Düren (German pronunciation: [ˈdyːʁən] ; [3] Ripuarian: Düre) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, between Aachen and Cologne, on the river Rur.
The area of Düren was part of Gallia Belgica, more specifically the territory of the Eburones, a people who were described as both Belgae and Germani. It was conquered by the Roman Republic under Julius Caesar and became part of Germania inferior.
Düren became a supply area for the rapidly growing Roman city of Cologne (Roman name Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium). Furthermore, a few important Roman roads skirt Düren (including the road from Cologne to Jülich and Tongeren and the road from Cologne to Zülpich and Trier). By the 4th century, the area was settled by the Ripuarian Franks. The name villa duria occurred the first time in the Frankish Annals in the year 747.
Frankish king Pippin the Short often visited Düren in the 8th century and held a few important conventions there. The Franks made of Düren a royal palace, from which the name Palatine (Pfalz in German) is derived. Charlemagne sojourned a few times there. Due to the frequent visits of Charlemagne, a few markets sprang up, such as the corn, cattle, wood, chicken, and butter markets, all of which contributed to Düren's development. The castle was built at the place where, since 1991, the Saint Anne Church is located.
Düren obtained city rights in the early 13th century. Around 1200, the construction of the city wall was started, which includes 12 towers and 5 gates. The gates faced all directions: in the north, the Philippstor and the Wirteltor, in the east the Kölntor (Cologne gate), in the south the Obertor and in the west the Holztor (wooden gate). There are still ruins of the gates today.
The chiseler Leonhard stole a small box with the relic of Saint Anne out of the Mainzer Stiftskirche St. Stephan in 1501 and brought it to Düren. Pope Julius II decided on March 18, 1506, that Düren could keep the remains. They were kept in the Martinskirche (church of Saint Martin) which was renamed the Annakirche (church of Saint Anne) in 1505. (Probably the church was renamed much later, because in the 19th century it was still called sometimes parish church of the holy Martinus). Saint Anne became the patron saint of Düren. Every year, the saint's day of Saint Anne (July 26) is celebrated for one week with the Anna octavos and the Anna parish fair, one of the biggest folk festivals of Germany.
In 1642, Düren was embroiled in the Thirty Years' War. Opposing troops destroyed the city. After the war has finally ended in 1648, plague broke out and caused many lives to be lost. A second plague epidemic broke out in 1665. Due to the various attacks on the debilitated city, Düren was destroyed again in 1679. In this time, the settlement Miesheim was destroyed, never to be rebuilt.
Towards the end of the year 1755 in the area around Düren and Aachen began a series of earthquakes, which reached its peak on February 18, 1756 with an earthquake with the strength 8 on the Mercalli scale. The series of earthquakes affected all of Europe, most famously the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.
The businesses in the area of Düren was affected since the 15th century by the drapery and metal industry. Since the beginning of the 17th century, paper industry had settled here, advantaged by the exceptionally soft water of the Rur. Rütger von Scheven built the first paper mill in Düren. In 1812, there were already 17 paper factories, 11 cloth- and blanket factories, an iron rolling mill or slitting mill and two iron foundries.
In the year 1794, Düren was occupied by French revolutionary troops. From 1798 until 1814, Düren was the main city of the same named canton in the arrondissement Aachen of the French Roerdepartements (from the name of the River Rur (Roer) and département). After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Düren was ceded to the Kingdom of Prussia and was subsequently administered within the Rhine Province.
By 1900, Düren was among Germany's richest cities (with 42 millionaires and 93 factories) and had a population of 27,168. By comparison, fewer than 5,000 people had lived in Düren a century earlier.
The city of Düren was located on the main fighting front during the Allied invasion of Germany in World War II. During 1944 and 1945, the protracted and bloody Battle for Hürtgenwald was fought on Düren's district area, and on November 16, 1944, Düren was completely destroyed by Allied air bombings. Approximately 22,000 people lived in Düren at that time, and 3,000 of them died during the bombing. Those who survived were evacuated to central Germany. Destroyed buildings included the Stadttheater Düren (1907), designed in Jugendstil by Carl Moritz.
