Borken, North Rhine-Westphalia
Encyclopedia
Neighbouring places
- RaesfeldRaesfeldRaesfeld is a municipality in the district of Borken in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located approx. 10 km south of Borken and 30 km east of the Dutch border. Raesfeld's landmark is the water castle at the edge of town, built in the 13th century.-External links:* ...
- HeidenHeiden, GermanyHeiden is a municipality in the district of Borken in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located approx. 5 km east of Borken. The three districts are called Leblich, Dorfbauernschaft and Nordick. In Leblich there were many windmills built in the last 8 years...
- SüdlohnSüdlohnSüdlohn is a municipality in the district of Borken in the northwestern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located right at the border with the Netherlands, approx. 10 km east of Winterswijk. It consists of the villages Südlohn and Oeding....
- RhedeRhedeRhede is a municipality in the district of Borken in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located near the border with the Netherlands, approx. 5 km east of Bocholt.-External links:*...
- VelenVelenVelen is a municipality in the district Borken, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany with about 12,000 citizens. It consists of the two settlements of Velen and Ramsdorf and the four rural regions Ostendorf-Krueckling, Holthausen-Barnsfeld, Nordvelen and Waldvelen...
Division of the town
Borken consists of 12 districts:
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History
The name comes from the German word "Burg" or "Burk" and gradually changed to "Burke", then "Burken" and finally to "Borken". Around the year 800 the village was being used by Charles The Great (CharlemagneCharlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
) as a stopover place on his travels. In 1226 City rights were granted by Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
Dietrich II of Isenberg-Limburg
Dietrich II of Isenberg-Limburg
Dietrich II of Isenberg-Limburg, count of Isenberg and Limburg , son of Johann of Isenberg-Limburg, count of Limburg.He married Bertrada von Goetterswick and they had four children:...
. Fortification of the city with walls and towers was first noted in 1391.
In the last years of the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
(1803–06) it was the capital of the short-lived principality of Salm
Salm (state)
Salm is the name of several historic countships and principalities in present Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and France.-Origins:The County of Salm arose in the 10th century in Vielsalm, in the Ardennes region of present Belgium...
. From 1810 to 1814 it was part of the French Empire. In 1815 Borken came under the jurisdiction of the Prussian Province of Westphalia
Province of Westphalia
The Province of Westphalia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946.-History:Napoleon Bonaparte founded the Kingdom of Westphalia, which was a client state of the First French Empire from 1807 to 1813...
. At the same time it became the seat of government for the newly formed district or county of Borken (Kreis Borken). Between 1880 and 1905 the area experienced the building of railroad connections: (1880 Wanne
Wanne-Eickel Hauptbahnhof
is the Hauptbahnhof of the former city of Wanne-Eickel, now part of Herne in western Germany.-History :The station grew out of the Pluto-Thies freight yard, opened in 1856 on the Duisburg–Dortmund line section of the Cologne-Minden Railway Company's trunk line, which was opened in 1847. In 1864, a...
-Borken-Winterswijk
Winterswijk
Winterswijk is a municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands.Winterswijk is a town with a population of some 30,000 in the Achterhoek which lies in the most eastern part of the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. It was also known as Winethereswick, Winriswic or Wenterswic...
line, 1901 Empel-Bocholt
Bocholt
There are two towns called Bocholt:* Bocholt, Germany* Bocholt, Belgium...
-Borken and Borken-Burgsteinfurt, 1905 Borken-Coesfeld
Coesfeld
Coesfeld is the capital of the district of Coesfeld in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.-History:Coesfeld received its city rights in 1197, but was first recorded earlier than that in the biography of St. Ludger, patron and first bishop of the diocese of Munster who was born north of...
-Münster).
Near the end of World War Two the historic center of the city was heavily destroyed. After the war, community rearrangements followed in 1969, including annexation of Gemen
Gemen
Gemen was an immediate, sovereign lordship of the Holy Roman Empire, in the Lower Rhine region. Since Gemen had a vote in the Imperial Diet it was also an Imperial Estate. It was centered on Gemen, a small town and castle in the present municipality of Borken, western North Rhine-Westphalia.Gemen...
and other towns in the vicinity. Between 1975 and 1978 came the cleaning up and rebuilding of the southern part of the old city. There, buildings which had outlasted the destruction of the Second World War were finally demolished. In 2001 Borken celebrated its 775th anniversary.
Affiliations
Borken is twinned with the following towns:Whitstable
Whitstable
Whitstable is a seaside town in Northeast Kent, Southeast England. It is approximately north of the city of Canterbury and approximately west of the seaside town of Herne Bay. It is part of the City of Canterbury district and has a population of about 30,000.Whitstable is famous for its oysters,...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, England Albertslund
Albertslund
Albertslund Kommune is a municipality in Region Hovedstaden on the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark. The municipality covers an area of 23 km², and has a total population of 27,602 . Its mayor is Steen Christiansen, a member of the Social Democrats political party...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
Mölndal
Mölndal
Mölndal is a part of the Gothenburg urban area on the west-coast of Sweden, and constitutes the administrative centre of Mölndal Municipality. About 40,000 of the municipality's 60,000 inhabitants live here.-Geography:...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....