Kaiserslautern is a city in the south of the Land Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. It has 100,000 inhabitants and some 38,000 additional American citizens due to the large military bases in the region. The town itself without the incorporated villages has about 85,000 inhabitants.
Japanese Garden in the botanic gardens.
Central Kaiserslautern from the town hall building
Historical Kaiserslautern
Introduction
Ramstein Air Base, which is the seat of US Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) Headquarters, the Allied Air Forces North (AIRNORTH) and the 86th Airlift Wing is probably the most popular suburb of the city of Kaiserslautern and is actually located in the county of Kaiserslautern. Americans stationed in Kaiserslauten call it K-Town owing to the length of the word "Kaiserslautern". The American military presence in Kaiserslautern has decreased substantially in recent years, with consequent economic effects to the area. Other suburbs, villages, and cities in the county of Kaiserslautern are Otterbach, Erlenbach, Otterberg, Mehlingen, Enkenbach-Alsenborn, Fischbach, Hochspeyer, Waldleiningen, Lambrecht (Pfalz), Trippstadt, Stelzenberg, Schopp, Krickenbach, Queidersbach, Bann, Kindsbach, Landstuhl (birth place of actor Levar Burton), Ramstein-Miesenbach, Weilerbach, Rodenbach (Pfalz), Katzweiler, Schallodenbach, Schneckenhausen, Schneckenhoff and Siegelbach.
Science and industry
Kaiserslautern's other industries include manufacturing, as the home of Pfaff, an internationally-known maker of sewing machines, Keiper-Recaro, an internationally well known maker of seats for cars and planes, OPEL, one of Germany's oldest car manufacturers.
Kaiserslautern is famous for its technical university, home of DFKI, the German center for artificial intelligence, three branches Fraunhofer Institut (fraunhofer society, who developed the mp3 codec) and Max Planck-Institut.
Sites and buildings
The town hall (Rathaus) is the tallest modern building in the city-center of Kaiserslautern, and the bar and coffe-shop on the top floor features good views of the town and surrounding countryside. The tallest building in the center of Kaiserslautern is actually Marienkirche, a catholic church.
The television tower, in fact the highest building in Kaiserslautern is not in the citycenter, but located at Dansenberg, a ward in the southwest of the city.
In the town itself, there are some ruins of a 12th-century castle of the emperor Barbarossa.
Kaiserslautern's large botanic gardens feature a Japanese-style garden. Another unusual feature is the Waschmühle, an enormous 160-metre public swimming pool, the largest in Europe, you can see it from space. The pedestrianized streets near St-Martins-Platz contain many restaurants and bars and is a major focus of the town's nightlife.
The castle "Kaiserpfalz" was built in 1152.
Culture and sports
Kaiserslautern offers a wide range of cultural activities. Theatregoers have the chance to see plays, operas, ballets, concerts or musical at the local theatre (http://www.pfalztheater.de) which employs more than 300 people and plays a notable role in the German theatre scene. The first German performance of Westside Story took place there. As theatres in Germany profit from staten subsidies, ticket prices are rather low. Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern hosts the most important award for Germanwriting drama authors, Else-Lasker-Schüler-Preis, which in 2003 was awarded to Austrian author Elfriede Jelinek, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2004.
Another place for music, comedy and plays is called "Kulturzentrum Kammgarn", another subsidised stage and club in the city, that regulary hosts German and international stars ( for example "Earth, Wind and Fire","Midge Ure", "Jan Garbarek", "Peter Gabriel" ), who like to play in a club-atmosphere. Kammgarn (http://www.kammgarn.de) hosts a very popular annual jazz-festival. "Kulturzentrum Kammgarn" is located in an old cotton factory, this is why the club of "Kulturzentrum Kammgarn" is called "The Cotton Club".
The town is also home to the Football team 1. FC Kaiserslautern, which achieved the title "Deutscher Meister" (German champion) three times. In 2006, Kaiserslautern will host the World Cup.
Museums and libraries
- Pfalzgalerie (artgallery, mainly pictures and sculptures from the 19th and 20th century)
- Wadgasserhof/Theodor-Zink-Museum (local history)
- Stadtbibliothek (townlibrary)
- Universitätsbibliothek (library of the university of Kaiserslautern)
- Hochschulbibliothek (Bibliothek of Fachhochschule)
- Pfalzbibliothek (scientific library with a main focus on palatinate issues)
Nature
Kaiserslautern is located in Germany's largest forest area (Pfälzer Wald) and offers numerous hiking trails and lakes to visitors.
