Schmithof

Schmithof City of Aachen Coordinates: 50 ° 41 ′ 28 ″ N , 6 ° 10 ′ 1 ″ E
Height :	260-300 m above sea level NN
Residents :	1000
Postal code :	52076
Area code :	02408

Schmithof at the foot of the Eifel

Schmithof is a rural district of the city of Aachen in North Rhine-Westphalia .

geography

The place is just under two kilometers east of the state border with Belgium in the Vennvorland between Walheim and Sief at an altitude of up to 300 m above sea level. NN . To the south, the terrain slopes down to the valley of the Inde and then rises to the northern Eifel . The settlement area lies to the east and north of a curve on federal highway 258 , which is called Monschauer Strasse there. The place is crossed by the route of the Vennbahn , which ran two tracks at Schmithof. One of the two tracks was dismantled and is part of the Vennbahn long-distance cycle route from Aachen to Luxembourg. Most of the settlement area is declared a water protection area.

history

Westwall Schmithofer Weg

Schmithof was first mentioned in a document in 1478 under the name "Zu der Schmitten". In 1978 the place celebrated its 500th anniversary. Several buildings in the Ardennenstraße date back to the 18th century. The Schmithofer Church of St. Joseph was built from 1892 and could be consecrated in 1904. Around Schmithof there are remains of several bunkers of the west wall that were blown up at the end of the war . There is also a longer piece of the cusp line .

Until about the 1930s, the place was a station of the former Aachener Kleinbahn-Gesellschaft , whose line S, from 1909 line 25, coming from Raeren and Eynatten via Sief and Schmithof to Walheim - from 1916 only between Sief and Walheim - ran and could be used increasingly for the transport of goods. This line was used to transport lime from the former quarry and the Schmithof lime works, which have since been closed . Today the area is a water and nature reserve, only the lime kiln with access ramp as well as the tram embankment and the loading ramp can still be seen clearly.

It formerly belonged to the municipality of Walheim and since the municipal reorganization on January 1, 1972, it has been incorporated into the city of Aachen as the southernmost village in the Kornelimünster / Walheim district .

Infrastructure

St. Josef, Schmithof

Schmithof is connected to Walheim via the K 14, Schmithofer Straße, which joins the B 258 both directly and via the Frennetstraße or Ardennenstraße. In the village itself there are no shops other than a land slaughterhouse and a small farm shop. There are also no restaurants. However, there is a day-care center and a lending library that is run on a voluntary basis. The former primary school has been closed for a long time. There is a mailbox in the Ardennenstraße with daily emptying. In addition to Sief, Schmithof was supposed to be one of the last two districts of the city of Aachen that were not yet connected to the high-speed internet network.

Nature reserve

Former Quarry in the NSG Schmithof

The 5 hectare nature reserve Schmithof around the former limestone quarry is one of the 12 designated nature reserves of the city of Aachen. The following plants can be found here: narrow-leaved cotton grass, burning hare's foot, bog blessings, peat moss, orchids, tormenti, seven star and blueberry.

Vennbahn

Vennbahn bei Schmithof: Left the remaining track, right the Vennbahnradweg

Next to the railway line that connected Aachen with Luxembourg for over 100 years, there is now a popular cycle path that leads through Schmithof. The 125 km long Vennbahnradweg is one of the longest railway cycle paths in Europe. The euregional cycle route leads through Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. With an average gradient of 2%, the route is also well suited for inexperienced cyclists.

literature

Engels, Ludwig: What grandmother says: Walheim - Friesenrath - Hahn - Schmithof . Working group for Walheim history and culture, Aachen-Walheim 1987.
Schmitz, Martha: St. Sebastianus Schützenbruderschaft Schmithof 1892 e. V. and a walk through Schmithof . Grenz-Echo-Verlag Eupen 2007.
Schmitz, Martha: The Siegfried Line and its contemporary witnesses . Schmithof-Sief Local History Working Group, Schmithof 2011.

Web links

Commons : Schmithof (Aachen) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ 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. 305 .
↑ Aachener Zeitung: "White spots" in the data network are disappearing , January 12, 2016
↑ Vennbahn & Ravel routes in eastern Belgium - East Belgium → Belgium. Retrieved November 12, 2019 .

[1] 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. 305 .

[2] Aachener Zeitung: "White spots" in the data network are disappearing , January 12, 2016

[3] Vennbahn & Ravel routes in eastern Belgium - East Belgium → Belgium. Retrieved November 12, 2019 .