Odenkirchen is a former town in
Germany, presently part of the city
Mönchengladbach. It is situated on the river
Niers
The Niers (, ) is a river in Germany and The Netherlands, a right tributary of the river Maas (Meuse). Its wellspring is near Erkelenz, south of Mönchengladbach, in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany).
Course and length
The Niers flows through Mö ...
, 21 miles by rail south-west of
Düsseldorf. It has a railway station (
Rheydt-Odenkirchen), on the line from Mönchengladbach to
Grevenbroich
Grevenbroich () is a town in the Rhein-Kreis Neuss, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the river Erft, approximately 15 km southwest of Neuss and 15 km southeast of Mönchengladbach. Cologne and Düsseldorf are in a 30 ...
and
Cologne. Pop. (2000) 19,993.
Odenkirchen castle was the seat of the lords of Odenkirchen from the 12th century. From 1794 to 1814, Odenkirchen was part of the French
Roer département, from 1815 to 1918 part of the
Kingdom of Prussia (
Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg,
Rhine Province
The Rhine Province (german: Rheinprovinz), also known as Rhenish Prussia () or synonymous with the Rhineland (), was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822 to 1946. It ...
). It was given city rights in 1856. In 1929, it was incorporated into Gladbach-Rheydt, since 1975 part of
Mönchengladbach. Odenkirchen remained a separate district within Mönchengladbach until 2009, when it was merged into the larger ''Mönchengladbach Süd'' city district.
The name ''Odenkirchen'' may derive from the
Low German
:
:
:
:
:
(70,000)
(30,000)
(8,000)
, familycolor = Indo-European
, fam2 = Germanic
, fam3 = West Germanic
, fam4 = North Sea Germanic
, ancestor = Old Saxon
, ancestor2 = Middle L ...
for either "wooden church" or "old church". Alternatively it may be from the given name
Odo
Odo or ODO may refer to:
People
* Odo, a given name; includes a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Franklin Odo (born 1939), Japanese-American historian
* Seikichi Odo (1927–2002), Japanese karateka
* Yuya Odo (born 1990), J ...
.
[Franz Rixen, "Geschichte Odenkirchens", ''Laurentiusbote'' 110-209 (1967).] ''Odenkirchen'' was in use as a locational surname from at least the 18th century (anglicized as ''
Odenkirk'' in the United States from the early 19th century).
References
*Wiedemann, ''Geschichte der ehemaligen Herrschaft und des Hauses Odenkirchen'' (Odenkirchen, 1879).
Towns in North Rhine-Westphalia
{{Mönchengladbach-geo-stub