Eschweiler


Eschweiler is a municipality in the district of Aachen in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany on the river Inde, near the German-Dutch-Belgian border, and about east of Aachen and west of Cologne.

History

  • Celts and Romans.
  • 828: First mentioned by Einhard, the biographer of Charlemagne.
  • 1394: Coal mining first mentioned.
  • For some centuries part of the Duchy of Jülich.
  • 1678: Completely destroyed except one house and the valuable leather Pietà.
  • 1794: Given to France.
  • 1800: French municipal rights and capital of the Canton of Eschweiler in the French Département de la Roer.
  • 1816: Given to Prussia. The French Cantons of Burtscheid and Eschweiler are put together to form the Prussian Kreis Aachen.
  • 1838: Foundation of the first joint stock company in the then Kingdom of Prussia: Eschweiler Bergwerksverein EBV.
  • 1858: Prussian municipal rights. Its quarters Hehlrath, Kinzweiler and St. Jöris are released in order to form the new municipality of Kinzweiler.
  • 1932: Hastenrath and Nothberg become a part of Eschweiler.
  • 1944: Heavily destroyed in World War II, the last coal mine was flooded during the war and never been re-opened.
  • 1946: Part of the federal land of North Rhine-Westphalia.
  • 1960s: Complete modernization of Eschweiler's downtown and regulation of the Inde in order to prevent regular flooding.
  • 1972: Reorganization of administration in North Rhine-Westphalia: Eschweiler increases overnight from some 38,000 inhabitants to about 55,000 by receiving the villages Dürwiß, Laurenzberg, Lohn and Weisweiler. Kinzweiler, after 114 years, comes back.
  • 1970s: Eschweiler loses seven quarters because of the brown-coal opencast mining: Erberich, Hausen, Langendorf, Laurenzberg, Lohn, Lürken and Pützlohn.

    Main sights

Eschweiler main sights include:
  • Artificial lake Blausteinsee
  • the Old Townhall
  • two pilgrim churches
  • main parish church of St. Peter und Paul with the Leather Pietà from 1360
  • the chapel
  • dwelling house of the former Cistercians nunnery of St. Jöris, skull relic in St. Jöris' church, baroque altar in Hehlrath's church
  • Old Mill of Gressenich.
Also present is a series of castle and manors:
  • Castle of Eschweiler
  • Castle of Kambach
  • Castle of Kinzweiler
  • Castle of Nothberg
  • Castle of Palant
  • Castle of Röthgen
  • Castle of Weisweiler
  • Manor of Broich
  • Manor of Drimborn
  • Manor of Nothberg

    Culture

Eschweiler has three municipal halls, a cinema, a municipal art collection and the so-called Culture Centre Talbahnhof for cabaret and music events. Every summer the Eschweiler Music Festival EMF takes place. People go to the numerous pubs around the Market Place and in the old-town alley Schnellengasse.

Carnival

Eschweiler is a center of Rhineland carnival. It has more than 20 active carnival clubs, and every Monday before Lent it has the third of Germany's longest carnival processions.

Culinary specialities

  • Sauerbraten
  • Potato fritters with black bread, apple syrup, sugar beet syrup or stewed apples
  • Blood sausage crude or fried
  • Hemmel on Äed mashed potatoes with stewed apples and fried blood pudding or fried panhas
  • Rice pies, apricot pies, pear pies – 20 cm in diameter; the pear pies, also called black pies, are traditionally served at funerals
  • Horse and horse by-products

    Medical care

Eschweiler is home to the St. Antonius Hospital with 443 beds and 13 departments. Every year, there are some 15,000 in-patients and 25,000 out-patients. The Euregio Breast Centre is part of the hospital.

Sports

Soccer, ice hockey, golf, open-air swimming pool, indoor swimming pool, horse sports, handball.

Industry

Chemicals and goods are the main products, while it also has a lignite-powered power plant rated at 2.8 GW.

Science

The lignite deposits in the region are former Miocene swamp forest dominated by Castanopsis, a type of chinkapin. Such plants do not occur naturally in Europe. A type of fossil wood has been described from logs found in Eschweiler mines. It was named Castanoxylon eschweilerense in reference to the town; the name would translate as "Eschweiler chinkapin wood", as it probably belonged to Castanopsis but perhaps to some other genus of chinkapin.

Transport

Eschweiler has six railway stations: Eschweiler Hauptbahnhof, Eschweiler-Aue, Eschweiler-West, Eschweiler-Talbahnhof, Eschweiler-Nothberg, Eschweiler-Weisweiler and Nothberg. Eschweiler-St. Jöris is planned.
Eschweiler has two bus terminals and bus lines in every quarter and in its whole vicinity. Autobahn exits on the A 4 include Eschweiler-West, Eschweiler-Ost and Weisweiler. The city can be reached also by three exits on the A 44: Aldenhoven, Alsdorf and Broichweiden.

Notable people

Eschweiler is twinned with: