Wickrathberg

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wickrathberg
Wickrathberg coat of arms
Coordinates: 51 ° 6 ′ 43 "  N , 6 ° 25 ′ 1"  E
Area : 3.52 km²
Residents : 2242  (December 31, 2018)
Population density : 636 inhabitants / km²
Incorporation : 1st January 1975
Postal code : 41189
Primaries : 02161, 02166
map
Location of Wickrathberg in the West district of Mönchengladbach
Wickrathberger Church
Wickrathberger Church

Wickrathberg is a district of Mönchengladbach in the West district . It is located in the south of the city, south of Wickrath and north of Wanlo . The place is traversed by the Niers .

history

prehistory

Stone Age traces have been discovered in Wickrathberg and Wanlo. Especially after the last Ice Age, at the end of the Paleolithic Age (11700-9600 BC), people lived in the Wanlo area, not far from the numerous sources of the Niers. Decorated ceramic vessels, dating from 5000 to 2000 BC BC, have been found in this area as well.

Roman times (~ 50 - 274 AD)

As early as Roman times in the 2nd to 3rd centuries there were three large rubble sites in the area of ​​Wickrathberg, probably evidence of three Roman farms ( Villa rustica ) that supplied the Roman village ( Vicus Mülfort ) just a few kilometers away . One of the estates, on the Kinkelbach, had a hypocaust . In 274 AD, the village and all farms were destroyed when the Franks invaded.

Franconian time

Two Franconian tribes settled left and right of the Niers. People of the Salian tribe lived in Wickrath and the Ripuarian Franconian tribe in Wickrathberg . Before that there were settlements in Wickrath, Mennrath , Beckrath and Herrath . Wickrathberg belonged to the kingdom of Wickrath in the Middle Ages . The affiliation to Wickrath only stopped in 1975, with the municipal territorial reform.

In 1050 the first Wickrathberg church, a hall church with a retracted square choir, was built. In 1220 the church was enlarged.

Reformation and French times

After the establishment of a Reformed church in Wickrath in 1530, Wickrathberg also switched to the Protestant faith. From 1569 the Wickrathberg Church became the ruling church of the Counts of Wickrath, who, unlike the population in Wickrath, did not remain Catholic.

In 1654 the pastor Johannes Eilbracht founded a Latin school , which became famous far beyond the borders in the following years . The school closed in 1886.

In 1794 the French, under Napoleon, marched in and occupied Wickrath Castle. This meant the end of the imperial counts. Otto Wilhelm von Quadt and his family fled. Wickrathberg lost his last generous patron and difficult times began. In 1813, after the Battle of Leipzig , the French withdrew completely from what is now Germany. Wickrath came to Prussia .

Maps of Wickrathberg (1573–1760)

  • Bergh (Wickrathberg) (1573)

  • Wickratdberg in the barony of Wickrad. With the Landwehr between Wickrathberg and Wanlo (1618–1679)

  • Wickratdberg in the Dominium Wickrad. (1721–1750)

  • Wickenberg in the Barony de Wickrad on the edge of the swampy Niers (~ 1760)

In 1700, Count Quadt, lord of the castle of Wickrath, built a baroque-style watermill that still works today.

The Jewish community of Wickrathberg

Wickrathberg was at times the largest Jewish community in the Grevenbroich district. Unlike in Gladbach and Rheydt, the Jewish community flourished as early as the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1816 there were two prayer houses in Wickrathberg. In 1860 a new synagogue building was built. In addition to a synagogue , there was also a school and a cemetery in neighboring Wanlo. In 1935 118 Jews were still living in Wickrathberg. During the Reichskristallnacht staged by the National Socialists , the synagogue in Wickrathberg was completely destroyed. SA men in civilian clothes broke into the apartments of Jewish residents and devastated them. 50 Jewish men were arrested in Gladbach, Rheydt and Wickrath. The Jewish community ceased to exist in 1942 at the latest.

Second World War

On February 22nd, the US 9th Army began Operation Grenade and crossed the Rur . They made good progress. Wehrmacht soldiers who moved away blew up numerous bridges on the left Lower Rhine, including the Niersbrücke in Wickrathberg. Several shells also hit the neighboring water mill. The grinder was badly damaged.

At the end of April 1945 British troops replaced the US troops ( British zone of occupation ).

POW camp (1945)

Memorial of the prison camp

In the last days of the war, US soldiers set up the nine-square-kilometer prisoner-of-war camp " Wiesenlager Wickrathberg " between Mongshof, Wickrathberg and Hochneukirch . At least 150,000 German prisoners of war lived there when fully occupied . They spent the entire time outside in terrible conditions and mostly slept in self-dug holes in the ground. The food was very sparse. The death toll is unknown. Witnesses speak of 20 deaths a day. The camp existed from April to September 1945 and was temporarily run by British forces .

Since incorporation into the city of Mönchengladbach (1975)

Wickrathberg was incorporated into the new city of Mönchengladbach on January 1, 1975 .

In 2002 began Niersverband "the Niers re-naturing" the project. The former course of the Niers has been restored in places, for example between Wanlo and Wickrathberg.

