135-524: The Lauter Valley Railway ( German : Lautertalbahn ) is a branch line in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate . It runs from Kaiserslautern along the Lauter river to Lauterecken . The railway, which was opened in 1883, has only regional importance. Deutsche Bundesbahn planned in the 1980s to close the line. Its existence has now been secured since the establishment of Deutsche Bahn . While freight traffic
270-460: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it
405-402: A second language , and 75–100 million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220 million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90 million people, or 16% of
540-587: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become
675-465: A branch from the Lauter Valley Railway to return passenger services to Weilerbach. However, financial constraints and a lack of political support prevented the implementation of these plans. On 1 January 1994, the German railway reform came into force and ownership of the line was transferred from Deutsche Bundesbahn to Deutsche Bahn AG. As the states were now responsible for local transport,
810-411: A concession for the line on 9 May 1880. The plans were delayed because of disagreements over the route and problems in acquiring the necessary land. On 18 February 1882, work began with a groundbreaking ceremony on the site of today's Kaiserslautern West station. Due to the expected heavy freight traffic at the original Kaiserslautern West station ( Westbahnhof ), the section to this station was designed as
945-651: A draisine operation has run between Altenglan and Staudernheim since 2000. The first attempts to have a railway built through the western North Palatine Uplands towards Kusel go back to 1856. During the construction of the Rhine-Nahe Railway ( Rhein-Nahe Eisenbahn ), a route was proposed by the Bavarian Palatinate , which would have run from near Boos on the Nahe along the Glan via Lauterecken and Altenglan, then along
1080-556: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from
1215-837: A junction of the Kusel line and the Glan Valley Railway and was relatively centrally located on the latter, all long-distance services that ran on the Glan Valley Railway stopped at the station. So in 1926 and 1927, the Calais-Wiesbaden-Express ran over the Glan Valley Railway (but only towards Wiesbaden) with a stop in Altenglan. In November 1942 there was a pair of fast services on the Berlin–Kassel–Frankfurt–Altenglan–Homburg–Metz route for troops on leave, but only with special arrangement. In 1945 and 1946
1350-405: A large part of the freight. In 1905, 42,348.12 tonnes were sent or received, for example. In 1920, a local freight train ( Nahgüterzug ) ran between Lauterecken-Grumbach and another between Altenglan and Kusel. A through freight train ( Durchgangsgüterzug ) ran between Altenglan and Homburg and, if necessary, another one ran from Kaiserslautern to Altenglan. In the early 1920s, a workers colony
1485-419: A loading ramp to a freight shed, which was built with the slope of its roof facing the track. This building was later extended. The precinct has heritage protection. Its address is Eisenbahnstraße 3. During the opening of the Glan Valley Railway, Altenglan station received a new entrance building and platforms were built between the line to Kusel and the line towards Lauterecken-Grumbach. The sandstone building
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#17328757495091620-410: A main line railway, while the remaining section to Lauterecken was designed as a secondary line with lighter trackwork. The railway was not built gradually from the south to the north, but instead it was built relatively simultaneously by different companies. The line opened on 15 November 1883 after a test run had confirmed its capacity for operations as early as 17 September. In the first decades there
1755-453: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained
1890-563: A pair of express trains ran on the route between Saarbrücken and Koblenz for the last time, but access to it for civilian traffic was restricted. This was also the last continuous passenger service over the Glan Valley Railway, including the Odernheim–Bad Münster section, which was closed in the early 1960s. From the opening of the Kusel–Landstuhl line, it was operated with two mixed and two ordinary passenger trains each day. In
2025-427: A parking area, bicycle parking, bus connections to the surrounding countryside, a turning loop for buses as well as barrier-free access. Just before reaching Altenglan station, the line from Landstuhl to Kusel and the largely-disused Glan Valley Railway came together and both lines continue to the south towards Glan-Münchweiler . The tracks of the Glan Valley Railway no longer connect with the other tracks in Altenglan;
2160-412: A pilot project to install a system for controlling train operations by radio, but was unsuccessful. In the period from 16 to 18 December 2005, the previous mechanical interlocking technology on the Lauter Valley Railway, which had been used for over 100 years, was replaced by an electronic interlocking technology of the "Bruchsal G" type, which had originally been planned to be installed in the autumn of
2295-679: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In
2430-500: A railway junction, was the victim of a series of air raids, which among other things burnt down the roundhouse . In March 1945, there was another air raid. After the Second World War Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) took over operations on the line and incorporated them into the railway division of Mainz. The latter received those sections controlled by the former railway division of Saarbrücken that were located within
