Aplerbeck is a borough (''
Stadtbezirk
A ''Stadtbezirk'' (also called ''Ortsbezirk'' in Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate) is an administrative division in Germany, which is part of a larger city. It is translated as "borough". In Germany, ''Stadtbezirke'' usually only exist in a metropo ...
'') of the city of
Dortmund
Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...
in the
Ruhr district
The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a wikt:polycentric, polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population d ...
of
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 tha ...
, Germany. Since 1929, it has been a suburb of Dortmund, located in the city's south-east. The river
Emscher
The Emscher () is a river, a tributary of the Rhine, that flows through the Ruhr area in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. Its overall length is with an mean outflow near the mouth into the lower Rhine of .
Description
The Emscher h ...
, a tributary of the
Ruhr
The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...
, crosses Aplerbeck.
Aplerbeck was first documented as a village in 899. The place is associated with the death of two martyrs
both named Ewald in the 7th century, according to the
Golden Legend. Aplerbeck was the location of
mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...
and
heavy industry as part of the Ruhr from the 19th century to 1926, resulting in a larger population and the building of a representative town hall and a larger church. A psychiatric hospital of regional importance, founded in 1890, is still in operation, now as .
History
The first document mentioning Aplerbeck, then ''Afaldrabechi'', is a founding document (''Stiftungsurkunde'') of 899, a term containing "apple" and "creek". According to the
Golden Legend, two missionaries, the
Two Ewalds, were killed near Aplerbeck in the 7th century.
With industrialisation, mining was done in . In 1855, Aplerbeck was connected by rail of the
Cologne-Minden Railway Company
The Cologne-Minden Railway Company (German, old spelling: ''Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', ''CME'') was along with the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company and the Rhenish Railway Company one of the railway companies that in the mid-19th ...
. The was founded in 1862.
In 1890, the
Prussian state government chose Aplerbeck as the home of a new psychiatric clinic to serve the
Ruhr area
The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...
.
A former farm was acquired, to employ the patients in agriculture. Named ''Westfälische Provinzial-Heilanstalt Aplerbeck'' (later short: ''Westfälische Klinik'' and ''Heilanstalt'') in 1904,
it was meant to house 660 patients.
The town hall of Aplerbeck, , was built in 1906/07 by . The Aplerbecker Hütte was closed in 1925. Aplerbeck became part of Dortmund on 1 August 1929.
During the reign of the
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
, Jewish citizens were deported, only 30 of 120 in 1933 could emigrate. Around 340 patients of the psychiatric clinic were sterilised.
In 1941, 95 patients were moved to Hadamar and killed.
Religion
The
Georgskirche is a
Romanesque church which is first mentioned in a document in 1147, but probably is based on an older building from the 9th century. The
Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
reached Aplerbeck in 1570.
With the industrialisation, a larger church was needed.
The
Große Kirche Aplerbeck
The Große Kirche Aplerbeck is a Protestant church in Aplerbeck, now part of Dortmund, Germany. It was built from 1867 to 1869 in Gothic Revival style, designed by Christian Heyden. A listed monument, it is used by the parish St. Georg, serving mos ...
was built in
Gothic Revival style
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
after a design by
Christian Heyden
Christian Heyden (baptised 14 August 1803, died 4 November 1869) was a German architect. He is known for Gothic Revival buildings, especially churches, in Westphalia, Germany.
Career
Heyden was the son of the ''Baumeister'' Johann Christian He ...
from 1867 to 1869.
The Georgskirche was no longer used and deteriorated. It was restored in 1963, and is now the main location for Protestant services,
while the larger church is often used for concerts.
As many people of Polish origin settled in Aplerbeck, they needed a Catholic church, which was built after a design by and consecrated on 21 December 1880, named after the martyrs.
After World War II, this church became too small for a growing congregation. It was replaced in 1971 by a new church.
File:Aplerbeck Kirche St Georg.jpg, Georgskirche
File:Titelbild des Kirchenführers Der Zeigefinger Gottes von Siegfried Liesenberg..jpg, ''Der Zeigefinger Gottes'' (God's index finger)
Personalities
*
Wilhelm Canaris (1887–1945), Admiral
*
Paul Graebner (1871–1933), botanist
*
Heinz Eberhard Strüning
Heinz Eberhard Strüning (2 May 1896 – 11 March 1986) was a German painter, graphic artist and pastel painter.
Life
Born in Aplerbeck, Strüning studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts from 1922 to 1924 and at the Kunsthochschule Kassel ...
(1896–1986), painter, artist
Literature
* Siegfried Niehaus: ''Aplerbeck''. Heinrich Borgmann, Dortmund 1977.
* Siegfried Niehaus: ''Kleine Geschichte des Amtes Aplerbeck''. Stadtsparkasse Dortmund, 1980.
* Uwe Bitzel: ''Lebensunwert. Die Heilanstalt Aplerbeck und ihre Kranken während des Nationalsozialismus''. Montania, Dortmund 1995, .
* Hans Georg Kirchhoff, Siegfried Liesenberg (ed.): ''1100 Jahre Aplerbeck: Festschrift im Auftrag des Vereins für Heimatpflege''. Essen 1998, .
* Georg Eggenstein (ed.): ''Aplerbeck. Sechs Profile – Ein Gesicht''. Limosa, Clenze 2010, .
References
External links
StadtbezirksportalDortmund
Berichte über AplerbeckAplerbecker GeschichteAplerbeck history
{{authority control
Dortmund