Westrich plateau

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The Westrich plateau (highlighted in color) in the western connection to the Palatinate Forest and southern continuation to Lorraine

The Westrich plateau , also known as Zweibrücker Westrich or Südwestpfälzische plateau , is a landscape that is largely located in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate , and to a lesser extent in the Saarland ( Saarpfalz district ). Its core area in the southwest of the Palatinate region is part of the historical Westrich region .

geography

Structure and boundaries

Sickinger level: ascent from Landstuhl (left) to the Sickinger Höhe (right)

The Westrich plateau consists primarily of the Sickinger Höhe in the north and the Zweibrücker hill country in the south, which morphologically actually belongs more to north-eastern Lorraine ( France ).

To the northwest, to Homburger pool , and especially to the north, the country Bruch , the core plateau falls into a prominent escarpment of, Sickinger stage , from, while the eastern West Rich edge a rather smooth transition of limestone plateaus in the red sandstone of the Palatinate Forest is . The sub-areas at the Moosalbe and near Eppenbrunn specified below also protrude into the wooded areas of the Palatinate Forest Nature Park . According to the now common classification, the Queidersbach - and the Moosalbtal, the eastern settlement edge of Pirmasens and the Trualbe form the actual eastern edge.

To the south, the Zweibrücken hill country continues into France.

The middle western border to Sankt Ingbert-Kirkeler forest area and, further south, to Bliesgau , runs according to the Federal Institute for Regional Studies ( Blatt Saarbrücken ) as well as according to popular belief just west of the Saarland state border and does not cross the valley of the Blies , which hereafter serves as the demarcation the former landscape applies. This contrasts with a purely internal division of the Saarland according to Quasten (see division according to Quasten 1992 ), which also includes a narrow part of the landscape southwest of Blieskastel ( right = west of the Blies) to the Zweibrücker Westrich.

Natural structure

Natural areas of the Westrich plateau

In terms of natural space, the plateau is structured as follows:

  • 180 Zweibrücker Westrich (632.9 km² in Rhineland-Palatinate [RP] and smaller parts in Saarland [SL])

Flowing waters

The Sickinger Höhe, which is mainly drained by the Wallhalb (17.9 km; 100.2 km² catchment area ) and the Auerbach (16.5 km; 80.4 km²), extends in the south right up to the widening of the Schwarzbach valley . The east of the Zweibrücker Hügelland ( Pirmasenser Hügelland ) is mainly drained by the Felsalb (17.7 km; a total of 76.0 km²), the west ( Schwalbhügelland ) by the Schwalb (114.5 km²) and Bickenalb (78.8 km²) , whereby only a small section of the mouth of the eponymous river lies on German soil. Of the Hornbach , the receiving waters of Felsalb, ​​Schwalb and Bickenalb, only the shorter estuary section lies in Germany and this is almost completely in the lower Schwarzbachtal widening. In the north, the Lambsbach drains the Sickinger Höhe directly towards the Blies.

Near the northern edge of the Sickinger Höhe, the Palatinate main watershed runs between the Upper and Middle Rhine ( Moselle ), whereby almost the entire plateau is drained over the Schwarzbach to Blies , Saar and ultimately the Moselle.

history

An important historical person in the area was the knight Franz von Sickingen (1481–1523), who was the leader of the Rhenish and Swabian knighthood at the time of the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern era . As a supporter of supporters of the Reformation, he fought for the secularization of church goods and led his peers in the war of knights .

Sights and culture

The Krähenberg meteorite

Local attractions are covered in the article Mühlenweg , for example . In 1869 the Krähenberg meteorite attracted national attention.

The Verbandsgemeinde Thaleischweiler-Wallhalben dedicates itself intensively to maintaining the Palatinate dialect and has been organizing the Sickinger dialect contest since 1991 .

Economy and Infrastructure

traffic

Street

Schwarzbachtal bridge on the A 62

The Westricher plateau is accessed by the Autobahn 8 , which runs from west to east (between Zweibrücken and Pirmasens) in the south, as well as Autobahn 62 , which - in some cases only has two lanes -  connects Landstuhl in the north with Pirmasens in the south.

