Kalkar ( is a municipality in the district of Kleve, in

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 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 near the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

, approx. 10 km south-east of

Cleves Kleve (; traditional en, Cleves ; nl, Kleef; french: Clèves; es, Cléveris; la, Clivia; Low Rhenish: ''Kleff'') is a town in the Lower Rhine region of northwestern Germany near the Dutch border and the River Rhine. From the 11th century ...

. The catholic church St. Nicolai has preserved one of the most significant sacral inventories from the late Middle Ages in Germany.

History

Kalkar was founded by Dirk VI of

in 1230 and received city rights in 1242. It was one of the seven "capitals" of Cleves (called Kleve), until the line of the

Duchy of Cleves The Duchy of Cleves (german: Herzogtum Kleve; nl, Hertogdom Kleef) was a State of the Holy Roman Empire which emerged from the medieval . It was situated in the northern Rhineland on both sides of the Lower Rhine, around its capital Cleves and ...

died out in 1609, whereupon the city went over to the

Margraviate of Brandenburg The Margraviate of Brandenburg (german: link=no, Markgrafschaft Brandenburg) was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806 that played a pivotal role in the history of Germany and Central Europe. Brandenburg developed out o ...

Marie of Burgundy, Duchess of Cleves Mary of Burgundy, Duchess of Cleves (1393 – 30 October 1466) was the second child of John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria, and an elder sister of Philip the Good. Born in Dijon, she became the second wife of Adolph, Count of Mark in May ...

retired to Monreberg castle in Kalkar, where she founded a Dominican convent in 1455. Under her influence the city bloomed and artists were attracted to the favorable climate for cultural investment. She died at Monreberg castle in 1463.

Air base

The

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

470TH Air Base Squadron supports the NATO Joint Air Power Competence Center (JAPCC) in Kalkar and the

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

CAOC in Uedem. The 470th is not located in Kalkar however.

Nuclear reactor

Between 1957 and 1991, West Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands pursued an ambitious plan for a

fast breeder A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes. Breeder reactors achieve this because their neutron economy is high enough to create more fissile fuel than they use, by irradiation of a fertile mate ...

nuclear reactor, the a prototype reactor,

SNR-300 The SNR-300 was a fast breeder sodium-cooled nuclear reactor built near the town of Kalkar, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The reactor was completed but never taken online. SNR-300 was to output 327 megawatts. The project cost about 7 billion ...

, near Kalkar. Construction of the SNR-300 began in April 1973. In the wake of large anti-nuclear protests at

Wyhl Wyhl () is a municipality in the district of Emmendingen in Baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany. It is known in the 1970s for its role in the anti-nuclear movement. Wyhl was first mentioned in 1971 as a possible site for a nuclear power st ...

and

Brokdorf Brokdorf is a municipality in the district of Steinburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is located on the bank of the Elbe river, approx. 20 km east before the river flows into the North Sea. As of December 2019, the total population ...

, demonstrations against the SNR-300 reactor escalated in the mid-1970s. A large demonstration in September 1977 involved a "massive police operation that included the complete closure of autobahns in northern Germany and identity checks of almost 150,000 people". Construction of the Kalkar reactor was completed in the middle of 1985, but a new state government was clearly against the project, and opposition mounted following the

Chernobyl disaster The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuc ...

in April 1986. In March 1991, the German federal government said that the SNR-300 would not be put into operation; the project costs, originally estimated at $150 to $200 million, escalated to a final cost of about $4 billion (equivalent to about $B in ). The

nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...

plant has since been turned into Kern-Wasser Wunderland, an amusement park with a rollercoaster and several other rides and restaurants.

Novel

In the science fiction novel "

The Moon Maid ''The Moon Maid'' is a fantasy novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was written in three parts, Part 1 was begun in June 1922 under the title ''The Moon Maid'', Part 2 was begun in 1919 under the title ''Under the Red Flag'', lat ...

Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best-known for creating the characters Tarzan and John Carter, he ...

used "Kalkars" as the name for a malevolent fictional race living on the Moon and later invading Earth.

Gallery

Kalkar - Kalkarer Mühle 05 ies.jpg, Windmill of Kalkar Kalkar Hanselaerstraße 30 PM16.jpg, Gothic gable in Kalkar Kalkar 12 ies.jpg, Museum Kalkar Kalkar Kesselstraße 9 Evangelische Kirche PM18-03.jpg, Evangelic church

References

{{Authority control Populated places on the Rhine Anti–nuclear power movement Anti-nuclear movement in Germany Kleve (district)