City region Aachen
coat of arms | Germany map |
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Coordinates: 50 ° 46 ' N , 6 ° 6' E |
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Basic data | |
State : | North Rhine-Westphalia |
Administrative region : | Cologne |
Regional association : | Rhineland |
Administrative headquarters : | Aachen |
Area : | 706.95 km 2 |
Residents: | 557,026 (Dec. 31, 2019) |
Population density : | 788 inhabitants per km 2 |
License plate : | AC, MON |
Region key : | 05 3 34 |
NUTS : | DEA2D |
Regional breakdown: | 10 municipalities |
Regional administration address : |
Zollernstrasse 10 52070 Aachen |
Website : | |
City Region Council : | Tim Grüttemeier ( CDU ) |
Location of the Aachen city region in North Rhine-Westphalia | |
The Aachen city region ( proper spelling usually CitiesRegion Aachen ) is a special kind of local authority association in the south-west of North Rhine-Westphalia and lies on the border triangle with the Netherlands and Belgium . The administrative seat is in Aachen .
The urban region has been the legal successor to the Aachen district since October 21, 2009 , which was dissolved and whose nine municipalities and the independent city of Aachen form the new urban region. With the creation of the Aachen city region, a regional model is being tested in North Rhine-Westphalia for the first time . The Hanover region already existed in Lower Saxony , the Saarbrücken regional association in Saarland and the Stuttgart region in Baden-Württemberg .
geography
Spatial location
The Aachen city region consists of ten municipalities, including eight cities. It extends from the city of Baesweiler in the north over approx. 50 kilometers to the city of Monschau in the south.
While the northern and eastern parts of the urban region belong geographically and topographically to the Börden landscapes of the Lower Rhine Bay, the southern part of the urban region extends to the low mountain range of the Eifel .
Neighboring districts and provinces
The city region of Aachen borders, starting clockwise in the north, on the districts of Heinsberg , Düren and Euskirchen , in the south and west on the Belgian province of Liège and in the west on the Dutch province of Limburg with the Plusregio - Parkstad Limburg .
Urban region border | |
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Total limit: | 228.5 km |
To Belgium : | 67.7 km |
To the Netherlands : | 31.5 km |
To the district of Heinsberg : | 14.6 km |
To the Düren district : | 95.4 km |
To the Euskirchen district : | 19.3 km |
Communities
In the Aachen city region there are ten communities and members: Aachen , Alsdorf , Baesweiler , Eschweiler , Herzogenrath , Monschau , Roetgen , Simmerath , Stolberg (Rhld.) And Würselen , eight of which have the title “city”. Six of them are medium-sized regional cities with 25,000 to 60,000 inhabitants. Aachen is a big city with more than 100,000 inhabitants. According to the Aachen Act, it has a special legal position that grants it limited rights as an independent city.
The urban region is structured as follows:
local community | Community type | Area km² (as of 2014) |
Total population (as of December 31, 2019) |
Inhabitants per km² |
---|---|---|---|---|
Aachen | Regional city 1 | 160.85 | 248.960 | 1,548 |
Alsdorf | Middle regional city | 31.68 | 47,149 | 1,489 |
Baesweiler | Middle regional city | 27.76 | 27.093 | 976 |
Eschweiler | Middle regional city | 75.87 | 56,482 | 744 |
Herzogenrath | Middle regional city | 33.38 | 46,375 | 1,388 |
Monschau | Regional city | 94.60 | 11,693 | 124 |
Roetgen | Regional municipality | 39.03 | 8,648 | 222 |
Simmerath | Regional municipality | 110.92 | 15,404 | 139 |
Stolberg | Middle regional city | 98.48 | 56,466 | 573 |
Würselen | Middle regional city | 34.39 | 38,756 | 1,127 |
1 partly rights of an independent city
The Aachen city region is roughly divided into
- the northern district of Aachen (Alsdorf, Baesweiler, Herzogenrath, Würselen) as the northern part
- the city of Aachen as the western part
- the Eschweiler-Stolberg area as the eastern part and
- the southern district of Aachen (Monschau, Roetgen, Simmerath) as the southern part.
Waters
Flow through the urban region area
- the Broichbach
- the inde
- the call
- the Merzbach
- the Omerbach
- the pau
- the Rur
- the Saubach
- the vicht
- the woe
- the worm .
