Jülich (; in old spellings also known as ''Guelich'' or ''Gülich'', , , Ripuarian: ''Jöllesch'') is a town in the district of

Düren Düren (; Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: Düre) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, between Aachen and Cologne, on the river Rur (river), Rur. History Roman era The area of Düren was part of Gallia Belgica, more specifically the ter ...

, in the federal state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

, in western Germany. As a border region between the competing powers in the Lower Rhine and

Meuse The Meuse or Maas is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a total length of . History From 1301, the upper ...

areas, the town and the Duchy of Jülich played a historic role from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

up to the 17th century. The town is well known in the state for being home to Forschungszentrum Jülich, one of the largest national research institutions in Europe.

Geography

Jülich stands in the Rur valley on the banks of the river Rur. The town is bordered by the town of Linnich in the north, the municipality of Titz in the northeast, the municipality of Niederzier in the southeast, the municipality of Inden in the south, and by the municipality of Aldenhoven in the west. Its maximum size is 13.3 km from east to west and 10.9 km from north to south. The highest point in Jülich is in Bourheim, 110 m above sea level (excepting Sophienhöhe, an extensive artificial mountain made up of overburden from a nearby open-pit lignite mine, the Tagebau Hambach). The lowest point, 70 m above sea level, lies in the borough of .

Climate

Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as oceanic (Cfb).

Boroughs

The town of Jülich comprises 16 boroughs: * Town centre * Altenburg * * Bourheim * Broich * Daubenrath * Güsten * Kirchberg * Koslar * Lich-Steinstraß * Mersch * Merzenhausen * Pattern * Selgersdorf * Stetternich * Welldorf (including Serrest)

History

Jülich is first mentioned in Roman times as ''Juliacum'' along an important road through the Rur valley. Fortified during the late Roman period, it was taken over by the

Franks file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...

and grew to be the centre of a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

which became the nucleus of a regional power. The counts and dukes of Jülich extended their influence during the

and granted Jülich city status in 1234 (Count Wilhelm IV). During battles with the Archbishop of

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, Jülich was destroyed in 1239 and again in 1278. In 1416, the city was granted fiscal independence by Duke Rainald of Jülich-Geldern. Following a fire in 1547, the city was rebuilt as an

ideal city In urban design, an ideal city is the concept of a City planning, plan for a city that has been conceived in accordance with a particular rational or moral objective. Concept The "ideal" nature of such a city may encompass the moral, Spiritua ...

in the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

style under the direction of the architect Alessandro Pasqualini. The citadel of Jülich was later visited by the French military engineer Sébastien le Prestre de Vauban and was rated exemplary. After the ducal family line was extinguished in 1609, the Duchy of Jülich was divided in the

War of the Jülich Succession The War of the Jülich Succession, also known as the Jülich War or the Jülich-Cleves Succession Crises (German language, German: ''Jülich-Klevischer Erbfolgestreit''), was a war of succession in the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg. The fi ...

; as part of that war, the fortress at Jülich was occupied by Emperor Rudolph's forces. The 1610 siege by Dutch, Brandenburg and Palatine forces led to the surrender and withdrawal of Imperial troops. Jülich was occupied by the Dutch Republic until 1621-22 when the Spanish took the fortress after a five months of siege. Control of the city later fell to Palatinate-Neuburg, then the

Electorate of the Palatinate The Electoral Palatinate was a Imperial State, constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire until it was annexed by the Electorate of Baden in 1803. From the end of the 13th century, its ruler was one of the Prince-electors who elected the Holy ...

(1685) and

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

(1777). From 1794 to 1814, Jülich was part of France under the name of ''Juliers''. The French added the Napoleonic bridge head to the fortifications. In 1815, Jülich became a

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

n fortification and district town. The town was subsequently administered within the Prussian Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg (1815) and then the

Rhine Province The Rhine Province (), also known as Rhenish Prussia () or synonymous with the Rhineland (), was the westernmost Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822 to 1946. ...

