Erkrath () is a town in the district of Mettmann, in

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhab ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

Geography

Erkrath is situated on the river Düssel, directly east of

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

and west of

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "'' Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...

, close to the famous Neandertal. It has two stations, Erkrath station, which is served by

Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn The Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn (german: S-Bahn Rhein-Ruhr) is a polycentric and electrically driven S-train network covering the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region in the German federated state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This includes most of the Ruhr (and ...

line S 8, and Erkrath Nord station, which is served by S-Bahn line S 28, both at 20-minute intervals.

History

In that part of Neandertal, which is located in Erkrath, in the summer of 1856, quarry workers discovered the

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

ised remains of what became known as the

Neanderthal Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While ...

man or ''

Homo Neanderthalensis Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While ...

'' in Feldhof

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

. The name Erkrath was first mentioned in 1148. Erkrath received town rights in 1966. In 1975, the municipality of Hochdahl was incorporated into Erkrath. As well its former borough Unterbach was incorporated into

. Only a part of Unterbach called Unterfeldhaus remained as now a borough of its own with Erkrath. Erkrath today has three local parts: Erkrath, Hochdahl and Unterfeldhaus.

Mayors

Stadt Erkrath (Hrsg.), Erika Stubenhöfer: ''Die Erkrather Bürgermeister 1898–1999 – Stadtgeschichte im Spiegel von Biografien 2004'' (ohne ISBN) * Johann Kaiser (1898–1907) (the old town hall was built in 1899) * Franz Zahren (1907–1930) * Werner Hallauer (1930–1935) * Heinrich Rasche (1935–1945),

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

, later FDP * Wilhelm Broch (1945–1946) * August Westerholz (1946), SPD * Hermann Moritz (1946–1949), CDU * Alex Bendt (1949–1954), SPD * Gertrud Thomé (later: Küpper) (1954–1956), CDU * Alex Bendt (1956–1961), SPD * Gertrud Küpper (geb. Thomé) (1961–1963), CDU * Johannes van Oost (1963–1964), * Gertrud Küpper (geb. Thomé) (1964–1972), CDU * Hans Weyer (1972–1974), SPD * Aloys Kiefer (1975–1983), CDU * Gloria Ziller (1983–1989), CDU * Rudolf Unger (1989–1999), SPD * Arno Werner (1999–2015), CDU * Christoph Schultz (since 2015), CDU

Gallery

File:Heilig-Geist-Kirche-Erkrath-Hochdahl-Sandheide-3702.jpg, Heilig-Geist-Kirche (Erkrath) File:Neanderkirche Erkrath 02.JPG, Neanderkirche (Erkrath)

Twin towns – sister cities

Erkrath is

twinned Twinning (making a twin of) may refer to: * In biology and agriculture, producing two offspring (i.e., twins) at a time, or having a tendency to do so; * Twin towns and sister cities, towns and cities involved in town twinning * Twinning inst ...

with: *

West Lancashire West Lancashire is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. The council is based in Ormskirk, and the largest town in the borough is Skelmersdale. At the 2011 Census, the population of the borough was 110, ...

, England, United Kingdom

Notable people

Klaus Allofs Klaus Allofs (born 5 December 1956) is a German former professional football player, manager, and executive. A striker, Allofs was a prolific goalscorer for club and country. He amassed Bundesliga totals of 424 games and 177 goals over the co ...

(born 1956), German footballer, manager of

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...

, lived for a long time in Erkrath-Unterfeldhaus * Thomas Allofs (born 1959), German footballer, lives in Erkrath-Unterfeldhaus and runs a disposal company in Düsseldorf * Heiner Baltes (born 1949), German footballer * Johann Heinrich Bongard (1779–1857), eye and wound surgeon and

royal Prussian The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) constituted the German state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: C ...

Hofrat ''Geheimrat'' was the title of the highest advising officials at the Imperial, royal or princely courts of the Holy Roman Empire, who jointly formed the ''Geheimer Rat'' reporting to the ruler. The term remained in use during subsequent monarchic r ...

, first author of a publication on the Neandertal *

Klaus Hänsch Klaus Hänsch (born 15 December 1938 in Szprotawa) is a German politician. He was a Member of the European Parliament representing the SPD from 17 July 1979 until 13 July 2009, and sat with the Party of European Socialists group. He was vice-cha ...

(born 1938), former President of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adop ...

* Friedrich Hünermann (1886–1969), Catholic theologian and auxiliary bishop in Aachen * Werner Koch (born 1961), German developer of

Free Software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, ...

and founder of the

GNU Privacy Guard GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG or GPG) is a free-software replacement for Symantec's PGP cryptographic software suite. The software is compliant with RFC 4880, the IETF standards-track specification of OpenPGP. Modern versions of PGP are interoper ...

(GnuPG or GPG), lives in Hochdahl * Manfred Lahnstein (born 1937) politician (SPD), former Federal Finance Minister and Member of the Management Board and Supervisory Board of Bertelsmann AG * Flemming Lund (born 1952), Danish footballer for Fortuna Düsseldorf and Rot-Weiss Essen, lived in Hochdahl JoachimNeander

Joachim Neander Joachim Neander (165031 May 1680) was a German Reformed (Calvinist) Church teacher, theologian and hymnwriter whose most famous hymn, '' Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation'' (german: Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König de ...

(c. 1650–1680) German pastor, church poet and composer, first author about the Neandertal * Aleksandar Ristić (born 1944), footballer and coach (among others Fortuna Düsseldorf), lived in Erkrath at this time *

Karl Sudhoff Karl Sudhoff (26 November 1853, Frankfurt am Main – 8 October 1938, Salzwedel) was a German historian of medicine, helping establish that field as a legitimate discipline for research and teaching within faculties of medicine. Sudhoff taught ...

(1853–1938), founder of the medical history as a scientific discipline in

, was from 1885 to 1905 doctor of the Hochdahl iron foundry and Armenian physician, later also councilor of Hochdahl-Millrath * Toni Turek (1919–1984), national goalkeeper and world champion of Bern 1954, lived during his years with

Fortuna Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a German football club in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, which competes in the 2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1895, Fortuna entered the league ...

and his world title in Erkrath. 50 years after Bern the Erkrath Stadium was named after him (Toni Turek Stadium) * Karl Wenders (1841–1905), mayor of Neuss, Member of Reichstag and member of Landtag

References

External links

*
Homepage of the Neanderthal Museum

Homepage of the Lokschuppen Museum
{{Authority control Towns in North Rhine-Westphalia Mettmann (district)