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Uerdingen () is a district of the city of
Krefeld Krefeld ( , ; ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, its c ...
,
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 ...
, with a population of 17,888 (2019). Originally a separate city in its own right, Uerdingen merged with the city of Krefeld in 1929. Today, Uerdingen is best known for a local distillery and a railcar factory, and is the eponym of the Uerdingen line.


History

The earliest archeological artifacts found in Uerdingen date to the first century CE, and are now found in the British museum. The size and permanence of the associated settlement, however, remain unclear, partly because the site was also a camp for the
Roman Legion The Roman legion (, ) was the largest military List of military legions, unit of the Roman army, composed of Roman citizenship, Roman citizens serving as legionary, legionaries. During the Roman Republic the manipular legion comprised 4,200 i ...
. Records attest that the commander 89 CE was Marcus Hordeonius Flaccus; his nickname ("Castra Ordeonii") has been proposed as an etymon for "Uerdingen". The earliest reference to a permanent settlement in the Krefeld-Uerdingen area dates to 809: the city charter for Friemersheim describes a nearby town as "Urdingi". By the mid-thirteenth century, Uerdingen was a thriving port, serving the Rhine river trade as the northernmost exclave of the Electorate of Cologne. In 1255, Uerdingen was granted its first city charter. The town had an inside harbor and special customs office for ships traveling onwards to Cologne. The town was traded between various German noble houses during the late Middle Ages. By the early modern period, Uerdingen found itself on the front lines of multiple European (and eventually world-wide) conflicts. The town was repeatedly sacked — first in the Cologne War and then the
Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...
, and finally the city was adjacent to
Friedrich III Frederick III may refer to: * Frederick III, Duke of Upper Lorraine (died 1033) * Frederick III, Duke of Swabia (1122–1190) * Friedrich III, Burgrave of Nuremberg (1220–1297) * Frederick III, Duke of Lorraine (1240–1302) * Frederick III o ...
's famous in the War of the League of Augsburg. A
witch hunt A witch hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. Practicing evil spells or Incantation, incantations was proscribed and punishable in early human civilizations in the ...
erupted in 1589, damaging civic spirit during the recovery from the Cologne War. Nonetheless, the city was unharmed in the
War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish E ...
, and began to recover throughout the rest of the 18th century. The current town hall dates to 1714–25, immediately following the War of the Spanish Succession. After the town was damaged in the , Revolutionary French administrators grouped it together with the nearby town of Crefeld. The fates of the two would be ever-closer interlinked from industrialization onwards. In 1929, under the influence of the Prussian minister of the interior, Uerdingen and Krefeld united in a special municipal government giving each urbanity equal rights. The new conglomeration was known as "Krefeld-Uerdingen am Rhein." In April 1940, the
Nazi regime Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...
eradicated the condominium, and renamed the city plain "Krefeld." The unification was not reverted following the war, to the annoyance of the Uerdingene. Nonetheless, Uerdingen, as a part of the city of Krefeld, retained an unusual special status within Germany. One sign of this can still be seen today in Krefeld's city coat of
arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...
("''Wappen''"), which still has the Uerdinger arms in its right half. These last remnants of the medieval period were finally eliminated in the
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 ...
n reapportionment of 1975.


Economy

During the 20th century most important employer in Uerdingen (as well in Krefeld) was the
Bayer Bayer AG (English: , commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies and biomedical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer' ...
concern. Bayer's second-largest plant was located in the area, and produced synthetics, pigments, and chemical feedstock. In 2004, most of the chemical and approximately a third of synthetic-materials divisions were spun off from Bayer AG. The ex-Bayer plant is now an industrial park home to several chemical companies, none of which are Bayer AG. The area also has the rail car manufacturer Waggonfabrik Uerdingen (founded 1898), formerly
Duewag Düwag or Duewag (stylised in all caps), formerly Waggonfabrik Uerdingen, was a German manufacturer of rail vehicles. It was sold in 1999 to Siemens with the brand later retired. History Duewag was founded in March 1898 as Waggonfabrik U ...
and today
Siemens Mobility Siemens Mobility GmbH is a division of Siemens. With its global headquarters in Munich, Siemens Mobility has four core business units: Mobility Management, dedicated to rail technology and intelligent traffic systems, Railway Electrification, ...
. This factory is famous for producing the
ICE Ice is water that is frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 ° C, 32 ° F, or 273.15 K. It occurs naturally on Earth, on other planets, in Oort cloud objects, and as interstellar ice. As a naturally oc ...
trains for international fleets and the Uerdingen railbus, a type of light locomotive largely for passenger service on branch lines. Finally, Melchers distillery produces the "Uerdinger" brand of gin and a Dujardin Cognac.


