PALATINATE (Ger. Pfalz), a name given generally to any district formerly ruled by a count palatine, but particularly to a district of Germany, a province in the Land of Bavaria, lying west of the Rhine. (See BAVARIA.) Excluding the Saar district, which was in 1933 under the administration of the League of Nations, the Palatinate has an area of 2,125 sq.m., and a popula tion of 984,456 (1933), showing a density of 438.4 to the sq.m. It is hounded on the east by the Rhine which separates it from Baden, on the south is the French department of Bas-Rhin, on the west the Saar Territory and parts of the Prussian Rhine Province and on the north Hessen.
The rivers in this fertile tract of country are the Rhine, Lauter, Queich, Speirbach, Glan and Blies. The Vosges, and their con tinuation, the Hardt, run through the land from south to north and divide it into the fertile and mild plain of the Rhine, together with the slope of the Hardt range, on the east, and the rather inclement district on the west, which, running between the Saarbriick Car boniferous mountains and the northern spurs of the Hardt range, ends in a porphyrous cluster of hi:ls, the highest point of which is the Donnersberg (2,254 ft.). The country on the east side and on the slopes of the Hardt yields a number of the most varied products, such as wine, fruit, corn, vegetables, flax and tobacco.
The mines yield iron, coal, quicksilver and salt. The industries are very active, especially in iron, machinery, paper, chemicals, shoes, woollen goods, beer, leather and tobacco. Spires (Speyer) is the seat of government, and among the chief industrial centres are Ludwigshafen on the Rhine, which is the principal river port, Landau, and Neustadt, the seat of the wine trade.
See Mitteilungen des Hist. Ver. der Pfalz (48 vols. 187a-1927).
History.—The count palatine of the Rhine was a royal official who is first mentioned in the middle of the loth cen tury. The first count palatine was Hermann I., who ruled from 045 until 996, and although the office was not hereditary it appears to have been held mainly by his descendants until the death of Count Hermann III. in 1155. In the German king, Frederick I., appointed his step-brother Conrad as count palatine. In 1214, on the death of the reigning count, the Palatinate was given by the German king Frederick II. to Otto, the infant son of Louis I., duke of Bavaria. The Palatinate was ruled by Louis of Bavaria on behalf of his son until 1228, when it passed to Otto who ruled until his death in 1253.
When the possessions of the house of Wittelsbach were divided in 1255 and the branches of Bavaria and the Palatinate were founded, a dispute arose over the exercise of the electoral vote, and the question was not settled until in 1356 the Golden Bull bestowed the privilege upon the count palatine of the Rhine, who exercised it until 1623. The Palatinate was divided into four parts among the sons of the German king Rupert in 1410, but in '559, on the extinction of the senior line, Frederick, count palatine of Simmern, succeeded to the Palatinate, becoming the elector Frederick III. Under Charles Theodore, who succeeded in 1742, with the exception of one or two small pieces the whole of the Palatinate was united under one ruler. In 1777 on the extinction of the other branch of the house of Wittelsbach, he became elector of Bavaria. The Palatinate was henceforward united with Ba varia, and has shared its political history from that time.