Kerpen, Cologne Region, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

History | Geographical location | Neighboring communities | Division of the town | Monuments | Education | Museums | Buildings | Mills | Parks | Natural monuments | Sport | Economy | Traffic

🇩🇪 Kerpen is the most populated town in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis. It is located about 20 km south-west from Cologne.

History Kerpen was first mentioned in documents in 871 under the name "Kerpinna".

The brothers Garsilius and Nikolaus von Kerpen certified as Reichministerials together with other Reichshohen on the 1st. August 1143 a royal certificate of the Roman-German Staufer King Konrad III in Cochem.

On the 2nd August 1276, Wenemar von Gymnich exchanges the town of Buschfeld from his possession for the royal estate of the castle of Kerpen owned by his sister Beatrix as the widow of Johann von Kerpen and their children. In May 1281, the English King Edward I asked in a letter to the then German King Rudolf I of Habsburg to transfer the Reichsburgs Kerpen and Werden to Wenemar von Gymnich. Whereupon King Rudolf I of Habsburg on the 16th. May 1281 the loan of the "beautifully praised Wenemar von Gemenich" and his heirs of both sexes with the castle Kerpen (at the Erft between Cologne and Düren) and all accessories, "as they bought Wenemar from his sister Beatrix", certifyingly.

Only one year after his own loan in May 1282, Wenemar von Gymnich sells his castle Kerpen to Duke Johann I of Brabant. On the 11th In February 1284, King Rudolf I of Habsburg handed over the castle with royal certification to John I of Brabant.

After the Battle of Worringen in 1288, Kerpen became a BBrabant enclave in the middle of the area dominated by the Electorate of Cologne and the County of Jülich, which helped Kerpen to actually be independent. The Duchy of Burgundy took over the BBrabant heritage, which passed to the House of Habsburg after the death of Charles the Bold in 1477. When the Roman-German emperor and Spanish king Charles V divided his dominions among his sons in 1522, Kerpen and the Spanish Netherlands fell to the King of Spain. Until the Peace of Utrecht in 1712, Kerpen remained Spanish - even in the 1970s, the now non-existent restaurant "King of Spain" in today's Stiftsstraße reminded of this.

Subsequently, Kerpen became an independent imperial county under the Count of Schaesberg with the Lommersum, which was masterfully associated with him. With the seizure of the left bank of the Rhine by French revolutionary troops, Kerpen lost its independence in 1794, but became the cantonal seat in 1798. This canton included the Mairien Blatzheim, Buir, Kerpen, Sindorf and Türnich. The canton of Kerpen was assigned to the arrondissement of Cologne in the Rur department. In 1815, after the Congress of Vienna, Kerpen became part of the Prussian Rhine province in the district of Bergheim (Erft). Kerpen received city rights in 1941.

Today's Kerpen is on the 1st. January 1975 from the then city of Kerpen and seven until then independent municipalities as part of a municipal reform by the Cologne Act of 1974. 5] The districts are mostly still separated from each other by large free areas and have therefore retained a certain independence.

The districts of Mödrath and Bottenbroich were relocated in the 1950s due to the open-cast lignite mine Frechen. The inhabitants of the old Mödrath were assigned a construction area in the north-east Kerpen, the inhabitants of Bottenbroich a construction area in the east of Horrem. A remnant of the resettlement is the prefix "Neu-" in the name Neu-Bottenbroich.

The district of Manheim will give way to the Hambach open-cast mine until around 2022. In a vote, the inhabitants determined Kerpen-Dickbusch as the relocation location. The new Dickbusch site has been built since spring 2012. Since 2016, residents who have also been involved have been able to purchase a property.

Geographical location East of the city centre Kerpen, the Erft (coming from the Eifel) runs with the Erftauen and divides the municipality, further east is the Ville. The Neffelbach runs from Nörvenich in a northeasterly direction and still flows into the Erft on Kerpen municipal territory. South of Kerpen, isolated foothills of the North Eifel still rise into the lowlands. Kerpen is also located in the Jülich-Zülpicher Börde. A small part of the Hambach open-cast mine and a large part of the controversial Hambach Forest are located on the territory of the municipality of Kerpen.

Neighboring communities Kerpen borders the district town of Bergheim in the north, the city of Elsdorf in the north-west, the municipality of Merzenich in the west and Nörvenich in the south-west (both in the district of Düren). Kerpen borders Erftstadt to the south, Hürth to the south-east and Frechen to the east.

Division of the town The town of Kerpen was created in 1975, when the previously independent municipalities Balkhausen, Blatzheim, Brüggen, Buir, Horrem, Kerpen, Manheim, Mödrath, Sindorf and Türnich were merged.

Monuments • Burg Bergerhausen • Burg Loersfeld • Schloss Türnich.

Education In 2008, Gymnasium der Stadt Kerpen was considered the largest school in Germany.

Museums • The Adolph Kolping Museum in Kerpen was furnished in an outbuilding of the house that Adolph Kolping's brother had rebuilt on the site of Kolping's birthplace. House and exhibition were built on the occasion of the 200th Birthday of the namesake thoroughly renovated and rearranged. • House for Art and History • Museum H. J. Tree • The Museum of Racing History at Villa Trips in Kerpen-Horrem was primarily dedicated to the memory of the injured racing driver Count Berghe von Trips. 18] It has been finally dissolved since January 2015. As agreed, 5000 parts of the collection were transferred to the Prototype Museum, Hamburg, as permanent loans. The written estate goes to the city archive and is also available for research there. • The world of the Schumachers, racing museum • Typewriter Museum QWERTZUIOPÜ in Kerpen-Sindorf • Tractor Museum of the Stollenwerk Brothers on the Wasserburg Bergerhausen • Natural History Museum "Martin Reimer" of the city of Kerpen in Kerpen-Brüggen

Buildings In the city center • Collegiate church: With its 78 m, the collegiate church tower of St. Martinus is the third highest in the Archdiocese of Cologne after the Cologne Cathedral and the Bonn Cathedral. The eight-sided pointed helmet, which was shortened after a fire by lightning in 1817, was again added by 12 m to the old height in 1902. 24] • Evangelical St. John's Church from 1853, neo-Romanical • New mosque on the market square • Loersfeld Castle with worth seeing castle park • Only one hill near "Burgstraße" and "An der alten Burg" reminds of the Alte Kerpener Burg. • Mödrath Castle • The Jewish cemetery

In the districts • Bergerhausen Castle in Kerpen-Bergerhausen • Ev. Johannes-Bugenhagen-Church in Kerpen-Blatzheim • Commanding castle in Kerpen-Blatzheim • The Gothic archway of the former Brüggen Castle in Kerpen-Brüggen • The Jewish cemetery in Kerpen-Brüggen • The church of St. Josef in Kerpen-Brüggen • The church of St. Cyriakus in Kerpen-Götzenkirchen • Hemmersbach Castle in Kerpen-Horrem • Clemenskirche in Kerpen-Horrem • The Jewish cemetery in Kerpen-Sindorf • The church of St. Ulrich in Kerpen-Sindorf, built in 1484 • Türnich Castle in Kerpen-Türnich

Mills • Obermühle (Kerpen) • Langenicher Mühle • Sindorfer Mühle

Parks • Papal hill on the Marienfeld, the venue of the World Youth Day 2005 • Park Schloss Türnich with the so-called Linden Cathedral • Bergerhausen Castle Park

Natural monuments Kerpen is located with the nature reserves Kerpener Bruch/Parrig and Dickbusch, Lörsfelder Busch, Steinheide in the Rhineland Nature Park. The new information centre for the northern part of the nature park, the Gymnicher Mühle an der Erft, is located beyond the border with Gymnich. For a few years, the recultivation area of the former lignite opencast mine Frechen has also become a natural landscape with several lakes, etc.; it has been since the Pope's visit to the XX. World Youth Day in 2005 known as Marienfeld. The largest lake here is the Boisdorfer See.

Sport The Erftlandring kart track in Manheim is known as Michael Schumacher's house railway beyond the local boundaries. For young racing athletes, the SeifenkistenvereinFlinke Flitzer has existed since 1977. Since its foundation in 1977 until 2008, the club has already won second and third place at the German championships. The Four Seasons Pool Erftlagune in Sindorf and the Türnicher Outdoor Pool are sites for water sports. A mini golf course is operated in Türnich.

