Western Palatinate
Western Palatinate or West Palatinate is a sub-region in the west of the Palatinate, a German cultural and historic region in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It includes the western part of the Palatine Forest, the central part of the North Palatine Uplands, the West Palatine Moor and the Westrich Plateau. Its former name of "Further Palatinate", which emerged during the time of Bavarian rule in 1816 and was viewed by the local population as very discriminatory, is only commonly used in the Anterior Palatinate.
The following counties and independent towns or cities lie wholly or partly in the Western Palatinate:
The county of Donnersbergkreis and the old counties of Rockenhausen and Kirchheimbolanden were also counted as part of the Western Palatinate in the widest sense, but are often viewed as an independent region.
A different definition also existed for the division of the police force: the Police District of West Palatinate looked after just the western part of Donnersbergkreis county as well as the collective municipality of Meisenheim in the county of Bad Kreuznach as well as the above administrative regions.
