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.
Hochstätten
Many dates are given as Hochstätten’s first documentary mention. An often-cited date is 1108, the date of a document issued by the Archbishopric of Mainz to Disibodenberg Abbey, which names "Hosteden". Somewhat more certain mentions of Hochstätten date from 1260, 1350 and 1366. It is likely that Hochstätten had its own parish by 1261. The church tower, an icon of the village's appearance today, was built in the 13th century. This church has been put under monumental protection. Very early, Hochstätten came under the lordship of the Raugraves and Rhinegraves, who were based at Rheingrafenstein Castle, and later at Gaugrehweiler. Beginning in 1754 or 1755, Hochstätten belonged to Palatinate-Zweibrücken before passing to the Electoral Palatinate in 1768. In 1801, after French Revolutionary troops had overrun and occupied the German lands on the Rhine's left bank, Hochstätten, along with all the lands that the French had occupied, was absorbed into the French state. Hochstätten was grouped into the Department of Mont-Tonnerre (or Donnersberg in German). After Napoleon's defeat in the German campaign, the last and decisive phase of the War of the Sixth Coalition and indeed of the Napoleonic Wars, the Congress of Vienna placed Hochstätten in the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1816. The village remained in Bavaria until during the Allied occupation after the Second World War, the state of Rhineland-Palatinate was founded. Bearing witness to Hochstätten's history as part of Bavaria, the Bavarian state arms can still be seen today above the stage at the municipal hall, and even the favourite card game at the local "Stammtische" (regulars' tables) is still one that Germans commonly associate with Bavaria – Schafkopf. In the course of administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate, Hochstätten was transferred from the old Rockenhausen district (which was dissolved) to the Bad Kreuznach district in 1969.