Hohenecken in 1975, photo by me; Rochuskappela (1749) at left. When I lived near there in the 1960s, it looked the same: just a small village where people lived. No bars, just the Gasthaus of Oma and Opa, another smaller Gasthaus that didn't serve food at all (Gasthaus Pfaelzerwald), two churches, and a pizzeria on the main road on the outskirts of town catering mainly to passing commuters. The pizzeria was a one-man operation, an energetic young guy named Tony. He was an authentic Italian chef who never got to do anything except make pizza for Americans. One night some of us GIs rented the place for a private dinner and asked him to make whatever he wanted. When we arrived there was one table with a white tablecloth and candles and he had made us Fetuccini Afredo from scratch.

A medieval castle, Burg Hohenecken dating from the late 12th Century (next image), ruled over Hohenecken and other valley villages until the Peasants' War in 1525 when the castle was seized by rebel farmers, and was eventually destroyed by the French in 1688. Hohenecken and some other nearby towns were incorporated into the city of Kaiserslautern in 1969. Additional information: German Wikipedia.