(1822). The fortification was razed in 1860. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, forced laborers of the 3rd SS construction brigade were dispatched in the town in 1943. On 16 November 1944, 97% of Jülich was destroyed during Allied bombing, since it was considered one of the main obstacles to the occupation of the Rhineland, although the city fortifications, the bridge head and the citadel had long fallen into disuse. The ruined city was subject to heavy fighting for several months until the Allies eventually managed to cross the Ruhr on 23 February 1945. Newsreel footage exists of Supreme Commander Eisenhower at the southern entrance to the citadel. Jülich became part of the new state of

after the war. From 1949 to 1956, the town centre was rebuilt along the plans of the Renaissance town. In 1998, the state garden fair took place in Jülich. This made the extensive restoration of the bridge head fortifications and the establishment of a large leisure park, the bridge head park, possible. Today, Jülich is mainly known for Forschungszentrum Jülich (established in 1956) and the satellite campus of the Fachhochschule Aachen (established in 1970). The town's landmark is the Witch Tower, a city gate and remnant of the medieval city fortifications. The most impressive remnants from the past are, however, both the Napoleonic Bridgehead and the Citadel.

Gallery

File:Jülich, kerk 2009-08-15 12.57.JPG, Jülich, church File:Zitadelle Juelich-DSC 0015w.jpg, Entrance of the Citadel File:SC 201396 - A view of the citadel in Julich, Germany, which fell to units of the 29th Div., U.S. Ninth Army. (53006234823).jpg, Citadel after World War II

Population history

Twin towns – sister cities

Jülich is twinned with: *

Haubourdin Haubourdin () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is part of the Métropole Européenne de Lille. Population Heraldry See also *Communes of the Nord department The following is a list of the 647 communes of the ...

, France (1964) * Taicang, China (2017)

Transport

* BAB 4 (Düren / Jülich Interchange) * BAB 44 **(Jülich Ost (East)/ Mersch Interchange) **(Jülich West (West)/ Koslar Interchange) * Rurtalbahn, literally the Rur Valley Railway (Linnich - Jülich - Düren - Heimbach)

Culture and landmarks

Museums

* Historical Town Museum

Buildings

Particularly notable: * the Witchtower (Hexenturm) * the Citadel * the Napoleonic Bridgehead * the Church of the Assumption * the Aachener Tor (lit. Aachen Gate) * aerial towers of shortwave broadcasting facility

Shortwave broadcasting facility

In 1956 the WDR broadcaster established the first short wave transmitter near the borough of Mersch. In subsequent years this site was expanded. On September 1, 1961, this site was handed over to the German Federal Post for establishing the German foreign broadcasting service, "Deutsche Welle". In the course of time 10 transmitters of 100 kilowatts were installed, and transmitting antennas were installed, consisting of enormous dipole arrays between free-standing steel framework towers. Later these transmitters were rented predominantly to non-German broadcasting organisations. In the 90's on the area of the shortwave transmission facility a medium wave transmitter was also installed, using a long wire antenna which was mounted on a tower on the transmitter site. It was intended to be used for transmitting the programmes of radio Viva on 702 kHz, but it never went into regular service for this broadcaster. From December 6, 2004, to May 2006, the medium-wave transmitter was used to broadcast the output of the German commercial broadcaster "TruckRadio" on 702 kHz. In 2006 the shortwave-facilities were sold to the British entrepreneur Robert Edmiston and his Christian Vision-organization. However, on October 24, 2009, the site was shut down and antennas and transmitters were subsequently dismantled.

Miscellaneous

The reliquaries of Christina von Stommeln.

Sport

Jülich-based sports teams are TTC Jülich (

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

, which competes in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

, the domestic premiere league) and the SC Jülich 1910, an

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club that won the German national amateur championships in 1969, 1970 and 1971.

