Schwelm () is a town in the district of

Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis The Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis is a district in the center of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is part of the southern Ruhr urban area and has ca. 324,000 inhabitants (2012). The district's seat (capital city) is Schwelm; the largest of its nine towns ...

in the administrative region of

Arnsberg Arnsberg (; ) is a town in the Hochsauerland county, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the location of the Regierungsbezirk Arnsberg (region), Arnsberg administration and one of the three local administration offices of the Ho ...

within the 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.

Geography

Schwelm is situated in the southeast of the "''

Ruhrgebiet The Ruhr ( ; , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr Area, sometimes Ruhr District, Ruhr Region, or Ruhr Valley, is a wikt:polycentric, polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 1,160/k ...

''", the Ruhr district of

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 ...

, between

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

and the "''

Bergisches Land The Bergisches Land (, ) is a low mountain range in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, east of the Rhine and south of the Ruhr. The landscape is shaped by forests, meadows, rivers and creeks and contains over twenty artificial lakes ...

''". Schwelm is commonly known as the "''Pforte Westfalens''" ("Gate to

"). According to its area, Schwelm is the smallest town in

Neighbouring places

Surrounding towns include

Ennepetal Ennepetal (, ; ) is a town in the district of Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was created in 1949 out of the former municipalities Milspe and Voerde. It was named after the river Ennepe, which flows through the municipa ...

, Gevelsberg, Sprockhövel and

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...

Division of the town

Schwelm is called the "town of neighbourhoods". It is made up of the following 13 neighbourhoods: * Aechte de Muer * Brunnen * Fronhof * Linderhausen * Loh * Möllenkotten * Oberstadt * Oehde * Ossenkamp * Parliament * Rote Wasser * Winterberg * Zur alten Post

History

The history of Schwelm can be traced back to the ninth century, where it is first mentioned as "Suelmiu". The town of Schwelm was officially established in 1496 and became seat of the Ennepe-Ruhr

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

in 1929. 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 by the Nazis in 1943.

Language/dialect

A Westphalian variety of high German is spoken in Schwelm (Westphalian: from old Saxon ''Westfal'' = "western land"). The Westphalian dialect belongs to the low Saxon dialects, which is a part of the family of low German dialects. Compared to other German regions (e.g.,

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 ...

Swabia Swabia ; , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of Swabia, one of ...

) the dialect does not have a strong influence on the everyday speech. Especially the elderly population is still able to speak Schwelm's original Westphalian tongue, called ''Schwelmer Platt'', which is quite different from standard high German and bears a certain resemblance to Dutch.

Politics

The current mayor of Schwelm is Stephan Langhard of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(SPD) since 2020. In the most recent mayoral election on 13 and 27 September 2020, Langhard advanced to the runoff with 41.85% of votes against Philipp Beckmann of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), who won 30.4%. Heinz-Jürgen Lenz, with the endorsement of the CDU and

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *The Greens – The Green Alternative, Austria *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' * Greens of Andorra * The Greens (Benin) *The Greens (Bulgaria) * Greens of Bosnia and He ...

, placed third with 27.8%. In the runoff, Langhard won with 52.4% of votes.

Local council

The Schwelm city council governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows: ! colspan=2, Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

(SPD) , 3,302 , 29.5 , 1.8 , 14 , 2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , 2,998 , 26.8 , 2.7 , 13 , 2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (, ), often simply referred to as Greens (, ), is a Green (politics), green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of the Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (formed in East Ger ...

