Erkrath

Erkrath
Climate diagram
	Temperature in ° C , precipitation in mm
	Source: Climate-Data.org

Basic data
State :	North Rhine-Westphalia
Administrative region :	Dusseldorf
Circle :	Mettmann
Height :	60 m above sea level NHN
Area :	26.88 km 2
Residents:	43,992 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	1636 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	40699
Primaries :	0211, 02104, 02129
License plate :	ME
Community key :	05 1 58 004
LOCODE :	DE REC
; City administration address :	Bahnstrasse 16 ; 40699 Erkrath
Website :	www.erkrath.de
Mayor :	Christoph Schultz ( CDU )
Location of the city of Erkrath in the Mettmann district

Erkrath. On the left the Neandertal Bridge

The Niederbergisches Land in the north of Erkrath

The Düssel at high tide

Erkrath is in Mettmann located down bergische city in North Rhine-Westphalia . It borders the state capital Düsseldorf in the west , making Erkrath part of the Düsseldorf agglomeration . Due to its location in the Bergische Heideterrassen between the Lower Rhine lowlands and the Bergisch plateaus , it can be assigned to both landscapes as a transition area.

geography

Viewed from the Rhine plain , the city already has a hilly character, which is characterized by curved, predominantly agricultural slopes, which increase in height towards the east. The Düssel flows through Erkrath , which here mostly flows in a natural bed, while in neighboring Düsseldorf it is only narrowly canalized and partly piped through the city into the Rhine . The town of Erkrath also includes the site of the Neanderthal man and most of the Ice Age game reserve in the well-known Neandertal nature reserve . The settlement used to be an insignificant place in the Duchy of Berg and is characterized by a large increase in population within a few decades and a current division of the urban area into three non-contiguous districts resulting from the municipal reorganization of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Geographical location

Erkrath is located on the western foothills of the Niederberg hills in the Lower Rhine Bay .

While the western city limit to Düsseldorf is 46 m above sea level , the highest point of the city, the Willbecker Heights, rises to 162 m .

Neighboring cities

Erkrath borders on the cities of Hilden , Haan and Mettmann (all of which are in the Mettmann district) and, to the west, on the North Rhine-Westphalian capital of Düsseldorf. It is the fifth largest city in the district.

	Düsseldorf-Hubbelrath 5 km	Mettmann 6 km
Düsseldorf-Gerresheim 4 km
Düsseldorf-Unterbach 2 km	Hilden 3 km	Haan 3 km

climate

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Erkrath

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C )	4.3	5.4	9.8	14.1	18.7	21.8	23.3	23.0	19.8	14.3	8.7	5.3	O	14.1
Min. Temperature (° C)	−0.8	−0.5	2.0	4.6	8.2	11.3	13.3	13.0	10.4	6.6	3.4	0.6	O	6th
Temperature (° C)	1.7	2.4	5.9	9.3	13.4	16.5	18.3	18.0	15.1	10.4	6.0	2.9	O	10

Precipitation ( mm )	69	52	63	55	71	86	79	75	65	64	68	76	Σ	823

Source: Climate-Data.org

The climate of Erkrath, like the climate of the entire Düsseldorf area, is shaped by the ocean due to the relief-related opening towards the North Sea . Mainly northern and western wind currents bring humid air masses. The consequences are mild winters with little snow and moderately warm and humid summers. Overall, the weather is changeable. Atlantic low pressure areas often cause heavy cloud cover. With 1364 hours of sunshine , the Düsseldorf region is not very sunny in Germany.

The warmest month is July with 18.3 ° C, the coldest is January with 1.7 ° C. The annual average temperature is 10.0 ° C. The precipitation is evenly distributed over the whole year with a maximum in June with 86 and a minimum in February with 52 millimeters. An average of 823 millimeters of precipitation falls per year.

City structure

Erkrath is still very young as a city, it was not until March 15, 1966, that it received the city registration certificate from the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia from the then Interior Minister Willi Weyer , making it the youngest municipality in the Mettmann district with city rights . In 1898 Erkrath was spun off from what was then the rural community of Gerresheim and became independent.

The old town of Erkrath was often affected by corrections to the city limits. With the establishment of the first regional mayor's office in 1898, the regional reform of the Rhine Province in 1929 and the municipal reorganization of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1975, various honnships or districts were incorporated or outsourced. On January 1, 1975, the municipality of Hochdahl was incorporated in the framework of the Düsseldorf law passed by the NRW state parliament and the former suburb of Unterbach, together with the recreational area Unterbacher See, was incorporated into the city of Düsseldorf.

The current city of Erkrath has no official subdivision into city districts . It is usually divided into three parts of the city:

Alt-Erkrath (or "Erkrath" for short)
Hochdahl
Unterfeldhaus

The old settlement core of the city of Erkrath is unofficially often referred to as Alt-Erkrath in order to distinguish this district from the city as a whole. In addition, the names of the districts of Hochdahl (Trills, Millrath, Willbeck, Kempen and Sandheide) are used both in official names and in colloquial language, in the press and in signage for the corresponding parts of the city.

history

Erkrath 1870

Erkrath today

The Düssel flows through Erkrath and is known as Tussella (the Rauschende, Brausende, Thundering) as early as 1050 . Worth seeing are the estates and former moated castles Haus Morp (mentioned in 1144) and Haus Brück (first mentioned in 1258). For a long time it was wrongly assumed that there was no evidence of the existence of this property from before 1640. Also worth mentioning is the Heiligenhäuschen on Römerweg , a small chapel of unknown age, which was probably built in the late 15th century. The Dammermühle, located directly on the city limits of Düsseldorf, is also very old when it was first mentioned in 1324.

Around 13,000 of the city's 44,000 inhabitants live in Erkrath itself today.

etymology

The origin of the name Erkrath (dialect Erkrot) cannot be clearly determined. It is certain that the ending -rath or -rot / -rode, which occurs frequently in the Rhineland, points to clearing, probably to the more recent clearing period of the years 800–1200. The first syllable often refers to the name of a first settler, presumably Everek (Erik). The name of Wülfrath, also located in the Mettmann district, is taken from a settler named Wolf and Millrath, located within Erkrath, is regarded as a settlement of a Milo . An often asserted assumption that the first syllable of Millrath was derived from an - unproven - existence of a mill is now considered outdated. There were also attempts to explain that the Germanic goddess Erka or an alleged noblewoman named Erga from the Angorode tribe, who allegedly made the land on the Düssel arable for the first time, could stand for the name, but this is not historically verifiable.

Early and prehistory

There has been evidence of settlement in this region for several hundred thousand years. The Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) left their first traces . Fossil remains of him were discovered not far from the place in the old rock, today's Neandertal. The following “modern” Cro-Magnon humans (Homo sapiens) can also be identified, as stone tools were found by them in the same place. These early humans found an adequate food supply in this region. In addition to many primeval animals such as the cave bear , the primal , the rhinoceros , the hyena and the wild horse , mammoths also lived here . Most recently, a mammoth tusk was found in a quarry in the Neandertal in 1959. Roman coins were found in both Erkrath and Hochdahl. The Strata Coloniensis , an important military and trade route, led from Cologne via Hilden to Mettmann and Werden across Hochdahl. The historic Mauspfad long-distance trade route , which ran from Genoa over the Little St. Bernhard, Basel, Mainz, Siegburg, (and then presumably via Hilden, Knittkuhl, Ratingen, Duisburg) to Holland above the river landscapes of the Rhine threatened by flooding, is in presumed to be in this area because there is an old waymarking Mauspfad .

middle Ages

House Morp

The name Erkrath, also called "Elekeroide", "Elkeriode" or "Erkerode" in old writings, was first mentioned in 1148 in two documents from the Werden monastery . Bernherus (Bernhardus) de Everkrothe, a liberos scabinos (Freischöffe), and Siegebertus de Everekrothe are mentioned there. Both of the named came from the class of the free, apparently owned land outside Erkrath and had a lay judge's office at the Grafschaftsgericht Kreuzberg , which suggests that they had an elevated social and social status, which may be attributed to the nobility. In a further document from 1176, Archbishop Philip I of Cologne sold two farms in the area of “Helechen” to Count Engelbert I von Berg and which probably concerned Erkrath.

A Daniel de Erkerode was mentioned in the years 1189, 1211, 1218 and 1237. In 1218 he found himself registered as Miles (knight), who was a knight in the suite of Count Adolf III. von Berg participated in the crusade and, according to legend, stood by his dying master before Damiette in Egypt at the last hour. In 1237, Archbishop Heinrich I of Cologne confirmed that the knight Daniel von Erkrath had given his house in Walendorf to Duke Heinrich IV of Limburg , who was also Count von Berg, to Lehn . In return he received an allod worth 30 marks from the duke .

The ancestral seat of the Knights of Erkrath was probably the later Schletzgut or House Bavier (after the Lords of Bawyr / Bavier ), which is generally regarded as the nucleus of the place. The court Erkenroide near Geirensheim mentioned in a marriage speech from 1368 (meaning the neighboring Gerresheim , today a district of Düsseldorf) is very likely to have been the Bavier house. The lords of Erkenrode were probably also the builders and first patron saints of the Catholic parish church.

As early as 1144, the manor Haus Morp was mentioned in a document . The name Morafa mentioned there roughly means bog or flowing water. The ancient Germanic (according to other etymologists, Celtic ) ending afa / apa stands for waters, so house Morp was formerly a moated castle.

Up to 1241, in addition to the three people mentioned, three other namesake de Erkenrode / Erkenrodhe were named, but it is not possible to determine what relationship they were with each other or whether they ever lived in the village. Originally the settlement was evidently only the Bavier farm, but in a document from 1377 Erkrath is expressly referred to as a village. In a document from Count Wilhelm II von Berg in 1383, the towns and rural communities in the county were listed. At that time Erkrath was led with Gerresheim in the Mettmann office. Ecclesiastically, Erkrath belonged to the Neuss deanery in the Middle Ages until the Deanery Düsseldorf was formed.

In a list of coastal income from 1498, the oldest written source that provides information about the settlement structure of Erkrath, 25 farms and cottages are named for the Erkrath community, of which 11 or 12 were located within the village settlement. For the total of six honors within the parish of Erkrath (Bruchhausen, Dorp, Ellscheid, Millrath, Unterbach, Erkrath) 100 courtyards, houses and cottages are designated, many of which can still be identified and found today.

Unterbach house - the gate tower

In the neighboring Unterbach (part of Erkrath since the Middle Ages and a district of Düsseldorf only since 1975) Heriman de Unterbeke is mentioned in a document in 1169. At the same time, this is the first source for the Unterbach house , which is important for the town's history. Due to the curious demarcation of the municipal reorganization, the Unterbach house is still in the Erkrath urban area, while the village of Unterbach is now in Düsseldorf. The right of patronage over the parish was held by the gentlemen of the Unterbach family from the first half of the 15th century at the latest, as evidenced by some notifications from around 1400 onwards. From this time on, the Unterbach house was also the yard for the various goods in the area. The founding of a rifle brotherhood is documented for the year 1484.

In the late Middle Ages, the parish of Erkrath was part of the Mettmann office in the Duchy of Berg, which was first mentioned in 1363 until it was dissolved in 1806 . The parish itself was divided into the five honors Erkrath , Unterbach , Ellscheid , Bruchhausen and Dorp , which were subordinate to the court in Gerresheim. The Honschaft Morp , however, belonged to the parish of Gerresheim. In 1789, in addition to the church village, the Erkrath family included the large farms Heyden, Steinhaus, Bruges , Uhlenthal, Steinkuhl, Kokshaus and Hohethal . In addition to Oberhof Haus Unterbach, the Unterbach family included the large farms Husfeld, Wikers, Schamasch, Fen , Feld , Loch, Schaffsheid, Schorsenfeld and the chapel on Römerweg.

