Neidenfels

For the WWII cargo liner, see MV Neidenfels.

Neidenfels
Neidenfels
Location of Neidenfels within Bad Dürkheim district
Coordinates	49.3889°N 8.0464°E / 49.3889°N 8.0464°E / 49.3889; 8.0464Coordinates: 49.3889°N 8.0464°E / 49.3889°N 8.0464°E / 49.3889; 8.0464
Administration
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Bad Dürkheim
Municipal assoc.	Lambrecht (Pfalz)
Mayor	Sybille Höchel (CDU)
Basic statistics
Area	6.65 km2 (2.57 sq mi)
Elevation	434 m  (1424 ft)
Population	879 (31 December 2010)[1]
- Density	132 /km2 (342 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate	DÜW
Postal code	67468
Area code	06325
Website	www.neidenfels.de

Neidenfels, view of the municipality

Neidenfels is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

Geography

Location

The municipality, a papermaking village in the middle of the Palatinate Forest, lies between Neustadt an der Weinstraße und Kaiserslautern. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Lambrecht, whose seat is in the like-named town.

History

Neidenfels came into being in the early 15th century in the protection of Niedenfels Castle, which sometime came to be called Neidenfels. The castle itself dated back to 1330 when it was built by Count Palatine Rudolf II.

Religion

In 2007, 41.8% of the inhabitants were Evangelical and 41.3% Catholic. The rest belonged to other faiths or adhered to none^[2].

Politics

Municipal council

Town council

The council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.

The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results^[3]:

	SPD	CDU	Total
2009	5	7	12 seats
2004	7	5	12 seats

Coat of arms

The German blazon reads: In Rot ein steinernes silbernes Haus in Vorderansicht mit Treppengiebel.

The municipality’s arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Gules a stone house gable affronty argent with a crow-stepped gable.

The arms were approved in 1971 by the now abolished Regierungsbezirk administration in Neustadt. The one charge is canting for an old noble family’s name, Steinhausen von Neidenstein (Stein is “stone” in German and Haus is “house”)^[4].

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

Above the village stands Neidenfels Castle, a ruin from the 14th century. In the village itself is a papermill.

Near Neidenfels lies the Drachenfels rocky plateau, which can be reached from Neidenfels over hiking trails.

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

Stopping at Neidenfels railway station are RheinNeckar S-Bahn trains on the Saarbrucken–Mannheim line. Lines S1 and S2 afford direct links to Kaiserslautern in the west and Ludwigshafen, Mannheim and Heidelberg in the east. Public transport is integrated into the VRN, whose fares therefore apply.

Further reading

• Alexander Thon (Hrsg.): Wie Schwalbennester an den Felsen geklebt. Burgen in der Nordpfalz. 1. Aufl. Schnell + Steiner, Regensburg 2005, S. 112–115, ISBN 3-7954-1674-4.

References

1. ^ "Bevölkerung der Gemeinden am 31.12.2010" (in German). Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz. 31 December 2010. http://www.statistik.rlp.de/fileadmin/dokumente/berichte/A1033_201022_hj_G.pdf. 
2. ^ KommWis, Stand: 31. Dezember 2007
3. ^ Kommunalwahl Rheinland-Pfalz 2009, Gemeinderat [1]
4. ^ Karl Heinz Debus: Das große Wappenbuch der Pfalz. Neustadt an der Weinstraße 1988, ISBN 3-9801574-2-3

External links

• Municipality’s official webpage (German)

This article incorporates information from the German Wikipedia.