(Grüne) , 1,794 , 16.1 , 7.1 , 8 , 5 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Free Democratic Party (FDP) , 1,532 , 13.7 , 6.9 , 7 , 3 , - , , align=left, Schwelmer Voters' Association/Citizens for Schwelm (SWG/BfS) , 484 , 4.3 , 3.7 , 2 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Left (Die Linke) , 484 , 4.3 , 1.4 , 2 , ±0 , - , , align=left, Education, Innovation, Future (BIZ) , 441 , 3.9 , New , 2 , New , - , colspan=7 bgcolor=lightgrey, , - , , align=left, All for Schwelm (AFS) , 145 , 1.3 , New , 0 , New , - ! colspan=2, Valid votes ! 11,180 ! 98.5 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Invalid votes ! 172 ! 1.5 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Total ! 11,352 ! 100.0 ! ! 48 ! 10 , - ! colspan=2, Electorate/voter turnout ! 22,534 ! 50.4 ! ! ! , - , colspan=7, Source
City of Schwelm

Points of interest

Schwelm has got a historical town center with many old houses, some of which date back to the 18th century. The ''Altmarkt'' is a historical market place lying in front of the tall ''Christuskirche'', the town's principal Protestant church. From the ''Altmarkt'', the decorative street ''Kölner Strasse'' leads uphill and is part of the former road to Cologne. Until 2011, Schwelm was home to the ''Brauerei Schwelm'', the "Schwelm Brewery", one of few remaining private breweries in North Rhine-Westphalia. Established in 1830 by Haarmann & Kathagen, the brewery was one of the first worldwide to switch from wooden to metal storage containers. The original administration building, the ''Rietz'sche Haus'' built in 1701, is an appealing house in the town center. Most of the brewery's historic production site, however, was torn down in 2012. The oldest piano manufacturer in the world is located in Schwelm. Since 1794, ''Rud. Ibach Sohn'' has been building pianos and, until 1904, organs in Schwelm. Europe's biggest fair-trade organisation "GEPA" was founded in Schwelm in the 1970s, but is now located in

. A historical Jewish cemetery, dating from the late 18th century is located in the countryside about 1.3 km south of the town's center. It is maintained by the municipality and volunteers.

Twin towns – sister cities

Schwelm is twinned with: *

Saint-Germain-en-Laye Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. ...

, France (formerly

Fourqueux Fourqueux () is a former commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the commune Saint-Germain-en-Laye. It is a small suburb 20 km west of Paris. It is known for h ...

)

Notable people

Friedrich Christoph Müller Friedrich Christoph Müller (8 October 1751, Allendorf, Gießen, Allendorf (Lumda) – 10 April 1808, Schwelm) was a theologian and cartographer in Schwelm. Mueller studied theology, mathematics, astronomy, and the sciences. In addition, he le ...

(1751–1808), theologian and cartographer, lived here in 1785–1808 * Friedrich Springorum (1858–1938), engineer and entrepreneur * Wilhelm Göcke (1898–1944), Nazi SS concentration camp commandant *

Gustav Heinemann Gustav Walter Heinemann (; 23 July 1899 – 7 July 1976) was a German politician who was President of West Germany from 1969 to 1974. He served as mayor of Essen from 1946 to 1949, West German Minister of the Interior from 1949 to 1950, and Mini ...

(1899–1976), third president of the

Federal Republic of 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 constituent states have a total population of over 84 ...

from 1969 to 1974 * Johannes Joachim Degenhardt (1926–2002),

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

and archbishop of Paderborn * Franz Josef Degenhardt (1931–2011), political singer-songwriter * Martin Grötschel (born 1948), mathematician * Rolf Rüssmann (1950–2009), football player and manager * Torsten Schmidt (born 1972), racing cyclist * Olivia Spiker (born 1981), Polish-German amateur boxer

Gallery

Schwelm Panorama.jpg, View of the Lindeberg-high ridges of the inner town Schwelmequelle.jpg, Schwelmequelle Herbergstraße 12.jpg, Grade II listed building No. 12 Schwelm Schnupftabaksmuehle.jpg, The boating lake excursion restaurant/mill c.1900 Schwelm Altmarkt Christuskirche.jpg, View from the Old Market of the Church Schwelm Martfeld 43.jpg, Formerly-moated house Martfeld Schwelm MGS.jpg, Old high-school in the Märkischer Bahnhof Schwelm.jpg, Schwelm train station Schwelm Ibach 2007.jpg, Factory building of piano manufacturer Rud. Ibach

References

External links

*
History of Schwelm
{{Authority control Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis