Dillingen (also: ''Dillingen an der Saar'') (french: Dillange) is a town in the district of Saarlouis, in

Saarland The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ...

. It has about 20,000 inhabitants and is divided into the three districts Dillingen-city center, Pachten and

Diefflen Diefflen (pronounced: Dieflen, in the local, Moselle-Franconian dialect Dejfeln) is a district of Dillingen/Saar in the district of Saarlouis (Saarland) and has about 4700 inhabitants. It is located on the lower Prims, a tributary of the Saar. ...

. The city is located on the edge of the Saar-Hunsrück Nature Park at the mouth of the

Prims The Prims is a 91 km long river in western Germany, right tributary of the Saar. It rises in the Hunsrück mountains, near the village Malborn. It flows generally south through the towns Nonnweiler, Wadern and Schmelz. It flows into the Saa ...

in the

Saar Saar or SAAR has several meanings: People Given name *Saar Boubacar (born 1951), Senegalese professional football player * Saar Ganor, Israeli archaeologist *Saar Klein (born 1967), American film editor Surname * Ain Saar (born 1968), Est ...

and is located about 10 km from the French border. Dillingen is located about 60 km from

Luxembourg City Luxembourg ( lb, Lëtzebuerg; french: Luxembourg; german: Luxemburg), also known as Luxembourg City ( lb, Stad Lëtzebuerg, link=no or ; french: Ville de Luxembourg, link=no; german: Stadt Luxemburg, link=no or ), is the capital city of the Lu ...

and

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

, 50 km from

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...

and 30 km from

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; french: link=no, Sarrebruck ; Rhine Franconian: ''Saarbrigge'' ; lb, Saarbrécken ; lat, Saravipons, lit=The Bridge(s) across the Saar river) is the capital and largest city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken is S ...

and is directly adjacent to the urban area of

Saarlouis Saarlouis (; french: link=no, Sarrelouis, ; formerly Sarre-Libre and Saarlautern) is a town in Saarland, Germany, capital of the district of Saarlouis. In 2020, the town had a population of 34,409. Saarlouis, as the name implies, is located on t ...

. In terms of population, it is the second largest municipality in the district of Saarlouis. The

Dillinger Hütte Dillinger Hütte is a steel producer in Dillingen, in the German Federal State of Saarland, and has a history stretching back more than three hundred years. The plant was founded in 1685, and was Germany's first Aktiengesellschaft, or joint ...

steelworks is located here.

Geography

PanoramakarteDieDeutscheSaarL1060719 (2)

Geographical location

Dillingen lies to the right of the

in the northern part of the Basin of Saarlouis and thus in the Saar-Nahe Basin. The Basin of Saarlouis is bounded on the northwest, north and northeast by the heights of the

Buntsandstein The Buntsandstein (German for ''coloured'' or ''colourful sandstone'') or Bunter sandstone is a lithostratigraphy, lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphy, allostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the Subsurface (geology), subsurface ...

. They belong to the eastern edge of the

Paris Basin The Paris Basin is one of the major geological regions of France. It developed since the Triassic over remnant uplands of the Variscan orogeny (Hercynian orogeny). The sedimentary basin, no longer a single drainage basin, is a large sag in the cr ...

and lead into the basin of the

. The Prims coming from the Schwarzwälder Hochwald and emanates above the district of Pachten in the Saar. A few kilometers north of the territorial entity of Pachten the Saar unites with the

Nied The Nied (; ) is a river in Lorraine, France, and Saarland, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Saar. It is formed where two streams converge: the ''Nied allemande'' ("German Nied") and the ''Nied française'' ("French Nied"), which join in ...

coming from

Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gr ...

. The

alluvial deposits Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

in the basin allow good agricultural use.

Geology

Large-scale overview

The rock strata of the coal-saddle of Saarbrücken (

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...

) dive to the northwest and it comes to a superposition of younger rocks of the

Rotliegend The Rotliegend, Rotliegend Group or Rotliegendes (german: the underlying red) is a lithostratigraphy, lithostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) of latest Carboniferous to Guadalupian (middle Permian) age that is found in the subsurface of ...

and the

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...

. Dillingen lies on a plaice of the middle Buntsandstein. The rectangular plaice is stretched towards southeast-northwest and bounded to the south by the Carboniferous line of the municipalities of Ensdorf, Hülzweiler and Schwarzenholz. In the southwest and northwest of this plaice of Buntsandstein lie the ridges of the upper Buntsandstein ( Röt Formation) and the

Muschelkalk The Muschelkalk (German for "shell-bearing limestone"; french: calcaire coquillier) is a sequence of sedimentary rock strata (a lithostratigraphic unit) in the geology of central and western Europe. It has a Middle Triassic (240 to 230 million ye ...

between Berus, Siersburg and the valley of Haustadt. The rocks of the lower Rotliegend and the carbon form the northeastern border area.

Narrower room

The extended valley of the area Dillingen and Saarlouis lies in the area of the middle

, in which the valleys of the Saar and the Prims dug. The left flank of the Saar at Dillingen, the Limberg, is formed by a steep of

Grès à Voltzia The Grès à Voltzia is a geologic formation in France. It preserves fossils dating back to the Triassic period. See also * List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in France See also * Lists of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Eur ...

, while a right flank of the valley is missing. On this bas-relief with overlaying younger gravel blankets, the development area of Dillingen and Pachten spreads. In the middle Buntsandstein mainly crumbly, easily erodible sandstone formations are developed. Above is the upper Buntsandstein ( Röt Formation), which is made up of firmer sandstones bound to parts of

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

carbonate A carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid (H2CO3), characterized by the presence of the carbonate ion, a polyatomic ion with the formula . The word ''carbonate'' may also refer to a carbonate ester, an organic compound containing the carbonate g ...

. These were won in earlier times in numerous quarries as building material. Above are

-Layers: The lowest shell limestone layer form sandy-clayey-limestone rocks. The middle limestone layer contains

marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt. When hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. Marl makes up the lower part o ...

with

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywall. ...

and

anhydrite Anhydrite, or anhydrous calcium sulfate, is a mineral with the chemical formula CaSO4. It is in the orthorhombic crystal system, with three directions of perfect cleavage parallel to the three planes of symmetry. It is not isomorphous with the ...

. The upper shell limestone layer is composed of massive limestones and platy limestones with layers of marl-layers. Above these solid subsoil rocks,

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...

-terraces of the rivers Saar and Prims are deposited. The different altitudes of these terraces bear testimony to different stages of the depression of the two rivers and the deposit of entrained

crushed stone Crushed stone or angular rock is a form of construction aggregate, typically produced by mining a suitable rock deposit and breaking the removed rock down to the desired size using crushers. It is distinct from naturally occurring gravel, which i ...

s. The youngest deposits form the meadow-clay of the two river valleys.

Morphology

In the territory of Dillingen is the confluence of the two river valleys of Saar and Prims. The Prims finish their 91 kilometer run here. The terrain height at the mouth is 177 m above sea level. East of the Saar occurs on both banks of Prims the middle Buntsandstein. It is widely worn and forms a flat wavy stepped landscape. The areas are covered by broad terraced fields of gravel and clay.

Mineralogy

Almost all rocks occurring in the Dillingen area can be used economically. The friable rocks of the middle Buntsandstein were mined as sand in pits or slope edges. The firmer sandstones of the upper Buntsandstein ( Röt Formation) provided breakage and quarry stones.

Gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

was extracted from the terraces.

Loam Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–sil ...

was used as brick material.

Climate

The

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...

in Dillingen is moderately oceanic, but warm. There is significant rainfall throughout the year. Even the driest month still shows high rainfall. The average annual temperature is 9.7 °C.

Neighboring communities

The city of Dillingen has six neighboring municipalities. Clockwise are these Beckingen, Nalbach with the districts Bierbach and Nalbach, Saarwellingen, Saarlouis (with the district of Roden), Wallerfangen and Rehlingen-Siersburg.

History

The importance of the Dillingen-Wallerfangen area on both banks of the middle Saar in the prehistoric and early historic eras is attested by a number of finds: rich bronze caskets of the late

Urnfield The Urnfield culture ( 1300 BC – 750 BC) was a late Bronze Age culture of Central Europe, often divided into several local cultures within a broader Urnfield tradition. The name comes from the custom of cremating the dead and p ...

period (9th century BC), a multi-tiered partial defensive wall ( :de:Abschnittsbefestigung) of the

Hallstatt culture The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Western Europe, Western and Central European Archaeological culture, culture of Late Bronze Age Europe, Bronze Age (Hallstatt A, Hallstatt B) from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and Early Iron Age Europe ...

