Prüm () is a town in the Westeifel (

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

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 ...

. Formerly a district capital, today it is the administrative seat of the ''

Verbandsgemeinde A Verbandsgemeinde (; plural Verbandsgemeinden) is a low-level administrative unit in the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A Verbandsgemeinde is typically composed of a small group of villages or towns. Rhineland- ...

'' ("collective municipality") Prüm.

Geography

Prüm lies on the river Prüm (a tributary of the

Sauer The Sauer (German and Luxembourgish, , ) or Sûre ( French, ) is a river in Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. A left tributary of the Moselle, its total length is . Rising near Vaux-sur-Sûre in the Ardennes in southeastern Belgium, the Sauer f ...

) at the southeastern end of the

Schneifel The Schneifel is a range of low mountains, up to , in the western part of the Eifel in Germany, near the Belgian border. It runs from Brandscheid near Prüm in a northeasterly direction to Ormont. The name Schneifel has nothing to do with the G ...

, which is 697 m high. Prüm is eponymous for the Prüm syncline (Ger. '' Prümer Kalkmulde''), the largest of the Eifel-lime-synclines. Here, the only

GSSP A Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) is an internationally agreed upon reference point on a stratigraphic section which defines the lower boundary of a stage on the geologic time scale. The effort to define GSSPs is conducted b ...

-point in Germany identifies the geological border between the lower

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...

Emsian The Emsian is one of three faunal stages in the Early Devonian Epoch. It lasted from 407.6 ± 2.6 million years ago to 393.3 ± 1.2 million years ago. It was preceded by the Pragian Stage and followed by the Eifelian Stage. It is named after the ...

and the middle Devonian

Eifelian The Eifelian is the first of two faunal stages in the Middle Devonian Epoch. It lasted from 393.3 ± 1.2 million years ago to 387.7 ± 0.8 million years ago. It was preceded by the Emsian Stage and followed by the Givetian Stage. North American s ...

History

See main article on the town's former monastery,

Prüm Abbey Prüm Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey in Prüm, now in the diocese of Trier (Germany), founded by the Frankish widow Bertrada the elder and her son Charibert, Count of Laon, in 721. The first abbot was Angloardus. The Abbey ruled over a va ...

. In 2005, the

Prüm Convention The Prüm Convention (inaccurately known as Schengen III Agreement) is a law enforcement treaty which was signed on 27 May 2005 by Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Spain in the town of Prüm in Germany, and whic ...

was signed in the city by several European countries. Ninety-two percent of the town was destroyed by bombing and ground fighting 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 ...

. In 1949, it was wrecked again by an explosion on the Kalvarienberg hill caused by a fire in an underground ammunition bunker. Twelve people were killed, 15 injured and 965 left homeless.

Economy and infrastructure

Economy

Among the largest employers in the region are MUH Arla, Stihl, Streif, Prüm-Türenwerk and

Tesla Grohmann Automation Tesla Grohmann Automation GmbH (formerly Grohmann Engineering GmbH) is a German engineering automation company based in Prüm in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The company operates a development center in Neutraubling, Bavaria, as well as ...

. MUH Arla has its head office at Pronsfeld, 10 kilometres away.

Transport

Since 1980 it has not been possible to take the

train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...

to Prüm, with the exception of freight trains that operated up to the end of the 1990s. In December 2000 the last train went through Prüm, and this was a special event. Since that time, the rail tracks have been dismantled. The federal highway B265 and B410 cross in Prüm, the

autobahn The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...

A60 and B51 also run near the city. Prüm Air Station is located just outside Prüm and is operated by the

United States Air Force 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 Signal ...

Prümer Sommer

In July and August Prüm Summer takes place. It begins with a market and a music competition on the streets on the last Sunday in June. During the next eight Thursdays, various guests meet at the town hall, where there are various competitions, such as a beer jug lift and trunk sawing. There is also a bicycle rally, a fashion show, and dances included in the program.

International relations

Prüm is twinned with:

Bangor, Northern Ireland Bangor ( ; ) is a city and seaside resort in County Down, Northern Ireland, on the southern side of Belfast Lough. It is within the Belfast metropolitan area and is 13 miles (22 km) east of Belfast city centre, to which it is linked ...

;

Monthermé Monthermé () is a commune in the Ardennes department in northern France. Geography The river Semois (or Semoy) joins the river Meuse in Monthermé. Population See also *Communes of the Ardennes department The following is a list of the 449 ...

(France, since 1962);

Fort Madison Fort Madison is a city and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, United States along with Keokuk. Of Iowa's 99 counties, Lee County is the only one with two county seats. The population was 10,270 at the time of the 2020 census. Located along the ...

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

(United States, since 1998)

Notable people

Regino of Prüm Regino of Prüm or of Prum ( la, Regino Prumiensis, german: Regino von Prüm; died 915 AD) was a Benedictine monk, who served as abbot of Prüm (892–99) and later of Saint Martin's at Trier, and chronicler, whose ''Chronicon'' is an important s ...

, musical and historical writer *It seems that

Pippin the Hunchback Pepin, or Pippin the Hunchback (French: Pépin le Bossu, German: Pippin der Buckelige; c. 768 / 769 – 811) was a Frankish prince. He was the eldest son of Charlemagne and noblewoman Himiltrude. He developed a humped back after birth, leading e ...

, first son of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

, was in exile in a monastery in Prüm from ca. 793 to his death in 813.

References

Bitburg-Prüm {{BitburgPrüm-geo-stub