Schwelm

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coat of arms Germany map
Coat of arms of the city of Schwelm
Schwelm
Map of Germany, position of the city Schwelm highlighted

Coordinates: 51 ° 17 '  N , 7 ° 18'  E

Basic data
State : North Rhine-Westphalia
Administrative region : Arnsberg
Circle : Ennepe-Ruhr district
Height : 213 m above sea level NHN
Area : 20.49 km 2
Residents: 28,537 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density : 1393 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code : 58332
Area code : 02336
License plate : EN, WIT
Community key : 05 9 54 024
LOCODE : DE SLM

City administration address : 		Hauptstrasse 14
58332 Schwelm
Website : www.schwelm.de
Mayoress : Gabriele Grollmann-Mock ( independent )
Location of the city of Schwelm in the Ennepe-Ruhr district
Bochum Dortmund Essen Gelsenkirchen Hagen Herne Kreis Mettmann Kreis Unna Märkischer Kreis Oberbergischer Kreis Remscheid Wuppertal Breckerfeld Ennepetal Gevelsberg Hattingen Herdecke Schwelm Sprockhövel Wetter (Ruhr) Wittenmap
About this picture

Schwelm is a more than 500 year old town in Westphalia , located directly on the border with the Rhineland . As today's district town of the Ennepe-Ruhr district ( North Rhine-Westphalia ), Schwelm and the district are assigned to the northern part of the Ruhr area . To the south, the city merges into the scenic plateaus of the Bergisch-Sauerland Mountains . Schwelm's history, culture, townscape and local economy have been shaped for centuries by the border between Westphalia and Rhineland ( Bergisches Land ). Schwelm is the smallest political municipality in terms of area in North Rhine-Westphalia.

geography

Map of Schwelm
Schwelm seen from Lindenberg in the north

Schwelm is located in the southeastern Ruhr area in Westphalia on the border with the Bergisches Land . Since the city limits in the west and south are the same as the border between Rhineland and Westphalia, Schwelm is also referred to as the gate of Westphalia and the addition i. W. (in Westphalia). The district town of Schwelm is surrounded by three other towns in the Ennepe-Ruhr district : Sprockhövel in the north, Gevelsberg in the northeast and Ennepetal in the (south) east. The independent city of Wuppertal connects to the southern and western city limits .

The urban area is part of the southern mountainous landscape and is dominated by two main natural spatial units: the Niederbergisch-Märkisch hill country in the north and the Bergisch plateau in the south.

relief

Schwelm is located on the north-western edge of the slate mountains on the right bank of the Rhine . In the urban area, the height varies between 181 and 352 m above sea level. NN.

Geologically, the northern urban area is characterized by a mass limestone deposit , from which two valley hollows have emerged, which cross the north of Schwelm from southwest to northeast and are separated from each other by the Linderhauser Hochrücke and Hasper Sattel . The southern hollow is the approximately 1.5 km wide Schwelmer Talmulde , which ends in the vicinity of the Brunnen district in the northeastern urban area. The northern hollow is known as the Linderhauser limestone strip ; it ends west of Gevelsberg and then continues in the Hagen area . Approximately on the southern slope of the Schwelmer Talmulde runs through the middle of the city, the border between the Bergisch-Sauerland lowlands in the north and the Bergisch plateaus in the south.

The Bergische plateaus in the southern Schwelmer area are also known as Schwelmer Heights and shape the southern part of the city with four plateaus: They have an almost uniform height of 350 to (outside the Schwelmer city limits) 380 m and rise only gradually towards the southeast. Deep stream valleys with slope angles of up to 25 ° intersect between these plateaus. In addition, hollows have formed here that are about 100 m deeper than the plateaus and are collectively referred to as the Voerder high hollow .

ground

There is a wide variety of soil conditions in the Schwelm urban area; however, different types of brown and parabrown earth dominate . The Schwelmer valley basin, for example, is characterized by pseudogley parabroun earths made from mostly relocated loess. In the west of the city there are very small areas of Rendzinen , on the southern city limits in the valley of the Wupper there are brown floodplain soils and generally a high occurrence of Lenneschist.

The northern part of the city is characterized by a mass limestone from the upper Middle Devon , also known as Schwelmer Kalk . It belongs to the Rhenish-Westphalian limestone range, which extends on the northern edge of the Sauerland and Bergisches Land from Düsseldorf via Wuppertal, Hagen and Iserlohn to Brilon. The limestone strip is rich in parabrown soils from Pleistocene loess , which is considered to be the highest quality soil in the urban area. In the extreme north-west of the urban area, the highly water-soluble limestone near Gut Oberberge creates dry valleys with sinkholes . The Linderhauser high ridge, also located in the north, consists of Lenne slate; the most important tertiary deposits in the Schwelm area can be found there in the Heide area.

On the city limits in the west is the Alder Cave , which is a designated natural monument , whose diverse fauna - considering the relatively small cave size - is remarkable. The cave was discovered during a fox hunt in 1902 and is named after a nearby homestead.

Other smaller caves were found in the Linderhauser ridge during the construction of the Schwelmer tunnel and the Linderhauser tunnel. So far , 8 caves have been found on and around the disused Schwelm Tunnel, which was bought by the Kluterthöhle eV working group in 2017 . At the Elberfeld-Dortmund railway was in 2014 in the area of the house Martfeld the castle cave discovered. Experts emphasize the importance of the castle cave for geology in North Rhine-Westphalia.

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View of the Schwelmer valley basin and the Lindenberg high ridge in the north from the city center

vegetation

Parts of trees in the Schwelm city forest

The urban area belongs to the colline and submontane altitude level and is therefore characterized in many places by beech trees. On the Bergisch plateau in the south and the Linderhauser Ridge in the north there is a species-poor expression of the Hainsimsen -buchwald with a sparse layer of bushes and herbs; in the north one can find pearl grass beech forest in places. In the southern floodplains and in the Wupper valley, the star chickweed, pedunculate oak and hornbeam forest is rich in species.

More than half of the forestry area in the Schwelm urban area is deciduous forest (310 ha), around a third is coniferous forest (165 ha) and the rest is mixed forest (38 ha). In the deciduous forests there are not only numerous beech trees but also birch and chestnut trees, as well as English, sessile and red oaks. The approximately 185 hectare Schwelmer city forest consists largely of mixed stands and such trees, almost none of which is older than 80 years. Small, structurally and species-rich alluvial forests lie along the streams in the southern urban area.

Waters

Source of Schwelme in the Martfeld Forest

In the north of the urban area there are only a few bodies of water due to the karst phenomena in the local limestone . The rare springs are often only visible after rainfall or thaw. The Döinghauser Spring, on the other hand, is a constant flowing water, in the vicinity of which there are fish ponds west of Hattinger Straße that are no longer used. These bodies of water, located on inaccessible property, are a habitat for the pond horsetail and the endangered pond lentil, which are endangered nationwide .

The south of Schwelm is rich in springs and flowing waters compared to the north. The Schwelme, the name-giving stream of the city, rises in the east in the Martfelder Wald and flows into the Wupper after about 9 km outside the western city limits in Wuppertal-Oberbarmen . Three other streams run through the valleys in the south of the city: the Wolfsbecke, the Fastenbecke and the Brambecke. All three flow into the Wupper in the south, which runs for several kilometers on the city limits between Schwelm and Wuppertal-Beyenburg . In addition to the streams mentioned, there are numerous small sieves and spring areas in the southern urban area.

climate

Schwelm is located in the oceanic influenced north-west German climate area. The winter in the urban area is therefore mild and the summer moderate with maximum precipitation in July and August. The annual rainfall averages 1,200 mm, the average temperature over the year is 9 ° C.

Land use

Use of the urban area

The urban area of ​​just 2050 ha stretches from east to west over 4.6 km and from north to south over 7.5 km. Almost a third (633 ha) of the area is used for agriculture. The largest share of this is made up of permanent grassland (520 ha), which is the most common type of land use in Schwelm. There are industrial (59 ha) and commercial (72 ha) areas particularly in the valley basin that runs through the city from west to east along the B 7 . Together, all industrial parks cover an area of ​​72 hectares and in 2002 housed a total of around 100 companies. In addition to the city center, the urban and rural areas are mainly the districts Möllenkotten , Oehde, Oberloh, Kornborn, Brunnen and Linderhausen. The living space used per inhabitant in Schwelm in 2002 averaged 36.7 m² and was thus a good 3% below the average in the Ennepe-Ruhr district.

