Kranenburg is a municipality in the district of Cleves in the state of 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...

, Germany. It is located near the border with the Netherlands, 12 kilometres (7 mi) south-east of Nijmegen and 11 kilometres (7 mi) west of Cleves.
Since 1992, Kranenburg has evolved into a commuter town

Commuter town

A commuter town is an urban community that is primarily residential, from which most of the workforce commutes out to earn their livelihood. Many commuter towns act as suburbs of a nearby metropolis that workers travel to daily, and many suburbs are commuter towns...

 for Nijmegen because of lower real estate prices and a generally lower cost of living. The city has always focussed on the Dutch city of Nijmegen, and the local language was Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

  until far into the 19th century.

Towns and villages in the municipality

• Kranenburg (Kranenburg)
• Nütterden
• Schottheide
• Mehr (Kranenburg)
• Frasselt
• Zyfflich
• Wyler
  Wyler, North Rhine-Westphalia
  Wyler is a village along the Dutch/German border, 7 km SE of Nijmegen, Netherlands, and 5 km west of Kranenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia...
  
  
• Niel (Kranenburg)
• Grafwegen

Middle Ages

First records show that Kranenburg was officially founded in the 14th century by the Baron of Kleve. The first castle was built in 1270 and the first church a few years later. In 1294 the village got the rights of a city. In 1308 a mysterious cross was found. According to legend, a boy went in to the forest after church and spit out his communion wafer. After a while he felt guilty and confessed to the pastor. Together they went back into the forest to find the wafer. At the tree where he had spit it out, the cross now stood. From that point on, Kranenburg became a place of pilgrimage

Pilgrimage

A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...

.

Born in Kranenburg

• Rieke Hartwig (*1958), ceramic art
• Barbara Adamek (*1967), painting, art objects
• André Lemmens (*1967), painting (architecture)

Lived in Kranenburg

• Eric de Kuyper
  Eric de Kuyper
  Eric de Kuyper is a Flemish-Belgian and Dutch writer, semiotician, art critic, and experimental film director. Fictionalized autobiographical novels, written in the 3rd-person, account for most of his creative work. His academic writing encompasses reviews, essays, articles, and books on...
  
  , award-winning novelist, filmmaker, semiotician
  Semiotics
  Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...