Monschau
Monschau (; french: Montjoie, ; wa, Mondjoye) is a small resort town in the Eifel region of western Germany, located in the Aachen district of North Rhine-Westphalia. Geography The town is located in the hills of the North Eifel, within the Hohes Venn – Eifel Nature Park in the narrow valley of the Rur river. The historic town center has many preserved half-timbered houses and narrow streets have remained nearly unchanged for 300 years, making the town a popular tourist attraction nowadays. An open-air, classical music festival is staged annually at Burg Monschau. Historically, the main industry of the town was cloth-mills. History On the heights above the city is Monschau castle, which dates back to the 13th century — the first mention of Monschau was made in 1198. Beginning in 1433, the castle was used as a seat of the dukes of Jülich. In 1543, Emperor Charles V besieged it as part of the Guelders Wars, captured it and plundered the town. However, the castle st ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Monschau Castle
Monschau Castle (german: Burg Monschau) is a castle in the eponymous town of Monschau in the southern part of the Region of Aachen in Germany. It is used today as a youth hostel and in summer as a venue for concerts and operas. History The hill castle is first recorded in 1217 as ''castrum in Munjoje'' by Archbishop Engelbert I of Cologne. It was expanded in the middle of the 14th century into a fortress for the counts of Jülich and equipped with mighty ring walls and wall walks. In 1543 troops of Emperor Charles V besieged the site with heavy guns, captured it and plundered it together with the town of Monschau. In the early 19th century the French administration declared the castle to be state property and sold it to a private buyer who had the roofs removed in 1836 and 1837 in order to avoid building tax. As a result, the castle fell into ruins until, in the early 20th century, the government of the Rhine province secured and repaired it. After the First World War a youth ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vennbahn
The (, "Fen Railway") is a former railway line that was built partly across what was then German territory by the Prussian state railways. It is now entirely in Belgium, because the trackbed of the line, as well as the stations and other installations, were made provisional Belgian territory in 1919 (permanent in 1922) under an article of the Treaty of Versailles. This had the effect of creating six small exclaves of Germany on the line's western side, of which five remain. The treaty (not the location of the trackbed, ''per se'') also created one small Belgian counter-enclave, a traffic island inside a three-way German road intersection near which lasted until 1949. The route is now a cycle way. Route The line, which was standard gauge, ran for some across the High Fens to the south of Aachen in a roughly southward direction from Eupen via (the site of the depot), Monschau and to , with a eastward branch from to and . At Eupen it connected with the line to Herbesthal ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mützenich (Monschau)
Mützenich is a village and former municipality in the district of Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is part of the municipality of Monschau since 1972. Notably, Mützenich is a German exclave surrounded by Belgian territory due to the track bed of the former Vennbahn railway line being part of Belgium following the implementation of the Treaty of Versailles, among other small areas. Geography Mützenich is located on the German-Belgian border, in the region of the High Fens and below Steling mountain, at . History One possible derivation of the place name ''Mützenich'' is a Roman settlement ''Mutiniacum''. In 1783, peat cutters discovered a Roman helmet and remains of a log road. The road may have been part of the military road ''Via Mansuerisca''. A depiction of the Roman helmet forms part of the coat of arms of the former municipality. After World War II, Belgium planned to annex the German exclave created by the Vennbahn track, but decided to no longer pursue ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Eifel
The Eifel (; lb, Äifel, ) is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Community of Belgium. The Eifel is part of the Rhenish Massif; within its northern portions lies the Eifel National Park. Geography Location The Eifel lies between the cities of Aachen to the north, Trier to the south and Koblenz to the east. It descends in the northeast along a line from Aachen via Düren to Bonn into the Lower Rhine Bay. In the east and south it is bounded by the valleys of the Rhine and the Moselle. To the west it transitions in Belgium and Luxembourg into the geologically related Ardennes and the Luxembourg Ösling. In the north it is limited by the Jülich-Zülpicher Börde. Within Germany it lies within the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia; in the Benelux the area of Eupen, St. Vith and Luxemb ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Battle Of The Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive (military), offensive military campaign, campaign on the Western Front (World War II), Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted from 16 December 1944 to 28 January 1945, towards the end of the war in Europe. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region between Belgium and Luxembourg. The primary military objectives were to deny further use of the Belgian port of Antwerp to the Allies and to split the Allied lines, which potentially could have allowed the Germans to encirclement, encircle and destroy the four Allied forces. Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, who since December 1941 had assumed direct command of the German army, believed that achieving these objectives would compel the Western Allies to accept a peace treaty in the Axis powers' favor. By this time, it was palpable to virtually the entire German leadership including Hitler himself that they had ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Aachen (district)
