Castle of KambachCastle of RoethgenEschweiler Central StationThe Leather PietàCastle of PalantCastle of KinzweilerOld TownhallWeisweiler power plant
Eschweiler (German pronunciation:[ˈɛʃvaɪlɐ], Ripuarian: Eischwiele) 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 15 kilometres (9mi) east of Aachen and 50 kilometres (31mi) west of Cologne.
History
Celts (first ore mining) and Romans (roads and villae rusticae).
1678: Almost completely destroyed by troops of King Louis XIV of France; nearly all dwellings in the town centre were burned to the ground, and the church of St. Peter und Paul heavily damaged. The valuable leather Pietà was rescued from the flames.
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: The Eschweiler Bergwerksverein (EBV; Eschweiler Mining Company) was formally constituted, becoming the first mining joint-stock company in the Kingdom of Prussia.
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 reopened.
1960s: Complete modernization of Eschweiler's downtown and regulation of the Inde 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 brown-coal opencast mining: Erberich, Hausen, Langendorf, Laurenzberg, Lohn, Lürken and Pützlohn.
the Old Townhall (which is now the restaurant and conference wing of a hotel)
two pilgrim churches
main parish church of St. Peter und Paul with the Leather Pietà from around 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 castles and manors:
Castle of Eschweiler (only three towers from the 13th century are left)
Castle of Kambach (beautiful water castle beside the golf course)
Castle of Kinzweiler
Castle of Nothberg
Castle of Palant
Castle of Röthgen
Castle of Weisweiler (only the towers and the outer walls are left)
Manor of Broich
Manor of Drimborn
Manor of Nothberg
Culture
Eschweiler has three municipal halls (Dürwiß, Kinzweiler and Weisweiler), 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 centre of Rhineland carnival. It has more than 20 active carnival clubs, and every Monday before Lent it hosts the third-longest carnival procession in Germany.
Hemmel on Äed (i.e. Heaven and Earth) mashed potatoes with stewed apples and fried blood pudding or fried panhas
Rice pies, apricot pies, pear pies ("Schwatze Flaam") – 20cm 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. The Weisweiler power station, operated by RWE Power, is a lignite-fired power plant located within the town.
Science
The lignite (brown coal) deposits in the region are former Miocene swamp forest dominated by Castanopsis, a type of chinkapin. Such plants do not occur naturally in Europe anymore. 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 (central station), Eschweiler-Aue (from 2009), Eschweiler-West, Eschweiler-Talbahnhof, Eschweiler-Nothberg, Eschweiler-Weisweiler and Nothberg (till 2009). 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.
Wilhelm Lexis (1837–1914), economist, national economist and statistician
August Thyssen (1842–1926), founded the Thyssen-Foussol & Co. in Duisburg in 1867, and later other steelworks. The company entered the ThyssenKrupp AG in 1997
Joseph Thyssen (1844–1915), industrialist and the younger brother of August Thyssen
Götz Briefs (1889–1974), national economist and social philosopher
