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.
Wolfstein, Rhineland-Palatinate
Only for a few decades did the new town enjoy royal immediacy, whereafter it was passed time and again to and from various territorial lordships as a pledged holding. The almost endless chain of pledgings began as early as 1312 with the town's transfer to the Counts of Sponheim, and only ended in 1673 when the town passed to Electoral Palatinate. The Electoral Palatinate "Amt" (or "Unteramt") of Wolfstein in the "Oberamt" of Kaiserslautern comprised the two court regions of Katzweiler and “Rothe am Seelberg” (Rothselberg).