Pocking is a town in the district of Passau

Passau (district)

Passau is a district in the southeast of Bavaria. It encloses the city of Passau geographically from two sides. Neighboring districts are Rottal-Inn, Deggendorf, Freyung-Grafenau. To the south it borders Austria.-History:...

, in Lower Bavaria

Lower Bavaria

Lower Bavaria is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of the state.- Geography :Lower Bavaria is subdivided into two regions - Landshut and Donau-Wald. Recent election results mark it as the most conservative part of Germany, generally giving huge...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It is situated about 30 km south-west of Passau

Passau

Passau is a town in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the Dreiflüssestadt or "City of Three Rivers," because the Danube is joined at Passau by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north....

, close to the Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n border.

History

A Roman settlement was founded in the area of Pocking as early as the 1st century AD. The Bajuwaren tribe settled around Pocking in the 6th century AD. In 820 AD Pocking was first mentioned in a historic document.
Since 1824 Pocking forms its own political community and in 1971 it was granted the privileges of a town.

During the Nazi regime a side camp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp

Flossenbürg concentration camp

Konzentrationslager Flossenbürg was a Nazi concentration camp built in May 1938 by the Schutzstaffel Economic-Administrative Main Office at Flossenbürg, in the Oberpfalz region of Bavaria, Germany, near the border with Czechoslovakia. Until its liberation in April 1945, more than 96,000 prisoners...

 was set up in Pocking.
After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 the second largest DP camp ("displaced persons") in Germany was located in Pocking. In 1946 the camp housed 7,645 people, mostly of Jewish heritage. Is was disbanded in 1949.

The Rottal area to which Pocking belongs is famous for its horse breeding

Horse breeding

Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired characteristics in domesticated horses...

. That is also why the coat of arms

Coat of arms

A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 of Pocking includes the head of a horse. The other symbols relate to the history of the town and the different villages that formed the political community of Pocking.

Solarpark

In April 2006, Pocking Solar Park, the world's largest connected solar power plant, was opened in Pocking. The plant produces 10 megawatt peak, has 62,500 photovoltaic cells

Solar cell

A solar cell is a solid state electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect....

 and cost approximately 40 million euro

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

s.