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
In Electoral Palatinate times, handicrafts and smallhold agriculture defined the town's economic structure. The greater part of Wolfstein's inhabitants lived in poverty. In the late 18th century, improvement came with the mining of cinnabar-bearing stone that yielded quicksilver on the Princely-Electoral side of the Königsberg, a pursuit promoted by Prince-Elector Karl Theodor. Under the leadership brought by experienced professionals who had come to town, this mining reached its highest point between 1770 and 1790. Nevertheless, the mining lasted no longer than 30 years before coming to a complete end in the 19th century, with destitution and hardship as the upshot for the now jobless miners and their families.