Early modern age

Erkrath and neighboring towns on a map from 1645 ( W.Blaeu / J.Blaeu - Atlas Maior : Iuliacensis et Montensis Ducatus - excerpt)

Erkrath and the surrounding courtyards on a map from 1715 ( Topographia Ducatus Montani - detail)

In the period between 1500 and 1800, Erkrath remained an insignificant, agricultural village, agriculture was also the main source of food for the village. Only the change of ownership of the Unterbach house and the Bavier farm, as well as letters of patronage from the Unterbach gentlemen with regard to the parish bear witness to what happened at that time. There is no information about the fate of the village during the Thirty Years' War . Because the area around Ratingen was almost completely destroyed and the nearby Gerresheim was overrun and burned twice by mercenary troops , the same cannot be ruled out for Erkrath. In the maps of the Duchy of Berg and the surrounding area from the period between 1550 and 1750, the place is under the spellings Erckraidt, Erkraidt, Erckrad and others more than Kirchdorf an der Düssel between the neighboring places Grutten ( Gruiten ), Schuyler ( Schöller ), Medman / Metman ( Mettmann ) and Gerissheim ( Gerresheim ) listed.

Erkrath is also mentioned by name in the first land survey and geographical description of the Duchy of Berg , the Topographia Ducatus Montani by Erich Philipp Ploennies , published in 1715:

"From the Ambt Metman : This is divided into the Ober and UnterAmbt, the OberAmbdt has 2 large parishes, namely (1.) Metman and 2. Wülfrath : The Unterambt consists of 4 parishes (1.) Gerresheim, 2. Erckrath, 3. Ellert, 4. Hubelrath . The first two parishes of the OberAmbts are reformed, the rest are Catholic. That matters, it is above all beautiful and good, and this office is reckoned in front of one of the best in the whole of Herzogthumb, because there you can find beautiful fruit wax, cattle breeding, also fishing; [...] "

- Topographia Ducatus Montani 1715.

The houses Unterbach and Morp are also shown on the maps as Adelichhaus or Freye = höf , the Neandertal , known as rock , is briefly described.

19th century

The Duchy of Berg was ceded by the House of Wittelsbach to the House of Bonaparte in December 1805 . Napoleon Bonaparte formed a Grand Duchy from it with his brother-in-law Joachim Murat as Grand Duke, who took possession of it in March 1806. During the French era, Erkrath belonged to the Mettmann canton alongside Gerresheim, Ludenberg, Unterbach, Vennhausen and various other localities.

Soon after the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig , the Grand Duchy dissolved in November 1813 when all areas up to the Rhine were liberated. Most parts of the country fell to Prussia through the Congress of Vienna . Together with the other parts of the Prussian possessions on the left and right banks of the Rhine, it formed the province of Jülich-Kleve-Berg with the administrative seat of Cologne , which was united on June 22, 1822 with the province of the Grand Duchy of Lower Rhine, also formed in 1815, with its administrative seat in Koblenz to form the Rhine province . As a result of the new administrative structure, Erkrath became part of the Düsseldorf district within the Rhine Province. In the 19th century, the previously rural place was increasingly shaped by industrialization, paper mills, weaving mills, mining, machine, iron and steel industries were founded. This industrialization was facilitated by the connection to the Düsseldorf - Elberfeld railway connection. The first part to Erkrath was put into operation at the end of 1838, making it one of the first rail connections in Germany. The remaining route to Elberfeld was commissioned on September 3, 1841.

Around 1830 Erkrath was called the Bergisch Nice or the lungs of Düsseldorf , because it was temporarily a well-visited and well-known health resort due to the installation of a healing spring . The large spa house from that time has been preserved; there were still lounge halls, bathing houses and some bathing ponds in the spa park. However, when the healing spring dried up around 1870, the health resort, which had been visited by many gout and rheumatic sufferers , was finally over. Today it is no longer clear whether the spring supplied sulphurous medicinal water; it is assumed that it was used as a cold water bathing establishment.

The first post office was built in 1842.

In terms of administrative law, Erkrath was administered from Gerresheim for almost the entire 19th century. Initially in the Mairie Gerresheim in the first years of the century, from 1815 as one of two special municipalities in Gerresheim. On May 28, 1851, the Prussian government created the integrated community of Gerresheim, to which the city of Gerresheim, the association of the honors Morp, Ludenberg and Vennhausen and the community of Erkrath with the association of the honors Unterbach, Dorp and Bruchhausen belonged. By decree of January 16, 1858, Gerresheim received the Rhenish town regulations and thus left the association of rural communities. There was now a municipality (the city of Gerresheim itself) and a rural municipality of Gerresheim (Erkrath and the surrounding communities). On April 1, 1898, Erkrath, together with the villages of Unterbach, Hochdahl and Bruchhausen, became an independent mayor's office (from 1927 referred to as Erkrath Office ). At that time, the population rose sharply , due to the influx of workers from the new industry in and above all around Erkrath (Neandertal lime works, Hochdahl ironworks, Gerresheimer Glashütte ).

From the 20th century to the present

After the First World War , as in many other communities, a workers 'and soldiers' council was formed in Erkrath . There were unrest, attacks against the mayor Franz Zahren and looting of the local farmers. A public kitchen was even set up in the town hall to alleviate the greatest need. Even when these effects of the end of the war subsided, the tense economic situation in the community did not calm down. The French occupation in the run-up to the occupation of the Ruhr from 1921, justified by the lack of reparations due to the Treaty of Versailles, hampered the work of the community organs . Erkrath belonged to the Düsseldorf bridgehead and was thus part of the occupied zone. Even later, Erkrath was a transit area, which resulted in high costs in terms of lodging fees. In addition, there were already concrete plans to cut down large parts of the remaining forest in the neighboring Neandertal, as the French occupation of the Rhineland resulted in a considerable shortage of fuel due to reparations . On the initiative of a citizens' committee, however, it was possible to arrange for the famous place to be protected. So the Neandertal became the first nature reserve in Prussia , half a year before the Lüneburg Heath and two years before the Siebengebirge . Inflation and the global economic crisis followed and also hit Erkrath. A reorganization of the Düsseldorf-Mettmann district in 1929 brought about significant changes in the municipal boundaries. Parts of Morp and Ludenberg were added, Hochdahl and Bruchhausen were spun off.

The Nazis had in the " seizure of power to take" 1933 difficulties in Erkrath foot. This was mainly due to the population structure and the resistance of Mayor Hallauer.

Memorial at the point where seven children died in a dud explosion in the post-war days

The Erkrath population consisted partly of conservative - Catholic peasantry, who mostly chose the center , and partly of the SPD and, above all , workers from regional industry who were close to the KPD . Even in the years before the seizure of power there were fights between KPD members and SA troops. The murder of SS- warführer Kurt Hilmer by Gerresheimer communists in front of the building of the Erkrath NSDAP office on June 20, 1932 should be emphasized. Hilmer became a martyr of the Nazis, the accused, including uninvolved Erkrath communists, were executed. The Villa Koburg in the Neandertal , located just behind the city limits of Mettmann , was preferred for interrogations .

Mayor Werner Hallauer, who was sharply attacked and constantly discredited by the local group leadership, acted against them and reported them to the supervisory authority, the district of Düsseldorf-Mettmann , due to proven election manipulation , was appointed mayor of the city of Burscheid in 1935 and thus "praised away". The two years before were marked by constant quarrels between the administration under Hallauer and the local group leader Tillmann.

On June 17, 1935, the NSDAP installed an established party member in this office, Heinrich Rasche. Rasche had previously been mayor of Heiligenhaus and temporarily represented the deceased mayor of Gruiten during his tenure in Erkrath .

During the Second World War , between 1942 and 1945, bombs dropped over the city in the vicinity of Düsseldorf, with property damage and several dozen deaths. Forced laborers were also used in Erkrath, mainly to provide support in agriculture, to remove bomb damage and to dig trenches, anti-tank traps and the like.

On April 17, 1945, American troops, coming from Unterbach, marched into the city, occupied it and thus liberated it from National Socialist rule. Final attempts by the Wehrmacht to stop the advance, including by blowing up part of the motorway bridge, failed.

The memorial book - Victims of the Persecution of the Jews under the National Socialist tyranny 1933–1945 lists three Jewish residents of Erkrath who were victims of the Holocaust .

On May 14, 1945, seven children north of the north station died when they were playing unsupervised with grenades that had been left lying around in a dud explosion . The Ercroder Jonges homeland association suggested the erection of a memorial at the site of the event.

An engine from a British Halifax bomber that was shot down via Hochdahl-Trills on November 21, 1944 had been on a farm for decades. A few years ago, when people interested in history found one of the few survivors of this shooting down, a sensation caused a sensation, a former Canadian soldier who set foot on German soil for the first time in over 60 years and visited Erkrath and the crash site.

Another plane crash of a war machine in Erkrath was also documented and processed a few years later. A machine pitched on a pasture in the Stinderbachtal was originally mistaken for an American B-17 Flying Fortress , which crashed on November 2, 1944 when hit by flak . During research and excavations by volunteers of the LVR Office for Monument Preservation in 2017, it was surprisingly found that the plane that crashed there was a British Halifax bomber , also manned by Canadian soldiers . This bomber was lost on March 15, 1945 in the late phase of the war after an attack on Hagen by an incendiary bomb from another Allied aircraft that was flying in higher formation . Here, too, after further research, the aircraft concerned and the fate of the crew, three of whom were killed and three others were able to save themselves by parachuting and were taken prisoner of war, were meticulously determined. A rear gunner who jumped over Hagen early on was executed by the Gestapo . The exact location of the crash of the American B-17 is still unknown. The killed in the crash soldiers of both planes were temporarily buried in the Kommunalfriedhof on the cross street, but were after the war by the Allied demapped and other cemeteries transferred .

In the post-war period, the population of Erkrath rose sharply due to the influx of refugee families . Little by little, more residential areas were developed around the village center, which lasted until the late 1970s.

In 1955 the 10,000-inhabitant limit was exceeded.

The city limits were significantly changed in 1975 by the regional reform in North Rhine-Westphalia . As a result of the union with Hochdahl, the population rose to just under the 40,000-inhabitant limit.

Incorporations

Hochdahl

The St. Franziskus Church in Hochdahl-Trills

The Böhm Church in Hochdahl-Sandheide

Part of the former community of Hochdahl, in particular the corridors on the Düsseldorf-Elberfeld railway line and the Eintrachtshütte iron ore works , was part of the newly founded Mayor's office in Erkrath as early as 1898. In the Middle Ages, the Hochdahler Höfe mostly belonged to the parish of Erkrath and were taxable to the house of Unterbach. The name Hochdahl as an official community name was only introduced in 1938, before the name was only used as a name for the train station of the Düsseldorf-Elberfelder Bahn, since the Hochdahler Hof, which was demolished in 1969, was the closest to the train station.

In a reorganization of the districts of the Rhine Province in 1929 Hochdahl was spun back out of the mayor's office and came to the municipality Millrath in office Gruiten the circle Dusseldorf-Mettmann . In 1938 the community of Millrath was renamed Hochdahl . Until 1974, Hochdahl, with the much smaller communities Gruiten (today a district of Haan ) and Schöller (today a district of Wuppertal ), was part of the Gruiten administrative office. In the course of the local reorganization of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which came into force on January 1, 1975, the administrative authorities were abolished. Many communities lost their independence. Hochdahl was incorporated into Erkrath.

Today's Hochdahl emerged from the early 1960s under the name Neue Stadt Hochdahl as a so-called New Town (English for New City), a relief city for Düsseldorf . For this purpose, the development company Hochdahl (EGH) was founded in December 1960.

Today, Hochdahl is the largest and most easterly district of Erkrath. The Sedentaler Bach flows through the village. The size of Hochdahl is around 1,300 hectares with around 27,500 inhabitants.

Watchtower of the Unterbach house

Unterfeldhaus

Unterfeldhaus is the smallest of the three districts. Originally, the hall area belonged Unterfeldhaus (the name comes from the farm Velthusen, first mentioned in 1218) to the manor house Unterbach . The Unterbach house itself is not located in the Unterbach district (since 1975 Düsseldorf) , but across the street in the Unterfeldhaus (Erkrather). The largest industrial and commercial area in the city is located in Unterfeldhaus, on the 3 and 46 federal motorways. Unterfeldhaus is today characterized by single-family houses and terraced houses as well as owner-occupied apartments and has a small town center with Neuenhausplatz.