2565-475: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it
2700-455: A wire nail factory and a textile factory were located in Altenglan and claimed that the nail factory could double its annual production of 10,000 Zentner if the railway was built. It was argued that, among other things, the railway construction would improve the rather poor economic and social conditions of the region. The construction of the 28.7 km stretch from Landstuhl to Kusel was largely uncomplicated. Cuttings were only necessary in
2835-688: Is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and
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#17328757495092970-580: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as
3105-596: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German
3240-546: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic
3375-472: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German
3510-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25 million speak it as
3645-520: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in
3780-595: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as
3915-559: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are
4050-598: Is located in the network area of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar (Rhine-Neckar Transport Association, VRN). The address of the station is Bahnhofstraße 45. It was created on 22 September 1868 as a through station with the opening of the Landstuhl–Kusel railway . It became a junction station with the completion of the Glan Valley Railway ( Glantalbahn ), Homburg – Bad Münster on 1 May 1904, which
4185-533: Is now a shorter guaranteed time to transfer to and from Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn services in Kaiserslautern. Freight always had a minor role on the line. The Lauter Valley Railway had a greater role in freight only during the two world wars. In the first years of its existence, there were no separate freight trains, but instead there were mixed trains at most. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] )
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4320-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and
4455-587: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as
4590-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German
4725-510: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c. 1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period
4860-566: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish
4995-481: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers
5130-673: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to
5265-627: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as
5400-522: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share
5535-417: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language
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5670-580: The Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, a railway line along the Glan was supported for military reasons, particularly in Prussia. The first draft plan was made for the line in 1871, which essentially corresponded to the line as built, but the proposal quickly failed. Another argument for the construction of the line was that it would create the shortest possible connection between Homburg and Bingen . However, because
5805-514: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout
5940-724: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in
6075-644: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c. 765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in
6210-653: The Rhine-Nahe Railway , which was completed in 1860. A concession for the line was granted in the mid-1860s. The committee sent a proposal to the Ludwigshafen -based headquarters of the Palatine Ludwig Railway Company ( Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn-Gesellschaft ). The project was in competition with the line along the Alsenz . After the opening, in 1870, of the Alsenz Valley Railway ( Alsenztalbahn ), which at
6345-640: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung
6480-536: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit. ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this
6615-503: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German
6750-455: The branch to Otterbach in 1911, and the Bach Railway ( Bachbahn , so called because all of its stations had names ending in “bach”, i.e. “brook”) to Weilerbach , which was extended in 1920 to Reichenbach , gave the Lauter Valley Railway greater importance, especially its southern stretch, since the passenger trains on either route often continued to Kaiserslautern. On 1 November 1917, during
6885-462: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from
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#17328757495097020-553: The Bach Railway and the line to Otterberg were opened for passengers, their trains ran mostly to Kaiserslautern, so the Kaiserslautern–Lampertsmühle-Otterbach section had increased traffic. From 1966 to 1969, two daily express trains ran towards Kaiserslautern. Sunday services ended in 1975 and Saturday services ended seven years later. Sunday services were restored in 1995. Mostly trains ran via Lauterecken to
7155-714: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In