Nature reserves have been set up in the stream valleys in the south of the city . The Weberstal on the Brambecke, for example, has been left to its own devices since the early 1970s and is now home to some rare animal and plant species. Every year the working group for environmental protection Schwelm e. V. (AGU) in Weberstal the day of biodiversity , on which the local nature reserve can be explored under supervision. On the eastern city limits, the AGU has converted an almost 6 hectare former arable land on the Tannenbaum into a biotope. A total of 80 hectares of the Schwelm urban area are classified as a valuable urban biotope .

history

Settlements in the Stone Age

In 1989, more than 300 mesolithic surface finds were discovered in Schwelmer's urban area, between the wind garden and the Kühlchen . The sites are on the Rhine / Ruhr watershed there on today's federal highway B 483 . The flint artefacts found allow the conclusion that there were two Stone Age settlement areas there. The settlement of the Schwelm urban area can therefore be documented as far back as the Stone Age.

Fronhof and church square settlement in the Middle Ages

Listed building in the area of ​​the former Fronhof in the old town

The further settlement of today's Schwelm city area can be documented with a Fronhof , which was probably built in the 9th century when the Schwelm area was opened up along the old highways. The southern edge of the Schwelmer Kalkmulde offered the people extremely nutritious soil and enough water. Although the Fronhof was not located directly on the Schwelme, the name of this stream, which had initially been transferred to the entire valley basin, eventually became the name of the Fronhof. As in the first half of the 10th century Schwelm is first mentioned as a place when the residents Salaco and Werinheri the Abbey are in the area of Schwelmer Fronhofes (in uilla Suelmiu) on behalf of their Lord a hearing "handed over". Today the Fronhofstrasse in the old town of Schwelm is a reminder of the origins of the Schwelm settlement. In 1812 the Fronhof was abolished.

Around 1070 the Fronhof came into the possession of the Cologne Archdiocese . The gentlemen of Schwelm could henceforth manage the farm as a fief . On November 7th, 1225 Engelbert von Berg was murdered in a ravine near Gevelsberg on a trip to Schwelm, where he wanted to dedicate the church there . The body of the murdered archbishop was brought to the church in Schwelm, but the priest there refused to lay it out there. After a feud between Archbishop Friedrich III. of Cologne and Count Adolf III. In 1392 he received the Fronhof der von Schwelm from the Mark as a pledge. To protect the property of the Archdiocese of Cologne, a moated castle , today's Martfeld House , was built near the Fronhof at the beginning of the 14th century . After the Archbishop of Cologne, Dietrich II., In 1443, had denied Count Adolf IV. Von der Mark, Duke of Cleves, the pledge at Fronhof Schwelm, the Archbishop was defeated by Count von der Mark in the Soester feud and lost supremacy on the Lower Rhine . The Schwelmer Fronhof finally passed into the possession of the Count von der Mark in the middle of the 15th century. Johann II confirmed the common knighthood of the local minor aristocracy, lords of Swelhem zu Schwelm .

To the west of the Fronhof was a church, which can be documented for the first time in 1085 in a document from Archbishop Sigewin of Cologne and which already stood at the site of today's Christ Church. Houses were gradually built around the church square, which served as inns for churchgoers or were inhabited by craftsmen, innkeepers and traders. So by the 13th century a small settlement had developed for which at least the house of a priest and that of another clergyman can be identified, as well as barns, stables and accommodation for the knight's servants from and to Swelm. Outside this first ring of settlement around the churchyard, a market developed over time , which can be traced back to 1311 (in foro Swelme) . This settlement development, which is oriented towards a church forecourt, corresponds to a specific type that applies to all other cities in the Bergisch-Märkisch border area. The settlement was first mentioned in 1400 as a village (dorpe to Swelm) .

An important traffic junction that arose in today's urban area during the Middle Ages had a significant impact on the development of the settlement; Here a trunk road coming from Düsseldorf met the north-south connection from Cologne to Dortmund . This traffic junction only lost its original importance towards the end of the 18th century - although the Schwelm transport network was generally in a mediaeval state until the 18th century.

From the award of the city charter to the Thirty Years War

When Schwelm was officially granted town charter on November 24, 1496 by Johann II , Duke of Kleve and Count von der Mark, the town consisted of around 50 houses and 250 to 400 inhabitants. Schwelm was the largest settlement in the area and because of the church, the school and the market it was also the spiritual and economic center of the region. One year after the city charter was granted, the Martini Market (also: St. Märtens Kirmes ) was held for the first time on November 11, 1497, St. Martin's Day , which lasted until the late 19th century. After the two settlement centers at Fronhof and Kirchplatz had grown together during the 16th century, Schwelm was granted city rights again on June 16, 1590, this time finally by Wilhelm V , Duke of Kleve-Jülich-Berg, Count von der Mark and Ravensberg . Two years later the Fronhof passed to the city. The knight dynasty von und zu Schwelm migrated to the Lower Rhine in the service of Count von der Mark and lives on in Moers and Krefeld to this day. Even if the modern age had generally already dawned at this point in time, "medieval conditions in the young city remained almost unchanged until well into modern times".

With the final award of city rights, the construction of the city ​​wall was completed, which ran along Obermauerstrasse and Untermauerstrasse, Lohmannsgasse and Bergstrasse. The wall ring, a piece of which is still preserved on the Brauereigasse today, was about a kilometer long and provided with eleven towers and a moat. Access to the city was possible through four city ​​gates , the last of which was demolished in 1815.

At the beginning of the 17th century, Johann Sigismund von Brandenburg and Wolfgang Wilhelm von Pfalz-Neuburg divided the empire of the late Duke Johann Wilhelm von Jülich-Kleve-Berg among themselves. Since Johann Sigismund received the areas of Kleve, Ravensburg and Mark, Schwelm belonged to Brandenburg from 1614 and to Brandenburg-Prussia from 1618. During the Thirty Years War , the city had to pay high taxes in kind and money and was exposed to looting. Troops were constantly marching through Schwelm or quartered in the city. In 1622 the Spaniards and Neuburger occupied the city and tried to re-Catholicize the citizens . The population in the border town of Schwelm was significantly decimated during the war. In addition to the war, the inhabitants suffered from the plague , which broke out again in Schwelm in 1636 after the disease had already occurred in the Schwelm area in 1581, 1612 and 1616.

Schwelm as a health resort and excursion destination in the 18th and 19th centuries

Gesundbrunnen at the end of the 18th century
Section of a city map from 1722

More than a hundred houses were destroyed in a city ​​fire on October 18, 1722. Buildings outside the city wall also burned down, including the church, the school and the pastorate of the Catholic community.

In the middle of the 18th century, Schwelm was known far beyond the city limits as a spa and bathing resort, as at that time there was a healing spring in what is now the Brunnen district . This iron-rich spring was discovered in Schwelm around 1650 by the then owner of the Martfeld house, Adolf Wilhelm Raitz von Frentz. When two doctors praised the quality of the water in 1706 and certified it had a healing effect, the heyday of the Gesundbrunnen began: the Schwelm doctor Kaspar Frowein stated in 1707 that 60,000 to 70,000 people visited the Schwelmer Gesundbrunnen within two months. The well house built in 1790 above the mineral spring is now a listed building. Towards the end of the 18th century, Schwelmer Gesundbrunnen developed from a health resort to a destination for excursions: theater and opera performances took place regularly and there were several wells. In 1800, under the title “About the Schwelmer Gesundbrunnen”, a 248-page detailed description of the Schwelm mineral spring, the well operation and the town of Schwelm and the surrounding area appeared. It was written by the Schwelm doctor Ludovicus Castringius and the Lennep pharmacist Caspar Heinrich Stucke. In 1809 Wilhelm Tappe wrote an epic about a Sunday at the fountain in Schwelm . The spa gardens around the fountain house were converted into a pleasure forest by Maximilian Friedrich Weyhe in 1820 . The heyday of the Schwelmer well came to an abrupt end in 1882 when the mineral spring suddenly dried up. The neighboring ore mining in the "Red Mountains" (today the area of ​​Dr.-Moeller-Strasse) was identified as the cause.

In 1823 the newspaper Hermann appeared for the first time in Schwelm , a magazine from and for Westphalia or the country between Weser and Maas under the editor-in-chief Rauschnick, the head of the Schwelmer grammar school. This newspaper later became the Schwelmer Zeitung , which appeared daily until 1980.

