The welcome reception will take place on Tuesday, March 3, 2020, at 7:00 p.m. at Villa Denis in Frankenstein, near Kaiserslautern.

History: Villa Denis was built between 1845 and 1849 by Paul Camille Denis at the foot of the ruins of Diemerstein Castle in the Palatinate region. At that time, Paul Camille Denis was responsible for the construction of railway lines. The villa was designed in the “Italian style” with a late-classical interior. This also included wall and ceiling paintings in the Pompeian style, very similar to those in Villa Ludwigshöhe, the King’s villa in Edenkoben. As early as 1854–1855, he sold the property to the Mannheim banker Ladenburg, as Denis had moved on to become director of the Bavarian Eastern Railway. The Ladenburg family also used the estate as a country residence and equipped it with the amenities a city dweller would expect for recreation, such as a small park and a tennis court. On April 21, 1861, the Pfälzer Turnerbund was founded at Villa Denis. In 1907, the Ladenburg family added a west wing to the building. Eighteen years later, the family sold the complex to the Evangelische Fürsorgeverein in Kaiserslautern, under whose ownership the wall and ceiling paintings were completely restored in 1995–1996. After a brief period of private ownership, Villa Denis finally became the property of the TU Kaiserslautern Foundation in 2006 and is now used as a conference center.

Villa Denis is a cultural monument under the Rhineland-Palatinate region Monument Protection Act.

How to get there

From the main train station: Take the S1 departing at 6:26 p.m. from Kaiserslautern main train station. Get off at the second stop, Frankenstein (Pfalz) station. Exit the station and turn left toward Hauptstrasse/B37. After 160 m, turn right and pass the Landgasthof Schlossberg. Follow the street for 600 m. Villa Denis will be on your right. DGP2020 signs will guide you along the route.

How to get back

Take the S2 departing at 9:48 pm from Frankenstein (Pfalz) station.