Population development

The frequently published population figures often referred to different city limits and additions of honors from the area.

year	Residents
1815	522
1832	634
1875	1,657
1885	4,655
1895	4,865
1898	5,166
1900	5,784
1909	6,169
1910	6,392
1913	6,599
1918	6,622
1925	7,085

year	Residents
1926	7.125
1933	6.211
1934	6.332
1939	6,800
1949	8,700
1950	8,850
1953	9,686
1954	9,785
1955	10,824
1956	11,371
1957	11,800
1958	12,375

year	Residents
1959	12,618
1960	14,010
1963	15,300
1964	16,067
1966	17,531
1970	20,015
1973	21,616
1976	36,238
1977	37,863
1982	43,865
1984	44.131
1986	44,925

year	Residents
1988	46,792
1992	48,332
1998	49,548
2001	48,793
2002	48,652
2004	47,475
2006	46,790
2007	46,957
2008	46,340
2009	46,084
2010	45,963
2011	46,042

year	Residents
2012	43,812
2013	43,639
2014	43,700
2015	44,086
2016	44,413
2017	44,409
2018	44,384

Population development since 1815. Comparable data points are connected, see text.

The population figures from 1815 and 1832 refer to the core village of Erkrath, today's (Alt-) Erkrath, without counting the surrounding farms (Bavier, Brück, Hochdahl, Gink, Dorp, Kemperdick, Unterfeldhaus, Rohrsmühle, Unterbach, Fette Erde etc.) .

The year 1875 includes the population of Erkrath including the Honors Unterbach and Dorp. The figures from 1885 to 1926 apply to the newly established mayor's office of Erkrath including Unterbach, Dorp and Hochdahl, the figures from 1933 to 1973 for the community (from 1966 city) Erkrath including the village of Unterbach, but without Hochdahl. From 1976, the population data for the new city of Erkrath apply after the regional reform including Hochdahl and Unterfeldhaus, but without Unterbach, which was incorporated into Düsseldorf.

Population figures for the core village from before 1815 are not known. In the various sources, additional figures are often given for various honors and parts of the community, for example for Unterbach and Hochdahl, as well as for Erkrath with or without the addition of various farms. As early as 1792, for the entire parish of Erkrath, consisting of the honors of Erkrath, Ellscheid, Bruchhausen, Dorp and Unterbach, a total population of 1853 is given, for the year 1890 only 2,295 people for the village and the community of Erkrath and for 1914 3,356 people.

The drop in the number of inhabitants between 2011 and 2012 can be explained by the results of the 2011 census , through which the number of inhabitants was re-recorded and corrected.

politics

The mayor has been directly elected by the townspeople since 1999 and has been the full-time mayor and head of the town administration at the same time. The office of city director was abolished. In addition to the well-known parties in the nationwide spectrum, the community of voters for citizens with environmental responsibility (BmU), a group that was founded in 1988, was elected to the city council. For a few decades until 1994, the Independent Voting Association (UWG) was also part of the Erkrath City Council, until this group was absorbed into the BmU. The BmU is in turn a member of the UWG-ME.

City council

The city council is composed as follows.

Political party	1999	Seats	2004	Seats	2009	Seats	2014	Seats
Christian Democratic Union ( CDU )	51.0%	21st	44.4%	18th	34.8%	16	36.4%	15th
Social Democratic Party of Germany ( SPD )	28.2%	11	28.3%	11	22.6%	11	25.5%	11
Alliance 90 / The Greens (Greens)	8.1%	3	11.2%	4th	15.5%	7th	14.0%	6th
Citizens with environmental responsibility (BmU)	7.6%	3	9.3%	4th	18.7%	9	17.7%	7th
Free Democratic Party ( FDP )	4.8%	2	6.9%	3	7.3%	3	4.3%	2
The left	-	-	-	-	-	-	2.1%	1

mayor

Town hall Erkrath

Otto Bender (1878–1898) (still integrated community of Gerresheim , to which Erkrath belonged at the time)
Johann Kaiser (1898–1907) (construction of the old town hall 1899)
Franz Zahren (1907–1930)
Werner Hallauer (1930–1935)
Heinrich Rasche (1935–1945), NSDAP , later FDP
Wilhelm Broch (1945–1946) (changed to the office of municipality director)
August Westerholz (1946), SPD
Hermann Moritz (1946–1949), CDU
Alex Bendt (1949–1954), SPD
Gertrud Thomé (later married Küpper) (1954–1956), CDU
Alex Bendt (1956–1961), SPD (for the second time)
Gertrud Küpper (née Thomé) (1961–1963), CDU (for the second time)
Johannes van Oost (1963–1964), DZP , later UWG
Gertrud Küpper (née Thomé) (1964–1972), CDU (for the third time)
Hans Weyer (1972–1974), SPD
Aloys Kiefer (1975-1983), CDU
Gloria Ziller (1983-1989), CDU
Rudolf Unger (1989–1999), SPD
Arno Werner (1999-2015), CDU
Christoph Schultz (since 2015), CDU

Community / City Directors (1946–1999)

Wilhelm Broch (1946–1953)
Albert Peters (1953-1982)
Helmut Günter (1982–1990)
Bernd Sundhoff (1990–1999)

Bundestag elections

The city is part of the Mettmann I constituency

coat of arms

The city of Erkrath was last awarded a coat of arms, a seal and a flag on September 14, 1977.

coat of arms
Coat of arms from 1938 to 1977
Coat of arms of the former municipality of Hochdahl
seal
flag
Former logo

Blazon : "In silver (white) over a green valley, a red mill wheel, surmounted by a blue armored, blue-tongued and blue-crowned striding red lion."

The old coat of arms of the municipality of Erkrath from 1938, designed by the heraldist Wolfgang Pagenstecher , shows the Bergischer Löwen and the Neandertal Bridge, built in 1935, which spans the green valley of the Düssel just below the Neandertal. The blazon reads: “Under a silver (white) shield head, inside a striding blue crowned, armored and tongued red lion, in blue a silver (white) bridge over a valley formed from two green mountains rising at the edges of the shield.” From this coat of arms and the Hochdahler coat of arms with the Millrather mill wheel, also designed by Pagenstecher in 1939 , the coat of arms of the new city of Erkrath was redesigned in June 1977 by the heraldist Lothar Müller-Westphal from Düren. The blazon of the Hochdahler coat of arms reads: "In silver (white) over a green valley a red mill wheel."

seal

Description: “The city of Erkrath has an official seal with the city coat of arms in black and white outline drawing. Inscription above: STADT, inscription below: ERKRATH. A mill wheel above a valley, surmounted by a crowned, striding lion. "

flag

Description: "Red and white striped lengthways (meaning cross-striped) in a ratio of 1: 1, with the city's coat of arms in the middle."

Town twinning

It is twinned with the British district of West Lancashire . There is also a friendship between cities with Leinefelde in Thuringia , the birthplace of Johann Carl Fuhlrott (1804–1877), the discoverer of the Neanderthal man . Erkrath has taken on a sponsorship for Port-de-Paix ( Haiti ). Between 1981 and 2019 there was a town partnership with the French Cergy-Pontoise ; this community network is - just like Hochdahl - a Ville nouvelle (New Town) built in the 1960s .

religion

Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist Erkrath

Evangelical Parish Church Erkrath

Evangelical Neander Church in Hochdahl

In contrast to many other parishes in the area, Erkrath remained a Catholic for a long time in the early modern period , as the master of the Unterbach family fought against reformatory tendencies .

Catholic parishes

The Catholic Church today includes the parish of John the Baptist and the Assumption of Mary with the churches “St. Johannes "in Erkrath and" Mariä Himmelfahrt "in Düsseldorf-Unterbach and the parish of St. Francis of Assisi in Hochdahl with the churches" St. Franziskus ”in Trills and“ Heilig Geist ”in Sandheide (built 1967–1974 by Gottfried Böhm ). The parish church of St. Johannes is probably the oldest building still in existence and, due to its unusual size, is a dominant feature of Erkrath in terms of urban development. Construction probably began in the late 12th century, and records also indicate the existence of a canon for Erkrath at this time. Next to Gut Falkenberg in Hochdahl is the “St. Antonius Chapel” on a moth from the early 17th century. The community center in Unterfeldhaus belongs to the Church of St. Mary's Assumption in Unterbach. Both parishes belong to the district dean Mettmann in the Archdiocese of Cologne .

Evangelical congregations

The Protestant parish in Erkrath consists of two parishes. The municipality of Erkrath comprises the following districts: Church and Community Center Erkrath, the Community Center Unterfeldhaus and the Paul Gerhard Church in Unterbach, so like the Catholic Church, it extends beyond the city limits. The Hochdahl community, founded in 1926, today also consists of three districts, the Neander Church, the Paul Schneider House and the Sandheide community center. A reformed evangelical congregation in Erkrath was led in 1611 at the 4th synod in Düsseldorf. After that, due to the suppression of the Reformation in the Duchy of Berg, this community had to formally dissolve. Only from 1677 onwards is there evidence of an evangelical community in Erkrath again. The owner of the Bavier house allowed the Protestants to hold church services in the manor; later she gave land to the community to build a first small half-timbered church there. The first service was held there on November 1, 1685. A tower with two bells was built in 1737. Since the old church building had to be demolished towards the end of the 18th century for reasons of space and structural defects, the current church building in the style of a Rhenish preaching church was built between 1828 and 1831 about 200 meters west of the Catholic church on Bahnstrasse . The initially flat roof of the tower was replaced by today's pointed hood in 1885/86 after the purchase of three bells.

Evangelical Free Church Congregation

The beginnings of the Evangelical Free Church in Erkrath go back to the 1970s. Their parishioners first met in Hochdahl's Catholic St. Antonius Chapel for a service, then in the community center and then in a larger private house. Towards the end of the 1980s, the lower rooms of a commercial building near the Hochdahl train station were rented as a community center. Today the community has its own church in Unterfeldhaus. The center is called Meeting Point Life .

Other religious members

For most of the members of other religious communities living in Erkrath, there are no independent congregations or places of prayer in the city area; both the Jewish and Orthodox citizens use places of worship in neighboring Düsseldorf for this purpose. The Muslim community has set up a mosque next to the Hochdahl district heating plant. The place of prayer is maintained by the cultural association.

Culture and sights

Monuments

Church of St. John the Baptist

Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist Erkrath

Probably the oldest building in the city that still exists today, the Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist , was built in its older parts (nave, choir square with apse ) as a three-nave pillar basilica, probably in the course of the 12th century. The church is located on the first hill in the valley that is not endangered by the flood of the Düssel. Exact construction and completion dates, as well as the builders of this church, which was exceptionally large for the then small town of Erkrath, can no longer be determined today. It is assumed that the initiative to build the church came from the Kaiserswerth monastery or the Gerresheim monastery, although Kaiserswerth seems more likely, since three of the six pastors that can be documented up to 1494 also held canons of the Kaiserswerth monastery. In a document from the Werden monastery from 1194, an Kaiserswerth canon Lodewicus, pastor of the church in Erkerode , is mentioned for the first time as a witness to an agreement between the Werden monastery and the Kaiserswerth monastery on the distribution of the income from the Hasselbeck estate. This document was certified by the then Abbot Heribert, who referred to an earlier agreement made by Abbot Adolf, one of his predecessors in office. This abbot Adolf officiated from 1160 to 1174, from which it can be deduced that within this period the still very small town already had a parish church. Parts of the oldest structure are Romanesque . It was not until the 14th century that the central nave and tower hall were said to have been equipped with ribbed vaults. According to an appraisal of the Rhenish Office for Monument Preservation drawn up in 1987, this is now doubtful, as this came to the conclusion that the western vault in the north aisle and the wall of the upper aisle in the central nave date from the construction phase of the 12th century. The large and mighty west tower, however, will have been added at a later date. Hermann von Alffter, a bell founder from Alfter near Bonn in the 15th century , created a bell for the parish church in 1454. The baroque tail hood of the tower that exists today is dated 1785. It was partially renewed after a lightning strike in 1855. The sacristy and the two small east towers were built during an urgently needed expansion and renovation at the turn of the 20th century.

