Eschweiler - History

History

• Celtics (first ore mining) and Romans (roads and villae rusticae).
• 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 To France.
• 1800 French municipal rights and capital of the Canton of Eschweiler in the French Département de la Roer.
• 1816 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 (i.e. Eschweiler Coal Mining Company) 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.
• Part of the federal land of Northrhine-Westfalia.
• 1960s Complete modernization of Eschweiler's downtown and regulation of the Inde in order to prevent the regular inundations.
• 1972 Reorganization of administration in Northrhine-Westfalia: 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.