7290-542: The First World War, the intermediate stops in Kaulbach and Lohnweiler were closed. Eleven months later, however, they were reactivated. In 1920, the line became part of the newly founded Deutsche Reichsbahn . In 1922, there were plans for the stations in Kaulbach, Lohnweiler and Rossbach-Stahlhausen to close due to low use, but local protests prevented this. In 1923 and 1924, so-called Regiebetrieb ("directed operation" of
7425-718: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of
7560-475: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of
7695-399: The German states; the invention of the printing press c. 1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of
7830-623: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by
7965-400: The Glan Valley Railway from Lauterecken-Grumbach to Staudernheim in 1986, the Lauter Valley Railway and the Landstuhl–Kusel railway were the only lines that were spared from the wave of closure of branch lines in the region. On 9 June 1986, Deutsche Bundesbahn and Rhineland-Palatinate entered into an agreement, which divided all the railway lines in the state into three categories. This allowed
8100-415: The Glan Valley Railway on a more complex and expensive route through Lauterecken. Until the completion of Glan Valley Railway in 1904, there were through trains from Kaiserslautern to Staudernheim. The former Lauterecken station was then reduced to the status of a halt and the Lauterecken halt opened in 1896 just to the south of the junction was closed. On 1 January 1909, the Lauter Valley Railway, along with
8235-547: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are
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#17328757495098370-644: The Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ), the Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German
8505-409: The Karlsruhe–Kaiserslautern Regional-Express service was extended to Lampertsmühle-Otterbach to cope with the number of visitors. Train crossings took place in Lampertsmühle and Wolfstein until 2008. Since the timetable change in December 2008, trains no longer cross at these stations, but instead cross mainly at Olsbrücken station. Thus, the average travel time was shortened by six minutes, but there
8640-435: The Kuselbach via Kusel to Sankt Wendel or along the Oster to Neunkirchen . However, the efforts were unsuccessful since Prussia preferred to have such a railway line primarily on its own territory. A memorandum appeared in Kusel in 1863, supporting a railway that would branch from the Palatine Ludwig Railway in Landstuhl and run through the Mohrbach, Glan and Kuselbach valleys to Kusel. It noted among other things that
8775-399: The Lampertsmühle-Otterbach–Otterberg branch line (1954) and the line to Reichenbach (1972)—and the closure of the Lauter Valley Railway was also under discussion. This intention was expressed mainly by the railway division of Saarbrücken, which also gradually ended services on the adjacent Glan Valley Railway at the same time. After passenger services were discontinued on the northern section of
8910-410: The Lauter Valley Railway and replaced by buses in 1975. The operation of steam locomotives on the line ended on 26 September 1975. In 1983, the Lauter Valley Railway celebrated its 100th anniversary with a Trans Europ Express service between Kaiserslautern and Lauterecken. Since the 1950s, passenger services have been abandoned on several adjacent lines in the western North Palatine Uplands —including
9045-572: The Lauter Valley Railway had belonged, was dissolved in 1936. Apart from Lauterecken-Grumbach station, which henceforth belonged to the Reichsbahndirektion Mainz , along with the adjacent northern Glan Valley Railway, the line came under the control of the Reichsbahndirektion Saarbrücken . Since the timetable could often not be met during the Second World War, a "list of essential services" appeared in 1941. Therefore, at least three trains had to run between Kaiserslautern and Lauterecken. In December 1944, Lauterecken-Grumbach station, due to its function as
9180-434: The Lauter valley, advocated a route through Otterberg. A new petition of the communities on the Lauter in 1877 supported a route along the Lauter. It was decided to build the Lauter Railway as a secondary line and the plan for a branch to Otterberg was postponed. The Palatine Northern Railway Company ( Gesellschaft der Pfälzischen Nordbahnen ), which had been part of the Palatinate Railway ( Pfalzbahn ) since 1870, received
9315-408: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c. thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c. 1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy
9450-406: The beginning was seen as a route for long-distance traffic, the probability of a rail link via the Lauter dropped significantly. A plan for a main line railway was prepared in 1874. The estimated cost of a line along the Lauter including a branch to Otterberg totalled 3.58 million guilders . At first, there was a dispute over the route. For example, the town of Otterberg, which is located outside
9585-407: The border between Prussia and Bavaria would have hindered the construction, there were at the time plans for a branch line from Altenglan to St Julian , which would have run exclusively through Bavarian Palatinate. Towards the end of the nineteenth century Bavaria finally abandoned its resistance to the construction of a strategic railway, as Franco-German relations had deteriorated significantly in