Schwelm in the 19th century with the Bergisch-Märkische Railway in the foreground

A city fire in the autumn of 1827 destroyed over 40 buildings, including the Catholic Church. After the first pavement was laid in Schwelm in the second half of the 18th century, after the fire of 1827 the Neustraße (today: Hauptstraße) was laid out as a new main traffic route instead of the Kirchstraße. The infrastructure was significantly improved in 1847 when the Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft opened the line from Wuppertal-Elberfeld to Schwelm and the city was thus connected to rail traffic. In 1860 steam power and gas lighting were introduced in Schwelm.

Gondola pond of the excursion restaurant Snuff Tobacco Mill around 1900

Around 1900 there was the snuff mill on Talstrasse , the largest restaurant in the region. Here the guests could drive around on former mill ponds with gondolas and barges; at times the bar had up to 3000 seats. When the number of visitors declined, the town of Schwelm bought the site of the snuff mill in 1906 and had a sewage treatment plant built there. The building, which was once used as a mill, survived until the 1970s.

From 1815 to 1887 the town of Schwelm was assigned to the district of Hagen . In 1879 the city united with the so-called Farmers and rural community Schwelm and in particular the village of Möllenkotten to the east . In this way, the urban area expanded from around 2 km² to more than 16 km². The strong growth led to Schwelm becoming an independent district town in the newly emerging Schwelm district in the Prussian province of Westphalia in 1887 .

First half of the 20th century

At the beginning of the 20th century, Schwelm experienced a significant boom in industrialization, which was mainly characterized by ribbon knitting and the iron industry. This led to significant growth in the city, essentially expanding northward.

Also at the beginning of the 20th century, Franz Friedrich Laufer in Schwelm used the Great Dane Caesar as Germany's first police dog .

From 1922 the Schwelmer rural communities Langerfeld and Nachbarebreck were assigned to the neighboring town of Barmen . When the Ennepe-Ruhr district emerged on August 1, 1929 from the Schwelm district in connection with some other areas, Schwelm not only remained the seat of the district administration, but was now also the largest town in the new district. Since the municipal reorganization on January 1, 1970, through which most of the former rural community of Linderhausen was transferred to Schwelm, the city has been the smallest municipality in North Rhine-Westphalia.

In 1929, near the old Gesundbrunnen, the spring, which went out in the middle of the 19th century, was opened up again, but from then on its water was only used as table water. The former Brunnenwirtschaft in the Friedrichsbad House, which is now a listed building , experienced an upswing at the beginning of the 20th century and became a center of equestrian sports in the Bergisches Land due to the nearby horse racing track .

Information sign at the former location of the synagogue

After the seizure of power by the Nazis in 1933, the beginning of the century, built on today's Neumarkt Kaiser Friedrich monument was demolished. During the November pogrom on the night of November 10, 1938, the anti-Semites destroyed the last Jewish shop in Schwelm and deported its owner to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . The synagogue was sold to the city in 1938 after the Jewish community had been degraded to an association by the National Socialists and could no longer finance the maintenance of the church. To commemorate the Jewish Herz family, who lived on Kölner Strasse and became a victim of the Holocaust , the Cologne artist Gunter Demnig set four stumbling blocks in the pavement in front of house number 3 on Kölner Strasse in December 2006 . Overall, the historical reconstruction of the time of National Socialism in Schwelm is extremely difficult, since the records in the Schwelm city archive are "absolutely poor" over time.

During the Second World War , Schwelm was hit by bombing raids in March 1945: According to the fire brigade, 180 high-explosive and 12,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on March 3 . The damage was devastating; among the destroyed buildings were the city's three churches. On March 13, another 350 high-explosive bombs and 13,000 to 14,000 incendiary bombs fell on the city, many of which fell on uncultivated land. Schwelm was bombed twelve times, the last time on March 31. According to the city at the time, 131 people were killed in the attacks. On April 13, 1945, the American troops reached the district town via the Schwelmer Heights in the south and moved into the city on the 14th.

Recent past

500 year city anniversary logo

In the mid-1960s, a citizens' initiative launched a collection campaign for the spiers of the Protestant Christ Church, which, after its reconstruction, shaped the cityscape for several years without storm peaks. The re-helmeting of the church on May 13 and 14, 1968 was one of the most significant events in recent city history, on the occasion of which the students even had time off to experience what was happening.

On January 1, 1970, most of the community Linderhausen was incorporated.

The earthquake, which caused severe damage to the Lower Rhine in April 1992, could still be felt in the urban area, but had no devastating effects. In August of the following year, a major fire broke out on the premises of a shipping company. It was the biggest fire in Schwelm since 1945 and caused a cloud of pollutants several hundred meters high over the city. Extinguishing water that got into the Schwelme and the Wupper caused fish to die.

After it became known in the second half of the 20th century that Schwelm had already had town charter before 1590, the 500th anniversary of the town was celebrated in 1996. In 1950, due to ignorance of the historical circumstances, the city's 360th anniversary was celebrated as a replacement for the 350th anniversary celebrations that had not been celebrated ten years earlier.

In January 2007, hurricane Kyrill devastated large parts of the forests in the urban area and caused considerable damage to forestry.

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Schwelm 1895 versus 2016, view from Ehrenberger Strasse over the city

religion

Lutheran and Catholic Church in the 19th century, detail from a painting by Gustav Lange , 1836
Christ Church seen from the Altmarkt

The oldest Schwelm church can be traced back to the year 1085, when the Archbishop of Cologne Sigewin gave it to a Cologne monastery. The consecration of a church is documented for the first time in 1225, which was originally intended to be carried out by the Archbishop of Cologne, Engelbert . But Engelbert was murdered on his way to Schwelm and his miter became a relic in Schwelm. This church, consecrated in 1225, was the only building in the city to survive a city fire in 1503, but was destroyed in a renewed fire in the city in 1520. A new Catholic church was consecrated in 1522, which was later taken over by the Lutherans and finally demolished in 1737.

Between 1585 and 1590, most of the Christians in the Schwelm congregations professed the Lutheran faith. Only five families remained Catholics; they were cared for by the Kreuzherren from the Steinhaus monastery in Beyenburg . The conflict between the denominations escalated in Schwelm in 1630 when imperial troops sacked the city on behalf of the Catholics. In 1656 a Reformed congregation was founded, which from then on existed alongside the Lutheran congregation. On July 14, 1682, the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm approved the establishment of a Catholic community and allowed Catholics to build a church, a school and a rectory.

In July 1684 the foundation stone of a new Catholic church was laid. The simple one-nave building was badly damaged in a fire in 1722 and destroyed by another fire in 1827. Not far from the old location, the Catholic community built a new church, consecrated in 1833, which was only blown up in 1968 because the building could only be poorly restored after the Second World War. The new building took place in the same place, and today's St. Mary 's Church was consecrated on the fourth Sunday of Advent in 1970.

From its foundation in 1656 until the town fire in 1722, the Reformed community used a normal house in Schwelm's old town; a Reformed church was not consecrated until 1724. In 1874 this simple building without a tower or bells was demolished and in the same place a full-fledged church with a brick facade, which has been called Pauluskirche since 1930 . After the Second World War, the heavily damaged St. Paul's Church had to be demolished.

After the Lutheran Church and its bells were completely destroyed in a fire in 1836, the Lutherans used the Catholic Church for their main services until the foundation stone of today's Christ Church was laid by the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm in 1842 .

Even Jehovah's Witnesses are represented in Schwelm with three meetings (municipalities). They hold their meetings (worship services) in the Schwelm Kingdom Hall on Sedanstrasse. Meetings are held in German , Greek and Spanish .

In 1789 there were five Jewish families in Schwelm, which included 37 Jewish people with servants and maidservants. A Jewish cemetery had been located directly in front of the city wall since 1682, but it has not been re-occupied since the end of the 18th century. Presumably, the Jewish community was already using the cemetery in the south outside of the city, which still exists today and is a listed building. In 1819 a synagogue was inaugurated in the city center.

Also Muslims are in Schwelm at a mosque in the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DİTİB) represented in the Hattinger road.

population

As early as the 16th century, Schwelm was considered a small town by the standards of the time; the number of inhabitants was always below 500. Only with its increasing importance as a commercial location did the city gain in inhabitants: mainly through immigration, the number of inhabitants doubled in the 18th century and Schwelm became the sixth largest city in the county of Mark.

Schwelmer population in the 18th and 19th centuries century
year 1719 1722 1729 1735 1756 1771 1780 1790 1798 1858 1880 1900
Residents 1043 776 957 1102 1355 1703 1819 2083 2266 7900 12 200 16 900
Population growth since 1975

By 1970 almost 35,000 people lived in the city - more than ever before. Since then, the population has been shrinking almost steadily, apart from a brief growth phase around German reunification . Today Schwelm is a medium-sized town with 28,337 inhabitants (as of June 30, 2015).

The proportion of people over the age of 65 in Schwelm is around four percentage points higher than in the entire state of North Rhine-Westphalia (as of 2003). This is due to the relatively large number of geriatric care facilities in the city and the compact design of the city, which makes Schwelm particularly attractive for older people.

Between 1980 and 2004 Schwelm had a positive migration balance every year , with most of the immigrants coming from the neighboring city of Wuppertal . In 2006, net migration returned to a positive value of 21. According to a forecast, a positive migration balance of around 160 new arrivals per year will be necessary to ensure that the population does not decrease noticeably by 2020. Another slight decline in the population by 2025 and a sharp increase in the over 80s is likely.

In 2006 the proportion of foreigners (proportion of residents without a German passport) in Schwelm was 12.5%, which is slightly above the average for the communities in the Ennepe-Ruhr district.

politics

Local election 2014
Turnout: 47.6% (2009: 54.3%)
 %
40
30th
20th
10
0
31.3%
29.5%
9.0%
6.8%
5.7%
9.8%
8.0%
The citizens
Otherwise. G
Gains and losses
compared to 2009
 % p
 10
   8th
   6th
   4th
   2
   0
  -2
  -4
  -6
+ 0.4  % p
-0.9  % p
-1.6  % p
-4.9  % p
+ 0.1  % p
+ 9.8  % p.p.
+ 8.0  % p
The citizens
Otherwise. G
Template: election chart / maintenance / notes
Remarks:
g Citizens for Schwelm / Schwelmer voter community eV

City council

Even after the election to the city council on May 25, 2014 , it has 38 council members. The table shows the composition of the city council.

Party / group Seats
2014 2009
SPD 12 12
CDU 11 12
Green 3 4th
FDP ** 4th 4th
The left 2 2
The citizens** 3 -
BFS / SWG * 3 4th
total 38 38

* Citizens for Schwelm / Schwelmer voter community eV

** Change of a council member on June 13, 2016 from the "Citizens" parliamentary group to the "FDP parliamentary group"

Mayor of Schwelm since 1946
mayor Term of office
Gabriele Grollmann-Mock (independent) from 2015
Jochen Stobbe (SPD) 2009-2015
Jürgen Steinrücke (CDU) 1999-2009
Rainer Döring (SPD) 1977-1999
Egon Pohlmann (FDP) 1975-1977
Horst Stadie (SPD) 1970-1975
Heinrich Homberg (SPD) 1964-1970
Wilhelm Wiesemann (CDU) 1963-1964
Heinrich Homberg (SPD) 1951-1963
Ernst Lambeck (CDU) 1948-1951
Otto Klode (SPD) 1946-1948

Mayoress

Mayor is Gabriele Grollmann-Mock ( non-party ); she was elected as a joint candidate of the CDU, Bündnis90 / Die Grünen, the FDP and the Schwelmer voter community ( BfS / SWG ) in the mayoral election on September 13, 2015 with 62.3 percent of the votes to succeed Jochen Stobbe (SPD) and resigned to take up office on October 21, 2015. In 2019, Grollmann-Mock announced that he would not run again in the 2020 mayoral election.

Christiane Sartor ( CDU ), Frauke Hortolani ( SPD ) and Brigitta Giesswein ( Bündnis90 / Die Grünen ) have been the deputy mayors since 2014.

The first mayor after the town charter was finally granted in 1590 was the Schwelm yarn dealer Melchior Mühlinghaus. After the Second World War, Willi Vahle (1945), Hugo Schüßler (1945–1946) and Heinrich Sternenberg (1946) acted as mayors. In September 1946 Otto Klode became the first democratically elected mayor in Schwelm after the end of the war.

Town twinning

Since September 2007, a twinning between Schwelm and the French city of Fourqueux (since 2019: the district of Saint-Germain-en-Laye ), with which it already before the signing of the partnership agreement over ten years a lively exchange in the field of youth , Sport and culture.

City logo

Shortly after the city was finally granted city rights, Schwelm was given its own coat of arms and seal in 1592. Two impressions of the first stamp made in 1592 from the years 1604 and 1609 are still preserved in the State Archives of North Rhine-Westphalia, see illustration. The city received the right to use the coat of arms that is valid today in a document on August 3, 1938 from the President of the Province of Westphalia: “The coat of arms shows two red towers with dark blue spiers on a golden background over a blue undulating river. The towers are connected by a tinned wall of the same color. Above her is the red and white Brandenburg chess bar between the towers. The towers each have an embrasure, the spire has an equal-armed cross on a pommel. "

City coat of arms around 1900

The two towers point to the former city wall. The small wall between the two towers, which also refers to the city wall, was not always visible in the coat of arms: in the seals of the 18th century, for example, the wall is missing and in a seal of the 19th century the checkerboard beam extends at the expense of the wall to the bottom of the towers. The number of checkerboard squares also changed several times over the course of time. The meaning of the waveband is not clear: either it refers to the Schwelme or to a part of the old city fortifications, which also included a moat. At times, a group of three moons was shown in the Schwelm coat of arms, which appear for the first time on a seal from 1679. Since then, they were probably an integral part of the coat of arms until the 20th century. The last known seal, which shows the three moons, dates from 1938. Sometimes the moons opened to the left and sometimes to the right, around 1900 instead of the moons three beings in the shape of fish or newts were part of the coat of arms for a short time.

The right to carry a flag and a flag was granted to the city in a document by the North Rhine-Westphalian state government in 1950: “The flag bears the city coat of arms in the upper white field; the lower part of the flag is red-white-red vertical stripes, the white central stripe wider than the two red edge stripes. The flag has red and white horizontal stripes with the city coat of arms in the middle. ”Since 2006, many houses and cars in the city have been decorated by their owners with small and large versions of the city flag for the Schwelmer Heimatfest in late summer.

economy

8 720 people were employed at Schwelm in 2005 and were subject to social security contributions. Most of them work in the healthcare and senior management sectors, for example in one of the two hospitals, the four old people's homes or various care services. With around 750 employees (as of 2001/02), the Helios Clinic is one of the largest employers in the city. In the district town, more than twice as large a proportion of employees work in public administration as the average in the Ennepe-Ruhr district or North Rhine-Westphalia , including over 700 employees in the district administration. The purchasing power index in Schwelm was 109.6 in 2006, slightly above the national average. At the moment, however, the Schwelm economy has an “identity problem” and “suffers from the fact that there is no clear, externally identifiable profile”.

development

Overburden dumps of the Rodenfeld mine around 1800

Mining was carried out in Schwelm for several hundred years: the Rodenfeld alum and vitriol mine near the Martfeld house has been handed down from the second half of the 16th century . Here, pebbles were extracted, leached and cooked on pans, so that iron vitriol was finally obtained . Vitriol and alum were particularly used in cloth dyeing. After 1682, mining in Schwelm ceased for a long time and was only temporarily revived in the middle of the 18th century. In the middle of the 19th century, on the initiative of the entrepreneur Friedrich Harkort , the mining of sulphurous pebbles began again and with it, brown iron stone , which had been neglected in earlier times , was extracted from the spoil heaps of the old vitriol mine in Rodenfeld and the deposits below . Harkort's Schwelm colliery experienced a sharp rise in the production of iron stone and sulfur pebbles in the 1870s, before operations were discontinued in 1891 due to falling production volumes. In addition to the Rodenfeld mine, smithsonite and iron stone were also mined in a mine on the Schwelm city limits in the west .

When high-performance hard coal pits were located north of the town of Schwelm around 1800 , and their production volumes were among the largest in the county of Mark , coal transport was one of the most important branches of the economy. Schwelm was one of the preferred residential areas of the coal drivers , because the urban area was exactly between the mining areas in the north and the sales areas in the Bergisch-Märkischen commercial centers in the south. At that time, a coal road led from the north via Schwelm to Lennep, Hückeswagen and Wipperfürth. When road and railroad construction began in the first half of the 19th century, the coal-driving industry came to an end through Schwelm. Today some ravines from that time are still preserved.

In the 18th century, the Schwelmer area was one of the main focuses of the iron industry in the county of Mark. Until the 1960s, the Schwelmer Eisenwerk was one of the world's leading manufacturers of automatic petrol dispensers , which were also exported to the USA. The company was also the oldest barrel factory in Germany and produced the first electrically welded iron barrels around 1905.

