Rhineland-Palatinate

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Rheinland-Pfalz Rhineland-Palatinate

Time zone:	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Administration
Capital:	Mainz
Prime Minister:	Kurt Beck (SPD)
Governing party:	SPD
Votes in Bundesrat:	4 (from 69)
Basic Statistics
Area:	19,847 km² (7,663 sq.mi.)
Population:	4,054,081 (31. July 2006)
- Density:	204 /km² (529 /sq.mi.)
Further Information
GDP:	€ 97 billion (2005)
	- 4.3 % of German GDP
NUTS-Region:	DEB
ISO 3166-2:	DE-RP
Website:	rlp.de
Location within Germany

Rhineland-Palatinate (German: Rheinland-Pfalz) is one of 16 Bundesländer (federal states) of Germany. It has an area of 19,846 km² and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz.

1 Geography
2 Politics
- 2.1 List of Minister-presidents of Rhineland-Palatinate
- 2.2 March 26, 2006 state election
3 Administration
4 History
5 Economy
6 Emigration
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Geography

Rhineland-Palatinate borders on (from the north and clockwise) North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, France, Saarland, Luxembourg and Belgium.

The main axis of the state is the Rhine river, that forms the border with Baden-Württemberg and Hesse in the southeast before running across the northern part of Rhineland-Palatinate. The Rhine Valley is bounded by mountain chains and forms a fascinating landscape containing some of the most historically significant places in Germany.

The Eifel and Hunsrück mountain chains are found on the west bank of the Rhine in northern Rhineland-Palatinate, while the Westerwald and Taunus mountains are found on the east bank. The hilly lands in the southernmost region of the state are called the Palatine Forest (Pfälzerwald).

These mountain chains are separated from each other by the following tributaries of the Rhine: the Moselle (Mosel), the Lahn and the Nahe.

[edit] Politics

Rhineland-Palatinate is a parliamentary democracy. Every five years, all Germans residing in the State over the age of 18 elect the members of the Rhineland-Palatinate Landtag. This regional parliament or legislature then elects the premier and confirms the cabinet members. Rhineland-Palatinate is the only German Bundesland to have a cabinet minister for winegrowing (ministry of economy, traffic, agriculture and winegrowing)

[edit] List of Minister-presidents of Rhineland-Palatinate

Kurt Beck

June 13, 1947 - July 9, 1947: Wilhelm Boden, CDU
1947 - 1969: Peter Altmeier, CDU
1969 - 1976: Helmut Kohl, CDU
1976 - 1988: Bernhard Vogel, CDU
1988 - 1991: Carl-Ludwig Wagner, CDU
1991 - 1994: Rudolf Scharping, SPD
since 1994: Kurt Beck, SPD

[edit] March 26, 2006 state election

Kurt Beck (SPD) remained Minister-President, winning an outright majority. Beck offered the FDP to continue the coalition ("red-yellow"). The FDP, however, declined and will be an opposition party. The Alliance '90/The Greens lost their representation in the Landtag.

Party	Party List votes	Vote percentage	Total Seats	Seat percentage
Social Democratic Party (SPD)	750,390	45.6%	53	53.5%
Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	668,610	32.8%	38	37.6%
Free Democratic Party (FDP)	134,709	8.0%	10	10.0%
Alliance '90/The Greens	86,255	4.98%	0	0.0%
Electoral Alternative for Labor and Social Justice (WASG)	47,352	2.7%	0	0.0%
All Others	45,010	2.6%	0	0.0%
Totals	1,732,326	100.0%	101	100.0%

[edit] Administration

Rhineland-Palatinate is divided into 24 districts, formerly grouped into the three administrative regions: Koblenz, Trier and Rheinhessen-Pfalz.

Since 2000, the employees and assets of the Bezirksregierungen form the Aufsichts- und Dienstleistungsdirektion Trier (Supervisory and Service Directorate Trier) and the Struktur- und Genehmigungsdirektionen (Structural and Approval Directorates) Nord in Koblenz and Süd in Neustadt (Weinstraße). These administrations execute their authority over the whole state, i. e. the ADD Trier oversees all schools.