9720-476: The contract for the operation of passenger services on the line from Landstuhl to Kusel from 2000 to 2008, had its depot in the south-eastern part of the station area. Its address is Bahnhofstraße 81. In the first half of the 20th century the station had a kiosk. It was closed in 1933, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power, as it was considered to be a meeting place of left-wing forces. In addition,
9855-451: The country around Rammelsbach , where the work force encountered a diorite deposit, which was mined in the following years and gave an additional impetus to rail transport. The Rammelsbach Tunnel was the largest building project along the line. Construction on the section between Glan-Munchweiler and Kusel was delayed because not enough workers could be recruited. The first freight train ran on 28 August 1868. The Kusel-Landstuhl railway
9990-478: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with
10125-452: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in
10260-477: The east. In 1967, there was another pair of services between Homburg and Gau Algesheim. From 1970, these links were officially classified as only regional rapid-transit ( Nahschnellverkehrszüge ) services and they were closed in 1979. Since 2006, the station is served hourly by the Glan Valley Railway ( Regionalbahn 67) in the fare system of the VRN. As at most nearby stations, the carriage of quarried material formed
10395-507: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of
10530-415: The efficiency of the Lauter Valley Railway to be verified. In the following years the Lauter Valley Railway was threatened with closure, but the public and local politicians managed to preserve the line. In 1969, Deutsche Bundesbahn ended passenger services at Kaiserslautern West station and replaced it with a new station of the same name. This is right at the junction of the spur to the original terminus. In
10665-459: The first year of the Glan Valley Railway between Homburg and Glan-Munchweiler, it was served by four services towards Bad Münster and four towards Homburg. This included only three pairs of trains from Homburg to Bad Munster; the other ran only between Homburg and Altenglan. The services between Landstuhl and Kusel were supplemented by trains on the Altenglan–Kusel section that established with to
10800-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,
10935-474: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of
11070-427: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Altenglan station Altenglan station is the station of the village of Altenglan in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate . It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 6 station . and has two platforms and sidings. The station
11205-486: The late 1980s, the terminus was closed as a freight yard, but for several years it still operated as a siding. In 1991, plans were developed to allow the Lauter Valley Railway to run within Kaiserslautern as a "City Railway" ( Citybahn ). The trains from the West Station would operate on a route through the city centre to terminate near the town hall at a newly built "City Station” ( Citybahnhof ). There would also have been
11340-447: The line to Kusel was extended to Türkismühle at the end of 1936, it was not until a year later that a through train ran between Altenglan and Türkismühle. In 1965, two pair of express services were established between Zweibrücken and Mainz , running via the Glan Valley Railway and stopping in Altenglan. These were operated with diesel locomotives of class V 100.20 hauling so-called Silberling carriages. The initiator of this service
11475-612: The line to prevent its final closure and the dismantling of its track. The supporters of this project included a councillor of Kusel district , Winfried Hirschberg. After an examination of the draisine lines in Templin in Brandenburg —at that time the only one in Germany—and near Magnières in Lorraine , detailed planning began, which was implemented in 2000. Since 2000 the Altenglan station of
11610-564: The line was no longer under the threat of closure. On 20 August 1995, the first "car-free day in the Lauter valley" ( Autofreies Lautertal ) was celebrated with the reintroduction of Sunday services. The trains were very busy that day. In 2000, the Lauter Valley Railway, along with the entire Western Palatinate, was initially part of the Westpfalz-Verkehrsverbundes (Western Palatinate Transport Association, WVV), but six years later this
11745-519: The lower Glan Valley Railway. Thus, the summer timetable of 1971 included two pairs of trains on the line bound for Staudernheim or Meisenheim . The line is listed in the Deutsche Bahn time table as route number (KBS) 673 and as Regionalbahn line 66 of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar (Rhine-Neckar Transport Association, VRN) network. In 2000, during the State Garden Show in Kaiserslautern,
11880-609: The meantime. While the Fortress of Metz had already been connected by several lines, the connection from the Rhine was very awkward. After an option running to the south-east was eliminated, the plan for a railway from Mainz via Bad Münster along the Glan, sharing the Kusel line between Altenglan and Glan-Münchweiler was adopted. The latter would be duplicated on this section at a total cost of 1.108 million marks . Construction began in July, 1902, with
12015-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted
12150-521: The newly created federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. In 1951 a new station called Kaiserslautern-Pfaffwerk was opened at the Pfaff factory between the Kaiserslautern Hauptbahnhof and Kaiserslautern West station. As part of the dissolution of the railway division of Mainz in 1971, the line was transferred to the control of the railway division of Saarbrücken again. Sunday traffic was abandoned on
12285-630: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from
12420-471: The occupiers in the operation of the railway, so the French took rail operations into their own hands. Since the military officers involved did not fully understand the German operating instructions and the safe-working systems, railway operation during this time were hazardous. The time required to travel over the whole Lauter Valley Railway at that time was almost two hours. The Reichsbahndirektion ( railway division of) Ludwigshafen founded in 1922, to which
12555-505: The opening of the line. 30,507 tickets were sold at the station in 1905. In 1920, there was a train from Altenglan to Saarbrücken on Saturdays and there were trains between Homburg and Kusel and between Saarbrücken and Bad Münster. Especially in the 1930s, the timetable included several routes that operated over sections of different lines, such as the Kaiserslautern–Lauterecken–Altenglan–Kusel route. Although
12690-457: The opening of the lower Glan Valley Railway to Odernheim and its extension to Staudernheim in 1897. Continuous services from the Lauter Valley Railway to Staudernheim ended with the opening of the remaining sections of the Glan Valley Railway in 1904. From 1906, some trains ran only on part of the line, such as between Lauterecken and Wolfenstein, between Kaiserslautern and Olsbrücken and between Kaiserslautern West and Lampertsmühle-Otterbach. After
12825-562: The other railway lines within the Palatinate, was taken over by the Royal Bavarian State Railways . In 1912, the stations of Kaisersmühle, Sambach, Oberweiler-Tiefenbach and Lauterecken were abandoned for lack of profitability. By May 1912, the barriers had been removed at 42 level crossings, as a result of rationalisation. Two years later, Stahlhausen- Rutsweiler station also had to be closed because of low usage. The opening of
12960-516: The previous year. Since then the railway facilities have been controlled by an electronic interlocking at Neustadt an der Weinstraße . This has reduced costs on the line. The route follows the entire length of the Lauter river. Shortly before Kaiserslautern West, it runs through a cutting and then passes under the Lauter viaduct of Autobahn 6 . The only tunnel along the line is the 91 metre-long Eisenknopf Tunnel in Wolfenstein. Shortly before reaching
13095-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation
13230-688: The railways by the Allied military during the Occupation of the Ruhr ) was imposed under the control of France, which had occupied the Palatinate. The local population boycotted the railway during the occupation. Therefore, reinforced German Post Office bus routes and private trucks were used as an alternative to the French-controlled railways. In addition, the German Ministry of Transport refused to cooperate with
13365-453: The residents at the northern edge of the town and to the central Glan valley. From 1897, it was connected to the Rhine-Nahe Railway at Staudernheim . In order to link the Altenglan –Lauterecken section of the Glan Valley Railway opened in 1904, Lauterecken-Grumbach station was opened at the junction in the same year as an interchange station. Otherwise, it would have been necessary to build
13500-529: The soldiers. In 1952, the track supervisor’s office in Altenglan was re-established. It was responsible originally for the Eisenbach- Matzenbach – Niedereisenbach-Hachenbach section of the Glan Valley Railway and between Altenglan and Schwarzerden . In the years that followed its remit changed several times; in 1958 it was responsible along the Glan Valley Railway from Jägersburg to Altenglan and between Altenglan and Bedesbach -Patersbach. In 1976, it
13635-400: The southern starting point of the trolley route and, along with Lauterecken-Grumbach and Staudernheim, one of three stations offering trolley rentals. At the end of 2003, reconstruction work began at the station. This included, among other things, the raising and extension of the two remaining platforms to provide passengers with barrier-free access to the trains. At the same time a bus station
13770-541: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,
13905-473: The station still had two signal boxes in the 1960s, but these are now out of service. In the course of the installation of the Signalisierter Zugleitbetrieb system in 1989, a cube of concrete was built on the platform, which houses the current signalling equipment. Neither the Kusel line nor the Glan Valley Railway have ever been used by significant long-distance services. Since Altenglan was
14040-485: The station was attacked by fighter-bombers. Between 28 September and 2 December 1944, there were further air raids. As a result, the signal box was destroyed and the chief signalman was killed. On 15 January 1945, there was another air raid on the station. In 1945, the capacity of the Glan Valley Railway was almost fully utilised by the many Allied military trains. The troops trains were forced to make longer stops in Altenglan. Many locals took advantage of this to trade with
14175-466: The station, the execution was carried out exactly as in Glan Munchweiler and Kusel on a relatively large scale. The ground floor has windows and doors built in the round arch style ( Rundbogenstil ). Plasterwork is applied to the exterior walls. Later, the station underwent some structural changes. Originally it had a wooden porch, which was dismantled in the meantime. The main building is connected by
