Eschweiler (, Ripuarian: ) is a municipality in the district of

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 ...

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 ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

on the river Inde, near the German-Dutch-Belgian border, and about east of

and west 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 ...

History

* Celts (first ore mining) and Romans (roads and villae rusticae). * 828: First mentioned by Einhard, the biographer of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...

. * 1394:

Coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

mining first mentioned. * For some centuries part of the

Duchy of Jülich The Duchy of Jülich (; ; ) comprised a state within the Holy Roman Empire from the 11th to the 18th centuries. The duchy lay west of the Rhine river and was bordered by the Electorate of Cologne to the east and the Duchy of Limburg to the wes ...

. * 1678: Completely destroyed except one house and the valuable leather

Pietà The Pietà (; meaning "pity", "compassion") is a subject in Christian art depicting the Mary (mother of Jesus), Blessed Virgin Mary cradling the mortal body of Jesus Christ after his Descent from the Cross. It is most often found in sculpture. ...

. * 1794: Given to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. * 1800: French municipal rights and capital of the Canton of Eschweiler in the French Département de la Roer. * 1816: Given to

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, ...

. 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 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 ...

, the last coal mine was flooded during the war and never been re-opened. * 1946: Part of the federal land of

. * 1960s: Complete modernization of Eschweiler's downtown and regulation of the Inde in order to prevent regular flooding. * 1972: Reorganization of administration in North Rhine-Westphalia: 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 The Blausteinsee Leisure and Recreation Area is an artificial lake north of the Eschweiler municipality in the Aachen district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Its area is around 100 hectares and depth is 46m. It was created during the r ...

'' ("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 The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

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 castle A water castle, sometimes water-castle, is a castle which incorporates a natural or artificial body of water into its defences.Forde-Johnston (1979), p. 163. It can be entirely surrounded by water-filled moats (moated castle) or natural waterbo ...

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

carnival Carnival (known as Shrovetide in certain localities) is a festive season that occurs at the close of the Christian pre-Lenten period, consisting of Quinquagesima or Shrove Sunday, Shrove Monday, and Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Carnival typi ...

. It has more than 20 active

clubs, and every Monday before Lent it has the third of Germany's longest carnival processions.

Culinary specialities

Sauerbraten Sauerbraten () is a traditional German roast of heavily marinated meat. It is regarded as a national dish of Cuisine of Germany, Germany, and is frequently served in German-style restaurants internationally. It can be cooked from a variety of me ...

Potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

fritter A fritter is a portion of meat, seafood, fruit, vegetables, or other ingredients which have been Batter (cooking), battered or breading, breaded, or just a portion of dough without further ingredients, that is deep-frying, deep-fried. Fritters ar ...

s (''Reibekuchen'') with

black bread Rye bread is a type of bread made with various proportions of flour from rye grain. It can be light or dark in color, depending on the type of flour used and the addition of coloring agents, and is typically denser than bread made from wheat ...

, apple syrup, sugar beet syrup or stewed apples *

Blood sausage A blood sausage is a sausage filled with blood that is cooked or dried and mixed with a filler until it is thick enough to solidify when cooled. Most commonly, the blood of pigs, sheep, lamb, cow, chicken, or goose is used. In Europe and the ...

(''Blutwurst'') crude or fried * ''Hemmel on Äed'' (i.e. Heaven and Earth) mashed potatoes with stewed apples and fried blood pudding or fried panhas * 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.

Sports

Soccer, ice hockey, golf, open-air swimming pool, indoor swimming pool, horse sports, handball.

Industry

Chemicals and goods are the main products, while it also has a lignite-powered power plant rated at 2.8 GW.

Science

The

lignite Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered the lowest ...

(brown coal) deposits in the region are former

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

swamp forest dominated by ''

Castanopsis ''Castanopsis'', commonly called chinquapin or chinkapin, is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the beech family, Fagaceae. The genus contains about 140 species, which are today restricted to tropical and subtropical eastern Asia. The Engli ...

'', a type of chinkapin. Such plants do not occur naturally in Europe. A type of

fossil wood Fossil wood, also known as fossilized tree, 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 (and most easily found). Fossil wood may or may not be petrified, in ...

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 (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of chinkapin.

Transport

Eschweiler has six railway stations: ''

Eschweiler Hauptbahnhof Eschweiler 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. Regional services of the Regional-Express lines RE 1 ( NRW-E ...

'' (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 The (; German , ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. Much of t ...

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

* Anna Sorokin (born 1991), fraudster * József Ács (born 1948), composer, conductor, director of the Franz Liszt Society of Eschweiler * Theo Altmeyer (1931–2007), tenor *

Heinrich Boere Heinrich Boere (27 September 1921 – 1 December 2013) was a convicted German- Dutch war criminal and former member of the Waffen-SS. He was on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of most wanted Nazi war criminals. Early life Heinrich Boere w ...

