Circle of the Rhine

The Circle of the Rhine (German: Rheinkreis) or Rhine Circle, sometimes the Bavarian Rheinkreis (bayerischer Rheinkreis or baierischer Rheinkreis), was the name given to the territory on the west bank of the Rhine from 1816 to 1837 which was one of 15 (later 8) administrative districts of the Kingdom of Bavaria. Before the French revolutionary wars (1792) most of the land had belonged to the Electoral Palatinate. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815 it was initially promised to the Empire of Austria after having been under a provisional joint Austro-Bavarian administration since 1814. However, in the Treaty of Munich (1816), Austria relinquished the territory to Bavaria.

In 1837, the Circle of the Rhine was renamed the Palatinate (Pfalz). It was also referred to as the Rhenish Palatinate (Rheinpfalz). The territory remained Bavarian until 30 Aug 1946, with the exception of the area detached in 1920, which roughly corresponded to the present day county of Saarpfalz-Kreis. It then became part of the newly formed federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

The Rhine Circle largely covered the same area as the present Palatinate region, which lies west of the Rhine in the south of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, but included additionally the Saarland districts of Homburg and St. Ingbert. These were incorporated into the Saar region after the end of the First World War and merged in 1974 into the Saarpfalz-Kreis. After the Second World War there were smaller losses of territory to the Saarland, especially in the area of Sankt Wendel. As part of the 1969 land reform the region designated as the Palatinate with Rhineland-Palatinate had its northern border changed somewhat. The Diocese of Speyer and the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate still exist today largely based on the historic boundaries of the Circle of the Rhine.

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