter.



Let's now come to the landscape of Rheinland-Pfalz.
As the name says, the Rhine is the most dominating thing when describing Palatinatian landscape. This river is one of the longest in Europe and a lifeline for much of west Germany, eastern France, the Netherlands and even a tiny little bit Austria and Switzerland. It has been a border ever since: it marked the end of the Roman Empire and it was straegically important in every single war between Germany and France (and we've had lots of those!). As a result, it's banks are full with castles, fortifications and old military installations. Today, crossing the Rhine-border without even having to show a passport or being controlled at all is nothing special anymore. The borders are open.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, the Rhine flows through German landscape only. The area is called Mittelrheintal, meaning "Middle Rhine Valley". In this region, the river cut deep scarfs into the nature, forming a characteristic hilly landscape that, supported by often volcanic soils, is an ideal place for growing wine. The most popular place to show all this in only one picture may be the Loreley, the narrowest part of the Rhine in Germany and a mystical place. Like Greek sirens, it is said that rhine-maidens lure navigators of this river to their dooms with their alluring singing. Today, what you find mostly at the Loreley are not maidens, but grannies wanting to take a nice picture!



The main mountain-ranges in Rhineland-Palatinate are the Hunsrück and the Eifel, which it shares with neighbouring Nort Rhine-Westphalia and Belgium. Both are of volcanic origin and more hills than mountains. Both regions can be charcterized as rainy. Most notable event in this region may be the Nature One, a big outdoor Techno/Trance/House party held annually.



Well, that's mostly it. Rheinland-Pfalz really isn't that big!
I could go on and show you dozens of interesting castles and monasteries, but I really think you should go see them yourself! Before I conclude this, let me just show you some more shots of this wonderful state of Germany, that caught my attention but did not fit into what I wrote until now. Unsorted, beautiful and worth looking at:



Some last words about culture and people in Rheinland-Pfalz.
Generally speaking, the inhabitants of Rheinland-Pfalz are nice persons but kind of keep a "low profile". They don't act the big shot and that's really sympathic! They are very proud of their wines and the excellent food they create and hell, they can be! White Riesling from Rhineland-Palatinate is my favourive wine, even if - being a North German - beer comes in the first place.
The people of Rhineland-Palatinate have different kinds of accents, some are Alemannic, some more Franconian and some even have a little French influence one some words and pronunciation, especially in the very west...
Kings of the region now called Rhineland-Palatinate ruled most of Germany for centuries and had a big influence on European history. Some Emperors were of Palatinatian ancestry, as was one special pope who - after the legend - actually was a woman: Pope Joan.

Now, this was only a very, very short trip through Rhineland-Palatinate and I know I missed a lot (if not almost everything). But this is supposed to be a short, informative journal and not a travel guide. I hope you like the pictures - if you do, please give the artists a visit and/or a fav, they really deserve it.

If you have any questions about this station of our trip or Germany as a whole: please ask, I'll try to answer as quick as possible.
And if you have any suggestions about how to make this trip any better, please don't hesitate to write me, either.





Looking forward for your comments - and the next station of this trip...

PS: This journal can also be read and faved as a news article!