PIRMASENS

city, Rhineland-Palatinate Land (state), southwestern Germany. It lies near the French border. Named for St. Pirmin, who was supposed to have preached Christianity there in the 8th century, it originally belonged to the counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg but passed to Hesse-Darmstadt in 1736. Chartered in 1763, the town was taken by the French in 1794 and passed to Bavaria in 1816. It was largely rebuilt after severe damage in World War II. An important shoe industry developed there in the 19th century. The city now holds international shoe trade fairs and is the site of an internationally known technical school of shoemaking. It is the terminus of a branch of the railway linking Landau with Zweibrcken. Pop. (1992 est.) 47,801.