The Rhine Province (German: Rheinprovinz), also known as Rhenish Prussia (Rheinpreußen) or synonymous to the Rhineland (Rheinland), was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822-1946. It was created from the provinces of the Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg. Its capital was Koblenz and in 1939 it had 8.0 million inhabitants. The Province of Hohenzollern was militarily associated with the Oberpräsident of the Rhine Province.
The Rhine Province bounded on the north by the Netherlands, on the east by the Prussian provinces of Westphalia and Hesse-Nassau, and the grand duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, on the southeast by the Electorate of the Palatinate, on the south and southwest by Lorraine, and on the west by Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The small district of Wetzlar in the midst of the province of Hesse also belonged to the Rhine Province, which, on the other hand, surrounded the Oldenburg principality of Birkenfeld.
In 1911, the extent of the province was 10,423 km2; its extreme length, from north to south, was nearly 200 km, and its greatest breadth was just under 90 km. It included about 200 km of the course of the Rhine, which formed the eastern border of the province from Bingen to Coblenz, and then flows in a north-northwesterly direction inside the province, approximately following its eastern border.
Read more about Rhine Province: Demographics, Government, History
Famous quotes containing the words rhine and/or province:
“Ah, there should be a young man, ein schone Junge carrying Blumen, a bouquet of roses. There should be cold Rhine wine and Strauss waltzes, and on the long way home kisses in the shadow of an archway, like a Cinderella.”
—Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)
“It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)