Wikipedia
Bergstraße ("Mountain Road"), pronounced ˈbɛɐkˌʃtʀaːsə, is a Kreis ( district) in the south of Hesse, Germany. It is at the northern end of the Bergstraße route. Neighboring districts are Groß-Gerau, Darmstadt-Dieburg, Odenwaldkreis, Rhein-Neckar-Kreis, the urban district Mannheim, the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, and the urban district of Worms. Kreis Bergstraße belongs both to the Rhine Neckar Area and the Rhein-Main Region.
The Bergstraße ("Mountain Road") is ancient trade route in the south-west of Germany. The route and the area around it is a mountainous " theme route" running north–south along the western edge of the Odenwald forest in southern Hesse and northern Baden-Württemberg. The route passes through the Bergstraße administrative district, and independent viticultural regions of Hessische Bergstraße and Badische Bergstraße. Between the cities of Heidelberg and Weinheim the Upper Rhine Railway Company (OEG) tram route runs alongside.
Bergstraße or Bergstrasse can refer to:
- Bergstraße Route, "Mountain Road" in the Odenwald of Baden-Württemberg and Hesse, Germany
- Bergstraße (district), a rural district in Hesse, Germany
- Hessische Bergstraße, a Hessian winegrowing region
- Badische Bergstraße, a winegrowing region in Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Bergstraße is one of the 299 single member constituencies used for the German parliament, the Bundestag. One of twenty two districts covering the state of Hesse, it covers the Bergstraße district in the south of the state. The constituency elects one representative under the mixed member proportional representation (MMP) system. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as constituency 188.
The constituency was created for the 1949 election, the first election in West Germany after World War II. Though the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) has managed occasional successes, since its creation most elections have been won by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The current representative is Michael Meister of the CDU, who gained the constituency from the SPD at the 2005 election, having previously represented the district from 1994 to 1998.