Editing Ludwigshafen (section)

===Foundation===
[[File:Joseph Karl Stieler - King Ludwig I in his Coronation Robes - WGA21796.jpg|thumb|''[[Portrait of Ludwig I of Bavaria]]'' by [[Joseph Karl Stieler]]. The [[nineteenth century]] King of Bavaria named the settlement after himself.]]

In 1808, during the French occupation, Carl Hornig of Mannheim purchased the fortress from the French authorities and turned it into a way station for passing river traffic. Later, the Rheinschanze with its winter-proof harbour basin (created by a flood in 1824) was used as trading post. Hornig died in 1819, but [[Johann Heinrich Scharpff]], a businessman from [[Speyer]], continued Hornig's plans, which were then turned over to his son-in-law, [[Philipp Markus Lichtenberger]], in 1830. Their activities marked the beginning of the civilian use of the Rheinschanze.

The year 1844 was the official birth of Ludwigshafen, when Lichtenberger sold this property to the state of Bavaria (Bayern), and the military title of the fortress was finally removed. The [[Kingdom of Bavaria|Bavarian]] king, [[Ludwig I]], set forth plans to rename the settlement after himself and to start construction of an urban area as a Bavarian rival to Mannheim on the opposite bank.

During the failed German revolution of 1848 rebels captured Ludwigshafen, but they were bombarded from Mannheim (rumours said the Mannheimers didn't aim at the revolutionaries, but on the rival harbour's infrastructure), and [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussian]] troops quickly expelled the revolutionaries. On December 27, 1852, [[Maximilian II of Bavaria|King Maximilian II]] granted Ludwigshafen am Rhein political freedom and as on November 8, 1859, the settlement gained city status.