By 1939, the population had risen to over 45,000, but then fell to just 3,806 by June 1945 due to the effects of World War II. After the bombing of November 16, 1944, on March 1, 1945, only four German residents lived in the city, including forced laborers etc. there were 21 people. On April 1, the number of inhabitants had risen to 180 and on May 1, 1945, there were already 1218 people. In December 1945 the number increased to 25,000 inhabitants and in 1958 it was 45,000, the same number as before the war. Due to the incorporation of several places in the area, the city's population grew on January 1, 1972, by 35,522 to 89,087.
On February 25, 1945, U.S. troops crossed the Rur at Düren. After the war was over in the summer that year, many evacuated people came back to the destroyed city and started to rebuild their homes against the advice of the American troops. By June 1945, the population had risen to 3,806. Most of the architecture in Düren therefore dates from the 1950s.
The most famous museum of Düren is the Leopold Hoesch Museum. The in 1905 in Baroque Revival architecture erected building presents changing exhibitions of contemporary art. Since 1986, can also be seen artworks of the international Biennale PaperArt. Since 2006, is in the former nurses' home of the St. Augustinus Hospital Lendersdorf the Düren Carnival Museum. The most recent museum is the in 2009 founded Stadtmuseum Düren. This museum shows an exhibition of the local history.
The former Stadttheater Düren was opened in January 1907. In the bombing of November 16, 1944, the theatre was almost completely destroyed. Today cultural performances take place mainly at the Haus der Stadt. Since 2004 the multi-functional Arena Kreis Düren, which has around 2000 seats, serves as a venue for major concerts.
The jazz festival Dürener Jazztage is hosted in Düren annually. [4]
At the edge of the forest in the Niederau district lies Burgau Castle. The water castle ways inhabited by the Counts of Heinsberg at the beginning of the 14th Century. After it was destroyed in 1944, the restoration process lasted from 1979 to 1998. In Theodor Heuss Park is the Bismarck Memorial, erected in 1892 to commemorate the most famous honorary citizen from Düren. The town hall was inaugurated [5] in 1959. It now ranks as an example of 1950s architecture under Cultural heritage management.
The current mayor of Düren is Frank Peter Ullrich of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) since 2020. The most recent mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, with a runoff held on 27 September, and the results were as follows:
Candidate | Party | First round | Second round | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes | % | Votes | % | |||
Frank Peter Ullrich | Social Democratic Party | 10,641 | 36.1 | 14,853 | 69.8 | |
Thomas Floßdorf | Christian Democratic Union | 7,877 | 26.7 | 6,435 | 30.2 | |
Maria Belka | Alliance 90/The Greens | 6,724 | 22.8 | |||
Siegfried Fahl | Independent | 2,166 | 7.3 | |||
Karl Cremer | Free Democratic Party | 2,113 | 7.2 | |||
Valid votes | 29,521 | 97.2 | 21,288 | 98.3 | ||
Invalid votes | 837 | 2.8 | 364 | 1.7 | ||
Total | 30,358 | 100.0 | 21,652 | 100.0 | ||
Electorate/voter turnout | 69,324 | 43.8 | 69,257 | 31.3 | ||
Source: City of Düren (1st round, 2nd round) |
The Düren city council governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows:
Party | Votes | % | +/- | Seats | +/- | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | 9,896 | 33.3 | 7.7 | 17 | 3 | |
Social Democratic Party (SPD) | 8,555 | 28.8 | 3.7 | 15 | 1 | |
Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) | 5,317 | 17.9 | 8.1 | 9 | 4 | |
Alternative for Germany (AfD) | 2,111 | 7.1 | 1.6 | 4 | 1 | |
Free Democratic Party (FDP) | 1,338 | 4.5 | 1.2 | 2 | ±0 | |
Citizens for Düren (BfD) | 943 | 3.2 | 1.1 | 2 | 1 | |
The Left (Die Linke) | 844 | 2.8 | 2.5 | 1 | 2 | |
Pirate Party Germany (Piraten) | 396 | 1.3 | New | 1 | New | |
Independent Harf | 329 | 1.1 | New | 1 | New | |
Valid votes | 29,729 | 98.1 | ||||
Invalid votes | 581 | 1.9 | ||||
Total | 30,310 | 100.0 | 52 | 2 | ||
Electorate/voter turnout | 69,324 | 43.7 | 1.7 | |||
Source: City of Düren |
The emblem of the city of Düren is divided. It shows on the top a red castle, below that, a black eagle and in the lower half a black lion with a red tongue. The black eagle refers to the old history of Düren as a royal city and Reichsstadt. In 1242–46 Düren was bonded to the dukes of Jülich (later, Napoleon was also Duke of Jülich). Their emblem was a lion passant, with open mouth and a red tongue.
