Wassenberg
| coat of arms | Germany map | |
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Coordinates: 51 ° 6 ′ N , 6 ° 9 ′ E |
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| Basic data | ||
| State : | North Rhine-Westphalia | |
| Administrative region : | Cologne | |
| Circle : | Heinsberg | |
| Height : | 50 m above sea level NHN | |
| Area : | 42.43 km 2 | |
| Residents: | 18,630 (Dec. 31, 2019) | |
| Population density : | 439 inhabitants per km 2 | |
| Postal code : | 41849 | |
| Area code : | 02432 | |
| License plate : | HS, ERK, GK | |
| Community key : | 05 3 70 036 | |
| LOCODE : | DE WBE | |
| City structure: | 6 districts | |
City administration address : |
Roermonder Strasse 25-27 41849 Wassenberg |
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| Website : | ||
| Mayor : | Manfred Winkens ( CDU ) | |
| Location of the city of Wassenberg in the Heinsberg district | ||
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Wassenberg is a town on the border with the Netherlands in the Heinsberg district in North Rhine-Westphalia .
geography
Location and landscape
The urban area is partly in the Rur valley , the rest on the plateaus above the Rur valley on the Wassenberger Horst . The city is about 15 km from Roermond and about 25 km from Mönchengladbach. The valley of the Rur lies at a height of 32 to 40 m above sea level . On the eastern edge, the Wassenberger Terrasse rises with a steep edge of 40 to 50 m above the Rur valley, divided by numerous valleys, the Wassenberger Riedelland . A section of this landscape near the Myhl district is also called Myhler Schweiz. The Maas-Niederrheinpfad runs through the municipality .
Natural park
Wassenberg is located in the international Maas-Schwalm-Nette nature park .
Waters
- Rur
- Effelder Waldsee , a former quarry pond
- Ophovener Lake District , gravel mining is still taking place here
- Schaagbach
- Myhler Bach
geology
The Wassenberger Horst is located on the eastern edge of the Rurgraben , in the east the Horst borders the Venloer Scholle. These faults formed in the Tertiary .
Seams of coal from the carbon lie in the subsurface of the eyrie . The hard coal mining of the Sophia-Jacoba colliery , which was based in Hückelhoven , has now ceased. The city center of Wassenberg is still affected by mountain damage caused by the former tunnels.
Quaternary sand and gravel deposits exist in the Rur valley , which are excavated in the groundwater area in quarry ponds.
City structure
- Birgelen (with Eulenbusch, Krafeld, Dohr, Rosenthal and Schaufenberg)
- Effeld (with stone churches)
- Myhl
- Ophoven
- Orsbeck (with Luchtenberg, Ohe) and
- Wassenberg (with forest)
history
middle Ages
In 1020 Emperor Heinrich II donated the castle and land of Wassenberg to Gerardus von Antoing, who from now on called himself Gerhard Graf von Wassenberg, and who thus founded the Count's House of Wassenberg . The next four generations of the lords of Wassenberg Castle can expand their territory to the county of Geldern, from which the duchies of Jülich , Kleve and Berg will eventually emerge. The Burg Wassenberg however, there is already much longer; the previous building was probably a Roman fortification. Wassenberg Castle is one of only three hilltop castles on the Lower Rhine next to Kleve and Liedberg .
After the participation of Count Gerhard III. von Wassenberg at the Crusades, he donated a college church in Wassenberg in 1118. St. George's Basilica was completed in the same year (the nave of which was demolished after being damaged in World War II and replaced by a new building) and inaugurated on September 30, 1118 by Bishop Otbert von Liège .
In 1131 Jutta von Wassenberg, Gerhard's sister, married Walram von Limburg and thus brought Wassenberg into Limburg. Since the ancestral line of the Counts of Wassenberg now continues the Grafentum Geldern, in 1202 the son of Duke Heinrich of Limburg , who inherits the castle and land of Wassenberg, can only call himself “Lord” of Wassenberg. In the “Kaiserschlacht” listed below, Heinrich III. Ally of Otto IV and had to cede Wassenberg after the lost battle.
Wassenberg received city rights as early as 1273 , which were confirmed in 1972 during the municipal reorganization.
Imperial Battle of Wassenberg 1206
In March 1196, Henry VI announced. the so-called " inheritance plan ", with which he tried to convert the current electoral kingship into a hereditary kingship. His plan failed due to the resistance of many important imperial princes and after his death finally led to the double election in 1198, as a result of which both the Staufer Philip of Swabia and the Guelph Otto IV were proclaimed German king - the German throne dispute ensued . In 1206 the two opponents fought in a battle in the Rurn lowlands near Wassenberg. Otto's army was defeated and Wassenberg was plundered and devastated by Philip's troops. Otto IV fled to Braunschweig. Bruno von Sayn, Archbishop of Cologne, who was allied with him, was taken prisoner.
1254 Wassenberg fell back to Limburg. In 1288 the Wassenbergers fought on the side of the Archbishop of Cologne in the Battle of Worringen and lost again. Around 1317 "Gotfrid I. Herr zu Heinsberg und Blankenberg" owned the rights to Wassenberg for life. The Lords of Heinsberg had temporarily acquired these from the Duke of Brabant, since the Lords of Heinsberg had subordinated themselves to the Brabanters after Worringen. Gotfrid put the Duke of Brabant as heir for Wassenberg by document. At the beginning of the 15th century, Wassenberg belonged to Brabant. In 1413, Duke Anton von Brabant, Limburg and Luxemburg confirmed "Johann von Loon and Herr von Heinsberg" the lien on Wassenberg. Duke Anton owed the latter 20,000 guilders.
Via Count Walram von Jülich , who was also one of the winners in Worringen, Wassenberg then came to Geldern and Jülich. In 1421 Duke Rainald von Jülich-Geldern pawned Wassenberg to Friedrich IV von Moers due to financial problems and it belonged to the county of Moers until the pledge was redeemed in 1494.
The musical 1206 - The Imperial Battle of Wassenberg , composed on the occasion of the 800th anniversary celebrations, commemorates the events.
Modern times
In the 16th century, the cultivation of flax and woad were an important source of income.
Around 1530 Wassenberg was the starting point for the Anabaptist Wassenberg predicants . Two of its most important representatives, Johann Campanus and Johann Klopreis, found shelter in Wassenberg for a certain time with the bailiff Werner von Palant .
Up to the early 19th century, the production of roofing tiles and weaving mills shaped economic life until the 20th century. In 1911, with the opening of the Jülich – Dalheim railway line , Wassenberg received a railway connection. In 1980, despite popular protests, passenger traffic was finally stopped.
Ortneckname
The residents of the neighboring towns gave the Wassenbergers the local name "Schietschörjer" (in High German: Kotschürger). This name refers to the fact that the gardens of the Wassenbergers were located in front of the city wall and their owners were therefore forced to carry the "fertilizer" here with a wheelbarrow.
Time of National Socialism, Second World War
On the morning of November 10, 1938, the Wassenberg synagogue was set on fire as a result of the Reichspogromnacht .
The approximately 30 alcoholic patients at the Wassenberg “Marien-Haus” sanatorium for drinking women were exposed to the Nazi killing program “ Aktion T4 ”, the murder of the sick and the disabled. The fate of these women remains in the dark.
In December 1944, by a SS - firing squad 74 men in a wooded area outside the village cruelly tortured, shot and then buried.
From January 14th to 26th, 1945 British and Canadian troops conquered the area between the cities of Roermond, Sittard and Heinsberg ( Operation Blackcock ). In the course of this fighting, Wassenberg was bombed on January 16, 19 and 20, 1945 and badly damaged. On February 8 and 10, 1945, the Wehrmacht created an artificial flood of the Rur by means of explosions; the operation grenade therefore began only on 22 February 1945. On 27 February reached troops to the outskirts of Wassenberg, on February 28, they occupied it.
