Gronau (; officially Gronau (Westf.), is a town in the district of Borken in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located near the border with the Netherlands, approx. 10 km east of

Enschede Enschede (; known as in the local Twents dialect) is a municipality and city in the eastern Netherlands in the province of Overijssel and in the Twente region. The eastern parts of the urban area reaches the border of the German city of Gronau ...

. Documentary evidence of Gronau dates to 1365. The city is divided into the districts of Gronau and Epe.

Notable people

The Dutch singer

Rania Zeriri Rania Zeriri (born 6 January 1986 in Enschede, Netherlands) is a Dutch singer. Personal life Rania Zeriri grew up in the Netherlands as daughter of a Dutch mother and an Algerian father who left the family when she was still very young. After f ...

lives in Gronau. The Polish tennis player Agnieszka Radwańska grew up here; her father was a tennis coach at the local club. Blaise Nkufo, a Swiss footballer with African roots, former player of the Dutch football club FC Twente, lived in Gronau. , a German artist, grew up in Gronau.

Born in Gronau

Winfried Berkemeier Winfried Berkemeier (born 22 January 1953 in Gronau (Westf.)) is a former German footballer. This midfielder and forward played six seasons in the Bundesliga for four teams. Though he was unable to break through with 1. FC Köln, he played wit ...

(born 1953), footballer *

Bernd Düker Bernd Düker (born 1 April 1992) is a German footballer who plays as a goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged ...

(born 1992), footballer *

Rolf Eckrodt Rolf Eckrodt (25 June 1942 – 2 May 2019) was a German automotive engineer and executive, who started his career with Daimler-Benz in 1966 and was CEO of the Mitsubishi Motors from 2001 to 2005. , he is the only non-Japanese person who has held t ...

(born 1942), CEO of Mitsubishi Motors 2001–2005 *

Tim Hölscher Tim Hölscher (born 21 February 1995) is a German professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder. Career Early years Hölscher started playing football at local SG Gronau at the age of three years. There he started out as a goalke ...

(born 1995), footballer *

Cengiz Koç Cengiz Koç (born 9 September 1977 in Gronau, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a German heavyweight boxer of Turks in Germany, Turkish descent who won the bronze medal at the 2000 European amateur championships. He has also won a European championship ...

(born 1977), former German heavyweight boxer of Turkish descent * (1938–2006), painter, elder brother of Udo Lindenberg * Udo Lindenberg (born 1946), singer and musician *

Gregor Luthe Gregor Luthe (born 19 October 1970) is a German chemist, toxicologist, nanotechnologist, inventor and entrepreneur. He is known for his work on toxicology of PCBs and PBDEs. Early life Luthe was born in Epe on 19 October 1970, the only child of ...

(born 1970 in Epe), chemist, toxicologist, nanotechnologist, inventor and entrepreneur *

Jens Wissing Jens Wissing (born 2 January 1988) is a retired German footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Can ...

(born 1988), football player (in German)

Transport

Gronau can be reached by road via the Autobahn A 30 and A 31, the Dutch Rijksweg 35, the Bundesstraße B 54n. Gronau (Westf) railway station connects Gronau with Enschede in the Netherlands via the Dortmund–Enschede railway and the Münster–Enschede railway. The nearest airports are

Münster Osnabrück International Airport Münster Osnabrück International Airport , ''Flughafen Münster/Osnabrück'' in German, is a minor international airport in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located near Greven, north of Münster and south of Osnabrück. ...

and Enschede Airport Twente, although the latter has no scheduled flights.

Twin towns – sister cities

Gronau is

twinned Twinning (making a twin of) may refer to: * In biology and agriculture, producing two offspring (i.e., twins) at a time, or having a tendency to do so; * Twin towns and sister cities, towns and cities involved in town twinning * Twinning inst ...

with: *

Bromsgrove Bromsgrove is a town in Worcestershire, England, about northeast of Worcester and southwest of Birmingham city centre. It had a population of 29,237 in 2001 (39,644 in the wider Bromsgrove/Catshill urban area). Bromsgrove is the main town in the ...

, England, United Kingdom * Epe, Netherlands * Mezőberény, Hungary

References

External links

* * Towns in North Rhine-Westphalia Populated places established in the 1360s Borken (district) {{Borken-geo-stub