(8th-6th century BC) on the nearly -high, peninsula-like massif of the Limberg overlooking the Saar, and a cemetery with a "princely" grave containing a golden

torc A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large rigid or stiff neck ring in metal, made either as a single piece or from strands twisted together. The great majority are open at the front, although some had hook and ring closures and a few had ...

and arm rings from late Hallstatt period (around 500 BC). The

Gallo-Roman Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire. It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, language, morals and way of life in a uniquely Gaulish context ...

settlement of

Contiomagus Contiomagus was a Gallo-Roman vicus in the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. The location today is the site of the district of Pachten in the municipality of Dillingen, Saarland, Dillingen, Saarland. Origin Contiomagus was founded during the colon ...

stood at the intersection of the highways from

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

and

Straßburg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label= Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

in today's district of Pachten. Around 275/276, during the

Migration Period The Migration Period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman ...

, Contiomagus was destroyed and rebuilt. The oldest written mention of "Dillingen" and "Pachten" can be found in a document of Albero von Montreuil,

Bishop of Trier The Diocese of Trier, in English historically also known as ''Treves'' (IPA "tɾivz") from French ''Trèves'', is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic church in Germany.Altes Schloss). The area was devastated by the

Thirty Years War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an es ...

between 1618 and 1648, and again in 1672-1678/79 in the

Franco-Dutch War The Franco-Dutch War, also known as the Dutch War (french: Guerre de Hollande; nl, Hollandse Oorlog), was fought between France and the Dutch Republic, supported by its allies the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Brandenburg-Prussia and Denmark-Nor ...

. In 1685, the feudal ruler of Dillingen received permission from King

Louis XIV of France , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Versa ...

to build an

ironworks An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloomeri ...

, the

. The

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

ended the rule of the local nobility. In 1815, the region was annexed to the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...

in the Second Treaty of Paris. With the fall of the

Hohenzollern The House of Hohenzollern (, also , german: Haus Hohenzollern, , ro, Casa de Hohenzollern) is a German royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenb ...

dynasty in 1918 Dillingen became part of the

Free State of Prussia The Free State of Prussia (german: Freistaat Preußen, ) was one of the constituent states of Germany from 1918 to 1947. The successor to the Kingdom of Prussia after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I, it continued to be the domin ...

. Between 1920 and the Saar Referendum of 1935, by the provisions of the

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 ...

, Dillingen was part of the

Territory of the Saar Basin The Territory of the Saar Basin (german: Saarbeckengebiet, ; french: Territoire du bassin de la Sarre) was a region of Germany occupied and governed by the United Kingdom and France from 1920 to 1935 under a League of Nations mandate. It had its ...

administered by the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

. After the referendum of 1935 Dillingen returned to the German Reich, but without again becoming part of Prussia. In 1936 Pachten was incorporated. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, especially during the fierce fighting in the winter of 1944/1945, war between the German

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

and the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

caused heavy destruction. In 1947 Dillingen became part of the

, which, in 1957, joined the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

politically and on 5 July 1959 also economically. In 1949, Dillingen was granted city rights by the Saar state government under Prime Minister Johannes Hoffmann. In 1969 Diefflen was incorporated in 1969. In the year 1990 Dillingen-Pachten celebrated two thousand years of settlement in Contiomagus. Dillingen is the place of origin for the

toponymic surname A toponymic surname or topographic surname is a surname derived from a place name.

"Dillinger".