Located in the urban region
- the Blausteinsee
- the Dreilägerbachtalsperre
- the Kalltalsperre
- the Perlenbachtalsperre
- the Rurtalsperre and the Obersee
- the Wehebachtalsperre .
history
Legal predecessor in the Aachen district
The Aachen district was newly formed in 1972. At that time, the maxim that no urban district in North Rhine-Westphalia should be the seat of a (surrounding) district was not yet effective. In the communal reforms before 1972, however, some smaller urban districts were already incorporated into the surrounding districts (for example the city of Herford in the district of the same name). In the larger independent cities of Bielefeld (1973) and Münster (1975), the districts named after them were consequently dissolved and several of their communities were incorporated into the respective large cities. In the case of Aachen, however, no further municipal reform was carried out, and so the separation of town and district remained. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the division into a district and an independent city remained a special case, whereas this is more common in other federal states (see districts of Osnabrück and Osnabrück ).
Administration union
The forerunner of the local authority and the special type of local authority association was initially a local authority association of the same name , which included the district of Aachen in addition to the municipalities that are now connected in the urban region. Association members were the independent city of Aachen , the district of Aachen and its nine municipalities belonging to the district . The Aachen Zweckverband was agreed in 2004 and became effective in 2005. The special purpose association assembly consisted of a total of 60 representatives of the association members with voting rights. As a forerunner of the regional authority, the Zweckverband had set itself the goal of expanding good cooperation among the member bodies, bundling tasks, representing interests and expanding cross-border cooperation. Above all, joint tasks in the area of road traffic administration, school administration and economic development were performed.
For its part, the Aachen city region joined forces in 2012 with the Düren , Euskirchen and Heinsberg districts to form the Aachen Region Association for the purpose of “structural development and cross-border cooperation”.
Local association of a special kind
Under state law ( Aachen law ), the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament decided to set up the Aachen city region as a new municipal association of a special kind and as a regional body as the legal successor to the Aachen district on October 21, 2009. The Aachen district was dissolved at the same time. The Hanover region served as a model for the regional authority . In contrast to the original, the Aachen city region did not succeed in taking over the tasks of the district government . The Aachen city region took on various tasks for the municipalities , for example in the area of traffic planning or the rescue service . The intention was to make the region appear stronger externally, to generate synergy effects internally and to minimize administrative work. Critics of this centralization point out that many problems could be better solved in a decentralized way, such as youth work . Furthermore, there is a risk that smaller municipalities in the urban region will be disadvantaged, especially with regard to economic development, and thus develop worse overall.
politics
City region day
The City Region Day has 72 members. After the first elections on August 30, 2009, the CDU represents the largest parliamentary group with 27 members, followed by the SPD (21), Greens (11), FDP (6), Left and UWG (3 each); there is also a non-attached person and the municipal council.
election day | CDU | SPD | Green | left | FDP | Pirates | UFW | REP | AfD | UWG | Single weight | OJ | total | City Region Council | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
% | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | ||||||||||||||||
08/30/2009 | 38.22 | 27 | 29.15 | 21st | 14.79 | 11 | 4.44 | 3 | 8.64 | 6th | 1.15 | 1 | 3.50 | 3 | 0.10 | - | 0.02 | - | 72 | Helmut Etschenberg | CDU | ||||||
05/25/2014 | 38.02 | 27 | 31.82 | 23 | 13.29 | 10 | 5.41 | 4th | 4.53 | 3 | 3.11 | 2 | 1.14 | 1 | 1.01 | 1 | 0.78 | 1 | 0.89 | - | 72 | Helmut Etschenberg | CDU | ||||
Sources: Aachen city region - city region day election August 30, 2009 - overall result. In: Elections in the Aachen City Region - Local Election 2009 ( Memento from January 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). City region of Aachen, archived from the original on January 20, 2015 ; accessed on February 1, 2015 . City region Aachen - City region day election May 25, 2014 - overall result. In: Elections in the city region of Aachen - European elections / municipal elections 2014 ( Memento from January 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). City region of Aachen, archived from the original on January 20, 2015 ; accessed on February 1, 2015 . |
For the 2014–2020 election period, the CDU and the Greens have agreed to continue their coalition from the previous election period.
City Region Council
Helmut Etschenberg was elected to the first municipal council on August 30, 2009 .
In the election on June 15, 2014, Helmut Etschenberg (CDU) in the Aachen city region was confirmed in office after a narrow victory with 52.2 percent in the runoff election against Christiane Karl (SPD) and was elected for six years.
On June 20, 2018, Etschenberg announced its early resignation at the end of the year. On November 4, 2018, the first ballot of possibly two ballots for the new municipal council took place.
