Rhineland-Palatinate

Flag
Statistics
Capital:	Mainz
Area:	19,846 km²
Inhabitants:	3,880,000 (2000)
pop. density:	196 people/km²
Homepage:	http://www.rlp.de/
ISO 3166-2:	DE-RP
Politics
Minister-President:	Kurt Beck (SPD)
Ruling party:	SP/FDP coalition
Map

The Rhineland-Palatinate (German Rheinland-Pfalz) is one of 16 Bundesländer of Germany. It has an area of 19,846 km² and 3.88 million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz.

Table of contents

1 Geography 2 Administration 3 History 4 List of Minister-Presidents of Rhineland-Palatinate 5 External link

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 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.

Administration

Rhineland-Palatinate is divided into 24 districts, grouped into the three administrative regions (officially no longer called Regierungsbezirk): Koblenz, Trier and Rheinhessen-Pfalz.

Map

Ahrweiler Altenkirchen Alzey-Worms Bad Dürkheim Bad Kreuznach Bernkastel-Wittlich Birkenfeld Bitburg-Prüm Cochem-Zell

Daun Donnersbergkreis Germersheim Kaiserslautern Kusel Ludwigshafen Mainz-Bingen Mayen-Koblenz

Neuwied Rhein-Hunsrück Rhein-Lahn Südliche Weinstraße Südwestpfalz Trier-Saarburg Westerwaldkreis

Furthermore there are twelve independent towns, which don't belong to any district:

1. Frankenthal
2. Kaiserslautern
3. Koblenz
4. Landau
5. Ludwigshafen
6. Mainz
7. Neustadt (Weinstraße)
8. Pirmasens
9. Speyer
10. Trier
11. Worms
12. Zweibrücken

History

The state of Rhineland-Palatinate was established in 1946 by merging the Rhine Palatinate with the southern parts of the Prussian Rhine Province and the parts of former Hesse on the western banks of the Rhine.

List of Minister-Presidents of Rhineland-Palatinate

1. 1947: Wilhelm Boden (CDU)
2. 1947 - 1969: Peter Altmeier
3. 1969 - 1976: Helmut Kohl (CDU)
4. 1976 - 1988: Bernhard Vogel (CDU)
5. 1988 - 1991: Carl-Ludwig Wagner (CDU)
6. 1991 - 1994: Rudolf Scharping (SPD)
7. since 1994: Kurt Beck (SPD)

External link

See the state's own website, http://www.rlp.de/