Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: How old is the town of Wolfstein in Germany?
Wolfstein was founded in 1275 on Habsburg King Rudolph I's orders, which called for a “fortified and free” town near his castle, “Woluisstein”, now known as the Alt-Wolfstein (“Old Wolfstein”) ruin. Rudolph forthwith granted the new town the same town rights and freedoms as the town of Speyer. As an “everlasting marketplace”, it was to be a sanctuary for commerce, trade and dealing. The first townsmen and -women came from the surrounding, much older villages.
Wolfstein is a former "Verbandsgemeinde" ("collective municipality") in the district of Kusel, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the "Verbandsgemeinde" was in Wolfstein. On 1 July 2014 it merged into the new "Verbandsgemeinde" Lauterecken-Wolfstein.
Lang-Heck (Roßbach) — 404.1m Neu-Wolfstein castle ruin — 238m Stahlhausen valley floor (southern town limit) — 196m Wolfstein railway station — 187.9m[3]
The district was established in 1972 by merging the former districts of Grafenau and Wolfstein. In medieval times Wolfstein (east of the Ilz River) was the property of the bishop of Passau and the site of Wolfstein Castle, now a "schloss". Grafenau (west of the Ilz River) successively belonged to different countries, before it was annexed by Bavaria in 1438. Wolfstein became a part of Bavaria two years after the dissolution of the clerical states in Germany (1803).
Wolfsteiner Ohe is a river of Bavaria, Germany. It is formed at the confluence of the Saußbach and the Reschbach west of Freyung. It flows into the Ilz near Fürsteneck.
After the 1849 Palatine Uprising, many people from the town emigrated to the United States. In connection with the 1832 Hambach Festival and the later Palatine Uprising, there is a story: On the republican-liberal citizenry’s side was the 23-year-old tanner’s son Jakob Krieger, who fled to the United States, where he founded a trade and banking company in Louisville. His daughter Amy married the Wolfstein banker Karl Otto Braun. On the other side was the State Procurator General at the court of appeal in Zweibrücken, Wolfstein-born Ludwig Schmitt, Heidelberger Romantik painter Georg Philipp Schmitt’s brother, and also Jakob Krieger’s cousin. Schmitt led the prosecution of the trials against the insurrectionists.
Wolfstein's old schoolhouse was for a time used by BASF, the chamber of commerce and the CJD. It is foreseen that it will become the town museum and library, while Roßbach's old schoolhouse has already become a village community centre.
The name “Wolfstein” has appeared in many different spellings over the ages: Woluisstein (1275), Wolffestein (1387), Wolffstein (1438), Wolfsstein (1477), Wolfstein (1824). Also, in the local dialectal speech, the town is called Wolschde.
Currently serving the town's needs are Grundschule Wolfstein (primary school; feeder area: Aschbach, Einöllen, Kreimbach-Kaulbach, Oberweiler-Tiefenbach, Relsberg, Rutsweiler, Wolfstein) and, since 1998, the Regionalschule and (with some classes being phased out) the Hauptschule (feeder area: the Verbandsgemeinde).
Beginning in 1947, Wolfstein was part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate. On 7 June 1969, the until then self-administering municipality of Roßbach in der Pfalz was merged into the town of Wolfstein.[15] Since 1971, the town has been the administrative seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Wolfstein.
The Amtskellerei, whose mostly noble Amtskeller were charged with executing princely orders, was to be found at Neu-Wolfstein Castle, and after that was destroyed in 1688 by King Louis XIV’s troops in the Nine Years' War (known in Germany as the Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg, or War of the Palatine Succession), at a small house beside the old town hall at the foot of the Schlossberg; beginning in 1753 it was at the great building before the outer town gate (today the town hall) built on Elector Karl Theodor’s (1742-1799) orders from Amtsgefällen – Amt taxes. By territorial swap between the Elector and the Duke of Zweibrücken in 1768, the places within the Schultheißerei of Einöllen (Einöllen, Hohenöllen, Tiefenbach, Oberweiler, Roßbach and Sulzhof) passed to Electoral Palatinate and were assigned to the Amt of Wolfstein.
Before the Reformation, Wolfstein belonged to the parish of Zweikirchen, whereas Roßbach belonged to the parish of Tiefenbach. Only about the middle of the 15th century did Wolfstein get its own church in the town centre (on Wassergasse). This church, called St. Georg (“Saint George’s”), was the successor to the like-named chapel at Neu-Wolfstein Castle, where church services had been held until then.
Spreading out from the old town (known as the Flecken, meaning “market town”) in the hollow, the settled parts of town lay in the 19th century on the slopes between the Tauchental (dale) and Schlossgasse (or Obergasse – a lane), on the narrow strips of land either side of Lauterstraße (or Untergasse) and on Hauptstraße (“Main Street”, but in an outlying neighbourhood). Worth mentioning are several old buildings in Wolfstein: the Evangelical church (1868, beside the town hall), the Catholic rectory (1845, outside town centre), the Evangelical rectory (1899, outside town centre), the court and prison building (1902/1903, outside town centre) and the former Kurhaus Lautertal (spa hotel, 1862, renovated in 1912, outside town centre).
In the 15th and 16th centuries, Electoral Palatinate and the Duchy of Zweibrücken fought for possession of the castle.
The dispute ended in 1504 with its destruction by Prince-Elector Philip of the Palatinate. After that, Old Wolfstein was allowed to fall into ruin.