Post-war development
In 1978, the Sophia-Jacoba colliery began to develop the hard coal deposits below the town via a mine in the Birgelner Forest.
On June 5, 1973, the municipality of Wassenberg was named city .
Incorporations
The city in its current form was created on January 1, 1972 through the merger of the communities Birgelen, Effeld, Myhl (from the district of Erkelenz ), Ophoven, Orsbeck and Wassenberg.
religion
There are the following church communities in the Wassenberg urban area:
Catholic parish
Catholic parish of St. Mary
- Propsteikirche St. Georg (Wassenberg, Kirchstr./Stiftsplatz)
- Church of St. Mary of the Assumption (Wassenberg, Gladbacher Str./Am Stadtrain)
- St. Johann Baptist Church (Myhl, St.-Johannes-Str.)
- St. Lambertus Church (Birgelen)
- Church of St. Mary of the Assumption (Ophoven)
- St. Martini Church (Orsbeck)
- St. Martin Church (Steinkirchen-Effeld)
On March 27, 2011, the previous vicar Thomas Wieners was introduced to his new office as pastor and provost in the provost church of St. Georg.
There are also two regionally well-known pilgrimage sites in the city :
- Romanesque parish and pilgrimage church “St. Assumption of Mary ”in Ophoven
- This former monastery church was built at the end of the 12th century and also became the parish church of the village in 1571. It was rebuilt around 1700 and the interior furnishings were restored. The stucco decorations from the 18th century, the Antwerp reredos (1520), the Anna Selbdritt (around 1650), the Joseph's statue (1660–1680), the Rococo pulpit (1753) and the Madonna (1330) are all worth seeing .
- Even today, processions regularly come to this pilgrimage church.
- The Marien pilgrimage chapel with the Willibrordus fountain is idyllically located in the forest between Wassenberg and Birgelen. It is the destination of many pilgrims from near and far.
Evangelical parish Wassenberg – Dalheim
Two church buildings belong to the Protestant parish in Wassenberg:
- Evangelical Court Church (Lower Town)
- The building behind the residential building at Roermonder Straße 8 was first used as an Evangelical Reformed preaching house for Wassenberg and Ratheim in 1652. The church is located in the courtyard due to the regulations issued by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, i. H. not visible from the street; hence its name " Hofkirche " comes from .
- In 1773 a church tower was built and the bell that still exists today was installed. A few years later, the trumpet angel, which is still there today, was placed on the top of the church tower; he is known as "Geusendaniel". The Teschemacher organ in the court church has been owned by the Protestant parish since 1843 and dates from the 18th century. A Tossanus Bible from 1668 is on display in a showcase .
- the church was badly damaged in January 1945 (see above ); it was rebuilt from 1948 to 1951.
- Evangelical Church of the Cross and Campanus House from 1964 (Upper Town)
Sabine Frauenhoff has been a pastor there since 2015.
Adventist Church
Evangelical Free Church in the Myhl district.
Jewish community
The Jewish community of Wassenberg was one of the four oldest communities on the Lower Rhine and was mentioned in a document as early as 1500. In 1933 the Jewish community in Wassenberg had 27 members, five more lived in neighboring Birgelen. The morning after the Reichspogromnacht , the Wassenberg synagogue in “Storms Jätzke” was set on fire. The community members were later deported and murdered (see list of stumbling blocks in Wassenberg and the Jewish cemetery on Roermonder Strasse ).
politics
City council
The local elections on May 25, 2014 resulted in the following distribution of seats:
- CDU : 18 seats (± 0)
- SPD : 11 seats (+3)
- FDP : 2 seats (−1)
- GREEN : 3 seats (± 0)
- LEFT : 2 seats (± 0)
badges and flags
former city arms (until 1974)
today's city arms (since 1974)
City flag
Blazon : "In blue a golden, tinned gate castle with an open gate, on whose central tower a crowned, two-tailed red lion."
With a certificate from the District President of Cologne dated August 21, 1974, the city of Wassenberg was awarded a new coat of arms based on a design by the heraldist Walther Bergmann . The coat of arms corresponds to the old city seal from 1273, with the towers indicating the city festivals . The lion shows the historical connection to the Limburg family, whose branch was the Wassenberg family with ancestral seat at Wassenberg Castle. Today's color scheme corresponds to the Wassenberg- Geldrischen colors.
Description of the flag: "The flag of the city of Wassenberg is divided from blue to gold (yellow) and bears the emblem of the city coat of arms in the upper blue field."
Town twinning
Wassenberg has maintained a partnership with the French community of Pontorson near Mont-Saint-Michel since 1968 .
Since 2010 there has been a triangular partnership between Wassenberg, Pontorson and Highworth , a town near Swindon in the English county of Wiltshire .
Culture and sights
Buildings
The keep from 1420 is clearly visible above the town , including Wassenberg Castle and the provost church of St. Georg. Until it was destroyed in World War II, the provost church was a three-aisled Romanesque pillar basilica from the first half of the 12th century with the mighty western tower from the 15th century; the nave was not rebuilt after the war, but replaced by a new building. The church still has its richly decorated and technically excellent rococo pulpit, which was built in 1782. The equally excellently crafted early Gothic choir stalls of the provost church have been in today's Museum Schnütgen in Cologne since 1903 . It was acquired by means of a foundation from the Cologne furniture manufacturer Jakob Pallenberg .
From the medieval city fortifications, the Roßtor, the Verlorenenturm, a defense tower and parts of the city wall have been preserved. In the vicinity of the provost church, a late Gothic door wall with a cloverleaf arch and a gable-shaped panel above from the destroyed sacristy of the old church is walled in.
The Gothic House , located at Graf-Gerhard-Straße 12, is a listed residential building from the Gothic era . According to the general opinion of local research, its core should still come from the 15th century. In addition to the remains of cross-frame windows, the facade of the house has a Gothic pilaster structure, which was interrupted by a later change in the window arrangement .
In the old town center is the Evangelical Court Church from 1652, which was built in accordance with the provisions of the Peace of Westphalia from 1648 in the backyard of a house on Roermonder Strasse.
The moated castle Elsum is located between Birgelen and Effeld, surrounded by old trees . The manor house dates from the 15th to 16th and 19th centuries, the outer bailey mostly from the 18th century. West of Effeld is the 15th century moated castle Effeld , which was rebuilt in 1606 to its present form. Both palace complexes are privately owned.
Today's parish and pilgrimage church of St. Maria Himmelfahrt in Ophoven was founded around 1200 and was originally the church of the Cistercian monastery .
The Birgelener Pützchen, located in the forest between Birgelen and Wassenberg, was built in 1795 as a stone prayer house over a well (Pütz). The octagonal chancel was built in 1933.
In the north-west of Effeld there are barrows .
theatre
On the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the “Kaiserschlacht von Wassenberg”, the musical “1206” was composed by Michael Bednarek and Torben Berboom, which celebrated its premiere on July 27, 2006 in the Wassenberg Castle.
Parks
- Judenbruch
- Castle park
Bike paths
The city is integrated into the cycle path network of North Rhine-Westphalia . The RurUfer-Radweg , which connects the highest elevation of the High Fens with the confluence of the Rur into the Meuse , and the NiederRheinroute , which includes a network of cycle paths across the entire Lower Rhine area from the Netherlands to Düsseldorf, run through the city.
Regular events
- Gourmet market
- Christmas Market
- Effelder Asparagus Festival
- Annual youth tournament and a rock-pop-oldie night organized by the youth department of 1. FC Wassenberg-Orsbeck
- Forest Festival (Father's Day) in Birgelen
- Medieval market around the keep
Culinary specialties
- The rural district of Effeld is known as the asparagus village .
