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.
Walldorf
A group of pre-historic Hallstatt culture barrows stands in the Hochholz woods, near the offices of SAP Deutschland.
The earliest documentary mention of the settlement occurs as "Waltorf" in a 770 deed issued by the Abbey of Lorsch. The Electorate of the Palatinate received Walldorf as an Imperial fief in 1230. The town suffered much during the Thirty Years' War of 1618-1648, and in 1689 was completely destroyed in the course of the French invasion during Nine Years' War. The area was settled anew by religious refugees, among them the predecessors of John Jacob Astor, Waldensians from Piedmont. With the 1803 German Mediatisation Walldorf fell to Baden. 1843 saw the building of the Rheintalbahn: this railway decisively promoted economic development. In 1901 Grand Duke Frederick I of Baden granted Walldorf town privileges. After World War II, the establishment of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen (founded 1850) and of SAP (founded 1972; moved to Walldorf in 1977) made Walldorf one of the most prosperous towns of Germany.