14310-419: The station. There is a bus stop at the station, which is built next to the second entrance building. It is served by the following bus routes: All lines are operated by Saar-Pfalz-Bus GmbH, a subsidiary of DB. Altenglan station is, along with the stations of Lauterecken-Grumbach and Staudernheim stations, one of three stations that rent draisine vehicles. Thus, it can, like the other two stations, be used as
14445-443: The terminus at Lauterecken-Grumbach, the line crosses a bridge over the Glan . First, the line runs through the city of Kaiserslautern, from Lampertsmühle-Otterbach to Olsbrücken it runs through the district of Kaiserslautern . The rest of the line is located in the district of Kusel . At the time beginning of operations, three pairs of trains services ran between Kaiserslautern and Lauterecken. In 1896, services were extended with
14580-496: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in
14715-660: The time being no through trains ran between Altenglan and Türkismühle . Due to the dissolution of the Reichsbahndirektion ( railway administration of) Ludwigshafen and the division of the Glan Valley Railway between the Reichsbahndirektion Mainz (immediately north of the station) and the Reichsbahndirektion Saarbrücken (from Homburg to Altenglan), the track supervisor’s office ( Bahnmeisterei ) of Altenglan, which had existed since 1904,
14850-463: The tracks, which were originally equipped with rooms for staff accommodation and administrative offices. The architectural style contains elements of neo-classicism and was built in the style of the other Palatine stations that were built in the 1860s and 1870s, such as the Alsenz Valley Railway opened in 1870 and 1871 and the Germersheim–Landau railway opened in 1872. Due to the importance of
14985-594: The transport of gravel. For this reason Deutsche Bahn engineers inspected the section in October 1994 to see what work would have to be carried out on it. The Altenglan-Lauterecken-Grumbach section of the Glan Valley Railway was closed at the end of 1995. Students of the Kaiserslautern University of Technology proposed the establishment of a draisine operation on the Altenglan–Staudernhein section of
15120-492: The work divided into several sections, including the Altenglan– Lauterecken section. This work was carried out by Italian day labourers. The Glan Valley Railway from Bad Münster to Homburg was opened throughout on 1 May 1904; from Glan-Münchweiler to Altenglan it ran together with the Kusel–Landstuhl railway. Altenglan was rebuilt as a “wedge station” ( Keilbahnhof ) and it also received a new entrance building. There
15255-543: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during
15390-579: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching
15525-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of
15660-546: Was a flood in Kusel, in which the railway facilities were affected, so the traffic between Altenglan and Kusel had to be stopped in the evening and on the following day. As early as 1968, Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) first proposed that the Glan Valley Railway be closed, but this failed due to the opposition of the provincial governments of Rhineland-Palatinate and the Saarland . A new application by DB from 1973 to close freight traffic between Altenglan and Lauterecken on 31 December 1975
15795-413: Was a structural and operational oddity at Kaiserslautern West station: the part handling passenger services was built as a terminal station so that passenger trains to Lauterecken had to reverse into the station. Trains running in the opposite direction had to reverse out the station and run backwards to Kaiserslautern Hauptbahnhof ( Hauptbahnhof ). In 1895, the superstructure of the Lauter Valley Railway
15930-572: Was a total of 26 stations along the new line through Altenglan. The line between Altenglan and Rammelsbach was changed since the Rammelsbach tunnel had proved to be too narrow for freight trains. This meant that it was often necessary to tranship freight to Kusel from wagon to wagon. The new line opened in 1936 ran around the Remigiusberg (hill) instead. In the same year an extension was completed from Kusel to Türkismühle for strategic reasons, yet for
16065-549: Was absorbed by the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar (Rhine-Neckar Transport Association, VRN). In the same year, the Kreimbach-Kaulbach station was opened, replacing the existing stations in Kreimbach and Kaulbach. Also in 2005, the platforms at the stations of Olsbrücken , Lampertsmühle-Otterbach, Heinzenhausen and Wolfenstein were upgraded to make them accessible for the disabled. At the same time Deutsche Bahn, carried out
16200-546: Was also discontinued on the Altenglan–Ulmet section in 1991. In 1992, the closure process for the Altenglan–Lauterecken section was initiated, but this was affected by the conversion of Deutsche Bundesbahn into Deutsche Bahn on 31 December 1993. On 6 July 1993, a weed-spraying made the last run over the section. In 1994, there was a prospect for reactivating the Glan Valley Railway between Altenglan and Bedesbach for
16335-522: Was also not approved. In 1977, the Altenglan track supervisor’s office was dissolved. From 27 January of that year a block signalling system was instituted on the line between Altenglan and Kusel. Although it had no longer been uses as a main line railway for decades, the Glan-Münchweiler–Odernheim section of Glan Valley Railway was not officially downgraded to a branch line until 29 September 1985. Between 28 March and 19 April 1989, one track