The old federal road 10 runs parallel to Autobahn 8 , and federal road 270 runs from Kaiserslautern to Pirmasens on the eastern edge of the plateau .

rail

The Zweibrücken – Pirmasens-Nord railway line , which is part of the Saarbrücken – Karlsruhe connection, also runs roughly parallel to the A 8 .

Settlement

The Westrich plateau is only sparsely populated. There are larger cities only on the outskirts with Zweibrücken in the south west and Pirmasens in the south east as well as - west outside the Sickinger Höhe and beyond the stratification level -  Homburg .

literature

  • August Becker: The Palatinate and the Palatinate . 7th edition. Pfälzische Verlagsanstalt, Landau / Pfalz 2005, ISBN 3-89857-193-9 , p. 338–363 (first edition: 1857).
  • Michael Geiger: The landscapes of the Palatinate . In: Michael Geiger (ed.): Geography of the Palatinate . Verlag Pfälzische Landeskunde, Landau / Pfalz 2010, ISBN 978-3-9812974-0-9 , p. 92-113 .
  • Daniel Häberle : The Palatinate Forest . A contribution to the regional studies of the Rhine Palatinate. Georg Westermann Verlag, Braunschweig / Berlin 1913, OCLC 46091199 .
  • Karl Heinz: Palatinate with Wine Route . Landscape, history, culture, art, folklore. Glock and Lutz Verlag, Heroldsberg 1976, OCLC 2820105 , p. 239-268 .
  • Emil Heuser: New Palatinate Leader . 14th edition. Waldkirch Verlag, Ludwigshafen / Rhein 1979, OCLC 174479050 (first edition: 1900).
  • Heinz Wittner: Great Palatinate Leader . German hiking publisher Dr. Mair & Schnabel & Co., Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-8134-0106-5 , pp. 479-510 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helmut Beeger et al.: The landscapes of Rheinhessen-Pfalz - naming and spatial delimitation. In: Reports on German regional studies. Volume 63, Issue 2, Trier 1989, pp. 327-359.
  2. ↑ So z. B. in the manual of the natural structure of Germany .
  3. ↑ Albert Zink: The Palatinate, my homeland . A local history for the Palatinate youth. 3. Edition. Zechner, Speyer 1966.
  4. ↑ Heinz Wittner: Big Palatinate leader. P. 479.
  5. ↑ Emil Heuser: New Palatinate leader. P. 6.
  6. ↑ August Becker: The Palatinate and the Palatinate. Pp. 347-354, pp. 363-368, pp. 369-385.
  7. ↑ Michael Geiger: The landscapes of the Palatinate. Pp. 102-103.
  8. ↑ Helmut Beeger et al.: The landscapes of Rheinhessen-Pfalz - naming and spatial delimitation. In: Reports on German regional studies. Volume 63, Issue 2, Trier 1989, pp. 336-338.
  9. ↑ Schneider / Werle systems (sheets Saarbrücken and Trier / Mettendorf) vs. Tassels on a card. (PDF, 2.0 MB)
  10. ↑ Landscape profile of the large landscape 18 of the landscape information system of the nature conservation administration Rhineland-Palatinate ( notes )
  11. ↑ List of natural spaces in RP with a rough map ( memento of the original from January 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.78 MB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.luwg.rlp.de
  12. ↑ Various authors: Geographische Landesaufnahme: The natural spatial units in single sheets 1: 200,000 . Federal Institute for Regional Studies, Bad Godesberg 1952–1994. → Online maps
    • Sheet 159: Saarbrücken (Helga Schneider 1972; 154 pages)
    • Sheet 160: Landau id Pfalz (Adalbert Pemöller 1969; 47 pages)
  13. ↑ a b c GeoExplorer of the Rhineland-Palatinate Water Management Authority ( information )
  14. ↑ Michael Geiger: The landscapes of the Palatinate. P. 103.