Wittelsbach, German History, Biographies

Related Category: German History, Biographies

Wittelsbach[vi´tulsbAkh] Pronunciation Key, German dynasty that ruled Bavaria from 1180 until 1918.

The family takes its name from the ancestral castle of Wittelsbach in Upper Bavaria. In 1180 Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I invested Count Otto of Wittelsbach with the much-reduced duchy of Bavaria, of which he had deprived the Guelphic duke, Henry the Lion. In 1214 Otto's son, Otto II, also received the Rhenish Palatinate. After Otto's death (1253) the Wittelsbach possessions were divided between an elder branch, which received the Rhenish Palatinate and W Bavaria, and a younger branch, which received the rest.

The Wittelsbachs reached their zenith under Duke Louis III, of the elder branch, who became Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV (reigned 1314–47). Louis IV temporarily (1324–73) attached Brandenburg to his dynasty and through his second marriage added Hainaut, Holland, Zeeland, and Friesland. In 1329, Louis IV subdivided the Wittelsbach lands; the elder branch, descended from Louis's brother Rudolf, received the Rhenish and the Upper Palatinate, while the younger branch, descended from Louis's first marriage, received Bavaria proper.

The electoral dignity at first was to alternate between the two branches but was settled permanently on the Palatinate branch by the Golden Bull of 1356. Both branches underwent several subdivisions, but in the early 16th cent. Bavaria was reunited by Duke Albert IV, who introduced succession by primogeniture. (For the subdivisions of the Palatinate branch, which is not treated here in detail, see Palatinate.)

In 1443 Philip the Good of Burgundy seized Hainaut, Holland, Zeeland, and Friesland from Countess Jacqueline, his first cousin. In the 16th and 17th cent. the Bavarian Wittelsbachs championed the Roman Catholic cause while the Palatinate branch were the leading Protestant princes. After the defeat of the elector palatine, known as Frederick the Winter King of Bohemia, his electoral voice was transferred (1623) to Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria, who also received the Upper Palatinate. A new electorate was created in 1648 for Frederick's son, to whom the Rhenish Palatinate was restored.

Elector Charles Albert of Bavaria was chosen (1742) Holy Roman emperor as Charles VII; with the death (1777) of his son, Maximilian III, the Bavarian branch of the Wittelsbachs died out, and the Palatinate-Sulzbach line acceded in Bavaria in the person of Elector Charles Theodore, who died in 1799 without issue. He was succeeded by the duke palatine of ZweibrUcken, senior member of the Palatinate branch, who thus united all Wittelsbach lands under his sole rule and who in 1806 became king of Bavaria as Maximilian I. His successors as kings of Bavaria were Louis I, Maximilian II, Louis II, Otto I, and Louis III, who was deposed in 1918.

Empress Elizabeth of Austria, wife of Francis Joseph, and Queen Elizabeth of the Belgians, consort of Albert I, issued from a collateral line of the dynasty, and the Wittelsbachs have intermarried for centuries with all the royal families of Europe. A line of the Palatinate branch (see ZweibrUcken) ruled Sweden from 1654 to 1741. Crown Prince Rupert (d. 1955), son of King Louis III and claimant to the Bavarian throne (the family never renounced their claim), also inherited, through a complicated succession, the claim of the Stuart dynasty to the British throne. SOURCE

ZweibrUcken, German Political Geography

Related Category: German Political Geography

ZweibrUcken[tsvI´´brU´kun] Pronunciation Key, Fr. Deux-Ponts, city (1994 pop. 35,704), Rhineland-Palatinate, W Germany, near the Saarland border. ZweibrUcken is a transportation center and has ironworks, steelworks, and factories that produce leather goods, wood products, machines, and textiles. It is also a noted horse-breeding center, horse races are held there. ZweibrUcken was chartered in 1352 and passed (1385) to the Palatinate branch of the Bavarian house of Wittelsbach. In 1410 it became the seat of the counts (later dukes) palatine of ZweibrUcken under a cadet line of the Palatinate branch. Charles X of Sweden was the nephew of John II, duke palatine of ZweibrUcken; his son, Charles XI of Sweden, inherited ZweibrUcken in the late 17th cent., and the duchy remained in personal union with Sweden from 1697 until the death (1718) of Charles XII. The ZweibrUcken line continued until 1731, when the related Palatinate-Birkenfeld line acceded. The duchy of ZweibrUcken was annexed (1797) to France. It was restored to Bavaria at the Congress of Vienna (1814–15) and since then has shared the history of the Rhenish Palatinate. It was virtually demolished in World War II but has since been reconstructed. Source

Self-Propelled Forage Harvesters

Combines

Tillage

Seeding

Telehandlers

In 1964, the Zweibrucken factory assumed the development and production of combine harvesters.

In 1993, self-propelled forage harvester development and production was transferred to the plant, from John Deere Ottumwa Works in Ottumwa, IA.

In 1994, the seeding and tillage production lines were added.

In 2000, John Deere Company introduced the telehandler lines which are manufactured by Zweibrucken Werke.