Geography

Uerdingen is bounded on its west by the Krefeld city districts of Bockum, Gartenstadt, and Elfrath; on the northwest by Traar; on the north by Duisburg-Rumeln-Kaldenhausen; and on the northeast by Hohenbudberg in the direction of Duisburg-Rheinhausen. To the east of Uerdingen, across the
Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...
, lies Duisburg-Mündelheim, and on the south lies the Krefeld city district of Linn. A landmark of Uerdingen is a bridge over the river Rhine, built in 1936 and a national monument since 1987. Krefeld-Uerdingen station lies on the Duisburg–Mönchengladbach railway.


Coat of arms

The
arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...
of Uerdingen show the golden keys of
Saint Peter Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the Jewish Christian#Jerusalem ekklēsia, e ...
upon a divided background, blue above and red below. Blue and red are said to be the colors of Saint Peter, whereby blue would be said to represent
heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...
and red to symbolize
hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...
. The colors of Uerdingen are likewise blue and red.


Sport

Uerdingen is best known for its tradition-steeped football team F.C. Bayer 05 Uerdingen, now known as KFC Uerdingen 05. The soccer-team plays in Germany's
Regionalliga West The Regionalliga West is a German professional football division administered by the German Football Association#Western Germany, Western German Football Association based in Duisburg. It is one of the five German regional football associations. ...
and was in 1985 winner of the
DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...
against Bayern Munich in
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
.


Language

A dialect of
Limburgish Limburgish ( or ; ; also Limburgian, Limburgic or Limburgan) refers to a group of South Low Franconian Variety (linguistics), varieties spoken in Belgium and the Netherlands, characterized by their distance to, and limited participation ...
is still spoken in Uerdingen, a variety known locally as ''Oedingsch Platt'', where ''oedingsch'' signifies "of Uerdingen" in the dialect, and ''Platt'' being a northern German term for the varieties of Limburgish in general. ''Oedisch Platt'' should not be confused with ''Krieewelsch Platt'', the Krefeld ''Platt'' variety of Limburgish, as there are small, subtle differences between the two. The best known Uerdingen song in ''Platt'' is "''Oeding blievt Oeding (os Städtche am Rhien)''" by Andreas Otto Kickers, sometimes considered to be the Uerdinger Hymn. The song describes life and history of the city and of its inhabitants. The "''Rhienstädter''" sing this at all occasions, and thereby cultivate the dialect. At the northeastern edge of the city runs the
isogloss An isogloss, also called a heterogloss, is the geographic boundary of a certain linguistics, linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or the use of some morphological or syntactic feature. Isoglosses are a ...
known as the Uerdingen Line.


Politics

Uerdingen voters after
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 ...
were overwhelmingly inclined towards the SPD, the
Social Democratic Party of Germany 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 w ...
. At both of the most recent municipal elections, however, the CDU, the Christian Democratic Union, received the most votes. Uerdingen accounts for the largest part of the ''Bezirksvertretung Uerdingen'' ("District Representation of Uerdingen"), but the area of the electoral district reaches beyond Uerdingen proper. District representation since 2014: Total, 15 seats / 100% * SPD (Social Democrats) (6 seats/40,95 %) * CDU (Christian Democrats) (5 seats/31,09 %) * Alliance '90/The Greens (1 seat/9,23 %) * FDP (liberal) (1 seat/5,7 %) * The Left (1 seat/4,19 %) *
Alternative for Germany Alternative for Germany (, AfD, ) is a Far-right politics in Germany (1945–present), far-right,Far-right: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Right-wing populism, right-wing populist and National conservatism, national-conservative p ...
(1 seat/3,99 %) District manager: Jürgen Hengst ( SPD)


Religion

The Uerdingen population adheres largely to
Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
. There are at present three Catholic churches, as well as a Catholic church in Hohenbudberg and an
Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...
church, as well. Churches *''Sankt Peter Kirche'', Saint Peter's Church (Catholic) *''Sankt Heinrich Kirche'', Saint Henry's Church (Catholic) *''Sankt Paul Kirche'', Saint Paul's Church (Catholic) *''Sankt Matthias Kirche'', Saint Matthew's Church (Catholic) *''Michaelskirche'', Michael's Church (Evangelical)


References


External links

*Information and addresses (https://web.archive.org/web/20070911024930/http://www.uerdingen.de/)
Uerdingen information on the official home page of the City of Krefeld
{{Authority control Krefeld Former municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia