Hockenheim 5.65

Hockenheim is a town in northwest Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about 20 km south of Mannheim and 10 km west of Walldorf. It is located in the Upper Rhine valley on the touristical theme routes Baden Asparagus Route ("Badische Spargelstraße") and Bertha Benz Memorial Route. The town is widely known for its Hockenheimring, a motor racing course, which hosted over 30 Formula One German Grand Prix races since 1970.Hockenheim is one of the six largest towns in the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis district; since 1999 the number of inhabitants exceeded the 20,000 threshold, thus the town received the status of a regional central town ("Große Kreisstadt") in 2001. It is twinned with the French town of Commercy, the German town of Hohenstein-Ernstthal in Saxony and the American town of Mooresville, North Carolina.GeographyLocation and environmentHockenheim is located in the Upper Rhine valley on an old trade route from Frankfurt to Basel. The brook Kraichbach divides the town in an eastern and a smaller western area, and flows into the Rhine to the north near Ketsch. Hockenheim's total municipal area covers 3,484 ha, with ca. 28.8 percent used for settlement and transportation and ca. 45.9 percent for agriculture. The remaining area consists of ca. 22 percent forests and ca. 2.4 percent rivers and seas.