Municipality of Rhineland
The Municipality of Rhineland is a rural municipality (RM) in the Canadian province of Manitoba that incorporated on January 1, 2015 via the amalgamation of the Rural Municipality of Rhineland and the towns of Gretna and Plum Coulee. It was formed as a requirement of "The Municipal Amalgamations Act", which required municipalities with a population less than 1,000 to amalgamate with one or more neighbouring municipalities by 2015. The Government of Manitoba initiated the amalgamations for municipalities to meet the 1997 minimum population requirement of 1,000 to incorporate a municipality.
Upper Palatinate
From the mid 13th century much of the region was controlled by the Wittelsbach dynasty and until 1329 was ruled by the Wittelsbach Elector Palatine as part of the larger County Palatine of the Rhine (). By the 1329 Treaty of Pavia, the Wittelsbach territories were divided between two branches of the dynasty. The territory around the Rhine river in the west became known as the Rhenish Palatinate () or Lower Palatinate, and is today usually known simply as the Palatinate (); it is from this territory that the modern German state of Rhineland-Palatinate derives its name. By contrast, the territory to the east centred Amberg became known as the Upper Palatinate (), upper and lower in this case referring to the elevation of the territories (compare Low and High German, Upper and Lower Lusatia, Upper and Lower Lorraine, Low Countries, Lower Saxony).