Baal (Hückelhoven)

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Baal
City of Hückelhoven
Coordinates: 51 ° 2 ′ 0 ″  N , 6 ° 17 ′ 0 ″  E
Height : 59 m
Area : 5.88 km²
Residents : 3757  (June 30, 2014)
Population density : 639 inhabitants / km²
Incorporation : January 1, 1972
Postal code : 41836
Area code : 02435
map
Urban area Hückelhoven, position of the local area Baal highlighted
Baal

The village Baal (of lt. "Palus" ; swamp ) belongs to the town Hückelhoven in the district Heinsberg . The most important traffic arteries are the federal road 57 , the state road 117 and the Mönchengladbach-Aachen railway line through Baal. The place has 3757 inhabitants (as of June 30, 2014).

geography

landscape

The village gave the Baaler Riedelland its name.

Neighboring places

Neighboring places are Doveren , Hetzerath , Granterath , Tenholt , Hilfarth , Lövenich , Brachelen and Rurich .

Waters

Coming from Lövenicher Bruch, where the water is still called Nysterbach , the Mühlenbach flows through the village and then flows into the Rur . For centuries, the brook formed a boundary between various political and religious administrative units.

As in the whole area around Hückelhoven, the quarry ponds were created near Baal by excavating bulk raw materials ( sand and gravel pits ) in the groundwater area of ​​the Rur.

The "forest of blue flowers" between Doveren and Baal (2008)

flora

In a small wooded area above the road between Baal and Doveren (area "Behind the Mountain"), countless rabbit bells ( Hyacinthoides non-scripta ) bloom every year from about mid-April to mid-May (depending on the weather ), which is extremely rare in Germany in this abundance Hyacinth plant , which is one of the protected plants according to the Federal Species Protection Ordinance. The area is popularly known as the “ forest of blue flowers ”.

history

Location of Baals, Tranchot map around 1807

As early as 893, the place Baal was mentioned in the Prümer Urbar , a property register of the Eifel Abbey Prüm .

The Baaler Bach divides the old town center into an upper and a lower district, which in the early modern period belonged to two different offices, parishes and places of jurisdiction in the Duchy of Jülich . The Baaler Bach formed the borderline between the Körrenzig court in the Boslar office and the Doveren court in the Wassenberg office .

Under French rule, after 1798, Upper and Lower Hall were joined together as one municipality of the "Mairie de Doveren".

In 1852 the Mönchengladbach – Aachen railway was opened by the Aachen-Neuss-Düsseldorfer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft and Baal was given a passenger and freight station. The street name “Am alten Bahnhof” still reminds of the original place. In 1911 the passenger station was relocated to the west. The reason was the newly opened Jülich – Dalheim railway line , which was in operation until 1980 . The Baal Tower Station was built to serve the two railway lines .

Since 1887, the founder of the mine, Friedrich Honigmann, began test drilling in the Baal and Doveren fields in search of hard coal. In 1908 the shaft of the "Grube Helene" was sunk near the railway line. However, with a depth of 450 m, the actual hard coal deposits were too deep for profitable mining. After just a few weeks, the work was stopped and a shaft tower that had been erected was put down again the following year. Honigmann's drilling finally led to success in Hückelhoven, where the later Sophia-Jacoba colliery was soon created.

Two Jewish families lived in Baal since the 19th century; the Harff (Harf) family and the Salomon family, the former moved away, the latter lived in today's Friedhofstrasse as a cattle dealer and butcher. Friederich Salomon died as a soldier in France on the Western Front in 1916 . In 1941 his father Josef Salomon, his sister Sibilla Ehlen and his sister Paula Kahn's family of four, as well as Cilly Lorig from Butzweiler - a relative of the Kahn family - were interned with the other Jews of the Erkelenz district in the Spiesshof in Hetzerath. In 1942 they were deported . Josef Salomon died in the Theresienstadt concentration camp , his relatives were deported to the Izbica ghetto near Lublin and probably murdered in the nearby Belzec or Sobibor extermination camps .

During the Second World War , the town's train station was the target of Allied air raids. American soldiers of the 334th Regiment, 84th Infantry Division, 9th US Army captured the village on February 24, 1945 during Operation Grenade after crossing the Rur.

On January 1, 1972, Baal was incorporated into the new town of Hückelhoven.

Since the closure of the Hückelhovener Zeche Sophia-Jacoba in 1997, the industrial area in the west of the town has acquired particular economic importance for Baal.

Population development

After the turn of the century, mining was associated with population growth. The 1961 and 1970 numbers are census results.

year 1885 1925 1933 1939 1961 1970
Ew. 0793 1089 1156 1243 1828 2514

Watermills and farms

Baaler Bach and Mittelmühle in the background
  • The Scherreshof is on the country road to Lövenich. As a Fronhof, it was an important property of the Hohenbusch Kreuzherrenkloster since 1456 .
  • The Ophover mill was located in the rift area between Baal and Lövenich. It belonged to the nearby Ophover Hof, whose records date back to the 16th century. The mill was in operation until 1951. The remains of the mill were demolished in the late 1990s.