Healthcare

St. Elisabeth Hospital On November 19, 1891, the St. Elisabeth Hospital Jülich was opened. It was completely destroyed in World War II, but was rebuilt in 1946 and expanded over the following years: in 1950, an eye and an ENT department were set up, and in 1959 the specialist department for gynecology and obstetrics. There has been a nursing school since 1964. In 2003 an outpatient surgery center and in 2006 a new ward block were built. It is a 156-bed hospital with 300 employees. The sponsors were from 1891 to 1963 the city of Jülich, from 1963 to 1987 the Caritas association for the diocese of Aachen, from 1987 to 2010 the Malteser St. Elisabeth gGmbH and since 2010 it has been the Caritas Trägergesellschaft West gGmbH Rescue service The German Red Cross and the Malteser Hilfsdienst operate the rescue service in Jülich. The district of Düren (RDKD) has commissioned them to carry out the rescue service. The rescue stations are located in Jülich (DRK) and in the district of Mersch (MHD). The emergency vehicle is at the Jülich hospital.

Notable people

* Alessandro Pasqualini, Italian Renaissance architect * Bobby Julich, American Cycling Star has traced his family ancestry back to Jülich * In the Netherlands, the name Van Gulik is quite common, e.g. the much translated author Robert van Gulik. But one also finds variants like: ''Van Gulick, Van de(r) Gulik'' (cf David Van Der Gulik), ''Guliks, Gulickx, Gulikers'', and ''Jülicher'' * Nikolaus von Maillot de la Treille, the Bavarian war minister, was born in Jülich

Citizens

* Johann Wilhelm Schirmer (1807–1863), landscape artist * Antonius Fischer (1840–1912), archbishop and cardinal * Dürbeck & Dohmen, composer duo, René Dohmen (born 1966) and Joachim Dürbeck (born 1967) * (born 1967), mayor of Jülich * Robert Leipertz (born 1993), football player * Heinz-Günther Nesselrath (born 1957), philologist * Goswin Nickel (1582–1664), 10th Superior-General of the Jesuits * Gregory P. Unholt (born 1937), Jülich-born, German-American computer scientist

Associated with the town

* Grünberg, Peter (born 1939), physicist, Nobel Prize 2007 * Gracht, Heiko Andreas von der, German economist, futurist, and non-fiction author

Literature

* Guido von Büren (Hrsg.): ''Jülich Stadt - Territorium - Geschichte]',

Kleve Kleve (; traditional ; ; ; ; ; Low Rhenish: ''Kleff'') is a town in the Lower Rhine region of northwestern Germany near the Netherlands, Dutch border and the River Rhine. From the 11th century onwards, Cleves was capital of a county and lat ...

2000, * Ulrich Coenen: ''Von Juliacum bis Jülich. Die Baugeschichte der Stadt und ihrer Vororte von der Antike bis zu Gegenwart'', 2. Aufl.,

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

1989. * Ulrich Coenen: ''Stadt Jülich = Rheinische Kunststätten'', Heft 368, Neuss 1991. * Conrad Doose/Siegfried Peters: ''Renaissancefestung Jülich'', 1998, * Ulrich Eckardt/Wolfgang Hommel/Werner Katscher: ''Flug über Jülich'', 2003, * Wolfgang Hommel: ''Stadtführer Jülich'', 1998, * Wolfgang Hommel: ''Jülich im Aufbruch - Landesgartenschau und Stadtentwicklungsprogramm Jülich '98'', 1998, * Dr. Erwin Fuchs/Wolfgang Hommel: ''Die Jülicher und ihre Wurzeln'', 1997, * Eva Behrens-Hommel: ''Sagen und Überlieferungen des Jülicher Landes'', 1996, * Eva Behrens-Hommel: '' Mundartsammlung des Jülicher Landes'', 1997, * Hartwig Neumann: Stadt und Festung Jülich auf bildlichen Darstellungen, Bonn 1991. * Gabriele Spelthahn: ''An der Synagoge - Jülich und der Holocaust'', 1997,

References

External links

*
The research centre

Campus Jülich of FH-Aachen (University of Applied Sciences)

The culture and leisure centre

The former state garden fair

Nice Webcam with a view of the witch tower

Edicts of Jülich, Cleves, Berg, Grand Duchy Berg, 1475-1815 (Coll. Scotti) online

Settlement of Dortmund between Brandenburg and Palatinate-Neuburg and the conflict of succession in Jülich, in full text
{{DEFAULTSORT:Julich Düren (district) Districts of the Rhine Province