Nothing is known about the Staufer period and the further 200 years after completion, and the patronage (presumably the owners of the Bavier house) cannot be proven. It was not until around 1400 that the gentlemen of the Unterbach family were mentioned as those who committed themselves to the protection and maintenance of the church, who selected and appointed the pastors and had the right to stay in a small side chapel of the church (the 1901 through the extension and the two east towers was replaced) to be buried. Since there is no evidence of a previous building at this point, it can be assumed that the parish church was built from 1100 to 1160.

Holy House

The holy house

On the summit of the Korresberg above Erkrath on the way to Unterbach there is a small, freely accessible chapel, the Heiligenhäuschen , directly at the crossroads with the Römerweg .

The time and reason for the construction are unknown. Earlier assumptions and traditions that the chapel was built in the 8th or 9th century and possibly an old Germanic place of worship or an old Christian burial place cannot be proven. The Erkrath doctor and local author Johann Heinrich Bongard even suspected in 1835 “a battle from ancient times” or “the resting bones of many slain”. In his publication, Bongard would rather have meant the Antonius Chapel in Hochdahl, to which the descriptions made there fit. Other assumptions name the late 15th century as the time of construction, which roughly coincides with the foundation of the Schützenbruderschaft. It is likely that the building has always been a place of worship. Good Friday processions and masses were held there until the 19th century. The first tangible year is 1617, in which reference was made to the restoration of the sanctuary. Above the entrance there is a stone slab with a crucifixion scene and the text: AD HONOREM DEI SACELLIUM HOC RENOVATUM SUMPTIBUS BERNARDI A GOHR JUDICIS MEDMANNI ET CHRISTINAE CLUTEN CONIUGUM. ANNO 1617 (For the glory of God this chapel was renovated at the expense of Bernard von Gohr, judge in Mettmann, and Christine Cluten, married couple. In 1617). It is unclear why the building was already in need of renovation at that time, whether for reasons of age or due to damage during the Truchsessian War . At the end of the 19th century, the chapel was again in a very bad condition, so that the Erkrath Vicar Münch initiated a collection among well-known Düsseldorf citizens. This enabled extensive renovation to begin in 1910. The roof structure with a cross and the slate roof were renewed, the masonry was repaired and grouted. Another renovation was necessary in 1985/1986. Two burial slabs were brought into the chapel by the gentlemen of the Unterbach family that had previously hung on the tower of the Catholic Church so that they are less exposed to the weather. The Saint Sebastian Brotherhood has taken on the sponsorship of the chapel and is entrusted with the maintenance and maintenance of the building.

House Unterbach

House Unterbach - the round tower

The Unterbach house is located in Erkrath-Unterfeldhaus .

A manor at this place was probably built during the Carolingian times . Probably out of fear of the Hungarians , who burned the neighboring town of Gerresheim and its monastery almost completely, or of Viking attacks , this was expanded to a castle for the first time around 900, but there is no historical evidence of this. It was first recorded as a knight's seat in 1169. Presumably around 1300 there was the massive expansion of the fortification with up to 1.20 meters thick surrounding walls, four towers with up to two meters thick walls and loopholes. It was also surrounded by a wide moat. Parts of the surrounding wall and three of the towers are still preserved today, a gate tower, a court tower and a round tower. Another round tower, the former dungeon, was demolished up to the height of the manor house and integrated into it. Parts of the drawbridge mechanism are also still preserved in the gate tower. The gardens of the castle and the surrounding area were created by the well-known landscape architect Maximilian Friedrich Weyhe (1775–1846), whose numerous works also include the Düsseldorf Hofgarten and the world-famous Königsallee .

Villa Bayer

The Villa Bayer is a listed building in Hochdahl. It was built in 1899 by Arthur Meckel, the architects were Heinrich Kayser and Karl von Großheim. Over the years the building was expanded to include an east terrace with rare columns and a south terrace. Friedrich Bayer acquired the villa in 1910 . The kitchen with servant entrance and its own stairwell used to have a windowless glass room. Among other things, extensive forest areas, two farms as well as forest, gardener, coachman and guest house belonged to the complex.

Attractions

The Rabenstein in the Neandertal

Access to the site of the Neanderthal man

Neanderthal

The Neandertal with several nature reserves and its modern Neanderthal Museum for Prehistory and Early History, opened in 1997 a few meters behind the city limits in Mettmann, with copies of the bone finds of the Neanderthal fossil Neandertal 1 , whose scientific importance was first recognized by Johann Carl Fuhlrott in 1856 , has a worldwide reputation . The evolution path is a hiking trail set up as a timeline along the Düssel to the place where the Neanderthal man was found in Erkrath, accessible via the museum. In the former Neanderthal Museum from 1938, the new museum hosts events, including a Stone Age workshop for children. On the hiking trails in the Neandertal, there is the MenschenSpuren art trail , a sculpture trail from the tension between humans and nature with works by eleven artists.

In the immediate vicinity is the 23 hectare Ice Age game reserve Neandertal , founded in 1935 , in which tarpan , bison and tail cattle can be observed.

Engine shed museum

The Lokschuppen museum on the steep ramp of the Düsseldorf – Wuppertal railway line near the former train station and today's Hochdahl stop documents the history of the first railway in western Germany.

Restored locomotives , exhibitions on railway history and a restaurant complete the offer. Events such as jazz concerts and model building exhibitions are occasionally held there.

Unterbacher See

Unterbacher See looking east from the north bank

The city of Erkrath, together with the cities of Düsseldorf and Hilden, is a member of the Unterbacher See association . The quarry pond is the traditional leisure facility for the residents with many offers for water sports enthusiasts and sun worshipers. The Unterbacher See was part of the city of Erkrath until 1975, until the suburb of Unterbach and the lake were incorporated into the neighboring Düsseldorf during the municipal reorganization. The body of water that was created by gravel between 1926 and 1973 is 83.6 hectares in size and up to 13.4 m deep. On the banks there are camping sites , beaches and restaurants, a mini golf course, a small sailing boat harbor with boat rental, a high ropes course and a rowing boat harbor used by schools in Düsseldorf and Erkrath .

Neanderhöhe observatory and planetarium

The observatory of the snh

Memorial plaque for the exhibition

On the Willbecker Heights on the eastern edge of Hochdahl is the observatory of the Neanderhöhe (snh) observatory with several astronomical observation towers, workshops, a photo laboratory, an amateur radio station , a Meteosat reception system for weather images and a professional sound studio with seminar rooms and a specialist library. The snh offers a wide range of further training opportunities and for youth work on astronomical topics, physics, electrical engineering, computer and communications engineering as well as photography. The snh became famous in 1970 when the lunar rock brought back from the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 moon landing missions was shown for the first time in Europe at the training center there on Hildener Straße .

Since 1980 the snh has been operating one of eight planetariums in North Rhine-Westphalia in the Hochdahler Bürgerhaus . After almost a year of closure and renovation due to a fire in the community center, the planetarium was reopened with new technology in May 2008 and has since been considered one of the most modern in the whole of Germany.

Distant view

At the southern end of Erkrath on the hilltop on Römerweg and from some places in Hochdahl there is a clear view of the southern districts of Düsseldorf, Hilden, Haan, Leverkusen (for example the Bayer Cross ), Solingen (including the stadium on Hermann-Löns-Weg), the Cologne Cathedral and up to the Siebengebirge . You can also see the Niederaussem and Grevenbroich-Neurath power plants with their striking clouds of steam and the Eifel . Even Johann Heinrich Bongard , Erkrather doctor and Prussian Secret Sanitätsrat in his 1835 published book describes hike to the cave Neander the impressive panoramic view to the (then still unfinished) Cologne Cathedral and the Seven Mountains.

and display information about the image

The Cologne Bay as seen from Hochdahl. The Cologne Cathedral and the Colonius telecommunications tower can be seen on the left, the Bayer factory in Dormagen on the right and the Eifel on the left , the Ville in the middle and lignite spoil heaps on the right.

graveyards

There are four cemeteries in Erkrath, one in Erkrath and three in Hochdahl. The Erkrath municipal cemetery on Kreuzstrasse was laid out in 1888 and has since grown up the hill beyond Römerweg. It replaced the former communal cemetery above the former Kalkumer Hof, which was closer to the community and was divided by the construction of the Düsseldorf – Elberfeld railway line. Today there is a green area and a rainwater retention basin. This cemetery continued to be buried until 1909. The first cemetery in Erkrath, laid out outside the church, existed in the first half of the 19th century for a few decades in the area of today's Hochdahler Strasse / Falkenstrasse, but was abandoned again in 1827. In old cartographies, a so-called Leichenweg or Liekestroot is recorded, which was used by the Kath. Church to the cemetery and which the funeral procession used on the way to the burial. This cemetery, on which tombstones are said to have stood until the 1880s, was more or less forgotten and built over after the war. Skeletal remains can still be found there during excavation work.

The Hochdahler Friedhof on Neanderweg is partly urban and partly managed by the Protestant parish (local name: Friedhof an der Neanderkirche ). It was laid out in 1922 by the parish and after the war it was expanded to include an urban part. It is one of the few cemeteries in the region that is still in the immediate vicinity of a church. In 1985 the new Neandertal Park Cemetery was opened directly at the Neandertaler Forest for the Hochdahl district, which had grown rapidly within a few decades. This cemetery has the largest extension of the Erkrath cemeteries and is laid out like a park, which is also used a lot by hikers and nature lovers. In Hochdahl-Trills there is also a small cemetery that is managed by the Catholic community.

societies

The homeland clubs Ercroder Jonges 1982 e. V. and Die Erkrather e. V. maintain the customs and have dedicated themselves to the local history and the local traditions. The Schützenverein St. Sebastanius Brotherhood 1484 e. V. is the oldest and most traditional of several shooting clubs. The Carnival Association Die letzte Hänger 1963 cultivates foolish customs.

In addition to the volunteer fire brigade of the city of Erkrath, there is also the German Red Cross local association Erkrath e. V., the German Life Saving Society, local group Erkrath e. V. and Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe e. V. Local association Erkrath .

Sports

The sports offer in many popular sports is also served by a number of clubs in Erkrath. The two largest clubs TSV Hochdahl e. V. and TUS Erkrath 1930 e. V. offer many different sports such as athletics, soccer, handball, volleyball, fencing and the like. v. m. on. The traditional football club is the SSV Erkrath 1919 e. V. in Erkrath and the SC Rhenania Hochdahl 1925 e. V. in Hochdahl. Other sports are offered by the Tennis-Sport-Club Unterfeldhaus e. V., the Tennis Club TC 82, the Tennis Club Blau Weiß e. V. in Erkrath, the swimming and sport club Hochdahl e. V. and SRG Erkrath e. V. served. In the center of Erkrath, the boules club Cercle de Pétanquer has created a popular boules pitch and also hosts tournaments there. On the outskirts of the city, horse shows in show jumping and dressage are regularly held at the local riding stables and farms Niermannshof and Uhlenhof . There is an indoor pool, which is called "Neanderbad".

On July 2, 2017, the 2nd stage of the Tour de France passed through Erkrath on its way from the Grand Depart-Ort Düsseldorf to Liège .

theatre

Erkrath does not have an independent theater. In the town hall, however, there are regular theater performances by touring theaters with well-known actors, as well as cabaret and cabaret. Regular theater performances are organized by the Laienspielbühne Unterfeldhaus e. V. - Die Unterfeldmäuse , the theater group of the Protestant parish Erkrath - Spotlight as well as the theater nero .

Regular events

Annual events are the carnival parades in Erkrath (every Saturday before Altweiber ) and in the former suburb of Unterbach (every carnival Sunday), as well as the rifle festival of the St. Sebastian Brotherhood on Corpus Christi with a fair and rifle parade. The advertising association's street festival has been held every summer at the beginning of June in Erkrath since 1983, and a successful street festival has also been established in Hochdahl-Trills since the late 1980s. Similar events also take place regularly on the Hochdahler Markt.

