KAISERSLAUTERN  , a

town in the Bavarian palatinate, on the Waldlauter, in the hilly district of Westrich, 41 M. by rail W. of Mannheim . Pop . (1905), 52,306 . Among its educational institutions are a gymnasium, a Protestant normal school, a commercial school and an industrial museum . The house of correction occupies the site of Frederick Barbarossa's castle, which was demolished by the French in 1713 . Kaiserslautern is one of the most important industrial towns in the palatinate . Its industries include cotton and wool spinning and weaving, iron-founding, and the manufacture of beer, tobacco, gloves, boots, furniture, &c . There is some trade in fruit and in timber . Kaiserslautern takes its name from the emperor (Kaiser) Frederick I., who built a castle here about 1152, although it appears to have been a royal residence in Carolingian times . It became an imperial city, a dignity which it retained until 1357, when it passed to the palatinate . In 1621 it was taken by the Spanish, in 1631 by the Swedish, in 1635 by the imperial and in 1713 by the French troops . During 1793 and 1794 it was the scene of fighting; and in the Franco-Prussian War of 187o it was the base of operations of the second German army, under Prince Frederick Charles .

It was one of the

early stations of the Reformation, and in 1849 was the centre of the revolutionary spirit in the palatinate . See Lehmann, Urkundliche Geschichte von Kaiserslautern (Kaiserslautern, 1853), and E . Jost, Geschichte der Stadt Kaiserslautern (Kaiserslautern, 1886) .