Kerpen (;
Ripuarian: ''Kerpe'') is the most populated town in the
Rhein-Erft-Kreis (
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...
,
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 betwe ...
). It is located about 20 kilometres southwest from
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
.
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
Notable people
*
Adolph Kolping
Adolph Kolping (8 December 1813 — 4 December 1865) was a German Catholic priest and the founder of the Kolping Association. He led the movement for providing and promoting social support for workers in industrialized cities while also working ...
(1813–1865), Catholic priest and social reformer
*
Wolfgang von Trips
Wolfgang Alexander Albert Eduard Maximilian Reichsgraf Berghe von Trips (; 4 May 1928 – 10 September 1961), also known simply as Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips and nicknamed 'Taffy' by friends and fellow racers, was a German racing driver. He ...
(1928–1961),
Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
motor racing driver
*
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th and early 21st-century ...
(1928–2007), pioneer of electronic music composition
*
Franz-Peter Hofmeister
Franz-Peter Hofmeister (born 5 August 1951) was a West German athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres.
He competed for West Germany in the 1976 Summer Olympics held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in the 4 x 400 metre relay where he won the br ...
, Olympic medalist in the 4 × 400 m relay
*
Michael Schumacher
Michael Schumacher (; ; born 3 January 1969) is a German former racing driver who competed in Formula One for Jordan, Benetton, Ferrari, and Mercedes. Schumacher has a joint-record seven World Drivers' Championship titles (tied with Lewis ...
, 7 time Formula One world champion
*
Ralf Schumacher
Ralf Schumacher (born 30 June 1975) is a German former racing driver. He is the younger brother of seven-time Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher, and the pair are the only siblings to each win Formula One races.
Schumacher began kart ...
, brother of Michael, both have emulated von Trips in achieving success in Formula One
*
Patrice Bart-Williams
Patrice Babatunde Bart-Williams (born 9 July 1979), better known as Patrice, is a Sierra Leonean-German singer-songwriter, music producer and film-maker. Raised by a Sierra Leonean father and a German mother, Patrice Bart-Williams grew up listenin ...
is an acclaimed reggae artist
Education
In 2008,
Gymnasium der Stadt Kerpen
The (German, ''High school of the City of Kerpen'') is a in Kerpen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
The school was founded in 1968. In 2001, it was certified as a "Europaschule" (de) () by the Ministry of Schools of North Rhine-Westphalia. ...
was considered the largest school in Germany.
Twin towns – sister cities
Kerpen is
twinned with:
*
St. Vith, Belgium (1975)
*
Oświęcim
Oświęcim (; german: Auschwitz ; yi, אָשפּיצין, Oshpitzin) is a city in the Lesser Poland ( pl, Małopolska) province of southern Poland, situated southeast of Katowice, near the confluence of the Vistula (''Wisła'') and Soła rive ...
, Poland (1997)
References
External links
*
Towns in North Rhine-Westphalia
Rhein-Erft-Kreis
{{RheinErftKreis-geo-stub