Other places of interest in Kaiserslautern are:
- Humbergturm, an observation tower, built in 1900, offering a great view over the Palatinate Forest
- Kaiserslautern Zoo at Siegelbach
- Karlstal (a whitewater canyon)
- Kaiserpfalz, the old castle of emperor Barbarossa (Redbeard)
- Burg Nanstein, Landstuhl, an old castle in the county
- Burg Hohenecken, an old castle in a ward of Kaiserslautern
- Gartenschau, a horticultural show, including the largest dinosaur show of Europe.
Temperatures:
| Month |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Okt |
Nov |
Dec |
| max. |
04°C |
05°C |
10°C |
13°C |
19°C |
22°C |
25°C |
25°C |
20°C |
15°C |
09°C |
05°C |
| min. |
-1°C |
-2°C |
02°C |
03°C |
08°C |
12°C |
14°C |
13°C |
09°C |
06°C |
03°C |
01°C |
Business
Twin cities of Kaiserslautern
- Davenport, (Iowa), USA
- Douzy, France
- Saint-Quentin, France
- London Borough of Newham, Great Britain
- Bunkyo-ku, district of Tokio, Japan
- Brandenburg an der Havel, Brandenburg, Germany
- Plewen, Bulgaria
- Columbia, (South Carolina)
- Silkeborg, Denmark
- Guimarães, Portugal
- Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bitola, Republic of Macedonia
- Igualada, Spain
- Rotherham, Great Britain
Some companies in the city of Kaiserslautern
- ACO Guss GmbH (bis 1997 Guss- und Armaturwerk Kaiserslautern; stealcompany, foundry)
- Adam Opel AG (motorfactory; also GKN Gelenkwellenwerk Kaiserslautern GmbH -cardanshafts- and Stute Verkehrs GmbH -logistics-)
- Alpha Business Solutions AG (business software for industry and trading companies)
- Arcadis Consult GmbH (consulting and management services)
- F.K. Horn GmbH & Co. KG (construction company)
- Bahntechnik Kaiserslautern (formerly Bundesbahn-Ausbesserungswerk; trains and waggons)
- Barbarossa Bäckerei GmbH (bakery)
- Blue Order AG (formerly TecMath AG) (content management systems)
- CAS GmbH (CRM software)
- Corning GmbH (fabrication of catalytic converters)
- CP Schmidt Verpackungswerk GmbH & Co. KG (construction and production of cardboard and wrappings)
- debitel (telecommunication; call center)
- Euromaster GmbH (manufacturer of tires, headquarters)
- FACT Future Advanced Composites & Technology GmbH (development of plastics)
- Freudenberg Vliesstoffe KG (manufacturer of fibrous webs)
- Fruit of the Loom GmbH (central center for logistics and distribution for Europe)
- Gebr. Pfeiffer AG (stonemills)
- GENERAL DYNAMICS Santa Bárbara Sistemas GmbH (until 2002 Eisenwerke Kaiserslautern; amphibious vehicles, mobile bridges for military use)
- Gondrom (one of Germany's largest bookstores)
- Hochwald Nahrungsmittel-Werke GmbH (milk)
- Human Solutions GmbH (hard- und software for ergonomic processes and bodyscanners)
- Keiper GmbH & Co. KG (carseats, development and construction department)
- klip-asca GmbH (IT-integration)
- Linux Networx GmbH (headquarters for Europe, specialists for supercomputer)
- LMS Deutschland GmbH (software-development for mechanic, structural density and components)
- Lumera Laser GmbH (lasersystems)
- Market Maker Software AG (software for portfoliomanagement and stocktrades)
- maxess Systemhaus GmbH (IT-solutions for grocery companies)
- Mobotix AG (developer and manufacturer of network cameras and surveillance systems)
- Pfaff Industrie Maschinen AG (sewing machines)
- Saar-Pfalz Erfrischungsgetränke GmbH & Co. KG (licensee of Coca-Cola)
- SIEDA GmbH (software for staff management in hospitals)
- Spinnerei Lampertsmühle GmbH (textiles)
- Torpedo-Garage GmbH & Co. KG (branch of Daimler-Chrysler AG)
- Ultraweb New Media GmbH (full-service-provider, high-speed-internet)
- Wipotec Wägetechnik GmbH (scales)
- Albert Ziegler GmbH & Co. KG (fire-fighting equipment)
External links
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserslautern under GFDL