Düren has its own radio station (Radio Rur). The station broadcasts on 92.7 and 107.5 MHz, and on cable at 87.5 MHz. There are two daily newspapers (Dürener Zeitung, Dürener Nachrichten) and several weekly papers.
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Jülich is a town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. As a border region between the competing powers in the Lower Rhine and Meuse areas, the town and the Duchy of Jülich played a historic role from the Middle Ages up to the 17th century.
The Roer or Rur is a major river that flows through portions of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. It is a right (eastern) tributary to the Meuse. About 90 percent of the river's course is in Germany.
Northeim is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, seat of the district of Northeim, with a population of 30,118 as of 31 December 2023. It lies on the German Half-Timbered House Road.
The Duchy of Jülich comprised a state within the Holy Roman Empire from the 11th to the 18th centuries. The duchy lay west of the Rhine river and was bordered by the Electorate of Cologne to the east and the Duchy of Limburg to the west. It had territories on both sides of the river Rur, around its capital Jülich – the former Roman Iuliacum – in the lower Rhineland. The duchy amalgamated with the County of Berg beyond the Rhine in 1423, and from then on also became known as Jülich-Berg. Later it became part of the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg.
Erkelenz is a town in the Rhineland in western Germany that lies 15 kilometres southwest of Mönchengladbach on the northern edge of the Cologne Lowland, halfway between the Lower Rhine region and the Lower Meuse. It is a medium-sized town and the largest in the district of Heinsberg in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Heimbach is a town in the district of Düren of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the river Rur, in the Eifel hills, approx. 20 km south of Düren. Heimbach has the smallest population of any town in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Operation Queen was an American operation during World War II on the Western Front at the German Siegfried Line.
Hoesch was a German steel and mining conglomerate headquartered in Dortmund and several subsidiaries across the Ruhr region and Siegen. Founded in 1871, by Leopold Hoesch, it employed over 30,000 people by 1938 and was among the largest companies in Nazi Germany.
Düren station is located to the north of the centre of Düren and is the largest station in the city and the district of Düren. It is located at the intersection of the Cologne–Aachen high-speed line with the lines to Linnich, Heimbach and Euskirchen. Until 1992 it was also connected to the Erft Railway.
Stadttheater Düren was a theatre in Düren, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Bernard Lokai is a German painter. He studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and was a student of Gerhard Richter, and part of the Young Figuratives movement. He lives and works in Düsseldorf and Berlin, Germany. In 2002 he began teaching at the Freie Kunstakademie Essen in Essen in the Department of Painting and Graphics.
David Ostrowski is a German painter. He studied at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf with Albert Oehlen. He lives and works in Cologne, Germany. He is the grandson of Krystyna Żywulska.
Ida Kerkovius (1879–1970) was a Baltic German painter and weaver from Latvia.
Burgau Castle is a water castle in Düren, located in the town forest at the edge of the district Niederau.
The ruins of Nideggen Castle are a symbol of the town of Nideggen in Germany and are owned by the county of Düren. The rectangular hill castle was the seat of the powerful counts and dukes of Jülich and had a reputation in the Middle Ages of being impregnable.
Hermann Claasen was a German photographer.
Arnold of Arnoldsweiler (died c. 800 in Ginnizweiler, today Düren-Arnoldsweiler) is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, Orthodox Church and True Orthodox Church and was a musician at the court of Emperor Charles the Great, known as Charlemagne. His feast day is 18 July.
Leopold Hoesch was a German entrepreneur. In 1871 he founded the Eisen-und Stahlwerk Hoesch AG, later the Westfalenhütte in Dortmund, Westphalia.
Karl Ventzke was a German procurator and musical instrumentologist.