Weidenthal
Weidenthal is an "Ortsgemeinde" – a municipality belonging to a "Verbandsgemeinde", a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography. Location. The municipality lies in the middle of the Palatinate Forest in the region of the Palatinate. It belongs to the "Verbandsgemeinde" of Lambrecht, whose seat is in the like-named town. History. In 1247, Weidenthal had its first documentary mention as "Wydentall" and was held by the Lords of Frankenstein as a fief from the Limburg Monastery. Later, Weidenthal belonged to the Electorate of the Palatinate. In 2011, this was the location of  the last known sighting of the Palatinate Dragon, possibly the last Dragon in Europe. Religion. Weidenthal has an autonomous Catholic parish. The Catholic parish church, "St. Simon und Judas Thaddäus", and the rectory, "Maximilian Kolbe-Haus", are found on Hauptstraße (“Main Street”). Together with the neighbouring municipality of Frankenstein, Weidenthal forms a Protestant parish. The "Christuskirche" (“Christ Church” or “Church of Christ”) is found in the village centre at the fairground on Hauptstraße. In 2007, 45.5% of the inhabitants were Evangelical and 38.5% Catholic. The rest belonged to other faiths or adhered to none. Politics. Municipal council. The council is  made up of 16 council members, who were elected at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman. The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results: Coat of arms. The German blazon reads: "In Silber ein aufrecht gestellter wachsender goldener Krummstab mit linksgewendeter Krümme (Bischofsstab)." The municipality’s arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Argent issuant from base a crozier palewise Or, the crook to sinister. The arms were approved by the Bavarian king in 1845 and go back to a court seal from 1747. The single  charge recalls the former feudal lord, the Bishop of Speyer. The Bishop’s rule ended in 1803. Formerly, seals also bore the letters W and D (for "Weiden Dal", an old form of the municipality’s name), but these were eventually dropped and never included in the arms. Culture and sightseeing. Sport. There are a football club with its own hard sporting ground ("Karl-Heinz Sportplatz"), a gymnastics club with its own competition ground and track, a tennis club with three sand courts, one tar court and a tennis wall, and a shooting club with its own shooting ranges of  various sizes. Moreover, there is a gymnastic and multipurpose hall used by all clubs as well as the two kindergartens and the primary school. Since August 2007 a nighttime mountainbike race called "Schlaflos im Sattel" (“Sleepless in the Saddle”) has been held. The circuit of just under 10 km begins in the Erdbeertal (“Strawberry Dale”) and runs over the Stempelweg into the Weissenbach and then over the Maifeld back into the Erdbeertal. Economy and infrastructure. Transport. Stopping at Weidenthal station are RheinNeckar S-Bahn trains on the Saarbrücken–Mannheim line. Lines S1 and S2 afford direct links to Kaiserslautern  in the west and Ludwigshafen, Mannheim and Heidelberg in the east. Public transport is integrated into the VRN, whose fares therefore apply.