Economy and Infrastructure

Previous economic structure

For a long time Erkrath was dominated by agriculture. Some manors and large estates can still be found today or street names are reminiscent of them (Bavier House). There are still 26 of the former 85 farms. Grain is mainly grown around Erkrath. Cattle are raised and horses are kept. With industrialization and the railway, the first companies came to the Düssel valley, especially the paper industry , the textile industry with weaving mills and the mining , iron and steel industry and mechanical engineering. The Eintrachtshütte iron ore works in Hochdahl existed from 1838 to 1912. The neighboring lime industry in Hochdahl until 1945 and Wülfrath and the Gerresheimer Glashütte (until 2005) also attracted workers from Erkrath. Until the 1990s, which were in Erkrath cosmetics production units of Helena Rubinstein (Administration) and Chicogo (production) resident.

Today's economic structure

The long-established Schmincke company has been producing artist paints here since 1881.

The current structure of the economy of the three districts is characterized by small and medium-sized companies in trade, services and manufacturing. For new settlements on five designated, easily accessible industrial areas, it is particularly advertised for future-oriented companies in information technology, medical and genetic engineering and consulting companies. Since the summer of 2007, SC Johnson & Son has had its German headquarters in Erkrath. Since 2014, the largest employer in Erkrath has been Timocom GmbH , an IT company that offers services for all companies involved in transport. The DA-CH headquarters of the battery and flashlight manufacturer Energizer has been in Erkrath since July 2015 .

In the mid-1980s, mineral water was drilled again in Erkrath after 150 years. The fountains of the Erkrath springs with a spring depth of 230 m provide natural water that is mixed with carbonic acid and marketed in many ways in the lower price segment as Rheinfürst spring and also via retail chains.

traffic

train

Line of the Düsseldorf-Elberfelder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft

history

On December 20, 1838, the Düsseldorf-Elberfelder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft opened the first railway line in western Germany between Düsseldorf and Erkrath .

In the further course of the Düsseldorf – Elberfeld railway line , between the Erkrath and Hochdahl stations, lies the Erkrath – Hochdahl steep ramp , where a difference in altitude of 82 meters has to be overcome within 2.5 kilometers. There the trains were pulled with a rope between 1841 and 1926. Until the end of the 20th century, this section remained the steepest main railway line in Europe.

For the 150th anniversary of the railway line in 1988, local trains were abolished and the new S-Bahn line S 8 of the S-Bahn Rhine-Ruhr between Mönchengladbach and Hagen was introduced.

The second railway line from Düsseldorf via Mettmann to Dortmund , built between 1873 and 1879 by the Rheinische Eisenbahngesellschaft , ran north past the municipality of Erkrath. The little Erkrath therefore had a second train station very early on with the Erkrath Nord stop (train station since May 1, 1914) . This competition route to Dusseldorf-Elberfeld, later Bergisch railway company was until the 1990s only for freight trains to the nearby lime plant Neandertal and long-distance transport of coal mines in the southern Ruhr area and for each hour circulating railcars of DB Class ETA 150 used .

But also tourism to the Neandertal and the upswing of Erkrath with new building areas around Erkrath Nord was promoted. The expansion of the route carried out a few years ago by the private Regiobahn GmbH and the associated new introduction of the S 28 S-Bahn line also made this route more important in terms of passenger numbers and attractiveness. Thus (Alt-) Erkrath can be reached with two different train lines from Düsseldorf.

today

The following S-Bahn stations are in the Erkrath urban area: Erkrath, Hochdahl and Hochdahl-Millrath (all served by the S 8 and S 68 lines). The Erkrath Nord S-Bahn station is located north above the city and, like the Neanderthal S-Bahn station located just beyond the city limits, is served by the S 28 line.

Railway lines

line	Line designation	Line course
S 8	East-West S-Bahn	Hagen - Gevelsberg - Schwelm - Wuppertal - Erkrath - Düsseldorf - Neuss - Mönchengladbach
P 28	Regiobahn	Mettmann Stadtwald - Neanderthal - Erkrath North - Düsseldorf - Neuss - Kaarster See
P 68		Wuppertal-Vohwinkel - Erkrath - Düsseldorf - Langenfeld (Rhineland)

bus

Bus routes

line	course
734	Erkrath S-Bahnhof - D-Lierenfelder Straße
735	Erkrath, Neuenhausplatz - Düsseldorf, Südpark U
737	Erkrath, Neuenhausplatz - Düsseldorf Hbf SU
741	Mettmann, Kaldenberger Weg - Erkrath-Hochdahl S-Bahn station - Hilden, Südfriedhof
743	Erkrath S-Bahnhof - Mettmann, Jubilee Square
780	Hochdahler Markt - D-Heinrich-Heine-Allee U
781	Hilden, Erika settlement - Erkrath, Neuenhausplatz - Düsseldorf-Gerresheim, hospital
786	Haan, neighboring mountain - Hochdahl, school center
O 5	Erkrath S-Bahnhof - Erkrath-Millrath S-Bahnhof
O 6	Erkrath, Haus Brück - Erkrath-Millrath S-Bahn station
DL 4	Erkrath S-Bahnhof - Hilden Süd S-Bahnhof (night bus line - only on weekends)
NE 6	Erkrath, Neuenhausplatz - Düsseldorf Hbf SU (night bus line - only on weekends)

Street

The A 3 Neandertal Bridge

The federal motorway 3 leads directly east over the Neandertal Bridge past Erkrath. The reinforced concrete bridge built in 1935, which almost became a landmark of Erkrath (and which can also be seen in the central location of the old Erkrath coat of arms introduced in 1938), was opened after 50 years of use in the course of 1985 as part of the widening of the A3 three tracks torn off within a few months. When it was built, the 580 m long bridge was the longest motorway bridge in Germany. Today's standardized concrete bridge has been in service for more than two decades.

Access to the motorway network is via the A 46 with the Erkrath, Hilden and Haan-West junctions and via the Mettmann junction of the A 3, which is also the European route 35 here . These two motorways are linked at the Hilden motorway junction , which touches the city limits and forms a corner of the Düsseldorf motorway ring . The district of Hochdahl is connected by the state road 357 with Gruiten and by the L 403 with the Neandertal , Mettmann and Hilden . The route from Alt-Erkrath to Gerresheim and the Neandertal leads over the L 357. Federal roads do not affect Erkrath. The B 7 between Mettmann and Düsseldorf runs a few kilometers north of the city limits.

media

With the exception of the weekly newspaper Lokal Anzeiger, which is distributed in a similar format and serves several towns in the Mettmann district and the Bergisches Land, Erkrath does not have its own newspaper. The weekly post, the second weekly paper, was published until July 31, 2019 and was discontinued for economic reasons. Local events are dealt with on the local pages of the national newspapers Rheinische Post , Neue Rhein Zeitung and Westdeutsche Zeitung .

Public facilities

Neander bath

Due to the spatial division into three large districts, Erkrath has a public library with two locations, in the Kaiserhof in Alt-Erkrath and in the community center in Hochdahl, as well as an automated bookcase in Unterfeldhaus. The Erkrath City Library offers a total of 66,000 media of entertainment literature, non-fiction books, current magazines and games, whether printed, digital or audiovisual. With the BIBNET-Onleihe, BIBNET-Press and other online portals, readers of the city library have round-the-clock access to media and information.

The indoor pools from the 1970s, which also existed twice, have now been closed and demolished. Instead, in 2006, with the Neanderbad, a much larger pool than the previous facilities was opened, which is conveniently located between the city districts. The Neanderbad offers an eight-lane lap pool, a slide, a brine pool and outdoor facilities.

Other public facilities are the Erkrath town hall and the Hochdahl community center, which was considered one of the most modern and futuristic community centers in North Rhine-Westphalia when it opened in 1981.

health

Erkrath does not have its own hospital. The supply is ensured by the hospitals in the neighboring cities of Düsseldorf, Mettmann, Hilden and Haan.

education

In Erkrath there are all types of general education with the exception of the comprehensive school. Pupils from Unterfeldhaus and Düsseldorf's Unterbach mostly attend secondary schools in Erkrath. In Erkrath there is a grammar school and a secondary school; in Hochdahl high school, secondary school and secondary school are combined in one school center. There is also a school for the learning disabled in Erkrath and a boarding school in Hochdahl . The city offers an adult education center and a youth music school. In addition, Erkrath has nine primary schools , three of them in Erkrath, five in Hochdahl and one in Unterfeldhaus.

Elementary schools

Erkrath:

Municipal Community Primary School Erkrath Düsselstraße (extension "Bavierschule")
Municipal Community Primary School Erkrath Falkenstraße (Montessorizweig)
Johannesschule (catholic)

Hochdahl:

Millrath Elementary School
Sandheide primary school
Willbeck primary school
Hexagon school
Rainbow School

Unterfeldhaus

Rainbow School (extension)

Further training

Gymnasiums:

High school at the Neandertal
Hochdahl high school

Realschulen:

Realschule Erkrath
Realschule Hochdahl
Bergisches Boarding School (private school)

Secondary schools:

Carl Fuhlrott School

special school

Support center in the middle of the Mettmann district

Personalities

Honorary citizen

1955: Heinrich von Hymmen , Haus Unterbach , (* February 20, 1880; † November 25, 1960): because of his support for charitable and cultural institutions in Unterbach and Erkrath.
1971: Meta Käthe Amanda Pose, called Meta-Gertrud Pose (* December 1, 1898 in Hamburg; † September 10, 1981 in Mettmann): because of her support for the day-care centers and the Reinhold Pose Foundation.

Sons and daughters

Johann Heinrich Bongard

Joachim Neander

Philip of Pestel

Johann Heinrich Bongard (born March 18, 1779, † December 20, 1857 in Düsseldorf), well-known ophthalmologist and surgeon at his time and Royal Prussian Councilor , first author of a publication on the Neandertal. A street in Erkrath's center is named after him
Karl Wenders (born February 22, 1841; † June 5, 1905 in Düsseldorf), member of the Reichstag and Landtag, mayor of Neuss
Jacob Isenrath (born March 18, 1879 - † January 13, 1951 in Neuss), politician (center)
Friedrich Hünermann (born August 24, 1886; † February 14, 1969 in Aachen), Catholic theologian and auxiliary bishop in Aachen
Benedikt Stolz (born January 6, 1895 - † April 29, 1986 in Jerusalem), Catholic theologian
Anselm Stolz (born November 25, 1900, † September 19, 1942 in Rome), Catholic theologian
Manfred Lahnstein (born December 20, 1937), politician (SPD), former Federal Minister of Finance and member of the executive and supervisory board of Bertelsmann AG
Heiner Baltes (born August 19, 1949), football player

People related to the city

Joachim Neander (* around 1650 in Bremen; † May 31, 1680 there), pastor and hymn poet and composer. The Neanderthal was named after him.

Philipp von Pestel (born October 11, 1767 in Minden ; † July 9, 1835 in Haus Unterbach), resided in Haus Unterbach and was regional president for the administrative district of Düsseldorf from 1816–1831 and as high president of the Rhine province from 1831–1834

Julius Schimmelbusch (* July 8, 1826 in Düsseldorf, † August 8, 1881 in Hochdahl), pioneer of metallurgy and director of the Hochdahler metallurgical plant

Karl Sudhoff (born November 26, 1853 in Frankfurt am Main; † October 8, 1938 in Salzwedel ), the founder of the history of medicine as a scientific discipline in Germany, was from 1885 to 1905 a hut doctor at the Hochdahler Eisenhütte and doctor for the poor, and later also a member of the Hochdahl-Millrath municipal council

Toni Turek (born January 18, 1919 in Duisburg, † May 11, 1984 in Neuss), national goalkeeper and world champion in Bern in 1954, lived during his years at Fortuna Düsseldorf and his World Cup title in Erkrath. 50 years after Bern and 20 years after his death, the Erkrath Stadium was named after him (Toni Turek Stadium)

Manfred Kuttner (born January 27, 1937 in Greiz; † October 28, 2007 in Erkrath), painter, object artist and experimental filmmaker

Klaus Hänsch (born December 15, 1938 in Sprottau ; Silesia ), politician (SPD), former President of the European Parliament

Dieter Prochnow (born May 22, 1939 in Berlin), actor, brother of Jürgen Prochnow

Harry Rosin (* 1943), medic

Aleksandar Ristić (born June 28, 1944 in Sarajevo ), football player and coach (Fortuna Düsseldorf, among others) lived in Erkrath at the time

Wolfgang Seel (born June 21, 1948 in Kirkel / Saar), soccer player, long-time teammate of the Allofs brothers at Fortuna Düsseldorf, was living in Erkrath at the time

Joseph-Theodor Blank (born March 19, 1947 in Lüdenscheid ), CDU member of the Bundestag from 1983 to 2002.