- The Wassenberg seedling is a type of peach grown in the Wassenberger Land
Economy and Infrastructure
traffic
Rail transport
Since 1911 Wassenberg had its own train station on the Dalheim - Wassenberg - Ratheim - Hückelhoven - Baal line , which was closed for passenger traffic in 1980.
In Wassenberg in particular, the mayor at the time voiced sharp criticism of the behavior of the Deutsche Bundesbahn: In addition to a signature campaign by the Wassenberg population and a demonstration of this on the journey of the last train on September 27, 1980, Wassenberg's disappointed Mayor Schumann gave a protest speech on the occasion he remarked, "that with some good will on the part of the Federal railroad this route closure was not necessary." .
He complained that the Federal Railroad had "used completely unprofitable trains at times when no passengers were expected from our area." So one had planned "from the green table, without worrying about the actual needs of the population."
After the closure, the tracks in the Wassenberg area were removed and the route was even filled in in 2006; Nevertheless, the Aachen Transport Association originally envisaged a reactivation of the line (Wassenberg) - Ratheim - Baal in its 2013 target concept , which would amount to a new line between the Ratheim industrial park and the Wassenberg town center.
However, these plans are countered by the intention of the city of Hückelhoven to partially build over the Baal-Ratheim line to build a bypass, which would make reactivation more expensive at a later date.
Road traffic
Wassenberg is connected to the "Hückelhoven-West / Wassenberg" junction of the federal motorway 46 (Heinsberg-Düsseldorf) via Landstrasse 117 . Federal road 221 ran through the city until the B 221n bypass was released in December 2019 .
schools
- Community elementary school Wassenberg
- Catholic Primary School Birgelen
- Catholic primary school Myhl
- Orsbeck Catholic Primary School
- Betty Reis Comprehensive School Wassenberg - European School
Personalities
- Gerhard III. von Wassenberg (* around 1068; † October 16, 1129), was the first count of Geldern from the Flamenses family
- Johann Campanus (* around 1500 in Maaseik; † around 1574), the Reformation preacher lived for a time at Wassenberg Castle
- Ludwig Hammers (1822–1902), politician, Lord Mayor of Düsseldorf
- Oscar von Forckenbeck (born August 28, 1822 in Minden , † July 29, 1898) lived as a privateer and scholar at Wassenberg Castle. He laid out the park in Judenbruch. He founded the International Newspaper Museum in Aachen .
- Gerhard Esser (* December 17, 1860 in Ophoven, † December 6, 1923 in Bonn), 1898–1922 professor of dogmatics at the University of Bonn (Catholic Theol. Faculty).
- Robert Neuhaus (* 1864 in Krefeld, † 1934 in Wassenberg), architect
- Leo Küppers (1880–1946), genre painter from the Düsseldorf School
- Friedrich Bell (* 1888 in Oeverich , † December 27, 1969 in Heinsberg ), appointed as the first post-war director by the British occupiers and jointly responsible for the reconstruction of the city. Namesake of one of the two railway bridges. Bearer of the Federal Cross of Merit.
- Betty Reis (born July 15, 1921 in Wassenberg, † 1944), a young woman from Wassenberg. Because of her membership in the Jewish community, she was murdered by the National Socialists after numerous stations in other camps in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp . Name giver of the Wassenberg comprehensive school.
- Heribert Heinrichs (born August 4, 1922 in Wassenberg, † September 21, 2004 in Hildesheim), from 1958 to 1987 professor of media education at the University of Hildesheim; received the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class in 1988; since 1998 honorary citizen of the city of Wasserburg
- Werner Wiater (born October 8, 1946 in Wassenberg), German school teacher and former Vice-President of the University of Augsburg .
- Ulrich Kiesow (born June 3, 1949, † January 30, 1997 in Wassenberg), fantasy author and inventor of the role-playing world Das Schwarze Auge lived in Wassenberg until his death.
