German Wine Route: Ludwigshafen am Rhein

Ludwigshafen am Rhein is the unimpressive town opposite Mannheim. It was built around the largest chemical factory of the world and has debts and liabilities of something over 1 000 000 000 €.

Ludwigshafen, the shabby dungeon city on the rhine

View of Ludwigshafen

In contrast to (almost) all german cities Ludwigshafen has no history. Built from around 1840 as a quarantine station in the muddy, mosquito contaminated swamps close to a bridge to the residential city of Mannheim with its famous castle and parkways, the Ludwigshafen of today is a accumulation of chemical factorys and their suppliers.

Being a town where the workers of the chemical factory's slept in overcrowded houses and shanty housing areas, lacking infrastructure and town planning, it was heavily bombed in World War II, almost completely destroying Ludwigshafen.

Rebuilt in predominantly square architecture the best thing in this town are the prevailing winds from the south west, blowing the smog to the north east, away from the palatinate wine growing area.

The pedestrian zone of Ludwigshafen is an example of subobtimal town planning. Whilst huge supermarkets have been built in the outer areas, more and more shops in the city are closed - except for bakeries, cell phone and junk shops.

But it is not all that bad.

The town is blessed with elevated highways, all leading either to Mannheim with its famous night life, the huge pedestrian zone - one of the most frequented shopping districts of germany - or to the German Wine Road and the Palatinate Forest in the west.


I would just recommend to stay in Ludwigshafen in a case of your spaceship ran out of fuel....

Rather stay in Speyer, the salian town with the worlds largest romanesque church, the Speyer cathedral, or stay in Mannheim, the former residence town.

Heidelberg with its famous old town and castle is also just 30km away from Ludwigshafen.


The only example for a case of emergency to consider to stay in Ludwigshafen is the Wurstmarkt in Bad Dürkheim, the biggest wine festival in the world. There is a nice tram connection from Ludwigshafen to Bad Dü can also use the same tram when staying in Mannheim...