The district of Aachen (german: link=yes, Städteregion Aachen) is a district in the west of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Heinsberg, Düren, Euskirchen, and also the Netherlands province of Limburg and the Belgian province of Liège. Its administrative body is the ''Städteregionsparlament'' ("regional parliament"), headed by the ''Städteregionspräsident'' or "region president" (Tim Grüttemeier ( CDU) since 2019). History Becoming effective on 21 October 2009, the ''Städteregion Aachen'' (literally: "cities region" Aachen) was formed from the former district Aachen (''Kreis Aachen'') and the city of Aachen. This is the first ''Städteregion'' that was formed in North Rhine-Westphalia. Its status is similar to that of the district Hanover (''Region Hannover'') in Lower Saxony, in that the powers of the city of Aachen are slightly less than those of a district-free city (''Kreisfreie Stadt''). The former district Aachen was created in 1975 in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most populous state of Germany. Apart from the city-states, it is also the List of German states by population density, most densely populated state in Germany. Covering an area of , it is the List of German states by area, fourth-largest German state by size. North Rhine-Westphalia features 30 of the 81 German municipalities with over 100,000 inhabitants, including Cologne (over 1 million), the state capital Düsseldorf, Dortmund and Essen (all about 600,000 inhabitants) and other cities predominantly located in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area, the largest urban area in Germany and the fourth-largest on the European continent. The location of the Rhine-Ruhr at the h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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North Eifel
The North Eifel (german: Nordeifel), the northern part of the Eifel, a low mountain range in Germany and East Belgium, comprises the following six sub-regions: * Venn Foreland, *Hohes Venn, *Rur Eifel, *Limestone Eifel, * Our Valley and *High Eifel. All elements belong to the Hohes Venn – Eifel Nature Park. The raised bog Raised bogs, also called ombrotrophic bogs, are acidic, wet habitats that are poor in mineral salts and are home to flora and fauna that can cope with such extreme conditions. Raised bogs, unlike fens, are exclusively fed by precipitation ( ombro ... of the Hohes Venn is particularly noteworthy. It was designated as a world heritage site by UNESCO. The Eifel Lake Plateau with the second largest dam in Germany, the Rur Valley Dam, lies in the centre of the North Eifel. Also within the North Eifel are: *Eifel National Park, *Monschau Hedegerow Country (''Monschauer Heckenland''), *Kermeter, *Hürtgen Forest and *Zitter Forest. External links Hohes Venn - Eif ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Roer (département)
Roer was a department of the French First Republic and later First French Empire in present-day Germany and the Netherlands. It was named after the river Roer (Rur), which flows through the department. It was formed in 1797, when the left bank of the Rhine was occupied by the French. The department was formed from the duchies of Jülich and Cleves, the part of the Archbishopric of Cologne left of the Rhine, the Free City of Aachen, the Prussian part of the duchy of Guelders and some smaller territories. In 1805 the city of Wesel was added to the department. The capital was Aix-la-Chapelle (''Aachen''). The department was subdivided in the following arrondissements and cantons (situation in 1812):Almanach Impérial an bissextil MDCCCXII p. 458-9, accessed in [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Duchy Of Jülich
The Duchy of Jülich (german: Herzogtum Jülich; nl, Hertogdom Gulik; french: Duché de Juliers) 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. Its territory lies in present-day Germany (part of North Rhine-Westphalia) and in the present-day Netherlands (part of the Limburg province), its population sharing the same Limburgish dialect. History In the 9th century a certain Matfried was count of Jülich (pagus Juliacensis). The first count in the gau of Jülich in Lower Lorrai ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Treaty Of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919 in the Palace of Versailles, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which led to the war. The other Central Powers on the German side signed separate treaties. Although the armistice of 11 November 1918 ended the actual fighting, it took six months of Allied negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. The treaty was registered by the Secretariat of the League of Nations on 21 October 1919. Of the many provisions in the treaty, one of the most important and controversial was: "The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |