Neustraße (Herzogenrath)
| Neustraße Nieuwstraat
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| Road sign | |
| Basic data | |
| place | Herzogenrath / Kerkrade |
| District | Strass |
| Created | 1783 |
| Connecting roads | Roermonder Strasse Roderlandbaan Aachener Strasse  |
| Cross streets | Pannesheiderstraat, Am Zollhaus, Mundgenstraat, Rather Heide, Bleyerheider Straße, Voccartstraat, Schummerstraat, Kohlbergsgracht, Kohlberger Straße, Kokelestraat, Josefstraße, Pricksteenweg, Domanialeweg, Plattewei, An der Rennbahn, Domaniale Mijnstraat, Honestraaté, Imestraaté, Melchiorstraat |
| Buildings | Eurode Business Center |
| use | |
| User groups | Pedestrian traffic , bicycle traffic , car traffic , public transport |
| Technical specifications | |
| Street length | 2.0 km |
The new road in Herzogenrath and Nieuwstraat in Kerkrade divides the more than 800 years-knit towns and at the same time forms the border between Germany and the Netherlands . Until the liberalization of border traffic it was a center of Dutch-German border smuggling. Only after decades of popular protests was a border barrier in the middle of the street abandoned.
course
Neustraße is around two kilometers long. It has its origins in Roermonder Strasse, which connects Aachen with Herzogenrath. The Neustraße runs from south to north according to the border between the two countries and ends in Eurode Park, which houses the Eurode Business Center .
history
Development of the Neustraße
In 1104 Herzogenrath (meaning about: the clearing of the duke ) and Rode Castle (castle on the clearing) were first mentioned in a document. Shortly afterwards, a church was built in the area of the clearing and this formed a second city center: Kerkrade, the "church on the clearing". In 1282 the settlements, which had grown together in the meantime, were first mentioned together as the Land of Rode . Hard coal was already being mined in the area at that time, thus guaranteeing the region's prosperity. The lands and coal mines were owned by the Rolduc Abbey .
In order to increase sales of the coal mined in the factories, the monks of the monastery under Abbot Chaineux organized the expansion and paving of the regional road network from 1760 onwards. On January 25, 1783, the abbot submitted a proposal to the Staten van Limburg en de Landen van Overmaas to build two military roads in the Land of Rode at the expense of the abbey , provided that he was granted the right to toll on these roads to raise. On May 22, 1783 he was granted permission by an imperial patent to build two military roads at Rolduc's expense. The section of road that led from Pannesheide to Herzogenrath was given the name Neustraße.
On October 1, 1795 after the French conquest of the Austrian Netherlands , large parts of the former were Landen van Overmaas the Meuse-Inférieure incorporated so that the new road completely belonged to the department. After the victory over Napoleon in the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig (1813), the Dutch King Wilhelm I accepted rule over the former Austrian Netherlands on August 1, 1814, so that the entire Neustraße including the part of Kerkrade located between the Neustraße and the Wurm came under Dutch rule.
Border without border guards
As a result of the Congress of Vienna , the state border between Prussia and the Netherlands was redrawn. On June 26, 1816 was in Aachen between the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. and the Dutch King Wilhelm I contractually regulated the new border. The Wurm river, which flowed through the town of Herzogenrath / Kerkrade, and Neustraße were chosen as important trade routes as the new border. Accordingly, the city should be divided into two parts. The eastern part was to become an independent municipality of Prussia as Herzogenrath, the western part as Kerkrade still belong to the Netherlands.
“ So the part of Kerkrade on the right side of the Chaussee, as well as the whole part of the Rolduc community on the left bank of the Worms, is ceded to His Majesty's King of Prussia. The part of the Chaussee between the borders of the Roer department and Rolduc is still ceded to the same kingdom, in such a way that said municipality with all property and sovereign rights belongs entirely to the Kingdom of Prussia. "
Neustraße was now the official state border and divided the city that had previously belonged together. A lively economic and cultural exchange continued to take place between the two sides of Neustraße, something which the increase in customs officers to 50 men on Neustraße in March 1821 could not change.
War and fences - the first visible division of Neustraße
It was not until a year after the outbreak of World War I that Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered a fence to be built between occupied Belgium and the Netherlands. Too many German soldiers had deserted across the open border into the Netherlands and smuggling got out of control. The 300 km long obstacle that was soon known by the population as the death fence began in Neustraße . By order of the border guard commander, Major Graf von Faber-Castell , on July 1, 1915, the fence was energized with 2000 volts over its entire length. The border section between Herzogenrath and Kerkrade itself was not electrified. For the first time the formerly common city was divided by an obstacle. In 1916 a second fence was built on the Kerkrade side to stop German smugglers. In 1918 both fences were first removed and replaced by boundary stones that only marked the border. While the entire Neustraße was previously German territory, the border was now moved to the middle of the street by order of the French occupation.
As early as 1923, disputes between the two countries over the exact course of the border in Neustraße arose. After the dispute could not be settled, a Dutch-German commission was set up to clarify the exact course of the border; The mayors of the cities of Herzogenrath and Kerkrade also sat on the commission. On November 29, 1930 she came to the conclusion that the street belonged entirely to Germany. However, this did not change anything about the smuggling problem. The customs officers refused to give orders to shoot children, which is why smuggling became a popular activity for local children. The customs office responded by publicly announcing that smuggling not only means absent from school for the children, but could also have health consequences: the meat products worn on the body would spoil quickly and the coffee would stain the children's skin in the way that that it would remain permanently black.
In National Socialist Germany , the Gestapo took control of the border on Neustraße and moved into its own building. Since the order to shoot was again strictly enforced, smuggling and cross-border exchanges between the cities came to a standstill. In the course of the construction of the west wall , Neustraße was again divided in the middle by a fence in 1938. After the occupation of the Netherlands on May 10, 1940, the fence was not torn down, the city remained divided and ruled by different administrations.
Neustraße as a smuggler center after the Second World War
After the liberation of Kerkrade, the residents tore down the fence, but the Allies immediately erected a new fence 2.30 m high. On April 23, 1949, the Dutch side implemented a border correction by re-erecting the fence on the German side. Without a contract, the entire Neustraße became Dutch territory. The smuggling in the Neustraße, which had increased since the end of the war, was to be brought under control. The first Corpus Christi procession after the war on July 8th went down in history as a smuggler procession . Numerous Kerkraders used them to give their relatives and friends parcels. In 1947 alone 6,878 German children were picked up by Dutch customs officers and sent back across the border. That was only moderately successful. Children in particular played with each other on both sides of the fence by throwing balls over the obstacle. The authorities only slowly discovered that many of these balls were balloons or socks filled with contraband that the children quickly exchanged upon receipt. Whatever fit in the balloons was smuggled, mostly coffee beans.
In 1950 a deep hole opened up in the middle of the sidewalk of the Nieuwstraat. At first it was believed that there was under-flushing. It soon emerged, however, that a drained well had dug a tunnel under the entire street. The tunnel had a diameter between 60 and 80 centimeters and a length of over 60 meters. This smuggler route could never serve its purpose because the route had simply been calculated incorrectly. Instead of ending up in the targeted apartment on the Dutch side, the tunnel builders had dug up too early. Although it was clear that the destination was the house of a Kerkrad miner and many residents on both sides of Neustraße probably knew the identities of the smugglers, none of the tunnel builders was ever discovered or imprisoned. Smuggling increased to such an extent that the entire Aachen area was known as the Loch in the West or the Aachener Kaffeefront . The Allied Control Council subsequently banned all border crossings for Zuid-Limburg outside the city of Vaals . The lowering of the coffee tax in 1953 and the signing of the Treaty of Rome eased the situation and led to a sharp drop in smuggling.
Border and funding difficulties
The residents of the two cities viewed the fence as a grievance and cooperated as much as possible. On February 7, 1954, a pageant in honor of a golden wedding passed through Kerkrade. Since public music was strictly forbidden on Sundays before 1 p.m. on the Dutch side, the band preceding the train remained silent. When the train reached Neustraße, the music band Herzogenrather Kapelle Straß 1880 eV appeared on the German side and accompanied the guests with music. The fire and rescue services in both cities supported each other during operations. In 1954 the Dutch authorities offered to renew the fence with German participation. The offer was rejected. The city of Herzogenrath still hoped for the annexations to be withdrawn and the fence to be demolished without replacement.
“ Relationships as they have developed over more than 150 years have been torn apart at will. The current situation is untenable. This view is also held by the Dutch population, who are largely related or related by marriage to the residents of Herzogenrath. "
It was only when Germany and the Netherlands were united in the EEC in 1957 that those responsible in both cities decided to reduce the fence to a height of just 1.20 meters. In the treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Kingdom of the Netherlands on the regulation of border issues of April 8, 1960, the two countries decided to split the road again and to set up a border obstacle together. However, the joint financing of the project caused difficulties. With the new border, Neustraße had officially become Dutch territory with the exception of a small strip. Herzogenrath was thus robbed of its most important road connection to Aachen and was forced to widen the road on the German side. However, the city did not want to bear the costs for the new building, including the wall, as it viewed the necessary work as a direct consequence of the Second World War and the costs would therefore have to be borne by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the federal government .
On April 1, 1965, the Aachener Volkszeitung published a momentous article. Under the title Land Roda without borders , it was reported that Herzogenrath and Kerkrade would work together and unite to form the first European city and that the border fence in Neustraße would be torn down immediately. The news was an April Fool's joke , but it triggered unusually violent reactions. Citizens of both cities demanded the implementation of the changes announced in the article. The city administration of Herzogenrath also warned the senior district directors in 1965 that the fence had caused "considerable unrest and displeasure" among the population and that a solution was urgently needed. The author of the article, Theo Kutsch, informed the then Foreign Minister Gerhard Schröder , the President of the European Economic Community Walter Hallstein about the reactions of the citizens and called for the borders to be overcome. On November 28, 2001, Kutsch was awarded the European City Eurode's Medal of Honor for 2001 for his commitment. As early as December 1966, the Dutch decided not to wait for the German decision, but started their own plans to remove the fence. The residents of Herzogenrath protested against the slow question of jurisdiction, the fence as a whole and the lack of opportunities to cross the border. Herzogenrath's Mayor Josef Rütten turned to Heinz Kühn, then Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, without success . The efforts of the Landtag member Anna Klöcker , who wrote directly to the German Finance Minister Franz Josef Strauss , were more effective . He declared that he wanted to stand up for Neustraße and switched on the German Interior Minister Paul Lücke . In addition to the passages, the financing of the road should finally be clarified.
Until the wall was torn down
After the intervention of the German federal ministers, the costs were borne by the federal and state governments, the fence was completely torn down in 1968 and replaced in 1970 by a 35 centimeter high wall on the median of Neustraße. The demolition developed into a folk festival and the then Kerkrader Mayor Theo Gijsen personally removed the first border posts. Mayor Rütten and the district president of the district of Aachen , Efferts, spoke out on this occasion against a border marking between the friendly cities. Crossings were built into the wall for cyclists and pedestrians. Residents of both cities were now able to meet again without great effort, even if crossing the wall was punished with a fine of 10 DM .
In 1978, Neustraße hit the headlines across Europe when the armed RAF terrorists Rolf Heissler and Adelheid Schulz fled over the Wall on November 1st and opened fire on four Dutch customs officers. Two officers died, the two terrorists initially escaped.
Despite the long separation, the citizens of both cities were still closely connected. They shared the same dialect , the same story, and in many cases were related to one another. Towards the end of the 1980s, there were increasing demands from citizens for the liberalization of the border and the demolition of the wall. The city administrations of both communities supported these efforts. The residents of the street joined together in 1989 for this purpose to form the Neustraße working group . In October of the same year, both municipal administrations spoke to the respective foreign ministers for a complete removal of the wall. Because the Schengen Implementation Agreement had not yet been signed, the city of Herzogenrath was initially rejected.
Demolition of the wall and cooperation since 1991
In 1991, Herzogenrath and Kerkrade decided to join the Eurode network as the first European model community. Neustraße was declared the “first European street” and demolishing the wall was seen as the most urgent task. In 1993 it was removed and a joint renovation of Neustraße began. When this was over two years later, both cities celebrated a two-day festival to inaugurate the common street. Both the then Foreign Minister of the Netherlands, Hans van Mierlo, and his former German counterpart, Klaus Kinkel, were present and praised the friendly efforts of the two communities. Klaus Kinkel commented on the long history of Neustraße:
“ The story of Neustraße or Nieuwstraat begins 800 years ago. For centuries it did what it was designed to do - create connections, bring people together. It only became a border in 1816, after the Congress of Vienna. But even after that, the citizens used this road to link the two states economically - through smuggling. Today we are handing over Neustrasse to its European destination. The name Eurode refers to the long common past of Kerkrade and Herzogenrath as well as to their common European future. "
Hans van Mierlo described the demolition of the wall as “legitimizing European disobedience”. The people of both cities have always ignored the law in order to cooperate. Neustraße is the first example of a border that the residents "simply thought away". On the day of the celebrations, a German and a Dutch police officer went on patrol together on Neustraße for the first time. One and a half meters of the wall was left as a memorial and not torn down.
The traffic is regulated jointly in the Neustraße. The cheaper Dutch traffic signs are also used on the German side, and there is a bus stop (line 34) of the German ASEAG on the Dutch side .
In 2000 the Eurode Business Center was built on the edge of Neustraße on the territory of both countries . There is also a joint police station for the Dutch and German police , which has been declared a police service point for legal reasons . They work together here in both cities - the tea kitchen is on Dutch territory, the toilet on German territory.
Domaniale coal mine
Located directly on Neustraße, the entrance to the “ Staatsmijn Domaniale ” mine was located until 1969 , the oldest coal mine in Limburg's hard coal district, in the vicinity of which the monks of the Rolduc monastery had been mining since the early 12th century.
During the French occupation of the Rhineland, the mine was nationalized in 1793 and given the name Mines Domaniales . As a result of the definition of the demarcation between the Netherlands and Prussia by the contract of June 26, 1816, the mine with all shafts and tunnels passed into Dutch ownership. The underground mine building extended far into Prussian territory to the Wurm. As a result, hard coal was mined under the Prussian state territory under Dutch mining law. The lack of coordination of the mining measures between the Domaniale pits and pits in the worm area occasionally led to breakthroughs and problems with dewatering .
During the Belgian Revolution from 1830 to 1839, the mine was in Belgian ownership for nine years and was on the verge of decline due to mismanagement. The pit achieved renewed economic prosperity through investments in new shafts and the connection to the Prussian and Belgian rail network by the Aachen-Maastricht Railway Company in 1871.
The construction of the border fence in Neustraße during World War I. The Willem I / II mine was no longer used and had to be relocated. Until the end of the First World War, the state border ran directly on the building wall. The Dutch miners extended it beyond the border with a bay window. The sole purpose of this cross-border bay window was the installation of a telephone in order to be able to call relatives and friends in Germany more cheaply. In 1969 the mine was closed because of excessive costs.
The tram in Neustraße
Until the end of the 19th century, the coal was transported from the Domaniale by horse and cart . The Herzogenrath area had been supplied with electricity since 1899. REKA , the company responsible for the electricity supply, opened the Kohlscheid-Herzogenrath tram route on May 28, 1902, which ran through Neustraße. Because of the high freight traffic, the line between Kohlscheid and Pannesheide was expanded to two tracks. Because the line in Kerkrade crossed the border twice, an ordinance was issued on March 22, 1909 to facilitate the customs revision. Items subject to duty were locked up at the first customs post and opened again at the second crossing by the customs officers. On August 12, 1918, tram operations were stopped due to a lack of staff. In 1919 he was resumed. In the Neustraße, however, the problem was that the fence was now set up in the middle of the Neustraße on the instructions of the French crew. The tram stopped exactly at the border and could only be entered from one side in future. From 1942 the line belonged to ASEAG.
In the course of the switch from tram to bus operation, line 16 running through Neustraße was shut down on October 24, 1960.
Sport-Arena Herzogenrath-Kerkrade
Cycling enthusiasts from the region came up with the plan to build a large wooden cycling track on the busy Neustraße . Construction work began in the summer of 1932. The costs amounted to 60,000 Reichsmarks , and it was planned by the most renowned architect of cycle racing tracks at the time , Clemens Schürmann from Münster . With a length of 200 meters and seating for 6,000 spectators, it was the second largest open wooden cycling track in Germany. The first race started in April with a large international participation. At the end of the year it was used for the first time for a National Socialist rally. In 1934 a law was passed that banned races with more than 30 percent of participants of foreign origin. Interest from neighboring countries began to wane, and the railway was soon no longer profitable. There have been no races since 1940. Before the invasion of the Wehrmacht in May 1940, the racetrack was used as a secret assembly point for German soldiers to march. After the end of the war, the residents of the two cities began to dismantle the planks and use them as firewood, until the city had the remaining remains demolished in 1952. The name of a cross street on Neustraße still reminds of the building today: At the racetrack.
Sculpture of brotherhood
On the occasion of the inauguration of the rebuilt Neustraße in 1970, the Sculpture of Brotherhood monument was inaugurated. Popularly it is only called D'r Knub or the Knöpp . The sculpture is intertwined to the north and south and is intended to represent the bond between the two cities. The Japanese-American sculptor and architect Shinkichi Tajiri was commissioned with the realization. The German inscription “Alle Menschen wird Brüder” and the inauguration date “24. March 1970 ".
See also
literature
- A second look - Neustraße - How a state border became invisible between Herzogenrath and Kerkrade. In: Merian Aachen, Jahreszeiten Verlag, Hamburg 2010, pp. 104-108, ISBN 9783834210050 .
- Ehlers, Nicole: De Muur van Kerkrade - Geschiedenis van een straat. In: Geography 12/2000, p. 5ff.
- City archive Herzogenrath (ed.): The Neustraße / Nieuwstraat - origin and present.
- City archive Herzogenrath (ed.): Neustraße / Nieuwstraat - history of a street.
Web links
- BeNeLux - NRW: Cross-border relationships In: NiederlandeNet of the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
Individual evidence
- ↑ KRONIEK VAN HET Land van Rode: Nieuwstraat te Kerkrade heeft een romantisch verleden. In: Limburgsch Dagblad. March 16, 1956, accessed April 1, 2020 (Dutch).
- ↑ Fanz Büttgenbach: History of the development of the 800 year old coal mining on the Worm 1113 - 1898 , 1898, Ignaz Schweitzer, Aachen, p. 13
- ↑ Stadtarchiv Herzogenrath (ed.): Die Neustraße - history of a street, p. 2.
- ↑ a b KRONIEK VAN HET Land van Rode: Nieuwstraat te Kerkrade door abdij van Rolduc aangelegd. In: Limburgsch Dagblad. March 21, 1956, accessed April 1, 2020 (Dutch).
- ↑ Stadtarchiv Herzogenrath (ed.): Herzogenrath - a city profile, p. 102.
- ↑ Article 18 of the Prussian-Dutch border treaty of June 26, 1816.
- ↑ Let op, Levensgevaar on Spiegel Online on March 30, 2004
- ↑ Small smuggling on the Dutch border; in: Merksteiner Nachrichten on August 8, 1932.
- ↑ Alexander Barth: The Nieuwstraat: The border road divided in the middle . In: 111 places in Aachen and the Euregio that you have to see, 2012, ISBN 978-3-89705-931-3 , p. 198
- ^ Trees, Wolfgang: Smugglers, customs officers and the coffee tanks - The wild post-war years on the German western border. Triangel Verlag, Aachen 2002, p. 404
- ^ Trees, Wolfgang: Smugglers, customs officers and the coffee tanks - The wild post-war years on the German western border. Triangel Verlag, Aachen 2002, p. 405
- ↑ The second look - Neustraße - How a state border became invisible between Herzogenrath and Kerkrade; in: Merian Aachen, Jahreszeiten Verlag, Hamburg 2010, p. 106.
