Kaiserslautern

Industrial city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, 48 km/30 mi west of Mannheim; population (1995) 102,100. Cars, machinery, textiles, tobacco, and beer are produced. The city dates from 882, and was named after a castle built by Frederick Barbarossa in 1152, later destroyed by the French in 1703.

Kaiserslautern was a favourite retreat of the Emperor Frederick I of Prussia (1657-1713).

In the centre of the city is the early Gothic church known as the Stiftskirche (13th-14th century) with a memorial to the Lutheran and Calvinist branches of Protestantism which united in 1818. Kaiserslautern is the cultural and economic centre of the Pfälzerwald (Palatinate Forest) and has a modern university (1970) and the Palatinate Theatre. There are a number of museums; local crafts and local traditions are celebrated at the Heimatmuseum, and the Pfalzgalerei contains local 19th- and 20th-century art. The city serves as the centre for visits to the Pfalzerwald Nature Park, which extends over an area of 1,793 sq km/692 sq mi.