Map of the districts of Rhineland-Palatinate:

Every district is composed of numerous municipalities, which can consist of cities, villages, or groups of villages known as Verbandsgemeinden. Furthermore there are twelve urban districts which are identified on the map with letters:

Frankenthal (F)
Kaiserslautern (Ka)
Koblenz Coblenz (Ko)
Landau (La, the main city and an enclave)
Ludwigshafen (Rheinpfalz-Kreis) (L)
Mainz (M)
Neustadt (Weinstraße) (N)
Pirmasens (P)
Speyer Spires (S)
Trier (T)
Worms (W)
Zweibrücken (Z)

[edit] History

The federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate was established on 30 August 1946. It was formed out of the northern part of the French Occupation Zone, which included parts of Bavaria (the Rhenish Palatinate), the southern parts of the Prussian Rhine Province (including the District of Birkenfeld which formerly belonged to Oldenburg), parts of the Prussian Province of Nassau (see Hesse-Nassau), and parts of Hesse-Darmstadt (Rheinhessen on the western banks of the Rhine); the new state was legally confirmed by referendum on 18 May 1947.

[edit] Economy

[edit] Agriculture & Viticulture

Rhineland-Palatinate is Germany's leading producer of wine. In terms of grape cultivation as well as wine export Rhineland-Palatinate is the leading land. Its capital Mainz, with the siege of the German Wine Institute, the German Wine Fund in the Haus des Deutschen Weines (House of the German Wine), as well as the venue of the VDP Wine Bourse, which brings together the top winemakers of Germany and the wine merchants of the world, may be called the capital of the German wine.

Six out of all thirteen regulated production areas in Germany, Rheinhessen, Pfalz, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Nahe, Middle Rhine and Ahr are located in Rhineland-Palatinate. Due to this fact 65 to 70 % of the whole production output of wine grapes in Germany have their origin within the land at the french border. 13,000 wine producers generate 80 to 90% of the German wine export, which was 2.6 million hectoliters in 2003.

Traditional grape varieties as well as a wide range of varieties developed during the last 125 years are characteristic for the region. Classical white varieties are cultivated at 63,683 hectares. These comprise the famous Rieslings (14,446 hectares), Müller-Thurgau (8,663 hectares), Silvaner (3,701 hectares) and Kerner (3,399 hectares).

The share of red varieties grew constantly during the last decades and amounts to 20,000 hectares. Dornfelder, a new breed, is the leading red grape cultivated on 7,626 hectares, which is more than a third. Blauer Portugieser (4,446 hectares) and Spätburgunder (3,867 hectares) show also appreciable cultivated shares. ^[1]

Beside these Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay as white varieties and Regent and St. Laurent as red varieties are increasing their share throughout the years, as the growing conditions improve in Rhineland-Palatinate.

The land supports the wine industry by providing a comprehensive consultancy and education program in the service supply centers (German: DLR) of the land. The Geilweilerhof Institute for Grape Breeding and also the Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute are fully or even partially financed by the land. Many well known new breeds have been created in these institutes.

The world wide leader in sparkling wine production, producing 245 million bottles in 2006, is the renowned Schloss Wachenheim Group. This company has its roots and its siege at different places in Rhineland-Palatinate and is headquartered in Trier. ^[2] No wonder, the Germans, drinking 3.8 liter per year, are world champion in sparkling wine consumption. (During the 1990ies the consumtion had been above 5 l per year and person)

Other renowned sparkling wine producers like Kupferberg, Deinhard and Henkell had also their roots in the land, but belong now to companies outside RP, due to business consolidation.

[edit] Tourism

[edit] Industry

Important sectors are the chemical industry with the BASF largest chemical company in the world, headquartered in Ludwigshafen, the pharmaceutical industry with Boehringer Ingelheim in Ingelheim am Rhein and the mechanical engineering for important car manufacturers like Opel (engines in Kaiserslautern) or the biggest european truck manufacturer DaimlerChrysler-Truck-Group in Wörth am Rhein, as well as Stabilus, a manufacturer of shock absorbers and world market leader in pneumatic springs and Schottel for nautical engineering. Cookie and cracker specialist Griesson - de Beukelaer is one of the leading biscuit manufacturers in Germany. Bitburger is one of the major brewers in Germany and the Gerolsteiner Brunnen is also a leader in its sector, the mineral water bottlers.

Frankfurt-Hahn Airport is the only international passenger airport in RP.

[edit] Trade

[edit] Emigration

Rhineland-Palatinate has supplied immigrants to many parts of the world. The Hunsrückischen dialect in Brazil bears testimony to this fact, as do the names of the villages of New Paltz and Palatine Bridge, New York. The Pennsylvania Dutch spoken by the Amish people is (among other dialects) derived from the German dialect spoken in the Rhineland-Palatinate.