Six candidates were available for the election to succeed Etschenberg:
- Albert Borchardt ( Die Linke ) 3.31%
- Marcel Forè ( ÖDP ) 1.50%
- Tim Grüttemeier ( CDU ) 39.24%
- Daniela Jansen ( SPD ) 27.87%
- Oliver Krischer ( Alliance 90 / The Greens ) 21.23%
- Markus Matzerath ( AfD ) 6.84%
On November 18, 2018, the runoff election between Tim Grüttemeier (CDU) and Daniela Jansen (SPD) took place. The CDU candidate was elected to the new municipal council until 2025 with 52.59 percent.
Seal, logo, coat of arms
The official seal of the Zweckverband was initially the small state seal with the state coat of arms in the lower part and the designation "Zweckverband CitiesRegion Aachen" as an inscription in the upper semicircle. The logo of the Zweckverband symbolized the geographic location in the triangle of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands . It is continued today by the local authority, although it does not replace the sovereign coat of arms.
No new coat of arms was designed for the regional authority effective from October 21, 2009. On May 28, 2009, the district president issued the city region of Aachen with the official approval to use the coat of arms of the former district of Aachen . It was designed by Wolfgang Pagenstecher . The blazon of the coat of arms of the Aachen district read in the main statute of the former Aachen district:
- In blue a golden (yellow) deer antlers, on the grind of a silver (white) swan with black feet, a beak and a red tongue; above in the head of the shield in gold (yellow) a striding, red-tongued, black lion.
The lion in the head of the shield symbolizes that the area of the urban region is essentially made up of parts of the former Duchy of Jülich . The swan on the deer antlers in the blue field stands for the former imperial abbey of Burtscheid and the former city of Burtscheid , on whose former territory the district administration of the former district of Aachen and the city region is located. Since this area now belongs to the city of Aachen, the connection to the city of Aachen is also established. Burtscheid became a district town in 1816, received its city arms in 1882 and was incorporated into Aachen in 1897. The striding Jülich lion is also part of the coat of arms of Eschweiler, whose canton formed the eastern half of the Prussian district of Aachen around Alsdorf, Eschweiler, Stolberg and Würselen.
Authorities
In the area of the Aachen city region, the district courts of Aachen , Eschweiler and Monschau , which belong to the district of the Aachen regional court, are legally responsible. The city region belongs to the IHK Aachen . Almost the entire urban area belongs to the regional forest office "Rureifel-Jülicher Börde" based in Hürtgenwald ; the southern tip belongs to the "Eifel" National Park Forestry Office based in Schleiden . With the construction of the job center on Krefelder Straße in Aachen, the headquarters of the job center moved from Eschweiler to Aachen in 2015.
Projects
The CityRegion has initiated a “Future Program for the CityRegion Aachen”, which is intended to strengthen “the development of the new community association along political guidelines based on our administrative tasks”. In this context, 4 possible scenarios for the future of the Aachen CityRegion are being developed together with the Aachen Foundation Kathy Beys .
Culture
In addition to numerous events such as the CHIO Aachen , Monschau Marathon , European Social Prize , Charlemagne Prize , Eschweiler Music Festival , Öcher Bend and boys' games , Eschweiler with the third largest Rose Monday procession in Germany and Aachen with the Order Against Animal Seriousness are nationally known carnival strongholds . The Aachen Christmas Market and the Monschau Christmas Market are also particularly worth mentioning .
Sights and museums
The urban region is particularly rich in castles, mansions and ruins. See the list of castles, palaces and fortresses in the Aachen city region , the list of Jewish cemeteries in the Aachen city region and Aachen attractions .
There are also numerous museums:
- Aachen, see museums in Aachen
- Eschweiler-Dürwiß, see Eschweiler Carnival Museum
- Monschau, see museums in Monschau
- Simmerath, see museums in Simmerath
- Stolberg, see museums in Stolberg
traffic
To go biking
The city region is integrated into the cycle path network of North Rhine-Westphalia . Cycle tourism experts can orientate themselves on the system of junctions .
A rapid cycle path is planned in the city region with the route Aachen - Herzogenrath - Kerkrade - Heerlen ("Rapid cycle route Aachen region", 30 km).
License Plate
On July 1, 1956, the Aachen district and the independent city of Aachen were assigned the distinctive sign AC when the vehicle license plates were introduced, which are still valid today , whereby the Aachen district only identifies group c numbers (2 letters, 3 digits, i.e. AA 100 to ZZ 999) issued. All other combinations were issued by the city of Aachen. The AC distinguishing mark has been issued throughout the Aachen city region to this day. Since July 2, 2013, the distinctive sign MON (Monschau) has also been available, which was awarded in what was then the Monschau district until 1971 .