- ^ The hole in the west on: Niederlande.net of the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster.
- ^ Law on Sunday rest of October 15, 1953.
- ↑ Festival music moved across the border - Successful Schildbürgerstreich for the golden wedding; in: Aachener Volkszeitung on February 10, 1954.
- ^ Report by the Herzogenrath City Administration on June 20, 1956, Herzogenrath City Archives.
- ↑ Act on the treaty of April 8, 1960 between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Kingdom of the Netherlands to regulate border issues and other problems existing between the two countries (compensation treaty) §6
- ↑ Land Roda without borders in the Aachener Volkszeitung on April 1, 1965
- ^ Letter from the city of Herzogenrath to the senior district director on October 4, 1965, Herzogenrath city archive.
- ^ Kutsch, Theo: Herzogenrath Almanach , Josef Essers Verlag, Herzogenrath 1972, pp. 85–93. (Collected correspondence)
- ↑ An eyesore disappears - Kirchrath wants to remove the border fence near Herzogenrath; in: Aachener Nachrichten on December 14, 1966.
- ↑ Serious allegations against the authorities - protests at the border in sight; in Aachener Nachrichten on December 9, 1967.
- ↑ Franz Josef Strauss promised: We will negotiate with the Dutch; in: Neue Ruhr Zeitung on May 3, 1968.
- ↑ Die Neustraße - Origin and Present, p. 7.
- ↑ Gunshots and Flowers ; in: Der Spiegel 37/1981 p. 34.
- ↑ After the fall of the wall; in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on May 9, 1995, p. 9.
- ↑ Die Neustraße - Origin and Present, p. 10.
- ↑ The little wall must go; in Aachener Volkszeitung on January 13, 1991.
- ↑ After the fall of the wall; in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on May 9, 1995, p. 10.
- ↑ Neustraße - a way into the young history of Europe; in: Aachener Nachrichten on May 8, 1995.
- ↑ The wall is gone: the Eurodians celebrate; in: Aachener Volkszeitung on May 5, 1995.
- ↑ A double gesture of reconciliation; in: Aachener Volkszeitung on May 8, 1995.
- ↑ The wall is gone; in: Rheinischer Merkur on March 5, 1999.
- ↑ The second look - Die Neustrasse - How a state border became invisible between Herzogenrath and Kerkrade; in: Merian Aachen, Jahreszeiten Verlag, Hamburg 2010, p. 107.
- ↑ Fanz Büttgenbach: History of the development of the 800 year old coal mining on the Worm 1113 - 1898 , Ignaz Schweitzer, 1898, Aachen, pp. 5–9
- ^ Industrial history of the Domaniale mine. ( Memento of the original from May 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Domaniale mine with numerous historical photographs.
- ^ Trees, Wolfgang : Smugglers, customs officers and the coffee tanks - The wild post-war years on the German western border . Triangel Verlag, Aachen 2002, p. 402
- ↑ Reiner Bimmermann: Aachener Straßenbahn, Volume 1: Geschichte , Schweers + Wall 1999, p. 42
- ↑ Reiner Bimmermann: Aachener Straßenbahn, Volume 1: Geschichte , Schweers + Wall 1999, p. 62
- ↑ Description of the construction of the new sports arena Herzogenrath-Kerkrade; Letter from the architect Clemens Schürmann with a statement of costs dated January 17, 1933. Herzogenrath City Archives.
- ↑ velodromes.com
- ^ Stadtarchiv Herzogenrath (ed.): Sport-Arena Herzogenrath-Kerkrade. "The Radrennbahn".
- ↑ Japanese created sculpture on the German-Dutch border; in: Aachener Nachrichten on March 25, 1970, p. 14.
Coordinates: 50 ° 51 ′ 16.2 " N , 6 ° 4 ′ 32.5" E