Wesseling () is an industrial German city on the

Rhine The Rhine ; french: Rhin ; nl, Rijn ; wa, Rén ; li, Rien; rm, label=Sursilvan, Rein, rm, label=Sutsilvan and Surmiran, Ragn, rm, label=Rumantsch Grischun, Vallader and Puter, Rain; it, Reno ; gsw, Rhi(n), including in Alsatian dialect, Al ...

bordering

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 ...

city on the south. With three chemical plants and a petroleum refinery within its city limits, it has an important place in the international petrochemical industry.

History and etymology

The find of Roman consecration altars, the excavation of a Roman country house and Franconian burial grounds are early evidence of the settlement of the place. Wesseling originates from the Latin "Wasliacum" which means "Village of Waslica". The story that Wesseling originates from "changing of the rope" (german: Cologne-bred:Wechsel de Ling) from when Rhine boats were pulled by horses is something like an

urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...

because the name Wesseling is centuries older than the horse-changing station, which was located in Wesseling in the 18th century. Around 1700 there was a team changing point for towing boats in Wesseling. Until industrialization, the place between

and

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

remained rather insignificant. Only in 1793 did a tannery hint at the coming industrial age. In 1848 a democratic workers' association was founded in Wesseling. In this year, the uprising of the Treidler (Rheinhalfen) spread to the Wesselinger Treidelstation, who saw their trade endangered by the upcoming steamship. In 1880, Heinrich and Franz Zimmermann founded the 'Chemische Fabrik Wesseling' for the processing of gas cleaning mass as the origin of today's Evonik chemical works in the north of the city. In 1904 the construction of the Rheinuferbahn (Rhine bank railway) from Cologne via Wesseling to Bonn began. A transverse railway has connected Wesseling with Brühl since 1900. Today, this line is mostly used for freight traffic. During the

World War II 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

from 1939 to 1945, around 10,000 foreign and forced laborers were employed in Wesseling's industry. For comparison, the city itself had only 7,500 inhabitants. The forced laborers, most of whom were employed in the ''UK'' and ''Deutsche Norton'', were in wooden barrack camps accommodated. The so-called 'southern camp was located next to today's station in Wesseling-Süd. Another barracks camp was located directly on the Rhine, the so-called 'Rhine camp'. Wesseling was conquered and occupied -similar to Cologne- early March 1945 as part of Operation Lumberjack by the

First United States Army First Army is the oldest and longest-established field army of the United States Army. It served as a theater army, having seen service in both World War I and World War II, and supplied the US army with soldiers and equipment during the Kore ...

Economy

In addition to 4 subdivisions, Wesseling has the industrial areas "Rheinbogen" and "Eichholz". Home to several chemical companies including Evonik, and Basell, and a

Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...

oil refinery; the city was a bombing target of the Oil Campaign of World War II.

Subdivisions

Twin towns – sister cities

Wesseling 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: * Leuna, Germany * Pontivy, France * Traunstein, Germany *

West Devon West Devon is a local government district and borough in Devon, England. Towns and villages in the district include Chagford, Okehampton, Princetown and Tavistock, where the council is based. The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under t ...

, England, United Kingdom

References

Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at Wesseling; see its history for attribution. Oil campaign of World War II Towns in North Rhine-Westphalia Rhein-Erft-Kreis {{RheinErftKreis-geo-stub