Note that Freinsheim is labelled here as "Fremshenn." See where the mountains are labelled as Mont Tonnerre?
"Fremshenn" is slightly to the right of the "rr" in Tonnerre.
The River Running
"Immigrants: we get the job done" -- Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton
The Palatinate and the French Revolutionary Army of the Rhine, 1795-1815
The Army of the Rhine was formed in December 1791, for the purpose of bringing the French Revolution to the German states along the Rhine River, including the Palatinate. The sites of its battles over the next few years include Speyer, Kaiserslautern and Mannheim. In April 1795, the Peace of Basel between France and Prussia turned the west bank of the Rhine over to France. Most of the Palatinate now found itself in the Département du Mont-Tonnerre AKA the Département Donnersberg, the Donnersberg being the highest point in the Palatinate.
The residents of the Palatinate were used to being invaded, especially by the French. However, this time was a little different. The French abolished of all feudal privileges and historic taxes, introduced the Napoleonic Code and reorganized judicial and local administrative systems. Egalitarianism and efficiency were their watchwords. The main beneficiaries of all this were the ordinary citizens. There was some discontent regarding military conscriptions - who enjoys being drafted? - but in many ways life was better than it had been.
Note that Freinsheim is labelled here as "Fremshenn." See where the mountains are labelled as Mont Tonnerre?
"Fremshenn" is slightly to the right of the "rr" in Tonnerre.
All good things must come to an end, however. Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo in June 1815. What to do with the the Département du Mont-Tonnerre? The portion of the Palatinate east of the Rhine had been absorbed into the Margravate of Baden (later the Grand Duchy of Baden) in 1803. The Holy Roman Empire had already been abolished in 1806, so there were no longer any Electorates. Charles IV Theodore of Sulzbach, who was both Elector of the Palatinate and Duke of Bavaria, had died without issue in 1799. He was succeeded in Bavaria by Maximilian II Joseph of Zweibrücken. In 1806 Bavaria became a kingdom and Maximilian its first king.
The Congress of Vienna, 1814-1815, did what probably seemed logical. In 1816 the west bank of the Palatinate became part of the Kingdom of Bavaria. It's interesting to note that the two were not geographically contiguous. The Grand Duchy of Baden lay in between.