Haßloch, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

🇩🇪 Haßloch (or Hassloch) is a municipality in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Unlike most municipalities in the district, it does not belong to any Verbandsgemeinde – a type of collective municipality. It lies near the Mannheim/Ludwigshafen built-up area. The municipality has grown out of a single centre and is thus sometimes styled “Germany’s biggest village”. Haßloch is the Bad Dürkheim district's biggest municipality, exceeding even the namesake district seat. The village has at its disposal well developed infrastructure with educational and shopping facilities; the region's surrounding centres can in the main be reached within 20 minutes.

Geography: Location Haßloch lies east of Neustadt an der Weinstraße and is part of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration south-west of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen. It also lies on the Mannheim–Kaiserslautern line. At the municipality's northern limit runs Autobahn A 65, and from there it is 25 km to either Ludwigshafen or Mannheim. Haßloch is on the whole a continuous built-up area, although Haßloch's southeasternmost neighbourhood, the Wehlachsiedlung, lies somewhat apart from the main centre.

History Haßloch's beginnings stretch at least as far back as Roman times with settlement activity by the Romans known to have been taking place about AD 400. About 500, the Alamanni were driven out of the area by the Franks. The village itself came into being sometime about 600, with its first documentary mention – as Hasalaha – coming in 773 or 774.

In 985, Haßloch was one of the many villages in the region subject to the Salischer Kirchenraub, or “Salian Church Robbery”, a land grab in which Otto I, Duke of Carinthia took over ownership of various landholdings formerly belonging to the Weißenburg Monastery (in the town now called Wissembourg in Alsace, France) on the Upper and Middle Rhine.

Some time between 900 and 1000, Haßloch became an Imperial Village. In 1186, Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa spent the night in Haßloch. In 1330, Emperor Louis the Bavarian pledged Haßloch to the Electorate of the Palatinate, who then in turn pledged three fourths of this pledge to the Counts of Leiningen in the same year.

In 1621, during the Thirty Years' War, Haßloch was laid waste by the Spaniards. In 1689, it met the same fate again, more than once, in the Nine Years' War (known in Germany as the Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg, or War of the Palatine Succession), this time at the hands of the Spaniards and the French.

In 1797 came an end to the joint rule by the Electorate of the Palatinate and the Counts of Leiningen. Haßloch – along with the rest of the region – was annexed to France.

In 1815 or 1816, as a result of the Congress of Vienna, the Leiningen holdings, along with the Palatinate, passed to the Kingdom of Bavaria, remaining Bavarian until the end of the Second World War. In 1843, the Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn (railway) was built.

In 1945, Haßloch became part of the French Zone of Occupation and the next year, part of the new state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

In 1969, the old district of Neustadt an der Weinstraße was abolished and Haßloch was assigned to the newly created district of Bad Dürkheim.

Religion Haßloch, because it was ruled by the Counts of Leiningen, is a Protestant community. This can even be seen in the church buildings. All the oldest ones – Christuskirche (“Christ Church” or “Church of Christ”), Lutherkirche and Pauluskirche (“Saint Paul’s”) are Evangelical, whereas only the two newer ones – St. Gallus and St. Ulrich – belong to the Catholic parish.

Youth municipal council The Haßloch Youth Municipal Council (Jugendgemeinderat Haßloch, until 1999 known as the Kinder- & Jugendgemeinderat Haßloch, or the Child and Youth Municipal Council) was enacted and established by Municipal Council on 17 May 1995. The initiative for this came from Youth Department head Jürgen Hurrle who complained that many measures were being enacted that affected youth without including these people in the decision-making process. In one of the first youth municipal councils in Rhineland-Palatinate, he took on a guiding function in the years that followed.

The Youth Municipal Council represents in an advisory capacity the needs and interests of Haßloch's youths in the municipality, either independently or through the permanent members on the social board and the partnership advisory body. It is supposed to acquaint youth with democratic decision-making structures and awaken interest in civic topics. It is a non-partisan board and is made up of 15 members (as of 2006).

Further activities in which the Youth Municipal Council engages are: • activities against racism; • podium discussions before elections; • sporting events (football and beach volleyball tournaments); • leisure events and festivals.

Volunteering The Lokales Bündnis für Familie (“Local Alliance for Family”) has been active in Haßloch since 2006. It promotes families and volunteer work in collaboration with politics, administration, citizens, educational institutions and clubs.

Economy and infrastructure In Haßloch, the better part of the resident industry is in metalworking. This is shown in the three “great” production companies in Haßloch (Ball-Packaging, Gottlieb Duttenhöfer GmbH and Dinex Deutschland GmbH).

In Haßloch stands one of the world's biggest and most modern drink can factories, Ball Packaging Europe. Among other things, the first half-litre can (a beer can) was made in Haßloch.

Haßloch, along with the neighbouring municipality of Böhl-Iggelheim, is also home to one of the 28 “open channels” in Rhineland-Palatinate. This regional broadcaster allows communal coverage by citizens for citizens.

Haßloch as a test market Haßloch is a test market for new brandname items and consumer products: At Haßloch retailers’ shops, products are available in advance that are only to be introduced into the rest of Germany in the future. On the local cable television network, specially made commercials for these products are shown, and individual newspapers (such as Hörzu and Bunte) are published for Haßloch with special advertisements for the new products. Moreover, some citizens hold cards with barcodes that can be scanned with every purchase so that an individual household's shopping habits can be tracked.

The Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung (“Company for Consumer Research”, GfK) can thereby tell how tested products are being received by customers. The research that the GfK does here matches later market data with an accuracy of 90%.

Haßloch was chosen because this place exhibits a population structure that, by various criteria, comes quite close to the German average, for instance in its age structure and social classes. Haßloch's structure is also midway between a town and a village.

Transport Haßloch has at its disposal good transport links towards the region's centre (Mannheim/Ludwigshafen/Heidelberg), be it by Autobahn A 65 or the RheinNeckar S-Bahn. S-Bahn lines S1, S2 – and mornings and evenings S3 and S4 – run every 30 minutes during peak times from Haßloch station.

Public institutions Available weekdays to Haßloch's citizens is the citizens’ office for all questions and applications.

Education Given its size, Haßloch can be said to have many educational institutions. • Primary schools: ◦ Ernst-Reuter-Schule; ◦ Schiller-Schule. • Secondary schools: ◦ Kurpfalzschule-Hauptschule; ◦ Sophie-Scholl-Realschule; ◦ Hannah-Arendt-Gymnasium; • Special schools: ◦ Gottlieb-Wenz-Schule, a school whose focus is on learning • Other scholastic institutions: ◦ Folk high school; ◦ Music school.