Huertgenwald

This article describes the church. For the forest, see Hürtgenwald (forest) , for the battle there, the battle in the Hürtgenwald .

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 50 ° 43 '  N , 6 ° 23'  E
Basic data
State :	North Rhine-Westphalia
Administrative region :	Cologne
Circle :	Düren
Height :	380 m above sea level NHN
Area :	88.05 km 2
Residents:	8700 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	99 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	52393
Area code :	02429
License plate :	DN, JÜL, MON, SLE
Community key :	05 3 58 016
Community structure:	13 districts
Address of the municipal administration:	August-Scholl-Strasse 5 52393 Hürtgenwald
Website :	www.huertgenwald.de
Mayor :	Axel Buch ( CDU )
Location of the municipality of Hürtgenwald in the Düren district

Hürtgenwald is a municipality in North Rhine-Westphalia and belongs to the Düren district .

geography

location

The community is located in the Eifel National Park in the Rureifel and in the North Eifel Nature Park . The highest point in the municipality is at the forester's house Jägerhaus am Langschoss at 566  m above sea level. NHN , the lowest between Gey and Birgel at an altitude of 170  m .

Neighboring communities

In the Düren district

• Düren
• Kreuzau
• Long suffering
• Nideggen

In the Aachen city region

• Simmerath
• Stolberg

Community structure

Town hall in Kleinhau

• Gey
• Horm
• Strass
• Schafberg
• Großhau
• Kleinhau as the administrative center with town hall
• Bergstein
• Brandenberg
• Zerkall
• Huertgen
• Vossenack
• Simonskall
• Raffelsbrand

The districts of Simonskall and Vossenack are recognized as places of relaxation .

history

Heavy infantry gun of the German armed forces in the forest of Huertgenwald, November 22, 1944

In the Middle Ages, Berenstein Castle stood as a former imperial castle near Bergstein on the Burgberg , which can only be recognized as a castle stables . Currently there is the Krawutschketurm observation tower and a bunker of the West Wall, which was built in the Second World War (1939–1945) . During this war, the battle in the Hürtgen Forest took place from October 6, 1944 to February 10, 1945 in the municipality around Vossenack and Hürtgen . While neither side was able to achieve immediate strategic success, the battle is one of the most difficult battles in western Europe in the final phase of the war. It is estimated that around 24,000 people died in the course of the battle.

Until these events, the name Hürtgenwald only referred to the state forestry office . The US-American designation of the entire area with "Huertgen Forest" only led to the name "Hürtgen Forest" during a later territorial reform .

Origin / incorporations

Half-timbered house from 1651 in the Simonskall district (monument)

The municipality of Hürtgenwald emerged on July 1, 1969 from the office of Straß-Bergstein (administrative seat in Gey), which was created in the 19th century through the merger of the mayor offices of Straß and Bergstein.

Section 9 of the “Law on the reorganization of municipalities in the Düren district of June 24, 1969” says: “The municipalities of Bergstein, Brandenberg, Gey, Großhau, Hürtgen, Kleinhau and Straß (Office of Straß-Bergstein) will be merged into a new municipality. The community receives the name Hürtgenwald. "

The Straß-Bergstein office comprised the eight communities Bergstein (with Zerkall), Brandenberg, Gey, Großhau, Hürtgen, Kleinhau, Straß-Langenbroich-Horm and Untermaubach-Bilstein.

From 1969 the office of Straß-Bergstein consisted of the communities Hürtgenwald and Untermaubach-Bilstein.

On January 1, 1972, the last municipal reorganization took place through the Aachen Act , whereby the municipality of Hürtgenwald was enlarged to include the former municipality of Vossenack ( Monschau district ).

politics

Distribution of seats in the municipal council        A total of 28 seats CDU : 14 SPD : 7 FDP : 2 Greens : 3 Left : 1 EB Breuer : 1

Local election 2014 Turnout: 62.14% (2009: 67.87%)  % 50 40 30th 20th 10 0 48.37% 26.81% 9.24% 8.39% 4.62% 2.56% no CDU SPD Green FDP left EB Breuer Otherwise. Gains and losses compared to 2009  % p    8th    6th    4th    2    0   -2   -4   -6   -8th -7.26  % p + 7.79  % p.p. + 2.13  % p -2.58  % p -0.44  % p + 2.56  % p -2.2  % p CDU SPD Green FDP left EB Breuer Otherwise.

Municipal council

The municipal council is the local people's representative body for the municipality of Hürtgenwald. The citizens decide on the composition every five years. The last election took place on May 25, 2014.

mayor

Axel Buch (* 1954) was confirmed in office in 2015 and was able to take up his fourth term.

Coat of arms and banner

• 

  Coat of arms of the municipality of Hürtgenwald

• 

  Banner of the municipality of Hürtgenwald

The municipality of Hürtgenwald was granted the right to use a coat of arms, a seal and a flag in a certificate from the Minister of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia dated December 8, 1975.

The coat of arms is a three-part shield: on a green background a golden-yellow cap and a silver-white pine cone in each of the three green fields.

The Göpel divides the coat of arms, which is intended to symbolize the composition of Hürtgenwald from various localities that used to belong to the offices of Straß, Bergstein and Simmerath . The cones refer to the surrounding forests, which shape the landscape.

Description of the banner: "Green-white-green in a ratio of 1: 4: 1 striped lengthways with the municipal coat of arms shifted slightly above the middle upwards."

Community-owned companies and institutions

• fire Department
• Building yard

Culture and sights

Hürtgen war cemetery

View from Brandenberg east-south-east to the Burgberg with the spire of the Bergsteiner Church in front of the mountain and the residential tower of Nideggen Castle on the left

Bergsteiner Parish Church

See also : Raffelsbrand soil educational trail  and list of architectural monuments in Hürtgenwald

Museums

• Museum "Hürtgenwald 1944 and in Peace"

Cemeteries of honor in the Huertgen Forest

The two honorary cemeteries in the "Hürtgenwald" are the war cemetery Vossenack near Vossenack about 500  m behind the end of the village on Simonskaller Straße and the war cemetery Hürtgen near Hürtgen about 500 m behind the end of the town directly on the main road 399 , each seen from the direction of Düren.

Buildings

• Castle hill in Bergstein with the Krawutschketurm

Economy and Infrastructure

Maubacher lead mountain

From 1948 to 1968, ore mining was carried out next to the town of Horm in Maubacher Bleiberg . Later this was the landfill for the Düren district.

traffic

The federal highway 399 runs through the municipality from northeast to southwest between the villages of Gey and Raffelsbrand, the state road  11 from southeast to northwest between the municipal parts of Kleinhau and Zerkall.

Zerkall can also be accessed via the Düren – Heimbach railway line .

education

• 3 primary schools
• 1 secondary school
• 1 secondary school
• 1 high school (private)

Personalities

• Arnold Poll (1925–2016), Roman Catholic priest and from 1980 to 2000 president of the children's ministry “Die Sternsinger”.

literature

• Dieter Robert Bettinger, Hans-Josef Hansen, Daniel Lois: The Westwall from Kleve to Basel. On the trail of German history. Nebel Verlag, Eggolsheim, 2nd updated and expanded edition 2008, ISBN 978-3-89555-414-8 .
• Alexander Kuffner: Time Travel Guide Eifel 1933–1945 . Helios, Aachen 2007, ISBN 978-3-938208-42-7 .
• Hans-Josef Hansen (Ed.): On the trail of the west wall. Helios Verlags- und Buchvertriebsgesellschaft Aachen, 2009, ISBN 3-925087-76-1 .
• Manfred Groß, Horst Rohde, Rudi Rolf: The Westwall - On the monumental value of the unpleasant. Rheinland-Verlag GmbH Cologne, 1997, ISBN 3-7927-1668-2 .
• Adolf Hohenstein and Wolfgang Trees: Hell in the Hürtgenwald . Triangel-Verlag, ISBN 3-922974-01-5 .
• Rainer Monnartz: Hürtgenwald 1944/45 - Military- historical tour planner . Helios-Verlag, Aachen 2008, ISBN 978-3-938208-68-7 .
• Matthias Thömmes: Death in the Eifel sky. Helios Verlags- und Buchvertriebsgesellschaft Aachen, ISBN 3-933608-04-X .
• Peter Többicke: Military history guide Hürtgenwald. Taschenbuch Verlag ES Mittler & Sohn GmbH Hamburg, ISBN 3-8132-0735-8 .
• Wolfgang Trees : Battlefield between Maas and Rhine. Triangel Verlag Aachen, ISBN 3-922974-05-8 .
• Robert Hellwig: “Commemoration and Mahnen” memorials in Hürtgenwald , publisher: Geschichtsverein Hürtgenwald 2007 (38 memorials with photos and text on 56 pages).
• Jobst C. Knigge: Hemingway and the Germans , Verlag Dr. Kovac Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8300-4707-0 .

Web links

Commons : Hürtgenwald  - Collection of Images

• Website of the municipality of Hürtgenwald
• Rureifel tourism
• Museum "Hürtgenwald 1944 and in Peace"
• Film: You enter Germany; Hürtgenwald - The long war on the Siegfried Line
• Monuments in the community of Hürtgenwald ( Memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )

Individual evidence

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. ↑ Martin Bünermann: The communities of the first reorganization program in North Rhine-Westphalia . Deutscher Gemeindeverlag, Cologne 1970, p. 98 .
3. ^ 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. 307 .
4. ↑ Hürtgenwald municipality. Local elections 2009. August 30, 2009, accessed November 4, 2014 . 
5. ↑ Hürtgenwald municipality. European / Local elections 2014. May 25, 2014, accessed on November 4, 2014 . 
6. ↑ Main statute of the municipality of Hürtgenwald, § 2 Paragraph 1. Accessed on January 23, 2018 . 
7. ↑ Hürtgenwald volunteer fire department