Fritz Behrens (born October 12, 1948 in Göttingen ), former District President Düsseldorf and Minister of the Interior and Justice of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, lived in Erkrath at the time; currently member of the state parliament for Neuss

Flemming Lund (born October 6, 1952 in Copenhagen), Danish football player for Fortuna Düsseldorf and Rot-Weiss Essen , lived in Hochdahl

Klaus Allofs (born December 5, 1956 in Düsseldorf), soccer player, lived in Erkrath-Unterfeldhaus for a long time.

Thomas Allofs (born November 17, 1959 in Düsseldorf), soccer player, lives in Erkrath-Unterfeldhaus and runs a waste disposal company in Düsseldorf

Werner Koch (born July 11, 1961), developer of Free Software and founder of the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG or GPG), lives in Hochdahl

literature

Johann Heinrich Bongard : Hike to the Neanders Cave - A topographical sketch of the area of Erkrath on the Düssel. Arnz & Comp., Düsseldorf 1835 (facsimile: ISBN 3-922055-19-2 ).
Fritz and Joseph Hünermann: Erkrath and its surroundings. In: Düsseldorfer Tageblatt. 1907.
Franz Josef Brors: Unterbach - A local historical chat and at the same time a contribution to the history of the Bergisches Land. Self-published, 1910.
Erkrath - Transport and beautification association for the mayor's office in Erkrath and the surrounding area - 1914 (facsimile, publisher: Bergischer Geschichtsverein Abt. Erkrath, 1996).
City of Erkrath (ed.): Erkrath. 1986, ISBN 3-88913-097-6 .
City of Erkrath (ed.): Hochdahl. 1989, ISBN 3-88913-128-X .
Meinhard Sucker, Udo Kampschulte: The cable system in Hochdahl - A contribution to German railway history. Deutsche Bundesbahn (Ed.). 1988, DNB 900712147 .
Hanna Eggerath, Anton Rose: In the rock. The original Neandertal in pictures from the 19th century (= Bergische Forschungen. Volume 26). With a contribution Die Düsseldorfer Landschaftsmaler und das Stein by Irene Markowitz . Wienand, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-87909-517-5 .
Erika Stubenhöfer: The Erkrath mayors 1898–1999. City history as reflected in biographies. City of Erkrath (ed.). 2004, DNB 972489231 .
Horst Wangerin: From Milroyde to the new town of Hochdahl. Edited by Gottfried Bander. 2004.
Peter Dietz: Erkrath in the time of the National Socialist tyranny. City of Erkrath (ed.). 2007, ISBN 978-3-9810701-1-8 .
Ulla Backhaus: Hochdahl in the time of National Socialism. City of Erkrath (ed.). 2010, ISBN 978-3-9810701-2-5 .
Holger Johan: The communal restructuring on January 1st, 1975. In: Usser Dorp. Ercroder Jonges 1982 e. V. (Ed.), No. 33, 2014.
Holger Johan: From village to city. In: Usser Dorp. Ercroder Jonges 1982 e. V. (Ed.), No. 34, 2015, ZDB -ID 1187895-2 .

Web links

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

Internet pages of the city of Erkrath. City of Erkrath; Retrieved June 1, 2009

Individual evidence

↑ Population of the municipalities of North Rhine-Westphalia on December 31, 2019 - update of the population based on the census of May 9, 2011. State Office for Information and Technology North Rhine-Westphalia (IT.NRW), accessed on June 17, 2020 . ( Help on this )

↑ climate-data.org. AM Online Projects - Alexander Merkel. Retrieved September 22, 2019.

↑ Harald Frater: The Düsseldorf Atlas. Emons, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-89705-355-1 , p. 18 f.

↑ Press, 2004. In: unterbach.com, accessed on April 18 of 2019.

↑ Main statute for the city of Erkrath from November 29, 1994. (PDF; 233 kB) In: erkrath.de. City of Erkrath, October 31, 2018, accessed on April 8, 2018 (The main statute does not specify any districts.).

↑ City - data / statistics. In: erkrath.de. City of Erkrath, accessed on August 24, 2017 : "District Alt-Erkrath [...] District Hochdahl [...] District Unterfeldhaus" .

↑ Klockenhoff: Around the Neandertal. Publisher Hermann Michael.

↑ Horst-Ulrich Osmann: Erkrath and the house Brück 1598. In: Niederbergische Geschichte. Volume 8. Ed .: Bergischer Geschichtsverein, Abt. Erkrath e. V., 2017, ISSN 0947-3904 , p. 21 ff. - On the occasion of an inheritance process around Haus Brück, there is a document originally Latin translated into Low German from the year 1258, from which it emerges that the Counts of Berg as Owners of the manor could give it to a ministerial as needed .

^ Fritz and Joseph Hünermann: Erkrath and his surroundings. Düsseldorfer Tageblatt, 1907, p. 23 - Here, as with some other publications, the assumption is made that all documents were destroyed in the Thirty Years War , so that records are only available again from 1640.

^ City of Erkrath (ed.): Erkrath. 1986, p. 57.

↑ Osmann, Horst-Ulrich: Erkrath and the house Brück 1598. In: Niederbergische Geschichte. Volume 8. Ed. By Bergischer Geschichtsverein, Abt. Erkrath e. V., 2017, ISSN 0947-3904 , p. 31.

↑ Wangerin: From Milroyde the new city Hochdahl. 2004, p. 7.

^ Johann Heinrich Bongard: Hike to the Neanders Cave - A topographical sketch of the area of Erkrath on the Düssel. Arnz & Comp., Düsseldorf 1835 (available as a facsimile under ISBN 3-922055-19-2 ), p. 6.

↑ Schmitz / Thissen: Neandertal - The story goes on. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-8274-1345-1 , p. 31 ff.

↑ Schmitz / Thissen: Neandertal - The story goes on. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-8274-1345-1 , p. 260 ff.

↑ Klockenhoff: Around the Neandertal. Hermann Michael Verlag, p. 26.

↑ Wangerin: From Milroyde the new city Hochdahl. 2004, p. 21 - A number of Roman coins from different centuries were found in 1935/1936 during the construction of Autobahn 3 near the Pimpelsberg.

↑ Klockenhoff: Around the Neandertal. Verlag Hermann Michael, 1967, p. 35 (quoted from: F. Körholz - Bergische Heimat. 5/1931, p. 116).

↑ Festschrift 25 years of Ercoder Jonges. 2007, p. 14 ff.

↑ Horst-Ulrich Osmann: Erkrath and the House of Brück 1598 (= Niederbergische Geschichte. Volume 8). Ed .: Bergischer Geschichtsverein, Abt. Erkrath e. V., 2017, ISSN 0947-3904 , pp. 31-32.

^ AJ Binterim, JH Mooren in: The Archdiocese of Cöln up to the French state revolution. III. The Rhine Franconian decanates. 1892, p. [301] 279.

↑ Lacomblet, Theodor Joseph: Document book for the history of the Lower Rhine or the Archbishopric of Cologne, Certificate No. 218. Volume 2, 1846, p. [151] 113, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 5: 1-247 .

↑ Festschrift 25 years of Ercoder Jonges. 2007, p. 15.

↑ Festschrift 25 years of Ercoder Jonges. 2007, p. 15 (quoted from: F. Lau: Geschichte der Stadt Düsseldorf. Volume 1, p. 33, certificate no. 59).

↑ Liber Valoris Ecclesiarum Coloniensis Dioecesis . In: Anton Joseph Binterim , Joseph Hubert Mooren : The Archdiocese of Cologne up to the French state upheaval. Edit again by Albert Mooren . Volume I: The Archdiocese of Cologne in the Middle Ages. L. Voss, Düsseldorf 1892, chap. III: The Rhine Franconian decanates. OCLC 84630781S , p. 276, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-253049 ( digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de ; Erkrath belongs to "Christianity Neuss on the right bank of the Rhine" [p. 275]).

↑ Osmann, Horst-Ulrich: Erkrath and the House of Brück 1598 (= Niederbergische Geschichte. Volume 8). Ed .: Bergischer Geschichtsverein, Abt. Erkrath e. V., 2017, ISSN 0947-3904 , pp. 32-33.

^ Brors: Unterbach - A local history chat. Self-published, 1910, p. 5 ff.

^ City of Erkrath (ed.): Erkrath. 1986, p. 289.

^ ^A ^b Wilhelm Fabricius : History Atlas of the Rhine Province. Volume: Explanations II of the map from 1789. Bonn 1894–1914.

^ ^A ^b Carl Friedrich von Wiebeking : Carte des Herzogthums Berg.

^ Johann Heinrich Bongard: Hike to the Neanders Cave - A topographical sketch of the area of Erkrath on the Düssel. Arnz & Comp., Düsseldorf 1835 (available as a facsimile at, ISBN 3-922055-19-2 ), p. 4.

↑ See on this: Stefan Ehrenpreis (Ed.): The Thirty Years' War in the Duchy of Berg and in its neighboring regions (= Bergische Forschungen. Volume XXVIII). 2002, ISBN 3-87707-581-9 . The atrocities of the Thirty Years' War were well known in the area. In the decades of fighting, looting campaigns and marches, Hilden, Solingen, Wülfrath, Mettmann, Himmelgeist, Angermund, Ratingen, Monheim and Benrath have been plagued by raids and looting, murder and terror. It can hardly be assumed that Erkrath, albeit a small village, should not have had contact with the Soldateska.

↑ Gerhard Mercator: BERGHE / Ducatus / MARCK CO = / mitatus et COLONIEN / sis Dioecesis (Duchy of Berg, Grafschaft Mark and Diocese of Cologne) Duisburg 1585 / Amsterdam 1609 (quoted from: Schwarz: Cologne and its surroundings in old maps. Emons Verlag Cologne , 2005, pp. 44-45, 118).

↑ Hessel Gerritszoon: De Hertochdommen / GULICK CLEVE BERGHE / en de Graeffschappen vander / MARCK EN RAVENSBERGH […] (The duchies of Jülich, Kleve and Berg and the counties of Mark and Ravensberg) Amsterdam 1610 (quoted from: Schwarz: Köln und seine Umland in old maps. Emons Verlag, Cologne 2005, pp. 54–55, 123).

^ Johannes Gigas: Archiepiscopatus / COLONIENSIS / Pars Septentrionalis (Archdiocese of Cologne, northern part). Cologne 1620 (quoted from: Schwarz: Cologne and its surrounding area in old maps. Emons Verlag, Cologne 2005, pp. 56–57, 124).

↑ Johann Matthias Hase: DUCATUS / IULIACI & BERGENSIS / Tabula Geographica simul Ducatum CLIVIAE / & MEURSIAE Principatum, nec non adjac- / tarrarum, inter quas integer Ducat. LIMBURGEN- / SIS […] (Duchy of Jülich and Duchy of Berg, Duchy of Kleve and Principality of Moers, Duchy of Limburg). Nuremberg 1739/1753 (quoted from: Schwarz: Cologne and its surrounding area in old maps. Emons Verlag Cologne, 2005, pp. 74–75, 133).

↑ Burkhard Dietz (ed.): Erich Phillip Ploennies, Topographia Ducatus Montani 1715. Part I. Neustadt a. d. Aisch 1988, p. 86 f.

^ Bormann and Daniels, in: Handbook of the laws proclaimed for the Royal Prussian Rhine Provinces ... / Third Department. 1841, Volume 6, Cologne, p. [17] 5. Online version.

^ Hermann Hengstenberg: The former Duchy of Berg and its immediate surroundings. B. Hartmann, Elberfeld 1897, OCLC 851352115 , p. 43, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-229901 ( digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de ).

^ City of Erkrath (ed.): City brochure Erkrath. Edition 1973, p. 8.

↑ Meyers Konversationslexikon. Fourth edition, 1885-1892, Volume 7, p. 187 about the place Gerresheim. There it says: The mayor's office of the same name is associated with Gerresheim-Stadt. It consists of the communities Erkrath and Ludenberg and has around 7000 souls. The Hochdahl ironworks belongs to the municipality of Erkrath.