The textile industry was once an important branch of the economy in Schwelm, because the city used to be in the transition area between the iron industry on the Ennepe and the textile city of Wuppertal . The first bleaching works created in Schwelm as early as 1500. Later, weaving and finally Bandwirkereien added that as suppliers or wage enterprises produced for Wuppertal textile industry. In 1845, the Braselmann & Sohn band factory received permission to use the first steam engine in Schwelm. Ribbon knitting was still important in the middle of the 20th century and even experienced an enormous boom after the Second World War. Two former ribbon weaving mills on Ehrenberger Strasse and on Ribbon weaving path from the late 19th century are now listed and the typical clothing of the ribbon weavers - a blue smock, a red scarf and a high black cap - is still worn in the Schwelm neighborhood clubs on special occasions .

Companies

Former Ibach building on Wilhelmstrasse
Company building of the company Erfurt & Sohn, Wuppertal

The former production site of the family business Rud is located on Wilhelmstrasse . Ibach Sohn , who until 2007 was the oldest piano manufacturer in the world still in production . At the end of the 19th century, the then company manager Peter Adolph Rudolph Ibach had the red brick building built as the company's second factory after buying the site in Schwelm in 1883. After the Second World War, the Schwelm factory became the company's headquarters. At the beginning of December 2007 production was unexpectedly stopped due to the global market situation, unfavorable site conditions and high cost pressure.

In the 1980s, the Linde AG refrigeration and equipment technology group, with around 500 employees, produced refrigerated and deep-freeze units on Saarstrasse in Schwelm. In 1988, the plant was to be shut down and production was to be relocated in stages to Mainz-Kostheim. After months of struggle between the employees under the motto “Linde must stay in Schwelm”, supported by representatives of the Protestant Church and political parties, the works council and IG Metall Gevelsberg managed to “maintain a partial operation” with 120 employees for seven Years to fix. On December 31, 2001, the company was finally closed: the rest of the production was relocated to Beroun in the Czech Republic and the last 100 employees lost their jobs.

The Schwelm brewery (previously: Haarmann & Kathagen ) has existed since 1830 . At the beginning of the 20th century, it was the first brewery in the world to replace the traditional wooden barrels with enamel vats that were manufactured in the Schwelm ironworks. At the end of October 2011, the brewery was wound up due to bankruptcy. The brewery was demolished. Only the listed administration building is still standing. The location of the brewery will give way to a shopping center. In the extreme south of Schwelm on the border with Wuppertal is the Erfurt & Sohn paper factory , today the world market leader for paintable and functional wall coverings and once the inventor of woodchip . The most important part of the production facilities and the administration are located in the Schwelm urban area.

GEPA , which has been based in Wuppertal since 1997, was founded in Schwelm in 1975. Today the company is the largest fair trader in Europe.

The retail company Aldi-Nord is based in the city with one of its 35 legally independent regional companies, plus a large central warehouse.

In addition, Comos Industry Solutions, which was taken over by Siemens AG in 2008 and integrated into Siemens Industry Software GmbH & Co. KG in 2010, has its headquarters in Schwelm.

Culture and sights

Cultural monuments

Listed former pharmacy on the Altmarkt
Former moated castle Haus Martfeld
Rietz's house on Bürgerplatz

There are almost 200 architectural and ground monuments in Schwelm (181 in July 1996). After most of the old half-timbered houses were demolished in the 1970s and replaced by new buildings, almost every historically valuable building in the old town is now a listed building . These include a number of slated half-timbered houses in the Bergisch style and in the typical colors black, white and green. One of the few houses that did not fall victim to the town fires of the 18th century is at Kirchstrasse No. 5. Almost all the houses in the pedestrian zone were built after 1945 and only a few old buildings have been preserved in this area. To the north of the pedestrian zone there are some listed residential buildings that were built towards the end of the 19th century in the style of the Wilhelminian era and the neo-renaissance and some have a post-classical stucco facade . Some villas built around 1900 can also be found here. Smaller collections of listed residential buildings are also located on Hauptstrasse to the west and east of the pedestrian zone and on Barmer Strasse. In February 2007, house no. 8 on Bismarckstrasse emerged as the winner in a competition for the most successful facade renovation.

The listed buildings also include the former knight's seat Haus Martfeld in the east of the city with the nearby burial chapel as well as the Rietz'sche house on Untermauerstrasse, which the Schwelm brewery once used as an administration building. It is one of the few buildings that withstood the fires in the 18th century. The name of this classicist town house goes back to Hofrat Wilhelm Rietmeister, who lived there in the 18th century. When the Hermann & Karthagen brewery acquired the house in the 19th century , they had a larger brick building built on the adjoining site, the southern part of which, together with the vaulted cellars, is now also a listed building.

The Protestant Christ Church, which is also listed, is the second largest church in Westphalia with around 1200 seats.

Outside the built-up urban area, the Schwelm Jewish cemetery is located in a rural setting. It was in use between around 1776 and 1943 and is maintained today by the city, state and federal government, as well as by volunteers.

Museums

The Schwelmer Heimatmuseum includes more than 1,000 exhibits, which range from the Stone Age to the 20th century. The exhibition, which is one of the largest Westphalian collections in regional history, extends over three floors in the middle wing of the Martfeld house. Over a hundred years ago, this museum emerged from an exhibition that took place in 1890 for the 300th anniversary of the city, on the initiative of the later honorary citizen Wilhelm Tobien. The restaurant owner Jakob Theisen contributed significantly to the acquisition of many exhibits. Over the decades, the name of the museum and the location have changed several times:

"The fact that the National Socialists only managed to provide adequate rooms for the museum founded by liberal educated citizens in 1937 is a 'stair joke' in Schwelm's history."

- Gerd Helbeck : 100 years of the museum in Schwelm. In: Martfeld-Kurier , 1990, No. 9, 2.

After the city of Schwelm bought the Martfeld house in the 1950s, the local history museum moved there and was opened in 1962 in the former knight's seat. At the beginning of the 1960s, a model was made for the local history museum that depicts the town of Schwelm in 1722. However, after the model turned out to be too big to be shown in the museum, it was not exhibited at all for decades before it finally found a place in the main office of the Städtische Sparkasse in February 2007.

Events

Homeland pageant
White laundry during the old town festival

The most important festival in the city's calendar of events is the Schwelmer Heimatfest , which takes place every year on the days around the first weekend in September. This folk festival lasts five days and consists of a festival evening on Friday, the fair from Friday to Tuesday and a pageant on Sunday. The parade is comparable to a carnival parade and includes running and music groups as well as motif floats that are built by the Schwelm neighborhood associations throughout the year. The festival parade of the year 2008 saw 50,000 spectators. The motto of the Heimatfest changes from year to year and is always formulated in Low German ; In 2015 it's Olt un Jung, in full swing! (Old and young, in great shape!). The historical predecessor of today's Heimatfest was the St. Märtens fair , which took place between 1497 and 1897 in Schwelm. In 1935, based on the St. Märtens fair, the night watchman fair was launched, which was called the autumn fair from the following year and from 1950 onwards the local festival . Also since 1950, the Kölner Straße in the old town has been decorated with historic white linen that is leashed across the street from house to house during the Heimatfest. This tradition is maintained today during the old town festival. Since the 1960s, the advertising poster for the Heimatfest has emerged from a painting competition in the Schwelm schools.

Other regular events in the city center are the Old Town Festival and the International Folklore Festival , both of which take place in summer on Kölner Straße and Märkischer Platz. At Haus Martfeld there is a fashion show in spring and a wedding fair since 1997 . Once a year, after various comedians and cabaret artists, the Schwelmer Kleinkunst Prize is awarded under the name Beer & Culture .

In spring and autumn there is a farmers' market in the inner city on Märkischer Platz and a Christmas market has been set up on the adjacent Altmarkt since 2001 on the first weekend in Advent . In addition, there is a market for arts and crafts at Haus Martfeld in spring. The most important market in Schwelm, however, is the flea market , which has been held in May and October since the 1970s. It is known far beyond the city limits and every time it attracts tens of thousands of visitors; in autumn 2007 there were around 60,000. At the same time, there is a Sunday shopping in the city.

societies

The thirteen neighborhoods are particularly important for the cultural life in the city . They are organized in association form. Each neighborhood is firmly tied to a specific part of the city. Founded in the 1930s, these associations initially had the task of organizing the annual fair parade as part of the town's local festival - comparable to the carnival associations . Later they increasingly took over the organization of the Heimatfest and other events in Schwelm, which likes to describe itself as the “city of neighborhoods”. The partly Low German names of the neighborhoods are derived from geographical, historical or architectural features.

