Alpen is a municipality in the district of Wesel,

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Geography

Alpen is situated in the Lower Rhine region, located between the

Ruhr area The Ruhr ( ; , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr Area, sometimes Ruhr District, Ruhr Region, or Ruhr Valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 1,160/km2 and a populati ...

and the border with the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. Adjacent cities are Rheinberg,

Xanten Xanten (, Low Rhenish: ''Santen'') is a town in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the district of Wesel. Xanten is known for the Archaeological Park, one of the largest archaeological open air museums in the ...

Division of the town

The municipality consists of 4 districts: *Alpen *Menzelen *Veen *Bönninghardt

History

Alpen was mentioned documentarily for the first time in 1074.

Politics

The local Municipal Council is represented by the Christian Democratic Union,

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...

Alliance '90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (, ), often simply referred to as Greens (, ), is a Green (politics), green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of the Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (formed in East Ger ...

and the Free Democratic Party.

Transport

Alpen is reachable by the

Bundesautobahn 57 is a German Autobahn that begins at the Dutch-German border near Goch and ends in Köln. It runs parallel to the Rhine River. Neuss and Krefeld are the biggest cities on this motorway. The A 57 is a continuation of the Dutch A77. Because ...

and the federal highways B57 and B58. There is also a train, the RB31 from Duisburg Hbf (direction Xanten) every hour which stops at Alpen. From there it is a 10-minute walk into the centre of Alpen.

Security

The municipality of Alpen maintains a

Volunteer Fire Department A volunteer fire department (VFD) is a fire department of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction. Volunteer and retained (on-call) firefighters are expected to be on call to respo ...

consisting three firehouses with about 105 active

firefighter A firefighter (or fire fighter or fireman) is a first responder trained in specific emergency response such as firefighting, primarily to control and extinguish fires and respond to emergencies such as hazardous material incidents, medical in ...

and 14 vehicles. In addition to the area of Alpen, the Bundesautobahn 57 is also part of the area of operation. Crime protection is provided by the state Police of

with stations in Rheinberg,

and Kamp-Lintfort.

References

External links

* Wesel (district) {{Wesel-geo-stub