Ludwigshafen is a district (Kreis) in the east of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from north clockwise) the district-free city Worms, the district Bergstraße, district-free Mannheim, Frankenthal[?] and Ludwigshafen, Rhein-Neckar, district-free Speyer, the districts Karlsruhe, Germersheim, Südliche Weinstraße and Bad Dürkheim.
The district was created in
1886 under the name
Bezirksamt Ludwigshafen, one of the last acts of king
Ludwig II of Bavaria. The population in the area around Speyer had grown significantly, which made the splitting of the Bezirksamt Speyer necessary.
1969 the two districts Speyer and Ludwigshafen and part of the districts Frankenthal and Neustadt were merged again to form the new district.
On May 19, 2003 the district parliament did pass a resolution to rename the district to "Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis" starting in 2004.
The district started it first partnership in
1964 with the municipalities
Schnals[?] and
Naturns[?] in
South Tyrol,
Italy. The district Speyer had partnership with
Schlanders[?] and
Martelltal[?], also in South Tyrol, which were taken over after the merging of the district. As part of the partnership of Rhineland-Palatinate with
Rwanda the district has partnership with the municipality Kinyami starting in
1983. After the german reunification the district supported the
Saalkreis[?] in
Saxony-Anhalt in modernzing the administration to western standard, which resulted in a friendship between the two districts. In
1991 a partnership with the district Radviliskis in
Lithuania was started, and in
2002 with the
polish district
Opole in
Silesia.
The district is located in the valley of the
Rhine river, both the actual river valley and the
Vorderpfälzer Tiefland, formed by the sediments of the rivers of the Palatinate hills. The district has a very warm climate, together with the fertile
loess soil it makes the area favourable for growing vegetable. However the rainfall is comparatively low, thus
irrigation is needed.
|
The wavy line from the bottom-right to the top-left symbolizes the Rhine river. The lion in the left is the lion of the Palatinate, to which the largest part of the district belonged historically. The silver cross in the right part is taken from the State of Speyer, taken from the coat of arms of the Speyer district. The shield in the middle show water lily[?] leaves, a typical symbol for the district, as this plant grows in the old arms of the Rhine river.
|
Official website (
http://www.kreis-ludwigshafen.de) (German)