In the village there were three more watermills on the Baaler Bach:

  • The oil mill (also known as scratch or Mertens mill), it was located at the old station and was demolished in 1950.
  • The Mittel- or Wackersmühle is located in the center of the village. It is mentioned as early as 1416 as belonging to the Cistercian women of Dalheim Abbey and originally belonged to the Scherreshof.
  • The Pletschmühle worked with water power until 1943 and ceased electrical operation in 1957.
  • The renovated Gut Gansbroich is located on the edge of the industrial park .

religion

There is a Roman Catholic , a Protestant and a Baptist congregation in the village . The border between the parish of Korrenzig, which was in the diocese of Liège (southern district) and the parish of Doveren in the archbishopric of Cologne (northern district) , ran along the Baal stream . In 1801, both districts were incorporated into the newly founded diocese of Aachen . In 1778 an Ursula chapel was built in the village , at the same time the Bishop of Liège gave permission to hold the mass. In 1780 the chapel received a relic of St. Brigid , the chapel has now been consecrated to this saint. In 1835 the chapel was enlarged. In 1849 Baal became an independent parish. In 1889/90 the chapel was demolished and a church built in neo-Gothic style. The Church of St. Brigida was consecrated on July 17, 1905. It was badly damaged in the final months of the Second World War.

Baal belongs to the Protestant parish of Lövenich. After the Second World War, there was an increased influx of Protestant citizens, so a church was built. The Baptist congregation belongs to the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches .

Infrastructure and economy

Social facilities

  • Mühlenbachschule, elementary school
  • Catholic kindergarten St. Brigida
  • Community center
  • Various medical practices

Local public transport

Hückelhoven-Baal train station

The Baal station ( category 5 station ) was renamed "Hückelhoven-Baal" in 2002 due to its proximity to Hückelhoven and is often referred to by local politicians as "Hückelhovener station", which is not very popular with Baalers. The station was renovated in 2018/19. The elevator is still under construction and should be completed by December 2020.

Rail connections (as of December 2019):

Hückelhoven-Baal is located in the AVV network area .

line course
HÜ1 Hückelhoven  → Schaufenberg  → Hückelhoven → Hilfarth  → Hückelhoven
295 Linnich  Bf - Glimbach  - Körrenzig  - Rurich  - Baal Bf
402 Erkelenz  ZOB - Erkelenz Bf  - Erkelenz Süd - Baal Bf  - Doveren  - Hückelhoven  - Millich  - Ratheim  - Dremmen  Bf - Oberbruch  - Grebben  - ( Heinsberg  Kreishaus -) Heinsberg Busbf
495 ( Katzem  -) Lövenich - Baal Bf  - Doveren  - Hückelhoven  - Schaufenberg  - Ratheim  - Krickelberg  - Orsbeck  - Wassenberg

Line 295 from Baal to Linnich also has a connection to the RB 21 Linnich - Jülich - Düren - Heimbach line of the Rurtalbahn .

economy

The largest company in the Hückelhoven-Baal industrial park is the teleshopping company QVC , which operates its distribution center here. Furthermore, situated in the north-west of the town a vast warehouse of Disaster Recovery Management of T-Com .

literature

  • 1100 years of Baal . Contributions to local history. ed. from the local history committee in the Bürgererverein Baal eV 1993. ISBN 3-87227-042-7
  • Bertram et al. Maria Porten: Baal in the course of time , Baal 1995, ISBN 3-923219-09-1
  • F. Körfer: 1100 years - local anniversary of Baal . In: District of Heinsberg (Hrsg.), Home calendar of the district of Heinsberg. 1993

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hubert Rütten, traces of life - search for traces, Jewish life in the former district of Erkelenz , writings of the Heimatverein der Erkelenzer Lande Volume 22, Erkelenz 2008, pp. 136–140
  2. ↑ a b Federal Statistical Office (ed.): Historical municipality register for the Federal Republic of Germany. Name, border and key number changes in municipalities, counties and administrative districts from May 27, 1970 to December 31, 1982 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 307 .
  3. ↑ Michael Rademacher: German administrative history from the unification of the empire in 1871 to the reunification in 1990. erkelenz.html. (Online material for the dissertation, Osnabrück 2006).
  4. ↑ Gabi Laue: Baal station: elevator is being installed. In: Rheinische Post. September 18, 2019, accessed November 5, 2019 .
  5. ↑ No construction progress at Baal station. In: Rheinische Post. April 24, 2020, accessed July 21, 2020 .

Web links

Commons : Baal  - collection of images, videos and audio files