Kaiserslautern is a city in the south of the Land Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. It has 100,000 inhabitants and some 38,000 additional American citizens due to the large military bases in the region. The town itself without the incorporated villages has about 85,000 inhabitants.

Sites

The town hall (Rathaus) is the tallest modern building in the city-center of Kaiserslautern, and the bar and coffeeshop on the top floor features good views of the town and surrounding countryside. The tallest building in the center of Kaiserslautern is actually Marienkirche, a catholic church.

The television tower, in fact the highest building in Kaiserslautern is not in the citycenter, but located at Dansenberg, a ward in the southwest of the city.

In the town itself, there are some ruins of a 12th-century castle of the emperor Barbarossa.

Kaiserslautern's large botanic gardens feature a Japanese-style garden. Another unusual feature is the Waschmühle, an enormous 160-metre public swimming pool, the largest in Europe, you can see it from space. The pedestrianized streets near St-Martins-Platz contain many restaurants and bars and is a major focus of the town's nightlife.

The castle "Kaiserpfalz" was built in 1152.

Culture and Sports

Kaiserslautern offers a wide range of cultural activities. Theatregoers have the chance to see plays, operas, ballets, concerts or musical at the local theatre which employs more than 300 people and plays a notable role in the German theatre scene. The first German performance of Westside Story took place there. As theatres in Germany profit from state subsidies, ticket prices are rather low. Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern hosts the most important award for German writing drama authors, Else-Lasker-Schüler-Preis, which in 2003 was awarded to Austrian author Elfriede Jelinek, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2004.

Another place for music, comedy and plays is called "Kulturzentrum Kammgarn", another subsidised stage and club in the city, that regulary hosts German and international stars ( for example "Earth, Wind and Fire","Midge Ure", "Jan Garbarek", "Peter Gabriel" ), who like to play in a club-atmosphere. Kammgarn hosts a very popular annual jazz-festival. "Kulturzentrum Kammgarn" is located in an old cotton factory, this is why the club of "Kulturzentrum Kammgarn" is called "The Cotton Club".

The town is also home to the Football team 1. FC Kaiserslautern, which achieved the title "Deutscher Meister" (German champion) three times.

Museums and libraries

Pfalzgalerie (artgallery, mainly pictures and sculptures from the 19th and 20th century)
Wadgasserhof/Theodor-Zink-Museum (local history)
Stadtbibliothek (townlibrary)
Universitätsbibliothek (library of the university of Kaiserslautern)
Hochschulbibliothek (Bibliothek of Fachhochschule)
Pfalzbibliothek (scientific library with a main focus on palatinate issues)

Nature

Kaiserslautern is located in Germany's largest forest area (Pfälzer Wald) and offers numerous hiking trails and lakes to visitors.

Other places of interest in Kaiserslautern are:

Humbergturm, an observation tower, built in 1900, offering a great view over the Palatinate Forest
Kaiserslautern Zoo at Siegelbach
Karlstal (a whitewater canyon)
Kaiserpfalz, the old castle of emperor Barbarossa (Redbeard)
Burg Nanstein, Landstuhl, an old castle in the county
Burg Hohenecken, an old castle in a ward of Kaiserslautern
Gartenschau, a horticultural show, including the largest dinosaur show of Europe

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