Gronau (; officially Gronau (Westf.), is a town in the district of Borken 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 state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

, Germany. It is located near the border with the Netherlands, approx. 10 km east of Enschede. Documentary evidence of Gronau dates to 1365. The city is divided into the districts of Gronau and Epe.

Notable people

The Dutch singer Rania Zeriri lives in Gronau. The Polish tennis player

Agnieszka Radwańska Agnieszka Roma Radwańska (; born 6 March 1989) is a Polish former professional tennis player. She won 20 career singles WTA Tour titles, two doubles titles, and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2 on 9 July 2012. Her achiev ...

grew up here; her father was a tennis coach at the local club.

Blaise Nkufo Isetsima Blaise Nkufo (born 25 May 1975) is a Swiss former international footballer who played as a striker and current coach of Rino's Tigers in the Vancouver Metro Soccer League. He was born in Zaire and raised in Switzerland from the age o ...

, a Swiss footballer with African roots, former player of the Dutch football club

FC Twente Football Club Twente () is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Enschede, sometimes known internationally as Twente Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub Enschede with Enschedese ...

, lived in Gronau. , a German artist, grew up in Gronau.

Born in Gronau

Winfried Berkemeier Winfried Berkemeier (born 22 January 1953 in Gronau (Westf.)) is a former German footballer. This midfielder and forward played six seasons in the Bundesliga for four teams. Though he was unable to break through with 1. FC Köln, he played with ...

(born 1953), footballer * Bernd Düker (born 1992), footballer * Rolf Eckrodt (born 1942), CEO of Mitsubishi Motors 2001–2005 * Tim Hölscher (born 1995), footballer * Cengiz Koç (born 1977), former German heavyweight boxer of Turkish descent * (1938–2006), painter, elder brother of

Udo Lindenberg Udo Lindenberg (born 17 May 1946) is a German singer, drummer, and composer. Career Lindenberg started his musical career as a drummer. In 1969, he founded his first band Free Orbit, and also appeared as a studio and guest musician (with Micha ...

(born 1946), singer and musician * Gregor Luthe (born 1970 in Epe), chemist, toxicologist, nanotechnologist, inventor and entrepreneur * Jens Wissing (born 1988), football player (in German)

Transport

Gronau can be reached by road via 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' ...

A 30 and A 31, the Dutch Rijksweg 35, the

Bundesstraße ''Bundesstraße'' (German for "federal highway"), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways. Germany Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km. German ''Bundesstraßen'' ...

B 54n.

Gronau (Westf) railway station Gronau (Westf) (german: Bahnhof Gronau (Westf)) is a railway station in the town of Gronau, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The station lies on the Dortmund–Enschede railway and Münster–Enschede railway The Münster–Enschede railway i ...

connects Gronau with Enschede in the Netherlands via the Dortmund–Enschede railway and the

Münster–Enschede railway The Münster–Enschede railway is a 64 km long, continuous single-track and non-electrified branch line from Münster via Gronau in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia to Enschede in the Netherlands. Regionalbahn service RB 64 (''E ...

. The nearest airports are

Münster Osnabrück International Airport Münster Osnabrück International Airport , ''Flughafen Münster/Osnabrück'' in German, is a minor international airport in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located near Greven, north of Münster and south of Osnabrück. The ...

and

Enschede Airport Twente Enschede Airport Twente is located outside of Enschede in Overijssel, Netherlands. It has one runway (05/23), though one of the current taxiways has been used as a runway (taxiway A, formerly runway 16/34). The airport is currently uncontrolled ...

, although the latter has no scheduled flights.

Twin towns – sister cities

Gronau is twinned with: * Bromsgrove, England, United Kingdom * Epe, Netherlands *

Mezőberény Mezőberény (; german: Maisbrünn; sk, Poľný Berinčok) is a town in Békés county, Hungary. Location Mezőberény is located in the Great Hungarian Plain, 200 km southeast from Budapest. Highway 46, 47 and Budapest- Szolnok- Bék� ...

, Hungary

References

External links

* * Towns in North Rhine-Westphalia Populated places established in the 1360s Borken (district) {{Borken-geo-stub