Wolfstein, Rhineland-Palatinate
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.
Kleinwallstadt
In Kleinwallstadt, then also known as Bischofswallstadt, which was converted to Christianity as early as the early 8th century, the Archbishop of Mainz established in 1023 a "Vogtei" and a tithe court over a great expanse of the Spessart (range). In the 12th and early 13th century, the Lords of Waldenberg were enfeoffed with the place. About 1185 they built a castle on a crag east of the community, but this had already been destroyed by the mid 13th century. (The remains of the "Altes Schloss" were explored by archaeologists in 2006 and 2007). From the 16th century, the Focke von Wallstadt family were resident in the community. Their seat, the “Ingelheimer Hof” next to the town hall, and all appurtenances passed in 1587 to the Echter von Mespelbrunn family, and thereafter to the Imperial Counts ("Reichsgrafen") of Ingelheim.
Under Archbishop Johann Schweikhard von Kronberg in 1611, 84 witches were put to death in Kleinwallstadt. Since the Thirty Years' War had wrought such devastation upon Kleinwallstadt and all records and documents had been destroyed, the Archbishop of Mainz issued new guild charters in 1733 for Kleinwallstadt and the surrounding villages. It can be inferred from these that earlier on in Kleinwallstadt and the surrounding area, quite a lively commercial life had taken hold, for the charters number 17 occupations, such as cooper, brewer, carpenter, mason, potter, dyer, glazier, stocking weaver and linen weaver. On the same grounds, the market rights, which had surely been granted earlier, were newly confirmed and chartered in 1737 by the Elector of Mainz.