DURKHEIM, a town in the Palatinate of the Rhine, near the foot of the Hardt A-fountain, and at the entrance of the valley of the Isenach, 15 miles north-west of Spire, on the railway between Monsheim and Neustadt. Besides being the seat of various administrative offices, it possesses , three churches and a synagogue, a town-hall occupying the site of the castle of the princes of Leiningen-Hartenburg, an antiquarian and a scientific society, a public library, and a high school. It is well known as a resort for invalids, who may either indulge in the grape-cure or have recourse to the salt-springs of Philippshall in the neighbourhood, which not only supply the bathing establishment, but produce annually about 8000 ewt. of marketable salt. The inhabitants have a" good trade in wine, and ntanufacture oil, tobacco, glass, and paper.

As a dependency of the Benedictine abbey of Limburg, which which was built and endowed by Conrad II., Diirkheint or Thurnig-heim came into the possession of the counts of Leiningen, who in the 13th century made it the seat of a fortress, and in the 14th inclosed it with wall and ditch. ln the three following centuries it had its full share of the military vicissitudes of the Palatinate ; but it was rebuilt after the French invasion of 1639, and greatly fostered by its emmts in the beginning of next century-. In 1794 its new castle was sacked by the French, and in 1349 it was the scene ot a contest between the Prussians and the insurrectionists. The ruins of the abbey of Limburg are still to be seen about a utile S.W. of the town ; and in the neighbourhood rises the Kastanienberg, with the ancient rude stone fortification of the Heidenmauer or Heathen's Wall. Population in 1871, 5572.