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

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 with some of the historically most significant places of Germany.

In the northwest there are the southern parts of the Eifel mountains. Further south there is the Hunsrück mountain chain, which is continued by the Taunus mountains on the opposite side of the Rhine. The hilly lands in the very south of the state are called the Palatine Forest (Pfälzerwald).

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

Government

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)

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.

The districts of Rhineland-Palatinate:Ahrweiler ;Altenkirchen ;Alzey-Worms ;Bad Dürkheim ;Bad Kreuznach ;Bernkastel-Wittlich ;Birkenfeld ;Bitburg-Prüm ; Cochem-Zell ;Daun ;

Donnersbergkreis ;Germersheim ;Kaiserslautern ;Kusel ;Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis ;Mainz-Bingen ;

 Mayen-Koblenz ;Neuwied ;Rhein-Hunsrück ;Rhein-Lahn ;Südliche Weinstraße ;Südwestpfalz ;Trier-Saarburg ;Westerwaldkreis .

Every district is composed of numerous municipalities, which can consist of cities, villages, or groups of villages known as Verbandsgemeinden. Furthermore there are twelve cities which do not belong to any district and are identified on the map with letters:

Frankenthal (F) ;Kaiserslautern (Ka) ;Koblenz Coblenz (Ko) ;Landau (La, the main city and an enclave) ;Ludwigshafen (L) ;Mainz (M) ;Neustadt (Weinstraße) (N) ;Pirmasens (P) ;

Speyer Spires (S) ;Trier (T) ;Worms (W) ;Zweibrücken (Z) .

History

The federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate was established on 30 August 1946. It was formed out of 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.

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.