^ Mayor offices of Gerresheim and Ludenberg. Duration: 1850–1909. (No longer available online.) In: duesseldorf.de. City archive of the city of Düsseldorf, archived from the original on March 9, 2016 ; accessed on September 6, 2018 .

↑ Stubenhöfer: The Erkrath mayors 1898–1999. City history as reflected in biographies. P. 15 - The Rhenish mayor's office was called an office from 1927 in line with the name in Westphalia .

↑ Stubenhöfer: The Erkrath mayors 1898–1999. City history as reflected in biographies. P. 54 ff.

↑ room Höfer: The Erkrather mayor 1898-1999 - History in the mirror of biographies. P. 59 ff.

↑ Hans-Joachim Dietz: 85 years of the Neandertal nature reserve. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: lanuv.nrw.de. Formerly in the original ; retrieved on April 18, 2019 (LÖBF Mitteilungen 4/2006; no mementos). ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2 .

^ Dietz: Erkrath in the time of the National Socialist tyranny - Erkrath monographs on city history. Volume II. P. 26 ff.

^ Dietz: Erkrath in the time of the National Socialist tyranny - Erkrath monographs on city history. Volume II. P. 39 ff.

↑ room Höfer: The Erkrather mayor 1898-1999 - History in the mirror of biographies. P. 70 - Chapter Mayor Dr. Hallauer.

↑ Hanna Eggerath: innocent men and women - the Erkrath victims of the NSDAP. In: Journal of the Mettmann district. No. 25, 2005/06, ISBN 3-402-04608-3 , p. 119.

↑ Time track search: Mettmann. Koburg. In: zeitspurensuche.de, accessed on September 7, 2018.

^ Dietz: Erkrath in the time of the National Socialist tyranny - Erkrath monographs on city history. Volume II. P. 51 ff.

↑ room Höfer: The Erkrather mayor 1898-1999 - History in the mirror of biographies. P. 74 ff.

^ Dietz: Erkrath in the time of the National Socialist tyranny - Erkrath monographs on city history. Volume II. P. 64 ff.

↑ See Dietz, p. 61 ff., Where a letter from the District President Schmid to the Gauleitung Düsseldorf is quoted in which Erkrath is referred to as a red and black stronghold, in which special conditions exist anyway and in which the tensions between the administration and the local group leadership are finally resolved World would have to be made. In a letter from Schmid to the Upper President of the Rhine Province on April 18, 1935, Erkrath is referred to in this context as a communist stronghold, where center and reactionary tendencies still exist.

^ Dietz: Erkrath in the time of the National Socialist tyranny - Erkrath monographs on city history. Volume II. P. 67 ff.

↑ room Höfer: The Erkrather mayor 1898-1999 - History in the mirror of biographies. P. 78 ff.

↑ Sabine Maguire: Americans throw Nazi mayors out of office. Rheinische Post , April 21, 2015, accessed on April 26, 2015 .

^ Dietz: Erkrath in the time of the National Socialist tyranny - Erkrath monographs on city history. Volume II, p. 157.

↑ room Höfer: The Erkrather mayor 1898-1999 - History in the mirror of biographies. P. 106 ff. - In his activity report from March 1946, Mayor Broich names the number of 13 totally destroyed buildings, 88 heavily and 498 slightly damaged houses.

^ Dietz: Erkrath in the time of the National Socialist tyranny - Erkrath monographs on city history. Volume II. P. 149 ff.

^ Dietz: Erkrath in the time of the National Socialist tyranny - Erkrath monographs on city history. Volume II. P. 159 ff.

↑ On April 12, 1945, German troops blew up part of the roadway of the motorway bridge in order to stop the American tank units (see Dietz: Erkrath in the time of the Nazi tyranny - Erkrath monographs on city history. Volume II. P. 157). These, however, then drove down the mountain unmolested and made progress.

↑ Search in the name directory. Memorial book. Victim of the persecution of the Jews under the Nazi tyranny in Germany 1933–1945. In: bundesarchiv.de/gedenkbuch, accessed on June 17, 2019 (search for "Erkrath" - "Residence").

↑ room Höfer: The Erkrather mayor 1898-1999 - History in the mirror of biographies. P. 105 (quoted from the activity report of the resigning Mayor Broich of March 1, 1946).

↑ Hanna Eggerath, Thomas Boller: The old aircraft engine from Hochdahl-Trills. The history of the Halifax NP810-EQ-H (= home archive ). Sutton, Erfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-86680-166-0 (for research and results).

↑ Helmut Grau, Sven Polkläser, Jürgen Stecher: The fate of the Halifax bomber Moonlight Mermaid. The plane crash near Erkrath during World War II. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2019, ISBN 978-3-74945-263-7 , urn : nbn: de: 101: 1-2019041501032435988116 .

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Stubenhöfer: The Erkrath mayors 1898–1999 - city history in the mirror of biographies. P. 139 ff. (Statistical data from the StA Erkrath).

↑ Klockenhoff: Around the Neandertal. Verlag Hermann Michael, 1967, p. 43 (Like most of the courtyards in the Erkrath parish, this was also subject to tax in the Unterbach house).

^ Michael Rademacher: German administrative history from the unification of the empire in 1871 to the reunification in 1990. mettmann.html. (Online material for the dissertation, Osnabrück 2006).

↑ A treatise on the discussions of the regional reforms of the 1970s in North Rhine-Westphalia can be found in: Stadt Erkrath (ed.): Hochdahl, 1989, p. 112 ff.

^ Federal Statistical Office (ed.): Historical municipality directory 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. 293 .

^ Brors: Unterbach - A local history chat. Self-published, 1910, p. 126 ff.

^ Fritz and Joseph Hünermann: Erkrath and his surroundings. Düsseldorfer Tageblatt GmbH, 1907, p. 25 (quoted from: Johann Georg von Viebahn, Statistics and Topography of the District of Düsseldorf, 1836, II: Part, p. 72).

^ Fritz and Joseph Hünermann: Erkrath and his surroundings. In: Düsseldorfer Tageblatt. 1907, p. 25 (quoted from: Johann Georg von Viebahn, Statistics and Topography of the Government District of Düsseldorf, 1836, Part II, p. 72 - The denominations are broken down here: 516 Catholic, 106 Protestant, 12 Jewish).

↑ Traffic and beautification association for Erkrath and the surrounding area. 1914 (facsimile). Ed. Bergischer Geschichtsverein Abt. Erkrath, 1996, p. 6.

^ Roland Koschmieder: Medicine and Doctors in Erkrath 1800–1945. In: Niederbergische Geschichte - Volume 4. Ed. By Bergisches Geschichtsverein, Department Erkrath e. V., 2010, p. 34, quoted from: Community encyclopedia of the Rhineland Province (figures from December 1, 1885).

^ Neumanns Orts-Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs 1894 Volume 1, Page 194 ( genealogy.net ).

↑ Ritter's geographical-statistical lexicon. 1895, Volume 1, Page 555 ( genealogy.net ).

^ Brors: Unterbach - A local history chat. Self-published, 1910, p. 124 - Basis: 1900 census.

^ Brors: Unterbach - A local history chat. Self-published, 1910, p. 124 - The denominations are divided into 4508 Catholic, 1620 Protestant, 23 Jewish, 18 Diss.

^ Brors: Unterbach - A local history chat. Self-published, 1910, p. 124 - The denominations are divided into 4708 Catholic, 1647 Protestant, 24 Jewish, 11 Apostle. and 1 freirel.

^ Roland Koschmieder: Medicine and Doctors in Erkrath 1800–1945. In: Niederbergische Geschichte. Volume 4. Ed. By the Bergisches Geschichtsverein, Department Erkrath e. V., 2010, p. 57, from: Erkrath City Archives (StAE No. 121). Of the 6,599 inhabitants, 2,415 were children. The religious communities were distributed as follows: 4,734 Catholics, 1,832 Protestants, 21 Jews and 12 people of different faiths.

↑ Erkrath, Stadt im Grünen - city brochure, no year, around 1982, p. 17.

↑ ^a ^b Bergischer Geschichtsverein, Dept. Erkrath: The history of water and energy supply in Erkrath. In: Niederbergische Geschichte - Sources and Contributions. Volume 6, 2014, p. 24.

↑ The population of 1926 is higher than that of the following years. This is due to the spin-off of Hochdahl, Trills and Bruchhausen and the sole incorporation of Morp. The denominational division was: 4835 Catholic, 2067 Protestant, 16 Jewish and 207 people of different faiths.

↑ See Dietz, p. 25: quoted from: Adressbuch der Stadt Düsseldorf from 1933, p. XVIII.

↑ See Dietz, p. 25: quoted from: StA Erkrath No. 44, municipal administration and their organs.

^ City of Erkrath (ed.): City brochure Erkrath. Edition 2010, p. 5.

↑ Figures from September 1st, 1953 - from: Usser Dorp - Association newspaper of the Ercroder Jonges 1982 e. V., Edition 34 - December 2015, p. 10 (Source: Research in the Erkrath City Archives and press publications from the Rheinische Post)

↑ Figures from January 1st, 1954 - from: Usser Dorp - Association newspaper of the Ercroder Jonges 1982 e. V., Edition 34 - December 2015, p. 12 (Source: Research in the Erkrath City Archives and press releases from the Rheinische Post)

↑ Figures from December 31, 1956 - from: Usser Dorp - Association newspaper of the Ercroder Jonges 1982 e. V., Edition 34 - December 2015, p. 16 (Source: Research in the Erkrath City Archives and press releases from the Rheinische Post)

↑ Figures from June 30th, 1957 - from: Usser Dorp - Association newspaper of the Ercroder Jonges 1982 e. V., Edition 34 - December 2015, p. 18 (Source: Research in the Erkrath City Archives and press publications from the Rheinische Post)

↑ Figures from December 31, 1958 - from: Usser Dorp - Association newspaper of the Ercroder Jonges 1982 e. V., Edition 34 - December 2015, p. 20 (Source: Research in the Erkrath City Archives and press releases from the Rheinische Post)

↑ Figures from July 31, 1959 - from: Usser Dorp - Association newspaper of the Ercroder Jonges 1982 e. V., Edition 34 - December 2015, p. 22 (Source: Research in the Erkrath City Archives and press publications from the Rheinische Post)

↑ City of Erkrath (Ed.): Junge Stadt auf historical Boden, 1986, p. 16.

↑ Figures from July 31, 1964 - from: Usser Dorp - Association newspaper of the Ercroder Jonges 1982 e. V., Edition 34 - December 2015, p. 30 (Source: Research in the Erkrath City Archives and press releases from the Rheinische Post)

↑ Communications of the NRW Städtebundes No. 19/1971 (from Usser Dorp - Association newspaper of the Ercroder Jonges 1982 e.V., edition 10 - June 1998, p. 23).

↑ Usser Dorp - Association newspaper of the Ercroder Jonges 1982 e. V., Edition 34 - December 2015, p. 10 (Source: Research in the Erkrath City Archives and press releases from the Rheinische Post). The population was broken down as follows: up to 17 years: 5,362, 18–29 years: 7,032, 40–64 years: 5,607, 65 years and older: 2,014

^ City of Erkrath (ed.): City brochure Erkrath. Edition 1973, p. 5.

^ City of Erkrath (ed.): Hochdahl, 1989, p. 116.

^ City of Erkrath (ed.): City brochure Erkrath. 1977 edition, p. 2 - At that time the inhabitants were divided between Erkrath (14,117), Unterfeldhaus (3,958) and Hochdahl (19,788).

^ City of Erkrath (ed.): City brochure Erkrath. 1982 edition, p. 10 - At that time the inhabitants were divided between Erkrath (14,062), Unterfeldhaus (6,350) and Hochdahl (23,453).

^ City of Erkrath (ed.): City brochure Erkrath. Edition 1984/85, p. 10 - At that time the inhabitants were divided between Erkrath (13,665), Unterfeldhaus (6,372) and Hochdahl (24,094).

↑ City of Erkrath (Ed.): Junge Stadt auf historical Boden, 1986, p. 14 - as of June 30, 1986.