Another defining institution of the city and its cultural life is the Schwelm Local History Association . It has existed since 1890 and is involved in research on local and regional issues and regularly publishes research results via printed publications, lectures and guided tours.

The Johannisloge Zum Westphalian Lion is one of Schwelm's traditional associations . Founded in 1792, it can be regarded as one of the oldest Masonic lodges at all.

Schwelmer Platt

In Schwelm, Schwelmer Platt used to be spoken: a Low German dialect that “belongs to the Brandenburg branch of Westphalian Low German in the border area to the Lower Franconian language area of ​​the neighboring Rhineland”. Today, this dialect is indeed largely disappeared from everyday life, but trying it about with Low German articles in the local festival newspaper or a regular Low German Stammtisch alive.

music

In addition to concerts in Haus Martfeld, there are regular organ concerts in the Christ Church. There are various choirs and choirs; the Schwelmer Accordion Club in 1967 became European champion in the accordion arts level in 1972. Concerts and other music events are held in the Ibach House. Master classes and music lectures at the Keybra Music School regularly offer cultural highlights.

Sports

In the 2004/05 season, the Schwelmer Baskets played in the 1st Bundesliga and the volleyball players of the gymnastics community Zur Roten Erde were represented in the regional league for ten years. The diving sport club Schwelm 1966 is the oldest diving club in the Ennepe-Ruhr district .

The shooting tradition has a long tradition in Schwelm: The oldest shooting club still in existence today is the Schwelm shooting club, which was formed in 1831 from the merger of various shooting clubs . However, because a shooting club in Schwelm can already be proven for 1594, an anniversary was celebrated in Schwelm in 1994 under the title 400 years of shooting tradition .

As part of the football world championship for people with disabilities , Bosnia-Herzegovina and Australia played against each other on the sports field by the fountain on September 17, 2006.

media

Schwelm is a media location. With the Westfalenpost and the Westfälische Rundschau , two titles of the Funke media group appear daily with a local edition, but they are now identical in content. With the Schwelmer Stadtanzeiger and the Werbe- und Anzeigeepost (WAP) there are two weekly newspapers that are published in the district town. In addition, the advertising papers Ennepe-Ruhr Wochenkurier and Wuppertaler Rundschau, which appear in the neighboring cities of Gevelsberg and Wuppertal, report on local topics from Schwelm.

Infrastructure

Public administration

Town hall Schwelm

Schwelm is the administrative seat of the Ennepe-Ruhr district . The Schwelm city iconography by the artist Otto Herbert Hajek is located on the forecourt of the district house, which was inaugurated on Hauptstrasse in 1972 and designed by the architects Laskowski, Thenhaus and Kafka . This ensemble of stone blocks in primary colors was created as a counterpart to the unreality of German cities in the post-war period. The logo of the Ennepe-Ruhr district is based on the shape of the work of art. In 2004, the Schwelm district house became an exhibition venue as part of the EN-Kunst series initiated by the district .

Between 1715 and 1718, the city's first town hall was built on today's Märkischer Platz. From 1888 to 1913, a building in the east of the city on the corner of Ostenstrasse and Drosselstrasse was used as the town hall; today the town hall is on the western main street. The district court Schwelm on Schulstrasse is responsible for the district town of Breckerfeld, Ennepetal and Gevelsberg. Responsible for the same cities is the tax office at Bahnhofplatz, which is subordinate to the regional tax office in Münster.

education

Old building Märkisches Gymnasium Schwelm

In Schwelm there were four community elementary schools (Westfalendamm, Möllenkotten, Engelbertstraße, Nordstadt) and a Catholic denominational elementary school (Südstraße) , which opened at the beginning of the 2014/2015 school year in Städt. St. Marien Catholic Primary School was renamed and moved to the former building of the GS Möllenkotten. The GS Westfalendamm also moved and is now called Primary School Ländchenweg. The Nordstadt elementary school was a specialty until 2009: It consisted of two buildings that are about 2 km apart as the crow flies. One of these two school buildings is located in the Linderhausen district and was independent until 1981. Since 2009, a school for paramedics of the educational institute of the German Red Cross in the Ennepe-Ruhr district has been housed there. As secondary schools there were initially two secondary schools, which were organizationally merged in the Gustav Heinemann School . In 2016 this last secondary school was closed. There is also the Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-Realschule and a Märkisches Gymnasium Schwelm , which originated in 1597. In addition, there was the Pestalozzi School (first in Lohmangasse, then since 2011 on Ländchenweg, in the building of the former Hauptschule Ost) , a special school with the areas of learning, emotional and social development and language. The Pestalozzi School was closed for the 2013/14 school year due to the low number of registrations.

The family house , a Catholic family education center, is on Haynauer Strasse in the city center . In the south of the city, the metal and mechanical engineering trade association maintains an education center in Haus Schwelm . The city library on the main road decreed in early 2007 about 34,000 media.

Hospitals and fire departments

There is a hospital in the city: The HELIOS Clinic on the eastern city limits started operations in 1977 and has around 400 beds. The Marienhospital in the city center, which opened in 1893 and has since been expanded several times, was somewhat smaller . Since 1995 it has belonged to the network of the St. Antonius Clinics in Wuppertal. The Marienhospital was closed in mid-2013 and demolished in 2015. In addition, there has been a Protestant hospital on today's Wilhelmplatz since the 19th century, which was demolished in 1977.

The ambulance service in the city is carried out by the Schwelm fire brigade, which consists of three fire engines (fire engine 1 city, fire engine 2 Winterberg, fire engine 3 Linderhausen) of the volunteer fire brigade and a full-time fire engine with almost 40 employees. Added to this is the fire brigade's music train, founded in 1898, which now appears as a big band.

The city fire brigade consists of full-time workers who, if necessary, are reinforced by volunteers from the fire brigade. The fire brigade Schwelm has a command car , a team transport vehicle , a command vehicle 1, a turntable ladder with basket 23/12, a help fire-fighting vehicle 20, a Löschgruppenfahrzeug 10 with additional loading GSG, a Tanklöschfahrzeug 24/50, a rescue vehicle 2, a small emergency vehicle, a trolley logistics as well as a change loader vehicle with different roll-off containers and the following Medical vehicles: an ambulance, who is at the fire and rescue station, an emergency doctor emergency vehicle at the Helios Klinikum Schwelm in 24-hour service, a ambulance emergency vehicle in the 12-hour service and a replacement ambulance emergency vehicle from Ennepe Ruhr district.

The Winterberg fire brigade consists entirely of volunteer workers and has an emergency fire engine 20, fire fighting vehicle 20 and a team transport vehicle .

The Linderhausen fire fighting train manned a fire fighting group vehicle 10 and an emergency fire fighting group vehicle 10 with its volunteers.

freetime and recreation

Park at Schwelmer train station

In the city center there are several parks, the largest of which is the 9.4 hectare park at Haus Martfeld . In the densely wooded south of the city there is a dense network of local hiking trails and access to some regional hiking trails is also possible. A circular hiking trail runs along the city limits and from northeast to southwest a historically documented part of the Way of St. James, now signposted as a pilgrimage route, crosses the city area.

Public outdoor pools have existed in Schwelm since the middle of the 19th century; today's Schwelmebad was built in the early 1980s. Since the city of Schwelm has not been able to finance the Schwelmebad since 2006, it will continue to be operated by a private sponsoring association.

The local indoor swimming pool was destroyed by a fire shortly before the planned inauguration in March 1973, so that it could only be opened in May 1974 after being rebuilt. In 1999 the indoor swimming pool in Schwelm was one of the first indoor swimming pools in Germany to disinfect its water using salt electrolysis.

traffic

Schwelm railway station

In the far west of the city area, the junction is Wuppertal Langer / Schwelm through which the highway A1 to achieve. To the north-west is the Wuppertal-Nord motorway junction , which offers access to the A 1 , A 43 and A 46 , just before the city limits . The Wuppertal-Nord motorway junction is one of the most important traffic junctions in central North Rhine-Westphalia; the A1 is partially expanded to ten lanes in the Schwelmer urban area. The predominantly four-lane B 7 in the Schwelm area runs from east to west across the urban area and connects Schwelm with the greater Wuppertal area and the Sauerland. The section in the Schwelmer area was completed in 1788 as one of the first art roads in what is now western Germany. The B 7 and B 483 cross at the Talstraße / Hattinger Straße / Bahnhofstraße intersection , via which Hattingen and Radevormwald can be reached.

