Eschweiler
Encyclopedia
Aachen (district)
The district of Aachen is a district in the west of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Heinsberg, Düren, Euskirchen, and also the Netherlands province of Limburg and the Belgian province of Liège.- History :...
in North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...
in 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...
on the river Inde
Inde
The Inde is a small river in Belgium and Germany, left tributary of the Rur. It has its source near Raeren in Eastern Belgium, runs through Aachen-Kornelimünster, Eschweiler and Inden, and flows into the river Rur near Jülich...
, near the German-Belgian-Dutch frontier, and about 15 km east of Aachen
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
and 50 km west of Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
.
History
- Celtics (first ore mining) and Romans (roads and villae rusticae).
- 828 First mentioned by Einhard, the biographer of CharlemagneCharlemagneCharlemagne 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...
. - 1394 CoalCoalCoal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
mining first mentioned. - For some centuries part of the Duchy of JülichDuchy of JülichThe Duchy of Jülich comprised a state within the Holy Roman Empire from the 11th to the 18th centuries. The duchy lay left of the Rhine river between the Electorate of Cologne in the east and the Duchy of Limburg in the west. It had territories on both sides of the river Rur, around its capital...
. - 1678 Completely destroyed except one house and the valuable leather PietàPietàThe Pietà is a subject in Christian art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus, most often found in sculpture. As such, it is a particular form of the Lamentation of Christ, a scene from the Passion of Christ found in cycles of the Life of Christ...
. - 1794 To FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. - 1800 French municipal rights and capital of the Canton of Eschweiler in the French Département de la Roer.
- 1816 To PrussiaPrussiaPrussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
. The French Cantons of Burtscheid and Eschweiler are put together to form the Prussian Kreis Aachen. - 1838 Foundation of the first joint stock company in the then Kingdom of Prussia: Eschweiler Bergwerksverein (i.e. Eschweiler Coal Mining Company) EBV.
- 1858 Prussian municipal rights. Its quarters Hehlrath, Kinzweiler and St. Jöris are released in order to form the new municipality of Kinzweiler.
- 1932 Hastenrath and Nothberg become a part of Eschweiler.
- 1944 Heavily destroyed in World War IIWorld War IIWorld 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 last coal mine was flooded during the war and never been re-opened. - Part of the federal land of Northrhine-Westfalia.
- 1960s Complete modernization of Eschweiler's downtown and regulation of the Inde in order to prevent the regular inundations.
- 1972 Reorganization of administration in Northrhine-Westfalia: Eschweiler increases overnight from some 38,000 inhabitants to about 55,000 by receiving the villages Dürwiß, Laurenzberg, Lohn and Weisweiler. Kinzweiler, after 114 years, comes back.
- 1970s Eschweiler loses seven quarters because of the brown-coal opencast mining: Erberich, Hausen, Langendorf, Laurenzberg, Lohn, Lürken and Pützlohn.
Main sights
Eschweiler main sights include:- Artificial lake Blausteinsee ("Blue Stone Lake")
- the Old Townhall (which is now the restaurant and conference wing of a hotel)
- two pilgrim churches
- main parish church of St. Peter und Paul with the Leather Pietà from 1360
- the chapel
- dwelling house of the former Cistercians nunnery of St. Jöris, skull relic in St. Jöris' church, baroque altar in Hehlrath's church
- Old Mill of Gressenich.
Also present is a series of castle and manors:
- Castle of Eschweiler (only three towers from the 13th century are left)
- Castle of Kambach (beautiful water castleWater castleA water castle is a castle or stately home whose site is entirely surrounded by moats or natural waterbodies. Topographically water castles are a type of lowland castle.There is a further distinction between:...
besides the golf course) - Castle of Kinzweiler
- Castle of Nothberg
- Castle of Palant
- Castle of Röthgen
- Castle of Weisweiler (only the towers and the outer walls are left)
- Manor of Broich
- Manor of Drimborn
- Manor of Nothberg
Culture
Eschweiler has three municipal halls (Dürwiß, Kinzweiler and Weisweiler), a cinema, a municipal art collection and the so-called Culture Centre Talbahnhof for cabaret and music events. Every summer the Eschweiler Music Festival EMF takes place. People go to the numerous pubs around the Market Place and in the old-town alley Schnellengasse as well as to the large-scale discothèque Klejbor's.Carnival
Eschweiler is a center of Rhineland carnivalCarnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
. It has more than 20 active carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
clubs, and every Monday before Lent it has the third of Germany's longest carnival processions.
Culinary specialities
- SauerbratenSauerbratenSauerbraten is a German pot roast, usually of beef , marinated before cooking in a mixture of vinegar, water, spices and seasonings.Sauerbraten is traditionally served with red cabbage, potato dumplings , Spätzle,...
- PotatoPotatoThe potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
fritterFritterA fritter is any kind of food coated in batter and deep fried. Although very similar to a doughnut it differs in the fact that it requires some base ingredient beyond the dough it is cooked with.-Anglo-American fritters:...
s (Reibekuchen) with black bread, apple syrup, sugar beet syrup or stewed apples - Blood sausageBlood sausageBlack pudding, blood pudding or blood sausage is a type of sausage made by cooking blood or dried blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled. The dish exists in various cultures from Asia to Europe...