16470-530: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially
16605-419: Was built as a strategic railway . It lost this function when traffic between Altenglan and Lauterecken-Grumbach on the Glan Valley Railway was closed at the end of 1995. Since 2000, it has also been the southern end of a section of the Glan Valley Railway from Altenglan to Staudernheim that is used for a recreational draisine operation. The station is located on the southern outskirts of Altenglan. It has
16740-416: Was built in an architectural style that borrows from the great northern railways that were connected by the strategic railway. Nevertheless, its architecture was completely different from the other stations in the entire Palatinate. Thus, the symmetrically-constructed building has only one storey and the lines of the tops of its roof form a cross. A restaurant is now housed in it. Trans regio which ran had
16875-457: Was built with a reversing loop. The rebuilt station was officially opened in April 2004. Between 2009 and 2011, information for passengers at the station was also improved, mainly in the form of the installation of an electronic passenger information system. During the construction of a line to Kusel between 1862 and 1868, the station received a two and a half storey entrance building to the west of
17010-562: Was closed in 1937. Between 24 and 27 September 1938, a military exercise was held in the Palatinate. Troop trains from Frankfurt were despatched to stations including, among others, Altenglan. Since during the Second World War, the timetable could often not be met, a directory of “essential trains" was published on 5 May 1941. This included at least six trains per day between Glan-Münchweiler and Altenglan and four trains per day between Homburg and Glan-Münchweiler each way. On 28 August 1944,
17145-467: Was connected by a ropeway conveyor, built around 1900, to the quarry of Hugo Bell on the slopes of the Remigiusberg. In the 1990s it was served in the evenings by a freight exchange train ( Übergabegüterzug ) from Kaiserlsuatern-Einsiedlerhof station on the Mannheim–Saarbrücken railway via Altenglan to Kusel. All freight tracks have since been removed and there are now no freight operations at
17280-658: Was discontinued in the 1990s, there has been growth in passenger demand. In about 1860, a committee was formed called the Notabeln des Glan- und Lautertales (Notables of the Glan and Lauter valleys), which was based in Wolfstein . It campaigned for a railway line that would branch off from the Palatine Ludwig Railway in Kaiserslautern and continue along the Lauter and the lower Glan valleys, connecting in Staudernheim with
17415-429: Was established at a quarry at Schneeweiderhof in the municipality of Eßweiler , which had been connected by a ropeway conveyor to Altenglan station in 1919. Therefore, several loading tracks were established north of Altenglan station. In 1976, the ropeway conveyor was dismantled and the loading tracks were dismantled. There was a loading facility located north-west of the station near the former Rammelsbach tunnel, which
17550-485: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which
17685-445: Was officially opened on 22 September 1868. In 1899, Altenglan—like all stations along the line—received completion signals. Even before the opening of the line, the communities in the valley north of Altenglan called for a rail connection, but at first they were unsuccessful. The project initially failed because Prussia and Bavaria , through which the line would mainly run, had different ideas on how to guarantee interest on it. After
17820-414: Was reinforced to adapt to the requirements for the operation of freight trains because of the construction of the lower Glan Valley Railway from Lauterecken. The Lauterecken– Odernheim line opened in 1896 was the direct continuation of the Lauter Valley Railway. To the north of the original terminus at Lauterecken an additional halt ( Haltepunkt ) was built in the district of Veldenzstadt to give access for
17955-498: Was removed from the previously double track section between Glan-Münchweiler and Altenglan, although it had already been converted to a single-track operation a year earlier. On 18 June 1990, DB introduced Signalisierter Zugleitbetrieb (SZB, a system of train control for low-speed branch lines using simplified signalling technology) on the line, which up to that time had only been used on the Nagold Valley Railway . Freight
18090-438: Was responsible for the entire Landstuhl–Kusel line and between Jägersburg and Bedesbach-Patersbach. On 12 September 1957, there was a strong storm in the area and some unattached wagons escaped from Kusel station. It was only stopped by chocks in Altenglan station after it had been running for about 20 minutes. In the early 1960s, the second track was dismantled between Altenglan and Odernheim am Glan . On 5 December 1965 there
18225-491: Was the then mayor of Zweibrücker, Oscar Munzinger, who was also at this time in the parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate and wanted to have a service between his two work places. In the vernacular, these trains were therefore referred to as the "Munzinger Express". Due to the already missing link between Odernheim and Bad Münster these trains had to run to Staudernheim and reverse there to use the Nahe Valley Railway to run to
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