In the past, the north-south through traffic ran over the entire Kölner Straße and thus through the old town of Schwelm. When the decision was made in the 1970s to preserve the historic buildings in the old town and put them under monument protection, the decision was made in 1974 to redirect traffic in the long term. Today the lower Kölner Straße is traffic-calmed and the Obermauerstraße is used instead. In 2004, a cycle path connection from Möllenkotten in the east to the high school in the west was completed. The Deutsche Alleenstraße is a scenic drive through Schwelm that reaches the city on Hattinger Straße in the north and leaves again in the southeast on Winterbergerstraße.

Schwelm are 9% owned by the Ennepe-Ruhr transport company , which in turn belongs to the Rhein-Ruhr transport association . The main stops of bus services in Schwelm are Bahnhof , Kreishaus and market . You are served by up to seven bus routes, which u. a. lead to Ennepetal, Wuppertal, Hattingen and Bochum.

The Schwelm railway station lies on the railway line from Wuppertal to Hagen ( Elberfeld-Dortmund railway ). There is also the Schwelm West S-Bahn stop in the west of the city, which is important for the Graslake industrial park . The trains of the S-Bahn line 8 as well as the Wupper-Express , the Rhein-Münsterland-Express and the Maas-Wupper-Express stop in Schwelm . The direct connection between the city and the Ruhr area via the Witten – Schwelm railway line was finally closed in 1980. During the Second World War, the Linderhauser Tunnel in the northeast of the city, through which the railway line to Witten also ran, was used as an aircraft workshop under the code name Meise . When a connection line from Langerfeld to the former Schwelm Loh train station was laid at the beginning of the 20th century, the 13-arch bridge was built in Schwelm , which was one of the most striking structures in the city until it was demolished in 1990 due to dilapidation. In addition, until the 1960s, Schwelm's rail transport included a tram line that ran from Wuppertal-Barmen via Schwelm to Ennepetal-Milspe.

Personalities

Honorary citizen

Listed chronologically according to date of award:

  • Wilhelm Tobien (born January 26, 1837 - † September 10, 1911), local history researcher - Awarded on April 4, 1891
  • Julius Möller (born January 8, 1851 - † February 2, 1926), medical doctor - awarded on January 18, 1921
  • Carl vom Hagen (January 1, 1856 - July 18, 1940), fire director - awarded on July 31, 1926
  • Max Klein (born September 2, 1861 - † January 28, 1949), holder of municipal honorary positions - awarded on September 22, 1936
  • Viktor Lutze (* December 28, 1890; † May 2, 1943), Chief of Staff of the SA - awarded on May 13, 1939, post mortem revoked on August 25, 1983
  • Emil Böhmer (born April 5, 1884 - † February 27, 1966), local history researcher - Awarded on April 15, 1954
  • Gustav Heinemann (* July 23, 1899; † July 7, 1976), politician - Awarded on September 7, 1969
  • Wilhelm Friedrich Erfurt (* 1930), Entrepreneur - Awarded on January 19, 2006

Born in Schwelm

Listed chronologically by year of birth:

Personalities who have worked in the city

Listed in alphabetical order:

  • Saraswati Albano-Müller (* 1933 in Benares, India), organizer and bridge builder between cultures, has lived and worked in Schwelm since 1962
  • Jutta Appelt (* 1939 in Greding), politician and head of the school kindergarten at the Möllenkotten primary school
  • Walther Bever-Mohr (* 1901 in Düsseldorf; † 1955 in Schwelm), film maker and President of the Association of German Film Amateurs (BDFA)
  • August Disselhoff (* 1829 in Soest; † 1903 in Allstedt), pastor in Schwelm from 1855 to 1865
  • Emilie Kiep-Altenloh (* 1888 in Voerde (Westphalia), † 1985 in Hamburg), headed the district nutrition office in Schwelm from 1914
  • Asser Levy (* probably in Vilnius; † 1682 in Nieuw Amsterdam), also Asser Levy van Swellem / van Schwelm, one of the first Jewish settlers on the American continent and the first Jew with a higher social position in Nieuw Nederland, he lived for some time in Schwelm
  • Friedrich Christoph Müller (* 1751 in Allendorf an der Lumda; † 1808 in Schwelm), theologian and cartographer, lived in Schwelm from 1785 until his death
  • Johann Heinrich Christian Nonne (* 1785 in Lippstadt; † 1853 in Schwelm), poet, pastor and theologian, active in Schwelm from 1815
  • Ernst Zimmermann (* 1854 in Menden; † 1923 in Nagold), teacher at the elementary school, built up an extensive fossil collection of Schwelmer limestone, which was taken over by the Heimatverein

See also

literature

  • Wilhelm Tobien : Pictures from the history of Schwelm: according to the records in the archives; Festschrift on the 300 year history of Schwelm . Scherz, Schwelm 1890 ( digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf )
  • City of Schwelm (Ed.): Schwelm. With a foreword by Rainer Döring. Born, Wuppertal 1996.
  • Gerd Helbeck : Schwelm. History of a city and its surroundings. Vol. 1, 2., through. Edition Schwelm, 1995.