Mayors

* April 1945-May 1945: Benedikt Hoffmann * May 1945-September 1945: Heinrich Scherer * November 1945-September 1946: Theodor Okon * October 1946-May 1956: Peter Lamar * October 1956-February 1974: Eduard Jakobs, CDU * March 1974-March 1994: Gerhard Leonardy, CDU * March 1994-March 2004: Erwin Planta, SPD * since March 2004: Franz-Josef Berg, (born 1957), CDU

Municipal Council

The City Council with 39 seats after local elections on 25 May 2014http://www.statistikextern.saarland.de/wahl/internet_saar/GR_SL/gemeindeergebnisse/k00044/g44111/grafik_sitze_44111.html Auf: www.statistikextern.saarland.de, retrieved 9 June 2014. * Persons entitled to vote: 16.357 * Voters: 7.364 Wählern * Rejected votes: 204 * Valid votes: 7.160

Coat of arms of Dillingen

Blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The vis ...

: In blue a growing silver, pinned and black grooved wall, surmounted by a silver, gold-crowned and -supported and red-tongued seated Lorraine eagle, in the wall a tall, red-lined golden gate, covered with a red zigzag bar, surmounted by a three-rowed, blue tournament collar. The coat of arms is based in its design on the coat of arms of the noblemen of Siersberg, barons of Dillingen (red zigzag beam and blue tournament collar on gold background) and the official coat of arms of the former Prévôté (Bailiwick) Siersberg (silver tower with eagle on a blue background). The coat of arms of the noblemen is reinterpreted in the coat of arms of Dillingen to the gate in a city wall.

Transport

Dillingen (Saar) station Dillingen (Saar) station is on the Saar Railway between Saarbrücken and Trier in the town of Dillingen in the German state of the Saarland. The station is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 4 station. A bus station is connected to the st ...

is on the

Saar Railway The Saarbrücken–Trier railway, known in German as the ''Saarstrecke'' (literally the "Saar line") in the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. It connects Saarbrücken and Trier. It was opened in 1858 and 1860 and is one o ...

, which connects Saarbrücken Central Station and

Trier Central Station Trier Hauptbahnhof is a railway station for the city of Trier, in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is a through station, about east of the inner city and the Porta Nigra. History The station was opened in together with the rest o ...

. Iron ore comes to the steelworks by Germany's heaviest trains 6000T trains.

Castle

Dilingen's Old Castle is a medieval building. Around 1699 it was developed into a Renaissance castle. In 1789 the architect Balthsar Wilhelm Stengel created a grand residential space. The castle has a yearly arts and crafts market.

Notable people

* Siegfried Alkan (1858–1941), composer * Peter Jost (born 1960), musicologist * Michael Müller (born 1981), opera singer (tenor) * Andreas Rothkopf (born 1955), organist, pianist * Rudolf Schmidt (1875–1943), Brandenburg journalist, local historian and regional historian Rathaus Dillingen1.jpg, Town Hall Dillingen Bahnhof 01.JPG, Train station DillingenSaarL1100598 (2).jpg, Pedestrian zone Stummstraße SaardomHL1080244 (2).jpg, Statue of Odile of Alsace in front of Saardom StJohann Dillingen1.jpg, Church St. John the Baptist Dillingen Pachten Kirche1.jpg, Church St. Maximin and the Fourteen Holy Helpers, Pachten Dillinge Maria Trost (13).jpg, Church of Our Lady (Maria Consolatrix Afflictorum), Pachtener Heide StJosefStWendelinAnsichtZippL1050071 (2).jpg, Church Saint Joseph and Saint Wendelin, Diefflen DillingenSaarL1100566 (2).jpg, Church of the Blessed Sacrament (

Saardom The so-called Saardom (full name: "Ecclesia Parochialis Catholica Sacratissimi Sacramenti Dioecesis Treverensis", "Catholic Parish Church of the Blessed Sacrament in the Diocese of Trier") in Dillingen, Saarland, Dillingen/Saar is one of the large ...

) Dillingen Evangelische Kirche1.jpg, Protestant Church Pachten RömerTurn1.JPG, Roman fortress, Reconstruction, Pachten Odilienbrunnen DillingenSaarL1050247.JPG, Odile of Alsace Fountain Hochofen (2044401426).jpg, Steelworks "Dillinger Hütte", Blast furnace AltesSchlossDillingenSaarVorburgL1040718 (2).JPG, Old Castle DiefflenJüdischerFriedhofL1010392.JPG, Jewish Cemetery KircheJosefWendelinDorfbrunnenL1050078 (2).jpg, Diefflen, Village Centre

References

{{Authority control Saarlouis (district) Duchy of Lorraine