German Wine Gate

The German Wine Gate (Deutsches Weintor) has celebrated the local wine industry and marked the southern end of the German Wine Route in Schweigen-Rechtenbach since 1936.

A corresponding marker at the northern end of the German Wine Route at Bockenheim, some 85 kilometers (53 miles) to the north is the Haus der Deutschen Weinstraße (House of the German Wine steet) which since 1995 has welcomed visitors with unusual architectural details and a large restaurant.

The "Weintor" spans the little road leading out of Schweigen on its northern edge. When constructed it spanned the local road , but now the passage under it is blocked by bollards. Pedestrians and cyclists can negotiate the bollards but for cars a new road has been built approximately fifty meters to the east of the entire structure. The road to the north follows the German Wine Route towards Bad Bergzabern and Landau. A few hundred meters to the south is the French frontier after which the road enters Wissembourg.

The 18 meter high "Weintor" is built in the which was favoured in Germany in the 1930s. Although much of the structure is of timber, the outer facing is constructed of the pink sandstone similar to that used for several traditionally styled showpiece buildings in the area, such as Trifels Castle. The site includes a restaurant operated by the local wine growers' association, as well as a "Weinlehrpfad" (wine education path), three kilometers long and, when opened in 1969, the first of its kind in the country.

The "Weintor" was created as part of an economic initiative by the National Socialist government in the 1930s. The government took a far more interventionist approach to economic policy than had, till that time, been considered "normal". The wine industry in the Palatinate wine region was in crisis. A wine harvest more than twice as large as usual had caused prices to crash by 1934. Government policy had compounded the industry's difficulties by forbidding the business activities of Jewish wine traders, who had hitherto provided a vital commercial link for the wineriesParty leaders came up with the idea of the German Wine Route, with the imposing "Weintor" at its southern end, as a way to increase general awareness of the region's wineries and to boost employment in the tourism sector locally.

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Wikipedia