Pirmasens

History

Early years

The first mention of "Pirminiseusna", a colony of Hornbach Abbey, dates from 860. The name derives from St. Pirminius, the founder of the monastery. During the period it was under rule of the Bishopric of Metz. It was passed to the Diocese of Speyer in last the quarter of the 11th century, then captured by the County of Saarbrücken in 1100.

In 1182, the County of Saarbrücken was divided by Simon II and Henry I, who were sons of Simon I. Pirmasens was given to Henry I and his dominion was named as County of Zweibrücken. He built Lemberg Castle to protect his dominion in 1198. During this period Pirmasens was under the formal jurisdiction of the bishop of Metz, but the parish administration of Pirmasens was passed to the monastery of Hornbach after confirmation by John, Bishop of Metz, in 1225.

In 1297, the County of Zweibrücken was divided and Pirmasens was passed to the County of Zweibrücken-Bitsch, Eberhard I's dominion. He traded some localities with Duke Frederick III of Lorraine and took lordship of Bitsch in the same year.

In 1525, during the German Peasants' War, Pirmasens was looted by peasants from Bitsch. In 1560, Ludowika Margaretha of Zweibrücken-Bitsch, daughter of Count James of Zweibrücken-Bitsch (1510–1570), the last male member of the House of Zweibrücken, was married to Philip V, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg. In 1570, Count James of Zweibrücken-Bitsch died without male heir and Ludowika Margaretha inherited the County of Bitsch, the Lordship of Ochsenstein and half the Lordship of Lichtenberg (Philip's father had already held the other half). James's older brother, Simon V Wecker, had already died in 1540, also without a male heir. A dispute about the inheritance erupted between the husbands of Ludowika Margaretha and of her cousin Amalie, Philip V of Hanau-Lichtenberg and Philip I of Leiningen-Westerburg, respectively. Formally, the County of Bitsch and the district of Lemberg were fiefs of the Duchy of Lorraine and such fiefs could only be inherited in the male line.

Philip V was initially successful in the dispute with Philip I about Zweibrücken-Bitsch. However, he introduced the Lutheran confession in his newly gained territories in 1572. This upset his powerful Catholic neighbour and liege lord, Duke Charles III of Lorraine. The Duke terminated the fief and in July 1572 Lorraine troops occupied the county. Since Philip V's army was no match for Lorraine, he took his case to the Imperial Chamber Court in Speyer. During the trial, Lorraine argued that, firstly, a significant part of the territory of Zweibrücken-Bitsch had been obtained in an exchange with Lorraine in 1302 and, secondly, the Counts of Leiningen had sold their hereditary claims to Lorraine in 1573. In 1604, Hanau-Lichtenberg and Lorraine decided to settle out of court. In a treaty signed in 1606, it was agreed that Bitsch would revert to Lorraine and Hanau-Lichtenberg would retain Lemberg. This corresponded approximately to the religious realities of the territories. Since then, Pirmasens was part of the Amt Lemberg in the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg.

20th century

1923/24 tests of Palatinate separatists to settle down in Pirmasens failed on 12 February 1924: occupation of the district town hall, home of the separatist administration; many deaths on both sides;

9 November 1938 destruction of the synagogue during the Kristallnacht.

On 15 March 1945, Pirmasens was captured by US troops, and the following year it became part of the newly established German state Rhineland-Palatinate.

During the occupation, on 19 September 1945, the Museum of Pirmasens announced that about 50 paintings, which had been stored in the air-raid shelter at Husterhoh School during the war, had been plundered during the arrival of the American troops. The paintings were returned in 2006.

In the wake of the 2015 European migrant crisis and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the city came under economic pressure due to the high numbers of refugees and migrants it had to support. In early 2025 every fourth citizen had a migrant background. As a result, between March 2018 and May 2021, Pirmasens was exempt from the admission of new arrivals by the state; a new exemption becomes effective in February 2025.

