Neustadt an der Haardt

Neustadt an der Haardt lies at the eastern edge of the Palatinate Forest. Founded below Winzingen Castle in the early thirteenth century, it received town rights in 1275 and became the seat of an administrative district of the Electoral Palatinate. Its late medieval quarters included tanners working beside the Speyerbach and a Jewish community.

During the Reformation, the Palatinate's changing rulers shaped local religious life. A 1538 edict permitted Lutheran preaching and communion. Neustadt remained part of the Electoral Palatinate until 1797, then came under French rule and, in 1816, Bavarian rule. In 1832 the nearby Hambach Festival brought together demonstrators calling for liberty and German unity.