(Blutwurst) crude or fried - Hemmel on Äed (i.e. Heaven and Earth) mashed potatoes with stewed apples and fried blood pudding
- Rice pies, apricot pies, pear pies ("Schwatze Flaam") - 20 cm in diameter; the pear pies, also called black pies, are traditionally served at funerals
- Horse and horse by-products
Medical care
Eschweiler is home to the St. Antonius Hospital with 443 beds and 13 departments. Every year, there are some 15.000 in-patients and 25.000 out-patients. The Euregio Breast Centre is part of the hospital.Science
The ligniteLignite
Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, or Rosebud coal by Northern Pacific Railroad,is a soft brown fuel with characteristics that put it somewhere between coal and peat...
(brown coal) deposits in the region are former Miocene
Miocene
The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...
swamp forest dominated by Castanopsis
Castanopsis
Castanopsis is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the beech family, Fagaceae. The genus contains about 120 species, which are today restricted to tropical and subtropical eastern Asia. A total of 58 species are native to China, with 30 endemic; the other species occur further south, through...
, a type of chinkapin. Such plants do not occur naturally in Europe today. A type of fossil wood
Fossil wood
Fossil wood is wood that is preserved in the fossil record. Over time the wood will usually be the part of a plant that is best preserved...
has been described from logs found in Eschweiler mines. It was named Castanoxylon eschweilerense in reference to the town; the name would translate as "Eschweiler chinkapin wood", as it probably belonged to Castanopsis but perhaps to some other genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of chinkapin.
Transportation
Eschweiler has six railway stations: Eschweiler HauptbahnhofEschweiler Hauptbahnhof
is the largest station in the city of Eschweiler in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is on a slight curve on the Cologne–Aachen high-speed line...
(central station), Eschweiler-Aue (from 2009), Eschweiler-West, Eschweiler-Talbahnhof, Eschweiler-Nothberg, Eschweiler-Weisweiler and Nothberg (till 2009). Eschweiler-St. Jöris is planned.
Eschweiler has two bus terminals and bus lines in every quarter and in its whole vicinity. Autobahn exits on the A 4 include Eschweiler-West, Eschweiler-Ost and Weisweiler. The city can be reached also by three exits on the A 44: Aldenhoven, Alsdorf and Broichweiden.
Notable people
- Theo AltmeyerTheo AltmeyerTheo Altmeyer was a German classical tenor. Although he was a successful opera singer, he is chiefly remembered for his work as an oratorio soloist...
- Götz BriefsGötz BriefsGötz Briefs was a Catholic social theorist, social ethicist, social philosopher and political economist, who together with Jesuit Gundlach, influenced the social teachings of Pope Pius XI.-Biography:...
- Gerhard FieselerGerhard FieselerGerhard Fieseler was a German World War I flying ace, aerobatics champion, and aircraft designer and manufacturer....
- Claus J. Günkel
- Wilhelm LexisWilhelm LexisWilhelm Lexis was an eminent German statistician, economist, and social scientist and a founder of the interdisciplinary study of insurance....
- Franz ReuleauxFranz ReuleauxFranz Reuleaux , was a mechanical engineer and a lecturer of the Berlin Royal Technical Academy, later appointed as the President of the Academy. He was often called the father of kinematics...
- Michaela SchaffrathMichaela SchaffrathMichaela Schaffrath is a German television actress. A former nurse, she got started in the adult film industry after she posed nude for Coupé, a German adult magazine...
- Roswitha Schreiner
- Karl-Heinz SmudaKarl-Heinz SmudaKarl-Heinz Smuda is a German radio-journalist, media-expert, ghostwriter and major in the German Air Force....
- August ThyssenAugust ThyssenAugust Thyssen was a German industrialist.-Career and marriage:...
- Wilhelm Rinckens
- Ralf SouquetRalf SouquetRalf Souquet is a German professional pool player. His nicknames are "The Kaiser" and "The Surgeon." Since 1981, he has won more than 250 tournament titles, including 41 German Championship titles and 34 European Championship titles.He began playing billiards at the age of six in his parents'...
- Sascha KleinSascha KleinSascha Klein is a German diver. Competing in the 2008 Summer Olympics, he won a silver medal in the men's synchronized 10 metre platform with teammate Patrick Hausding.-External links:*...
International relations
Eschweiler is twinnedTown twinning
Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.- Terminology :...
with: Wattrelos
Wattrelos
Wattrelos is a commune in the Northern department in the Nord-Pas de Calais region in northern France. It is located on the border with Belgium, northeast of the city of Lille. It the fifth-largest component of the metropolitan Urban Community of Lille Métropole.-Heraldry:-References:* -External...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, since 1975 Reigate and Banstead
Reigate and Banstead
Reigate and Banstead is a local government district with borough status in east Surrey England. It covers the towns of Reigate, Banstead, Redhill and Horley....
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, since 1985