Since 2012, Kerpen has been allowed to call itself a bicycle-friendly city. 25]

Economy Kerpen and its districts are still characterized by the surrounding lignite industry of the Rhenish lignite district with opencast mines and briquette factories. The Frechen opencast mine in the east is coaled - there is a recultivation area with the Marienfeld known from World Youth Day 2005 - (smaller fields such as that of the Louise mine near Brüggen/Türnich with briquette factories I and II were already exhausted in 1952), the new civil open-cast mine Hambach is approaching the district of Manheim. Only the Hüttenstraße with the former factory apartments commemorates the Sindorfer Glashütte from 1911 to 1978. The lignite power plants on the ridge are not far away and also offer Kerpeners work. The car accessories company Visteon has its European headquarters with approx. 770 employees in Sindorf. The NATO military airfield Nörvenich also has European significance. The air force soldiers stationed there are accommodated in the Kerpener Boelcke barracks and in the Nörvenicher Kaserne Haus Hardt. By 2017[outdated], the number of 980 soldiers employed at the air base is to rise to 1,110 in 2011. 26] In addition, the cable network operator Unitymedia has its technical headquarters in Sindorf. In addition to the German headquarters of the IT system service provider Computacenter with 4,700 employees in Germany, the company Boll & Kirch Filterbau with its approx. 600 employees to the largest employers in Sindorf. The retail trade in Kerpen should also not be underestimated. Through the creation of the EKK (Erft-Karree-Kerpen) in Kerpen with its large subsidiaries Obi, Kaufland, Saturn, Roller and Intersport, as well as many smaller trading companies, an important shopping centre has also been created in Sindorf with the "Modepark" with companies such as Modepark Röther, C&A, Woolworth,

Traffic Kerpen is located at the motorway junction (Kreuz Kerpen) of the federal motorways 4 and 61.

In Blatzheim, the federal highways 264 and 477 cross. There are a total of three motorway exits in the city area and three in very close proximity. Aachener Straße from Cologne ends directly between Kerpen-Sindorf and Bergheim-Ahe.

Kerpen is located on the Cologne-Aachen high-speed line and has three train stops at it; Buir, Horrem and Sindorf. While only the S-Bahn stops in Buir and Sindorf, other regional trains also stop at Horrem station, the largest station in the city area. Here, the Erftbahn to Bedburg also branches off via Bergheim.

The city centre of Kerpen no longer has a railway connection. Originally it was developed by the Bergheimer Kreisbahn, which was nationalized in 1913. In the 1950s, parts of the line (especially the Mödrath station) had to give way to an open-cast mine. The dismantling of the route took place gradually in the 1960s.

Locally and with the neighboring municipalities, the districts are accessed by bus lines of the Rhein-Erft-Verkehrsgesellschaft in the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg (VRS), which are supplemented by a call collection taxi system. Main stops and transfer points in the core town are Kerpen Town Hall and Kerpen City Archive.

Europe/Berlin/North_Rhine-Westphalia 
<b>Europe/Berlin/North_Rhine-Westphalia</b>
Image: Adobe Stock ake1150 #126530733

Kerpen has a population of over 64,600 people. Kerpen also forms one of the centres of the wider Rhein-Erft District which has a population of over 469,611 people. Kerpen is situated 20 km south-west of Cologne.

To set up a UBI Lab for Kerpen see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns, Sister Cities Kerpen has links with:

🇵🇱 Oświęcim, Poland 🇺🇦 Sambir, Ukraine 🇧🇪 St. Vith, Belgium
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

Antipodal to Kerpen is: -173.307,-50.873

Locations Near: Kerpen 6.69312,50.8728

🇩🇪 Bergheim 6.64,50.955 d: 9.9  

🇩🇪 Pulheim 6.8,51 d: 16  

🇩🇪 Hürth 6.867,50.867 d: 12.2  

🇩🇪 Düren 6.483,50.805 d: 16.6  

🇩🇪 Euskirchen 6.792,50.66 d: 24.7  

🇩🇪 Dormagen 6.817,51.1 d: 26.7  

🇩🇪 Köln 6.95,50.933 d: 19.2  

🇩🇪 Cologne 6.958,50.939 d: 20  

🇩🇪 Neuss 6.693,51.198 d: 36.2  

🇩🇪 Leverkusen 6.982,51.033 d: 27  

Antipodal to: Kerpen -173.307,-50.873

🇹🇴 Nuku'alofa -175.216,-21.136 d: 16704.3  

🇦🇸 Pago Pago -170.701,-14.279 d: 15939.3  

🇼🇸 Apia -171.76,-13.833 d: 15894.1  

🇵🇫 Papeete -149.566,-17.537 d: 15754  

🇺🇸 Hilo -155.089,19.725 d: 11964.9  

🇺🇸 Maui -156.446,20.72 d: 11884.7  

🇺🇸 Maui County -156.617,20.868 d: 11872  

🇺🇸 Wailuku -156.505,20.894 d: 11866.9  

🇺🇸 Kahului -156.466,20.891 d: 11866.4  

🇺🇸 Honolulu -157.85,21.3 d: 11848  

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