Richterich is a borough and northwestern suburb 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 ...

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 ...

. The towns of Horbach and Huf belong to the borough, which borders the other Aachen borough of Laurensberg, as well as the Kohlscheid borough of

Herzogenrath Herzogenrath (; ; ) is a municipality in the district of Aachen in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It borders the Dutch town of Kerkrade, the national border in one section running along the middle of a main road and even directly ...

. It is assumed that the histories of Richerich and Horbach go back a long time, since the name is suggestive of a

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

settlement. In

Roman times In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman civilisation from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingd ...

, the attested name of the area was ''recteriacum''.

Buildings and history

The most historically important buildings in the borough are the St. Martin Church (inaugurated 1791), the Schönau Castle (''Schloss Schönau''), and the water fortress Heyden House (''Haus Heyden''), in Horbach. St. Martin Church contains the Maaß Organ, which was built in 1836 and is the oldest organ in Aachen. Schönau Castle is today home to a restaurant and is available to residents as a cultural center and host to various events. Heyden House is now used for residential purposes. Besides a few houses from the 18th century in the old village, there are several well-preserved old estates, such as the ''Gut Bau'' (built in 1750) and the ''Zehnthof'', which is where farmers tithed what they owed during 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 ...

. From 1911 until 1927 the Carl Friedrich mine was the most southerly mine of Aachen’s ''Wurmrevier'' coal region. The workforce consisted of about 500 people, but the mine was shut down after only 16 years, due to unfavorable tectonic conditions and poor coal quality.

Incorporation

On 1 January 1972, Richterich was incorporated into Aachen. A section of the community (which included Bank and Wilsberg and contained 1119 residents) was split off and merged with

Transportation

Richterich formerly had its own train station on the Aachen–Mönchengladbach line, with a branch line to Vetschau. Passenger traffic at this station was discontinued in 1966. In 1992, the track to

Simpelveld Simpelveld (; ) is a municipality and a town in the southeastern Netherlands. It is part of the municipal cooperative unit Parkstad Limburg. Simpelveld is part of the ''Mergelland'', named after the presence of chalk (mergel), hill country popu ...

shut down entirely, and several hundred meters of track were removed in Vetschau.

Schools

There are two elementary schools in the district of Richterich: the ''GGS Richterich'' and the ''KGS Horbach''. Also in Richterich are four

preschools A preschool (sometimes spelled as pre school or pre-school), also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, play school, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin c ...

: the city-run preschools of Park Street (''Parkstraße''), Richterich Street (''Richtericher Straße''), and Green Valley Street (''Grünenthaler Straße''), as well as the Catholic preschool at St. Martin, which has had a cooperative agreement with

RWTH Aachen University RWTH Aachen University (), in German ''Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen'', is a German public research university located in Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With more than 47,000 students enrolled in 144 study prog ...

since 2005.

Sports and leisure

In Richterich, there are several sports clubs, including Rhenania Richterich, the Sports Club Horbach 1919, the Gymnastics Club Richterich 1885, the Fishing Club Richterich and the Fishing Club Horbach. There are also two Carnival Clubs (the 1st Carnival Club Koe Jonge Richterich 1956 and the Carnival Club Friends of Horbach 1998), a shooting club (the St. Hubert Shooting Brotherhood Richterich 1816), and the Instrumental Club Richterich 1887. A voluntary Fire Company—the ''Löschzug Richterich''—has also existed since 1901.

Notable people

* Eduard Freiherr von Broich (1832–1903), Prussian District Administrator for the Districts of

Malmedy Malmedy (; , historically also ; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. On January 1, 2018, Malmedy had a total population of 12,654. The total area is 99.96 km2 which gives a population dens ...

, Hersfeld, und

Hanau Hanau () is a city in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its railway Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ma ...

References

External links

Website der Bezirksvertretung Aachen-Richterich
{{Authority control Aachen Former municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia