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
Beginning in 1970, work shifted to what had until recently been a self-administering, neighbouring village, and building began in Roßbach on formerly agricultural lands east of the railway line between Sandfeld (Immetshausen) and Eisenknopf (Schlettweg, Barbarossastraße, Habsburgerstraße, Kurpfalzstraße, Stauferstraße, Wingerstbergstraße, Hahnbach and Sandfeld). By 2000, 78 residential buildings had arisen here, mostly one- and two-family houses. The amalgamation increased Wolfstein's area by 616 ha to 1 377 ha.