Großkarlbach

Großkarlbach
Coat of arms
Großkarlbach
Location of Großkarlbach within Bad Dürkheim district
Coordinates: 49°32′18″N 08°13′29″E / 49.53833°N 8.22472°E / 49.53833; 8.22472Coordinates: 49°32′18″N 08°13′29″E / 49.53833°N 8.22472°E / 49.53833; 8.22472
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Bad Dürkheim
Municipal assoc.	Grünstadt-Land
Government
• Mayor	Ralf-Peter Riegel (SPD)
Area
• Total	5.26 km2 (2.03 sq mi)
Elevation	118 m (387 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	1,142
• Density	220/km2 (560/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	67229
Dialling codes	06238
Vehicle registration	DÜW
Website	www.grosskarlbach.de

Großkarlbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

Großkarlbach lies near the western edge of the Upper Rhine Plain and flowing through it is the river Eckbach. It is in the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration. In the municipality’s west rise the hills of what was once called the Unterhaardt, which since the 1970s has been considered part of the new Mittelhaardt-Deutsche Weinstraße winegrowing region. Großkarlbach belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land, whose seat is in Grünstadt, although that town is itself not in the Verbandsgemeinde.

Clockwise from the north, these are Laumersheim, Gerolsheim, Weisenheim am Sand, Freinsheim and Bissersheim.

Großkarlbach had a documentary mention as early as 768 in the Lorsch codex as Carlobach. Its name is described from its description as Dorf der Freien Karle (roughly “Village of free men”) and its location on the Eckbach. Since the municipality lay in the border area between Electoral Palatinate and territory held by the Counts of Leiningen, it was these two lordly houses that characterized Großkarlbach’s history.

Until 1969, the municipality belonged to the district of Frankenthal, which was abolished that year, and Großkarlbach was then assigned to the newly created district of Bad Dürkheim. Three years later came the assignment to the likewise newly created Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land.