Main sights

Dynamikum, a science museum

Old Postal Building, with an exhibition of the life and work of Hugo Ball and a picture gallery of the painter Heinrich Bürkel

Collected works of Hugo Ball in the public library

Old Town Hall, now a museum of local history and shoes, with silhouettes from Elisabeth Emmler

Siegfried Line Museum

Stierbrunnen (Central of the Shopping Area)

Exerzierplatz (The geographical center of the city)

Countless forests and springs around the city

Incorporations

1969: Erlenbrunn, Fehrbach, Hengsberg, Niedersimten, Winzeln

1972: Gersbach, Windsberg

Evolution of population (since 1875):

Politics

Town council as at August 2014:

CDU 40.7% – 18 seats

SPD 28.0% – 12 seats

FWG 10.4% – 5 seats

REP 4.6% – 2 seats

FDP 4.0% – 2 seats

Die Linke 5.0% – 2 seats

The Greens 4.6% – 2 seats

National Democratic Party of Germany 2.0% – 1 seat

Twin towns – sister cities

Pirmasens is twinned with:

Poissy, France

Culture

Events

The "Landgrafen-Tage" (days of the landgraves) - every second weekend in April

Open-Air Highlights at the parade-ground (e.g. musicals, opera)

"Schlabbeflicker-Fest", a parade of uniformed musicians - every first weekend in August

Parade-ground festival - every second weekend in September

Euroclassic festival (Festival of the cities: Pirmasens, Bitche, Zweibrücken, Blieskastel and of the Verbandsgemeinde Zweibrücken-Land)

"Grenadiermarkt" (infantryman market) - in Autumn

"Novembermarkt" - last weekend of October or first weekend of November

Christmas market in Advent

Yearly Conventions like "Culinaria"

Music

Choir of oratory Pirmasens

Chantor's house of Pirmasens

Theatre

Performances at the festival hall

Sport

FK Pirmasens

TV 1863 Pirmasens

VFB Pirmasens

GW Pirmasens

SG Pirmasens

Rot-Weiß Pirmasens

Blau-Weiß Pirmasens

ASV Pirmasens

TTC Pirmasens

TUS/DJK Pirmasens

SV 1907 Ruhbank

RC Pirmasens

1. Boule Verein Pirmasens

MTV 1873 Pirmasens

Companies

Carl Semler shoe factory

ZWAANS GmbH - Import/Export of tannery machines, orthopedic branche

Ergo-Fit - manufacturer of cardiology equipment

FWB Kunststofftechnik GmbH - injection moulding

Apoplex medical technologies GmbH - products for the prevention of stroke

Cytoimmun diagnostics GmbH - cervical cancer screening

Koch Maschinenbau GmbH - engineering

Peter Kaiser GmbH - Germany's oldest shoe-factory

Park&Bellheimer AG - brewery

Profine GmbH, Kömmerling - manufacturer of synthetic material; major company

psb GmbH

SympaTel Telemarketing GmbH

WAFO GmbH - specialist in the abrasion technique

WAWI Euro GmbH - chocolate factory

"Pirmasenser Zeitung" local newspaper

"Die Rheinpfalz" local newspaper

KD Schaltanlagenbau

CONVAR Deutschland GmbH - provides data recovery of hard drives within difficult setups

Footwear Concept and Design GmbH - Shoe design, Outsole design, mould manufacture and rapid prototyping

Education

Fachhochschule Kaiserslautern, Campus Pirmasens located in Pirmasens

Deutsche Schuhfachschule

Transport

The nearest airports to the town are:

Saarbrücken Airport, located 56 km (35 mi) west

Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport, located 106 km (66 mi) south east

Strasbourg Airport, located 106 km (66 mi) south

Stuttgart Airport, located 159 km (99 mi) south east

Frankfurt Airport, located 160 km (99 mi) north east

Notable people

Heinrich Bürkel (1802–1869), genre and landscape painter

Godfrey Weitzel (1835–1884), Union Army general during the American Civil War

Hugo Ball (1886–1927), author, poet, founder of the Dada movement

Betty Amann (1905–1990), actor

Ralph H. Baer (1922–2014), German-American inventor, game developer and engineer

Angelika Glöckner (born 1962), politician

Dieter Janecek (born 1976), politician

Julian Steckel (born 1982), cellist

Erik Durm (born 1992), footballer

Military

Husterhoeh Kaserne was a former (1945–1994) US military facility in Pirmasens, and is now a mostly closed Bundeswehr facility, which still hosts U.S. Army Medical Materiel Center – Europe. It was a constituent member of the Kaiserslautern Military Community.