On October 31, 2013, 2,185 inhabitants lived in Wickrathberg.

Culture

Attractions

  • In the higher part of Wickrathberg stands the Wickrathberg Church , consecrated between 1200 and 1205 . The Romanesque building was designed as a three-aisled basilica . Remains of the Romanesque choir and the late Gothic star vault are still preserved. Around the middle of the 18th century the church was completely rebuilt (windows, mansard roof of the central nave, hood of the west tower). From the rococo furnishings from the 1870s with organ , pulpit , stalls, particularly worth seeing is the count's box with the coat of arms of the Quadt-Wickrath, flanked by two bears , who had been imperial counts since 1752: In the heart shield, two alternating battlements are closed see, from the observer on the top left an eagle (= Wickrath), underneath the coat of arms of the Loenen rule (Gelderland), on the top right the coat of arms of the Wildenborch rule (Gelderland), underneath the coat of arms of Schwanenberg , in the base of the shield the keys of the Geldrischen Hereditary Stewardship. The organ was created in 1770 by Jacob Engelbert Teschemacher .
  • A memorial plaque in the sidewalk of Berger Dorfstrasse commemorates the former synagogue. The figure shows the menorah , a seven-armed candlestick. The plate was created by the artist Bonifatius Stirnberg .
  • The boulder of memory on Hochneukircher Weg is reminiscent of the prisoner of war camp.

societies

Personalities

  • Luise Förster was a teacher in Wickrathberg. She worked as a writer under the pseudonym Ada Linden. One of her best-known works was the novel "How I searched for happiness", Leipzig 1905.
  • Hilde Sherman-Zander grew up as a Jew in Wickrathberg. She published a book about her fate in the concentration camps, especially in the Riga ghetto . In it she also described her childhood in the village and the fire in the synagogue.

literature

  • Hilde Sherman-Zander: Between day and dark, girls' years in the ghetto. Frankfurt am Main 1984, ISBN 3-548-20386-8
  • Herbert Reiners: Wickrathberg prisoner of war camp 1945 . A contribution to Mönchengladbach's city history. Ed .: Association for Heritage and Monument Preservation Wickrathberg. Mönchengladbach 1998, ISBN 3-00-003279-7 .
  • Rheinische Kunststätten, Mönchengladbach-Wickrath, by Wolfgang Löhr. (Issue 255, 1981)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.moenchengladbach.de/fileadmin/user_upload/statistik/Bevölker_nach_Stadtbezirken_und_Stadtteile__12_2018.pdf
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Löhr (Ed.): Small Mönchengladbach City History . Pustet, Regensburg 2009, Regensburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7917-2226-9 , pp. 15 .
  3. ^ Wolfgang Löhr with the support of the Sparkasse Foundation for Art and Science, the Reiners Foundation GmbH and the Josef and Hilde Wilberz Foundation (ed.): Loca Desiderata, Mönchengladbacher Stadtgeschichte . tape 1 . Rhineland publishing and operating company of the Rhineland Regional Association, Brauweiler Abbey, Pulheim 1994, ISBN 3-7927-1375-6 , p. 263-267 .
  4. ^ Wolfgang Löhr with the support of the Sparkasse Foundation for Art and Science, the Reiners Foundation GmbH and the Josef and Hilde Wilberz Foundation (ed.): Loca Desiderata, Mönchengladbacher Stadtgeschichte . tape 1 . Rhineland publishing and operating company of the Rhineland Regional Association, Brauweiler Abbey, Pulheim 1994, ISBN 3-7927-1375-6 , p. 257 .
  5. ↑ The Wickrathberg village history ( Memento of the original from February 15, 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. - Heimatverein Wickrathberg @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.heimatverein-wickrathberg.de
  6. ^ Wolfgang Löhr with the support of the Sparkasse Foundation for Art and Science, the Reiners Foundation GmbH and the Josef and Hilde Wilberz Foundation (ed.): Loca Desiderata, Mönchengladbacher Stadtgeschichte . tape 1 . Rhineland publishing and operating company of the Rhineland Regional Association, Brauweiler Abbey, Pulheim 1994, ISBN 3-7927-1375-6 , p. 437 .
  7. ^ Wolfgang Löhr with the support of the Sparkasse Foundation for Art and Science, the Reiners Foundation GmbH and the Josef and Hilde Wilberz Foundation (ed.): Loca Desiderata, Mönchengladbacher Stadtgeschichte . tape 1 . Rhineland publishing and operating company of the Rhineland Regional Association, Brauweiler Abbey, Pulheim 1994, ISBN 3-7927-1375-6 , p. 439 .
  8. ^ Jewish communities - Mönchengladbach - Heimatverein Wickrath
  9. ↑ Zero hour
  10. ^ Heinz-Josef Katz: POW camp . Retrieved November 12, 2011.
  11. ^ Federal Statistical Office (ed.): Historical municipality directory for the Federal Republic of Germany. Name, border and key number changes in municipalities, counties and administrative districts from May 27, 1970 to December 31, 1982 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 291 .
  12. ^ Wickrath history - Heimatverein Wickrath