Streets
The federal highways 4 with the Aachener Land rest area , 44 and 544 run through the urban region .
Federal roads are the B1 , B1a , B56 , B57 , B258 , B264 , B266 and B399 .
The road traffic office is located in Würselen with a branch in Monschau .
Railways and local public transport
The city region lies in the area of the Aachen transport association . Railway lines lead in the direction of Heerlen , Mönchengladbach , Düsseldorf , Düren , Cologne and Liège .
The Aachen region has been crossed by the Cologne – Aachen high-speed line since 1841 and the Aachen – Mönchengladbach railway since 1852 . The Euregiobahn operates local rail passenger transport on the branch lines. Other important routes are the Mönchengladbach-Stolberg railway , the railway Stolberg-Herzogenrath and Vennbahn , now a cycle path .
The most important passenger stations are Aachen Hbf , Aachen-Rothe Erde , Aachen-Schanz , Aachen-West , Eschweiler Hbf , Eschweiler-Talbahnhof , Herzogenrath and Stolberg (Rheinl) Hbf .
Local public transport in the region is organized by the Aachen Transport Association.
Air connection
The international Maastricht Aachen Airport is located about 35 kilometers from the city region near the Dutch city of Maastricht . It is served by, among others, Transavia and Ryanair in charter traffic .
Cologne / Bonn and Düsseldorf airports, around 80 kilometers away, can be reached with the RE 1 railway line as well as the RE 4 and S 11 lines.
For business jets there is the Aachen-Merzbrück airport on the A44 or L223 (formerly B264) between Broichweiden and Röhe .
economy
Structural overview
In 2016, the region's gross domestic product was € 20.537 billion, making it 16th in the list of German cities by economic output . In the same year, GDP per capita was € 37,124 (North Rhine-Westphalia: € 37,416, Germany € 38,180). In 2017, around 301,300 people were employed in the Aachen city region. The unemployment rate in December 2018 was 6.5% and thus slightly above the average for North Rhine-Westphalia of 6.4%.
In the Future Atlas 2016 , the Aachen city region was ranked 161st out of 402 rural districts, municipal associations and independent cities in Germany, making it one of the regions with a “balanced risk-opportunity mix”. In the 2019 edition, it was number 101 out of 401.
In terms of economic structure, the area of the Aachen city region is divided into four parts: in the north lies the so-called northern district - essentially the former worm area - with the cities of Alsdorf (around 46,000 inhabitants), Baesweiler (around 28,000 inhabitants), Herzogenrath (around 47,000 inhabitants) and Würselen (approx. 37,000 inhabitants). There are mainly traditional glass, needle and food industries as well as, more recently, technology-oriented and medium-sized companies.
In the south, the southern or old district of Monschau is formed by the city of Monschau (around 13,000 inhabitants) and the communities of Roetgen (around 8,000 inhabitants) and Simmerath (around 16,000 inhabitants). As part of the Hohes Venn-Eifel Nature Park and the Eifel National Park located therein, along with the area around the Rurtalsperre, it is the main tourist attraction of the urban region.
Between the northern and southern districts lies the Eschweiler-Stolberg area with the two traditional industrial cities of Eschweiler (around 56,000 inhabitants) and Stolberg (around 58,000 inhabitants). This is essentially the former Indian territory . This is where the Hoesch and Thyssen groups began , for example . Glass, plastics and, above all, metal processing companies are located here today, as are companies from the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. In addition, a large number of medium-sized and small businesses are located in both cities, with Eschweiler focusing on retail, especially in the city center. While Stolberg, with its numerous copper yards , calls itself the "oldest brass town in the world", the Eschweiler Mining Association, founded in 1834, and the Eschweiler Kohlberg suggested the nickname "Cradle of Rhenish Mining". The common mineral resources of the copper town of Stolberg and the Indestadt Eschweiler are hard coal , brown coal , zinc and other ores. The high level of industrialization also left behind environmental damage such as the Gressenich disease , the lead children and the Vegla polders . On the other hand, the unique Galmeiflora can be found in Stolberg's urban area .
The withdrawal of hard coal mining in the 1980s led to a great spirit of optimism in Wurm- and Inderevier. A large number of future-oriented projects are planned or already started. This includes u. a. the development of large industrial and commercial areas. The Blausteinsee was created in the former open- cast lignite mine "Zukunft" , a supra-regional leisure and recreation area within the Indelands .
Last but not least, the city of Aachen, with its numerous companies and research centers, is an outstanding business and science location in the city region. Traditionally, the needle and cloth industry was located in Aachen. See in particular the history of the cloth industry in Aachen , Aachen companies , RWTH Aachen University and Aachen University Hospital .