(1921–2013), German-Dutch war criminal *

Götz Briefs Götz Briefs (born 1 January 1889 in Eschweiler; died 16 May 1974 in Rome) was a Catholic social theorist, social ethicist, social philosopher and political economist, who together with Gustav Gundlach, SJ influenced the social teachings of Pope P ...

(1889–1974), national economist and social philosopher * Willibert Kauhsen (born 1939), racing driver * Johannes Bündgens (born 1956), auxiliary bishop of Aachen * Markus Daun (born 1980), soccer player *

Gerhard Fieseler Gerhard Fieseler (15 April 1896 – 1 September 1987) was a German World War I flying ace, aerobatics champion, and aircraft designer and manufacturer. From birth to the 1918 armistice Born in Glesch (near Cologne), Fieseler joined the Imperial G ...

* Andreas Gielchen (born 1964), soccer player * Susanne Kasperczyk (born 1985), soccer player *

Claus Killing-Günkel Claus Killing-Günkel (born Günkel; 9 October 1963), in Esperanto also known as Nikolao Günkel, is a German teacher and interlinguist. Life Claus J. Killing-Günkel was born Claus J. Günkel in Eschweiler, a city in western Rhineland, wh ...

(born 1963), esperantologist *

Sascha Klein Sascha Klein (born 12 September 1985) 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. At the 2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer ...

(born 1985), water jumper * Kevin Kratz (born 1987), footballer *

Wilhelm Lexis Wilhelm Lexis (17 July 1837, Eschweiler, Germany – 24 August 1914, Göttingen, Germany), full name Wilhelm Hector Richard Albrecht Lexis,Obituary by Felix Klein(in German) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lexis, Wilhelm 1837 births 1914 deaths People from ...

(1837–1914), economist, national economist and statistician *

Franz Reuleaux Franz Reuleaux (; ; 30 September 1829 – 20 August 1905) was a German mechanical engineer and a lecturer at ''Technische Hochschule Berlin'' (today Technische Universität Berlin), later appointed as the president of the academy. He was often c ...

(1829–1905), mechanical engineer * Michaela Schaffrath (born 1970), porn actress (''Gina Wild'') and actress *

Karl-Heinz Smuda Karl-Heinz Smuda (born 24 January 1961 in Eschweiler) is a German radio journalist, media-expert, ghostwriter and major in the German Air Force. He was speaker of the NATO detachment in Siauliai and the German detachment of EUFOR RD Congo in ...

(born 1961), ghostwriter, editor and publisher in Berlin and Norfolk / Virginia (USA) *

Ralf Souquet Ralf Souquet ( ; born 29 November 1968) is a German professional pool player. His nickname is "The Kaiser". Souquet is considered one of the greatest pool players of all time. Since 1988, he has won over 100 professional tournaments, including 2 ...

(born 1968), poolbillard player * Martin Stevens (born 1929), politician *

August Thyssen August Thyssen (; 17 May 1842 – 4 April 1926) was a German industrialist, founder and controlling shareholder of Thyssen & Co (presently ThyssenKrupp). He was a prominent member of the Thyssen family. Early life and education Thyssen was b ...

(1842–1926), founded the Thyssen-Foussol & Co. in Duisburg in 1867, and later on other steelworks. The company entered the

ThyssenKrupp AG ThyssenKrupp AG (, ; stylized as thyssenkrupp) is a German industrial engineering and steel production multinational conglomerate. It resulted from the 1999 merger of Thyssen AG and Krupp and has its operational headquarters in Duisburg and Ess ...

in 1997 *

Joseph Thyssen Joseph Thyssen, also Josef Thyssen (14 February 1844 – 15 July 1915), was a German industrialist and a member of the Thyssen family. He was the son of Friedrich Thyssen and the younger brother of August Thyssen, who was also his closest ...

(1844–1915), industrialist and the younger brother of August Thyssen

Notable people from Hehlrath

Martin Schulz Martin Schulz (born 20 December 1955) is a German politician who was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Germany from 1994 to 2017 and a Member of the Bundestag (MdB) from 2017 to 2021. During his tenure he was Leader of the Progress ...

(born 1955),

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together wi ...

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

, Chairman of the Group of the Social Democratic Party of Europe in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two 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 ...

Twin towns – sister cities

Eschweiler is twinned with: *

Reigate and Banstead Reigate and Banstead is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. Its council is based in Reigate and the borough also includes the towns of Banstead, Horley and Redhill. Parts of the borough are within the Surrey ...

, England, United Kingdom (1985) *

Sulzbach-Rosenberg Sulzbach-Rosenberg () is a municipality in the Amberg-Sulzbach district, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated approximately 14 km northwest of Amberg, and 50 km east of Nuremberg. The town consists of two parts: Sulzbach in the west, and ...

, Germany (2019) *

Wattrelos Wattrelos (; archaic ) is a commune in the Nord department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. It is located on the border with Belgium, northeast of the city of Lille. The fifth-largest component of the Métropole Européenne d ...

, France (1975)

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Aachen (district) Castles in North Rhine-Westphalia