^ City of Erkrath (ed.): City brochure Erkrath. 1988 edition, p. 4 - At that time the inhabitants were divided between Erkrath (13,810), Unterfeldhaus (6,625) and Hochdahl (26,357).

^ City of Erkrath (ed.): City brochure Erkrath. 1992 edition, p. 6 - At that time the inhabitants were divided between Erkrath (14,015), Unterfeldhaus (6,531) and Hochdahl (27,786).

^ City of Erkrath (ed.): City brochure Erkrath. 1998 edition, p. 15, figures from: June 30th, 1998 - At that time the inhabitants were divided between Erkrath (14,012) and Unterfeldhaus (6,427). and Hochdahl (29.109).

^ City of Erkrath (ed.): City brochure Erkrath. Edition 2001, p. 14 - At that time the inhabitants were divided between Erkrath (13,888), Unterfeldhaus (6,266) and Hochdahl (28,639).

^ City of Erkrath (ed.): City brochure Erkrath. 2004 edition, p. 12 - At that time the inhabitants were divided between Erkrath (13,076), Unterfeldhaus (5,705) and Hochdahl (28,681).

^ State Office for Data Processing and Statistics North Rhine-Westphalia (figures from December 31, 2006).

^ State Office for Data Processing and Statistics North Rhine-Westphalia (figures from December 31, 2007).

^ State Office for Data Processing and Statistics North Rhine-Westphalia (figures from December 31, 2008).

^ State Office for Data Processing and Statistics North Rhine-Westphalia (figures from December 31, 2009).

↑ State Office for Information and Technology North Rhine-Westphalia (IT.NRW) (formerly State Office for Data Processing and Statistics North Rhine-Westphalia ), figures from December 31, 2010.

↑ State Office for Information and Technology North Rhine-Westphalia (IT.NRW) (formerly State Office for Data Processing and Statistics North Rhine-Westphalia ), figures from December 31, 2011.

↑ Landesbetrieb Information und Technik Nordrhein-Westfalen (IT.NRW) - Population figures based on the census of May 9, 2011, accessed on June 14, 2013.

↑ State Office for Information and Technology North Rhine-Westphalia (IT.NRW) - figures from December 31, 2013.

↑ State Office for Information and Technology North Rhine-Westphalia (IT.NRW) - figures from December 31, 2014.

↑ State Office for Information and Technology North Rhine-Westphalia (IT.NRW) - figures from December 31, 2015.

^ State Office for Information and Technology in North Rhine-Westphalia (IT.NRW) - figures from December 31, 2016.

↑ State Office for Information and Technology North Rhine-Westphalia (IT.NRW) - figures from December 31, 2017.

↑ State Office for Information and Technology North Rhine-Westphalia (IT.NRW) - figures from December 31, 2018.

↑ If these surrounding farms were added, the cadastral community of Erkrath would have 2175 inhabitants in 1815, 1832 and 1832. Source: Statistical figures from the Düsseldorf district, Düsseldorf regional court district, Gerresheim mayor, Erkrath cadastral community, p. 72 of the Rhine province - from: City of Erkrath (publisher): Hochdahl. 1989, p. 281.

↑ Publications of the Society for Rhenish History, Volume XII - Explanations of the Historical Atlas of the Rhine Province - Second Volume, Bonn 1898, quoting from: Dr. Wilhelm Fabricius - Map from 1789 - Division and development of the territories from 1600 to 1794, p. 317 about the Duchy of Berg. The numbers refer to the honors Ellscheid (main courtyard Ellscheid), Erkrath (house Bavier), Bruchhausen (house Klef), Dorp (house Brück) and Unterbach (house Unterbach). The numbers are divided into 1315 Catholics and 538 Protestants.

↑ Horst-Ulrich Osmann: Erkrath and the House of Brück 1598, Niederbergische Geschichte. Volume 8. Ed .: Bergischer Geschichtsverein, Abt. Erkrath e. V., 2017, ISSN 0947-3904 , p. 34.

↑ Transport and Beautification Association for Erkrath and the Surrounding Area, 1914 (facsimile), published by Bergischer Geschichtsverein Abt. Erkrath, 1996, p. 6.

↑ BMU page.

^ UWG-Mettmann.

^ City of Erkrath (ed.), Erika Stubenhöfer: The Erkrath Mayors 1898–1999 - City History in the Mirror of Biographies 2004 (without ISBN).

^ Result on the website of the city of Erkrath: Erkrath. Mayoral election 2015. In: wahlen.erkrath-it.de, accessed on April 18, 2019.

↑ message Radio Neandertal: radioneandertal.de .

^ Website of the city of Erkrath.

↑ Main statute of the city of Erkrath of November 29, 1994. (PDF; 230 kB) Accessed on September 9, 2013 (p. 3 and Annex 2, p. 16 f.).

↑ Cergy-Pontoise dissolves town twinning with Erkrath , rp-online from November 6, 2019, accessed on November 6, 2019.

^ Leonard Ennen: History of the Reformation in the area of the old Archdiocese of Cologne. Schwann, Cologne 1849, p. 388, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-479263 ( digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de ).

↑ Brochure of the Evangelical Congregation Erkrath on the 175th anniversary of the opening of the Evangelical Church in 1831, published in 2006, p. 13.

↑ Brochure of the Evangelical Congregation Erkrath on the 175th anniversary of the opening of the Evangelical Church in 1831, published in 2006, p. 6.

^ Johann Heinrich Bongard: Hike to the Neandershöhle - A topographical sketch of the area from Erkrath an der Düssel, Arnz & Comp., Düsseldorf 1835 (available as a facsimile at, ISBN 3-922055-19-2 ), p. 3.

↑ Brochure of the Evangelical Congregation Erkrath on the 175th anniversary of the opening of the Evangelical Church in 1831, published in 2006, p. 9.

↑ Transport and improvement associations for Erkrath and the surrounding area, 1914, (facsimile, ed. Bergischer Geschichtsverein Abt. Erkrath, 1996), p. 60.

^ Official homepage of the community ( Memento of August 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). In: treffpunkt-leben.com, accessed on October 1, 2017.

↑ Festschrift for the 100th anniversary of the renovation and expansion of the Catholic Church in 1901, published in 2001, p. 3.

↑ Otto-Günter Ries: Church tour through the parish church of St. John the Baptist, Alt-Erkrath. In: st-johannes-erkrath.de, accessed on April 18, 2019.

↑ ^a ^b ^c Historical essay by Horst Osmann: Almost as old as Erkrath himself: The Catholic parish church has shaped the townscape on the website of the Saint Sebastianus Brotherhood Erkrath for 800 years , accessed on April 18, 2019 (from the second half of the website).

↑ Erkrath City Archives, inventory no. 679.

↑ Klaus Saeger: St. John the Baptist, Erkrath (= quick art guide ). 2nd, modified edition. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2002, ISBN 3-7954-4599-X , p. 2.

↑ Hermann von Alffter . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 16 : Hansen – Heubach . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1923, p. 488 .

↑ Festschrift for the 100th anniversary of the renovation and expansion of the Catholic Church in 1901, published in 2001, p. 5. - Contrary to the prevailing opinion in the past, people are now convinced that the tail hood has been restored to its old height.

↑ Festschrift for the 100th anniversary of the renovation and expansion of the Catholic Church in 1901, published in 2001, p. 4. - See also Brors: Unterbach, 1910.

↑ Horst Osmann: The little holy house on Korresberg - still a legendary place. In: Journal of the Mettmann district. No. 13, 1993/94, ISBN 3-87314-283-X , p. 100.

^ Johann Heinrich Bongard: Hike to the Neanders Cave - A topographical sketch of the area of Erkrath on the Düssel. Arnz & Comp., Düsseldorf 1835 (available as a facsimile at, ISBN 3-922055-19-2 ), p. 18.

↑ Historical essay by Horst Osmann on the website of the St. Sebastianus Brotherhood Erkrath: The little holy house on the Korresberg - legendary place of worship or just devotional chapel? 2015. In: bruderschaft-erkrath.de, accessed on April 18, 2019.

↑ Traffic and beautification association for Erkrath and the surrounding area. 1914 (facsimile), Ed. Bergischer Geschichtsverein Abt. Erkrath, 1996, p. 54 ff. - Essay by the main teacher Pelser.

^ Franz Josef Brors: Unterbach - A local history chat and at the same time a contribution to the history of the Bergisches Land. Self-published, 1910, p. 17 ff.

↑ Düsseldorf school in the rowing port at Unterbacher See.

↑ Erkrath school in the rowing port at Unterbacher See.

^ Website of the Neanderhöhe observatory.

^ Johann Heinrich Bongard: Hike to the Neanders Cave - A topographical sketch of the area of Erkrath on the Düssel . Arnz & Comp., Düsseldorf 1835 (available as a facsimile under ISBN 3-922055-19-2 ), p. 10.

^ City of Erkrath: The cemetery guide. Mammut-Verlag, Leipzig 2011, p. 24.

^ City of Erkrath: The cemetery guide. Mammut-Verlag, Leipzig 2011, p. 25.

↑ Tour de France 2017. Stage 2 Düsseldorf / Liège. (No longer available online.) In: Site officiel du Tour de France. July 2, 2017, archived from the original on September 17, 2017 ; accessed on September 6, 2018 (German).

↑ Unterfeldmäuse of the Neandertal culture and theater initiative.

↑ Spotlight.

^ Nero Theater.

^ City of Erkrath (ed.): Erkrath. 1986, p. 113.

^ City of Erkrath (ed.): Erkrath. 1986, p. 115.

↑ Erkrath's biggest employer is here now. In: RP Online, October 17, 2014.

↑ Jessica Balleer: New Neighbor Makes Millions. Rheinische Post , March 22, 2016, accessed on March 22, 2016 .

↑ Klockenhoff: Around the Neandertal. Verlag Hermann Michael, 1967, p. 48 (quoted from: The Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahnunternehmen Elberfeld. 1875, library of the Wuppertal Railway Directorate , also: 100 Years of the Wuppertal Railway Directorate . 1850/1950).

^ Website of the Regiobahn Society. In: regiobahn.de, accessed on September 22, 2019.

^ Motorway Exit Lists. (No longer available online.) In: motorways-exitlists.com. Archived from the original on July 26, 2018 ; accessed on April 18, 2019 .

↑ City of Erkrath (ed.): Infoflyer, 2009.

↑ wochenpost.de. The Board. Retrieved September 22, 2019.

↑ Friedrich Froebel School: Friedrich Froebel School - home page. In: froebelschule-moitzfeld.de. Retrieved February 9, 2018 .

↑ The Bergisch boarding school. In: internat.de. Gut Falkenberg GmbH, accessed on March 14, 2018.

^ Information from the city archive from November 8, 2007.

↑ Philipp von Pestel ( memento from April 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). In: brd.nrw.de, July 27, 2010, accessed on March 25, 2018.

^ Werner Raupp : Toni Turek - "Football God". Eine Biographie, Hildesheim: Arete 2019 ( ISBN 978-3-96423-008-9 ), pp. 73–74, 117–119, 171–176.

^ Website of the archive of the German Bundestag.

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on June 3, 2009 in this version .

[Metadaten_Einwohnerzahl_DE-NW-1] Population of the municipalities of North Rhine-Westphalia on December 31, 2019 - update of the population based on the census of May 9, 2011. State Office for Information and Technology North Rhine-Westphalia (IT.NRW), accessed on June 17, 2020 . ( Help on this )

[2] climate-data.org. AM Online Projects - Alexander Merkel. Retrieved September 22, 2019.

[3] Harald Frater: The Düsseldorf Atlas. Emons, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-89705-355-1 , p. 18 f.

[4] Press, 2004. In: unterbach.com, accessed on April 18 of 2019.

[5] Main statute for the city of Erkrath from November 29, 1994. (PDF; 233 kB) In: erkrath.de. City of Erkrath, October 31, 2018, accessed on April 8, 2018 (The main statute does not specify any districts.).

[6] City - data / statistics. In: erkrath.de. City of Erkrath, accessed on August 24, 2017 : "District Alt-Erkrath [...] District Hochdahl [...] District Unterfeldhaus" .

[7] Klockenhoff: Around the Neandertal. Publisher Hermann Michael.