Web links

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

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. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n State Institute for Ecology, Land Management and Forests of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia: Schwelm. City ecological specialist article. Recklinghausen, 2005. (Accessed on October 28, 2007)  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www3.lanuv.nrw.de  
  3. ↑ One tunnel and eight caves - cave explorers buy Schwelmer tunnel. akkh news, May 13, 2017, accessed March 26, 2018 .
  4. ^ Kurt Offermann: Schwelms Stadtwald. Shelter, recreation area, economic factor. In: Journal für Schwelm , 2003, No. 79, 47 ff.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Schwelm 2020. Action targets for housing, economy and transport for Schwelm at the beginning of the 21st century. ( Memento of October 3, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) Stadt Schwelm, Schwelm 2005. (Accessed on October 19, 2007)
  6. ^ Wiegand, Jens: Geological mapping and description of archaeological finds southeast of Schwelm - northern Rheinisches Schiefergebirge . Bonn 1989.
  7. ↑ Wiegand, Jens: A Mesolithic storage place between wind garden and cooler southeast of Schwelm . In: Contributions to the local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings . Issue 39, 1989, pp. 19 .
  8. ↑ Wiegand, Jens: A Mesolithic storage place between wind garden and cooler southeast of Schwelm . In: Contributions to the local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings . Issue 39, 1989, pp. 7 .
  9. ↑ a b c d Gerd Helbeck : "In oppido Swelme". Origin and structure of the small medieval town Schwelm between the 10th century and 1496. In: Contributions to the local history of the town Schwelm and its surroundings , 1973, No. 23, 5–53.
  10. ↑ a b c d e Gerd Helbeck : Timeline for the history of the Schwelm area up to the final elevation of Schwelm to the city. In: Contributions to the local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings , 1996, No. 45, 13-17.
  11. ↑ a b c d e Günter Voigt: Schwelm. A trip into the past. Schwelm 1990.
  12. ↑ a b c d e Anne Peter: Schwelmer city tour, part I. In: Martfeld-Kurier, 2004, No. 25.
  13. ↑ Paullini, Christian Franz: Inherent all graceful, rare, curieuse, as useful as delightful, also giving rise to all kinds of retrospective discourses and remarkable incidents, In Leyd and Freud. Well-meaning communicated for a fun and edifying pastime . Frankfurt am Main 1700, p. 369-370 .
  14. ↑ Laurentius Surius: Evaluate the histories of God's dear saints : Living from every Christian, godly life, more confessed, glorious deeds, constant suffering . Munich 1580, p. 102 .
  15. ^ Wolfgang Herborn :: The family von Schwelm / von Weinsberg. Development stages of a peasant family in a metropolitan milieu on the threshold of modern times. Ed .: Contributions to the local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings. Volume 32, 1982, pp. 36-62.
  16. ↑ Joh. Died. von Stein :: An attempt at a Westphalian history, especially the Graffschatt Mark ...: with lots of copper. Ed .: Joh. Died. von Stein: An attempt at a Westphalian history, especially the Graffschatt Mark ...: provided with many coppers. Volume 5, pages 1344-1350.
  17. ^ Franz Gotthilf Heinrich Jakob Bädeker: History of the Evangelical Congregations of the County of Mark . In: Heinrich Heppe (ed.): On the history of the Evangelical Church of the Rhineland and Westphalia . tape 2 . Iserlohn 1870, p. 125 .
  18. ↑ a b c d e f g h Wolfgang Fenner, Petra Gallmeister: From “the first settlement” to the “French occupation”. In: Stadt Schwelm (ed.): Schwelm. Wuppertal: Born, 1996. - Chapter 1, 11–54.
  19. ^ K. Albert Siepmann: The traffic junction at Hellmannsbruch and its importance. In: Contributions to the local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings , 1966, No. 16, 56–59.
  20. ↑ a b c d Emil Böhmer: History of the city of Schwelm. Schwelm: Scherz, 1950.
  21. ↑ Schwelm family heraldry genealogy coat of arms Schwelm. Accessed June 10, 2020 (German).
  22. ↑ a b c d e Gerd Helbeck: Schwelm. History of a city and its surroundings. Vol. 1, 2nd edition. Schwelm: Meiners, 1995.
  23. ^ Günther Voigt, Gerd Helbeck: Street names in Schwelm. In: Martfeld-Kurier , 1992, No. 15.
  24. ^ Franz Gotthilf Heinrich Jakob Bädeker: History of the Evangelical Congregations of the County of Mark . In: Heinrich Heppe (ed.): On the history of the Evangelical Church of the Rhineland and Westphalia . tape 2 . Iserlohn 1870, p. 129 .
  25. ^ A b c K. Albert Siepmann, Helmut Frey: Schwelm. In: Walks through the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis , 1961, No. 7, ed. from the district administration of the Ennepe-Ruhr district.
  26. ↑ Castringius, Ludovicus and Stucke, Caspar Heinrich: Ueber den Schwelmer Gesundbrunnen . Dortmund 1800.
  27. ^ Gerd Helbeck: Schwelm as a bathing resort. In: Martfeld-Kurier , 1989, No. 7.
  28. ↑ Figge, Klaus: The dry fall of Schwelmer Gesundbrunnen . In: Contributions to the local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings. Vol. 66, 2017.
  29. ↑ a b Britta Kruse: From “The Consequences of War - Years of Need” to “Stability and Change in the 90s”. In: Stadt Schwelm (ed.): Schwelm. Born, Wuppertal 1996, Chapter 3, pp. 99-167.
  30. ^ Dieter Wiethege: Schwelm - city of railways. In: Martfeld-Kurier, 1988, No. 2.
  31. ^ A b Robert Seckelmann: People's baths in Schwelm until 1984. In: Contributions to local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings , 1999, No. 48, 127-136.
  32. ^ Siepmann, K. A .: The urban development of the town of Schwelm with special consideration of the post-war period. In: Contributions to the local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings, No. 3, 1953. P. 55
  33. ^ Bergmann, Herbert: Before Schwelm became a district town. In: Contributions to the local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings, Issue 12, 1962. P. 29, 41–42
  34. ↑ Development of Schwelm's industry on maps and aerial photographs
  35. ↑ [1]
  36. ↑ Gerd Helbeck: Jews in Schwelm. History of a minority from the beginnings in the 17th century to National Socialism. Schwelm, 2007.
  37. ^ Westfälische Rundschau , December 20, 2006, Schwelmer local section.
  38. ↑ Regina Mentner: The employment of forced laborers for tasks of the old Ennepe Ruhr circle. (PDF; 195 kB) Ed. Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis, Schwelm 2002, 25. (accessed on November 9, 2013)
  39. ^ Lothar Hense: History of the town of Schwelm from 1945 to the currency reform. In: Contributions to the local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings , 1959, No. 9, 5–15.
  40. ↑ Martin Bünermann: The communities of the first reorganization program in North Rhine-Westphalia . Deutscher Gemeindeverlag, Cologne 1970, p. 113 .
  41. ↑ Inge Berger: Major fire in Schwelm - millions of dollars in damage from fire in a shipping company. In: Schwelmer Heimatbrief, 1993, No. 70, 48 f.
  42. ↑ Westfalenpost: Kyrill will employ TBS for three years (accessed on September 26, 2008)
  43. ^ A b Ernst Martin Greiling: Christ Church - history and dates. (No longer available online.) October 2007, archived from the original on June 25, 2014 ; accessed on May 26, 2019 (English).
  44. ↑ The history of our community ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.marien-schwelm.de
  45. ↑ Meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses in Schwelm. In: www.jw.org. Retrieved April 20, 2016 .
  46. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from September 12, 2017 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ditib-schwelm.de
  47. ↑ a b State database NRW (accessed on November 11, 2007)
  48. ↑ Demographic report of the city (PDF) , accessed on January 26, 2017
  49. ^ The State Returning Officer NRW, municipal elections 2014: Final result for Schwelm
  50. ↑ [2]
  51. ^ Ratsinfo Schwelm (accessed December 6, 2014)
  52. ↑ a b Emil Böhmer: The coat of arms of the city of Schwelm. In: Contributions to the local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings , 1960, No. 10, 21-27.
  53. ↑ a b § 3 of the main statute of the city of Schwelm from March 23, 2010
  54. ↑ a b EN agency (ed.): Business location Ennepe-Ruhr . Mehlis, Nordhausen 2006.
  55. ↑ STATSchwelm 2004. Statistical yearbook of the city of Schwelm. ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 190 kB) Stadt Schwelm, Schwelm 2004. (Accessed on September 21, 2007)
  56. ↑ Otto Koenig: "Ice cold clearing" - Linde Kältetechnik GmbH in Schwelm sacrificed for profit. IG Metall Gevelsberg - Hattingen, September 19, 2016, accessed on January 17, 2017 .
  57. ↑ Frank Erdmann, Thomas Michalski, Cornelia Hackler: DENKmal in Schwelm. Monument hiking trail to architectural and ground monuments in Schwelm. 2nd edition Björn Krause, Gelsenkirchen / Schwelm 1996.
  58. ↑ Helbeck, Gerd: Jews in Schwelm. History of a minority from the beginnings in the 17th century to National Socialism. Schwelm, 2007, 2nd edition. Pp. 114-122
  59. ↑ Gerd Helbeck: 1890 to 1990: Hundred Years Association for Local Lore Schwelm. In: Contributions to the local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings , 1990, No. 40, 8–83.
  60. ^ Westfälische Rundschau , March 16, 2007, Schwelmer local section.
  61. ^ Westfälische Rundschau , September 8, 2008, Schwelmer local section
  62. ^ Westfälische Rundschau , October 15, 2007, Schwelmer local section
  63. ↑ Schwelmer Masonic Lodge (ed.): Over 210 years of Freemasons in Schwelm. Masonic dialogue. Schwelm, 2004.
  64. ↑ Arend Remmers : Low German collection of words from Schwelm and the surrounding area. In: Contributions to the local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings , 1989, No. 39, 107.
  65. ↑ https://www.lwl.org/lmz-download/medienproduktion/begleitverbindungen/1CD_Booklet_Niederdeutsch.pdf
  66. ^ Gerhard Kleinhempel: Schwelm in old views. Vol. 1, 5th ed. European Library, Zaltbommel o. J.
  67. ^ Westfälische Rundschau , September 18, 2006, Schwelmer local section.
  68. ↑ Medien in Schwelm (accessed on October 19, 2013.)
  69. ^ School for Paramedics . The West , March 23, 2011
  70. ↑ Closure of the special needs school - Pestalozzischule. City of Schwelm, September 17, 2013, accessed on May 8, 2017 : “The special needs school - Pestalozzischule Schwelm - will be closed at the end of the 2013/2014 school year. The children with identified needs will in future be trained at the Hasencleverschule - the special needs school of the city of Gevelsberg. "
  71. ^ Westfälische Rundschau , January 11, 2007, Schwelmer local section
  72. ↑ Annual report 2008 of the Schwelm fire brigade (accessed on April 8, 2009.)
  73. ↑ Bernd Lepperhoff: The urban development of the city of Schwelm from 1970 to 1990. In: Contributions to local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings , 1990, No. 40, pp. 216-223.
  74. ↑ Westfälische Rundschau , September 20, 2008, Schwelmer local section.
  75. ↑ Helbeck, Gerd: Cheering for a criminal? Viktor Lutze, Chief of Staff of the SA, received the honorary citizenship of the city of Schwelm 50 years ago . In: Contributions to the local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings . Issue 39, 1989, pp. 76-91 .
  76. ↑ Hartmut Ziebs will be the next DFV President. German Fire Brigade Association V., November 27, 2015, accessed on March 17, 2017 : “Hartmut Ziebs will be the next President of the German Fire Brigade Association (DFV). The 62nd assembly of delegates elected the 57-year-old North Rhine-Westphalia today with an overwhelming majority as the successor to Hans-Peter Kröger. "
  77. ↑ Board of Directors. Retrieved January 25, 2019 .