- Melanie Kraus (born October 24, 1974 in Mönchengladbach), long-distance runner, participated in the 2008 Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships in 2001 and 2007. Started as a teenager for DJK Wassenberg, then moved to ASV Köln and later to TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen .
Honorary citizen
- Ludwig Essers (1915–1996)
- Heribert Heinrichs (1922-2004)
- Hanns Heidemanns (1927–2012), retired general pharmacist D. and author
- Franz-Josef Breuer (* 1931)
- Heinz-Dieter (Sepp) Becker (* 1944)
Recreational areas
- Effelder Waldsee, cycling and hiking trails on the periphery to the Netherlands, u. a. 1.5 km to the Gitstapper Molen (water mill, two restaurants).
literature
- Paul Clemen (ed.), Karl Franck-Oberaspach , Edmund Renard (editor): The art monuments of the Rhine province. 8th volume, III: The art monuments of the Heinsberg district . L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1906, p. 126 ff.
- Heribert Heinrichs: Wassenberg. History of a habitat. Mönchengladbach 1987.
Web links
- Website of the city of Wassenberg
- Monuments in the city of Wassenberg
- Churches and chapels in the city of Wassenberg
Footnotes
- ↑ 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 )
- ^ Theodor Joseph Lacomblet, in: Document book for the history of the Lower Rhine and the Archbishopric of Cöln, document 289. 1840, part 1, p. [205] 189. Online edition 2009
- ↑ Bernd Ulrich Hucker: Kaiser Otto IV. Hanover 1990. P. 80.
- ^ Theodor Joseph Lacomblet, in: Document book for the history of the Lower Rhine and the Archbishopric of Cöln, certificate 166. 1853, part 3, 1301–1400, p. [154] 134. Online version
- ^ Theodor Joseph Lacomblet, in: Document book for the history of the Lower Rhine or the Archbishopric of Cöln, document 78 . 1858, part 4, 1401-1609, p. [113] 87. Online version
- ^ Hugo Altmann, in: Moers. NDB, 17, 1994, pp. 680-682.
- ↑ a b Harry Seipolt: "... comes from an anti-social and hereditary clan ." Forced sterilization and Nazi euthanasia in the Heinsberg district 1933-1945 , in: Heimatkalender des Heinsberg district 1992, p. 112–124, p. 124.
- ↑ Source: Main State Archives Düsseldorf , Police and Security Services 1933 - 1945, Geheime Staatspolizei - Staatspolizeistelle Köln, RW 34 No. 30.
- ↑ a b rp-online.de
- ↑ a b on the fighting around Wassenberg in February 1945 see z. B. Markus Morgenweg (2016): The Westwall in the Wassenberg area - and the German fights for retreat in the Heinsberg district , ISBN 978-3-86933-164-5 ( review )
- ↑ a b Federal Statistical Office (ed.): Historical municipality register for the Federal Republic of Germany. Name, border and key number changes in municipalities, counties and administrative districts from May 27, 1970 to December 31, 1982 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 308 and 310 .
- ↑ www.st-marien-wassenberg.kibac.de
- ↑ www.ev-kirche-wassenberg.de
- ↑ www.adventisten-wassenberg.de
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from December 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Description of the coat of arms ( Memento of the original from April 6, 2005 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. on Wassenberg.de
- ↑ Main statute of the city of Wassenberg, § 2 paragraph 3 ( Memento from February 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Clara E. Laeis: Corporate Citizenship: entrepreneurial citizen competence in the service of a renewal of the social market economy: a concept for medium-sized companies . Writings of the Institute for Christian Social Sciences of the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Volume 53, Münster 2005, ISBN 978-3-8258-8630-1 , p. 79
Erkelenz | Gangelt | Geilenkirchen | Heinsberg | Hückelhoven | Selfkant | Übach-Palenberg | Forest damp | Wassenberg | Wegberg
Birgelen with Eulenbusch, Rosenthal, Schaufenberg | Effeld | Myhl | Ophoven with stone churches | Orsbeck with Luchtenberg, Ohe | Wassenberg with forest