Important entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial families
Medical supplies
The following hospitals are located in the Aachen city region:
- Aachen
- Eschweiler
- Simmerath
- Stolberg (Rhld.)
- Würselen
Education and youth facilities
In the city region there are numerous kindergartens and day-care centers as well as 110 elementary schools, 25 special schools, 23 grammar schools, 17 secondary schools, 15 secondary schools, 11 vocational colleges and 7 comprehensive schools.
Four universities with up to 50,000 students are located in the city region, all in the area of the city of Aachen: RWTH Aachen , FH Aachen and departments of the Catholic University of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Cologne University of Music .
In addition, there are various leisure meeting points for children and young people in the city region, such as open youth clubs or youth centers.
media
Antenne AC has been broadcasting as a joint commercial local radio station since October 4, 2010, making it the successor to 107.8 Antenne AC (district of Aachen) and Radio Aachen (city of Aachen). To the local broadcasting slots of the public radio station WDR 2 that reports WDR Studio Aachen in Karmeliterstrasse over Aachen and the region. In Aachen, students run the university radio Aachen .
Some German-speaking Belgian regional stations that can be received in the border region to Belgium include German listeners in the city region as their target group and design their programs accordingly, for example 100'5 Das Hitradio or formerly Fantasy Dance FM . In general, the number of receivable FM stations from Belgium and the Netherlands far exceeds German stations.
In the cable networks of NetAachen and Unitymedia as well as on DVB-T2 via SES Astra , Westdeutsche Rundfunk reports with its WDR Studio Aachen on its local TV stations about Aachen and the region.
partnership
As the legal successor to the Aachen district, the Aachen city region continues the partnership agreed in March 1990 and confirmed in February 2000 with the Jeleniogórski district with the district town of Jelenia Góra. After a district council decision, negotiations with the Polish embassy began in October 1985 for the purpose of a partnership with a Polish administrative district. After the administrative reform in Poland in 1999, it had to be decided to transfer the partnership to the newly formed Polish district.
Under the seal region Charlemagne (= Region Charlemagne ) seeks the Aachen region even closer cooperation across the borders in the Meuse-Rhine to, particularly with regard to the transport and foreign language classes. There are already close links with Parkstad Limburg and the German-speaking Community of East Belgium.
See also
Web link
Individual evidence
- ↑ Population of the municipalities of North Rhine-Westphalia on December 31, 2019 - update of the population based on the census of May 9, 2011. State Office for Information and Technology North Rhine-Westphalia (IT.NRW), accessed on June 17, 2020 . ( Help on this )
- ↑ In accordance with the law on the formation of the Aachen city region ( Aachen Law ), the official name is city region. In regional marketing and in other publications by the local authorities, the spelling CitiesRegion Aachen is preferred.
- ↑ 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 )
- ↑ Administrative association and regional authority for the Aachen region ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 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.
- ↑ udo / hjd: Aachen region founded: Start with scratches. In: Aachener Zeitung . December 3, 2012, accessed July 31, 2019 .
- ↑ Aachen region. In: About us date = 2018. Accessed July 31, 2019 .
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from December 20, 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.
- ↑ City councilor Helmut Etschenberg gives up his office
- ↑ Six applicants for the Etschenberg successor
- ↑ Dr. Tim Grüttemeier is the new City Region Councilor of the City Region Aachen
- ↑ City Region Aachen: Logo and Claim ( Memento of the original from February 14, 2015 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.
- ↑ City region of Aachen: The coat of arms ( Memento of the original from April 19, 2011 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.
- ↑ This is how you can ask questions about the city region. In: Aachener Nachrichten online, June 10, 2009
- ↑ Roer Department 1808 on: r-steger.de (23 August 2010)
- ↑ Future program of the Aachen City Region ( Memento of the original from July 19, 2011 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.
- ↑ Regional scenarios
- ↑ Current results - VGR dL. Retrieved January 7, 2019 .
- ^ Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Federal Employment Agency, accessed on January 7, 2019 .
- ↑ Future Atlas 2016. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 2, 2017 ; accessed on March 23, 2018 . 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.
- ↑ PROGNOS future atlas. Handelsblatt, accessed on December 10, 2019 .
- ↑ Partnership with the district of Jelenia Góra (Poland) on www.staedteregion-aachen.de ( Memento of the original from August 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Extension of § 5 of the new version of the main statute of the Aachen city region to include FDP district Aachen ( memento of the original from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ What does the Charlemagne region mean?