Wolfstein Castle was built as a fortification by the Bishop of Passau, Wolfger von Erla, around 1200. Before that, the surrounding land had been ceded to the bishops of Passau by Emperor Henry VI in 1193. In 1301, a place is first mentioned in a document as "Purchstol zu Wolferstein und ein Wald dazu", later Freyung. The castle itself served as a fortification, administrative base and episcopal hunting lodge. When the Prince-Bishopric of Passau was dissolved in 1803, Wolfstein was initially annexed by Austria. Three years later, the area went to the Kingdom of Bavaria after the Treaty of Pressburg. In 1806, the Bavarian "Landgerichtsbezirk" of Wolfstein was established with its headquarters at Schloss Wolfstein in the municipality ("Landgemeinde") of Ort. It belonged to the Lower Danube Circle (which became Lower Bavaria in 1838). In 1862, the new "Landgerichtsbezirk" of Waldkirchen was established from municipalities of the "Landgerichtsbezirke" of Wolfstein and Wegscheid and the former "Landgericht" of Wolfstein was renamed to the "Landgericht" of Freyung. Both "Landgerichtsbezirke" belonged to the "Bezirksamt" of Wolfstein. In 1938, the "Bezirke" were renamed "Landkreise". Since the incorporation of the municipality of Ort on 1 April 1954, Wolfstein Castle has stood on the territory of the town of Freyung. In 1972 the county of Wolfstein was dissolved.
Wolfstein is a town in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Before 1 July 2014 it was the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde, since then it is part of the Verbandsgemeinde Lauterecken-Wolfstein. Wolfstein is known for its two castle ruins, Neu-Wolfstein standing over the heart of the town, and Alt-Wolfstein standing at the narrowest spot in the Lauter valley at the town's northern entrance. Wolfstein is a state-recognized recreational resort (Erholungsort).[2]
Wolfstein also lies on the Lauter Valley Railway (Lautertalbahn), a single-tracked, 34-kilometre-long railway that links Wolfstein to Kaiserslautern Central Station and the Mannheim/Ludwigshafen – Saarbrücken long-distance services available there, as well as the local rail travel within the Palatinate. In the local town area, trains stop at Roßbach (Friedhof), Wolfstein (Bahnhof) and Reckweilerhof.[30]
Like Frankenstein, Wolfstein is the name of a German town in southwestern Germany in the Rhine Palatinate district. Just as there is a Frankenstein Castle, there is also a Wolfstein Castle in Germany. "Frankenstein" in German means "Stone of the Franks", a Germanic tribe. "Wolfstein" means "Stone of the Wolf". German names, locations, and characters are a central theme of Gothic horror literature. The Goths were a Germanic tribe. Sir Horace Walpole developed the Gothic horror story with the publication of his novel "The Castle of Otranto" in 1764.
Wolfstein and Megalena flee to Genoa where they live together. Olympia, a woman of the town, seduces Wolfstein. Megalena, enraged by the relationship, demands that Wolfstein kill Olympia. Armed with a dagger, Wolfstein is unable to kill her. Olympia kills herself.
One witness to the town's industrial past is the Historische Besichtigungs-Kalkbergwerk (“Historic Visitable Chalk Mine”) in Wolfstein. A mine railway leads the visitor, with knowledgeable guidance, into the chalk mine at the Königsberg, where until 1967 chalk blocks were quarried underground and processed in town. All apparatus is still on hand in its original form. The chalk mine is held to be an industrial monument of special rank, and is unique in Germany.
The town’s days as an Electoral Palatinate holding came to an end when French Revolutionary troops occupied the lands on the Rhine’s left bank, including the town itself; by 1801, this territory had been annexed under the terms of the Treaty of Lunéville by the soon to be Napoleonic France. As early as 1797, Wolfstein became, in the course of administrative reform carried out by the French, a cantonal seat in the Arrondissement of Kaiserslautern and the Department of Mont-Tonnerre (or Donnersberg in German). Belonging to the canton were 32 municipalities with 8 mayors and roughly 8,000 inhabitants. The Mairie (“Mayoralty”) of Wolfstein comprised four municipalities with roughly 1,300 inhabitants; in the town itself lived 37 families and 311 persons. In 1814, the French withdrew from the Canton of Wolfstein.[10]
With the expansion of Wolfstein's inhabited area, the old town's girding, mediaeval wall, which still stood in the early 19th century, had gaps knocked through it and eventually, along with both the town gates and the Bürgerturm (tower), it was torn down altogether.
Old Wolfstein was probably built under Emperor Frederick Barbarossa around 1160/70 to guard and administer the Imperial Estate around Kaiserslautern.
Signposted paths open the Königsberg and its environs to the hiker. The Glan-Lautertal-Höhenweg, part of the Großer Westpfalzwanderweg (“Great West Palatinate Hiking Trail”) leads through the town's municipal area. Hiking destinations of particular note are the Laufhauser Weiher (pond), the Neu-Wolfstein and Alt-Wolfstein castle ruins, the Eisenknopf (peak) with its pavilion, the Zweikirche, the Heidenburg (“Heathen Castle”) on the Kreimberg, the Selberg (545m above sea level) with its lookout tower and the gliderport near Eßweiler. Worth seeing in the town itself are the inn “Zur Alten Schenke”, which from 1590 to 1753 was the town hall, today's town hall, the former Amtskellerei, which was once an administrative centre, the Schlossplatz (“Castle Square”) with its Musikantenbrunnen, a fountain celebrating the local tradition of the Musikanten (see the Hinzweiler article – sections History and Famous people – for more about this), the remodelled Schlossgasse (“Castle Lane”) with its Eulenbrunnen (“Owl Fountain”) and the remodelling area around the Alte Mühle (“Old Mill”, on Mühlgasse).
Not much is known about the origins of the castle. It was probably built by Rudolph of Habsburg between 1275 and 1324 in connexion with the founding of the town of Wolfstein, as part of the town's defences. It is first recorded in 1324 as "Hus zu Wolvenstein".