KAISERSLAUTERN, the chief town of a circle in the government district of Rheinpfalz, Bavaria, is situated on the Lauter, in the hilly district of Westrich, about 40 miles west of Mannheim, and is one of the most important industrial towns of the Palatinate. It is the seat of the usual official bureaus, and counts among its educational institutions a gymnasium, a Protestant normal school, a com-, mercial school, and an industrial museum. There are several churches, of which one owes its first foundation to Frederick Barbarossa, a hospital, and a large fruit-market. The house of correction occupies the site of Barbarossa’s castle, built in 1153, and demolished by the French in 1713. The industries include cotton and wool spinning and weaving, iron-founding, and the manufacture of beer, tobacco, and numerous other articles. There is some trade in fruit and in timber. Population in 1875, 22,699.

Kaiserslautern takes its name from the emperor (Kaiser) Frederick I., who presented to the place a wood worth 50,000 marks annually. In 1276 it became a town, and in 1357 passed to the Palatinate. In 1621 it was taken by the Spanish, in 1631 by the Swedish, in 1635 by the imperial, and in 1713 by the French troops. During 1793 and 1794 it was the scene of active fighting; and in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 it was the base of operations of thé second German army, under Prince Frederick Charles. It was one of the early stations of the Reformation, and in 1849 was a focus for the revolutionary spirit in the Palatinate.

KAISERSWERTH, an ancient town in the circle and government district of Diisseldorf, Prussia, is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, 6 miles below Diisseldorf. It contains an old Romanesque church of the 12th or 13th century, and has several benevolent institutions, of which the chief is the training-school for Protestant sisters of charity. This institution, founded by Pastor Fliedner in 1836, has more than 100 branches, some even in Asia and America; the head establishment at Kaiserswerth includes an orphanage, a lunatic asylum, and a Magdalen institution. The Roman Catholic hospital occupies the former Franciscan convent. The population in 1875 was 2135, chiefly engaged in silk-weaving and tobacco manufacture.

In 710 Pippin of Heristal presented the site of the town to Bishop Suitbert, who built the Benedictine monastery round which the town gradually formed. Until 1214 Kaiserswerth lay on an island, but in that year Count Adolphus V. of Berg, who was besieging it, dammed up effectually one arm of the Rhine. About the beginning of the 14th century Kaiserswerth was pawned by the empire to Jülich, whence, after some vicissitudes, it finally passed into the possession of the princes of the Palatinate, whose rights, long disputed by the elector of Cologne, were legally settled in 1762. In 1702 the fortress was captured by the Austrians and Prussians, and the Kaiserburg, whence the young emperor Henry IV. was abducted by Archbishop Hanno in 1062, blown up.