Beckum (; Westphalian: ''Biäkem'') is a town in the northern part of

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 ...

. It is about 20 km (12 miles) north-east of

Hamm Hamm may refer to: Places ;Germany: * Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia, a city north-east of Dortmund * Hamm (Sieg), a municipality in the eponymous ''Verbandsgemeinde'' in the district of Altenkirchen, Rhineland-Palatinate * Hamm, Bitburg-Prüm, part ...

and 35 km (22 miles) south-east of

Münster Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...

. It gives its name to the nearby

Beckum Hills The Beckum Hills (), named after the town of Beckum, are a range of low hills, up to , in the region of Münsterland in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany). Along with the Baumberge and its foothills and the Haltern Hills th ...

History

Several

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

stone cist In archeology, a cist (; also kist ; ultimately from ; cognate to ) or cist grave is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the Dead body, bodies of the dead. In some ways, it is similar to the deeper shaft tomb. Examples ...

s are the earliest traces of humans in the area around the three brooks,

Kollenbach Kollenbach also known as Collenbach is a river in Beckum, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is a headwater of the Werse. See also *List of rivers of North Rhine-Westphalia A list of rivers of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany: A B C * C ...

, Lippbach and Siechenbach. Because of these three brooks, the town was eventually named Bekehem or later Beckum, meaning "home upon the brooks". In 1224, Beckum was granted its town charter, and it quickly grew in wealth as merchants and craftsmen set up businesses in the town. The town quickly expanded to an area of over 22 km² (8.5 sq miles). However wars, riots and the

Black Death The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic that occurred in Europe from 1346 to 1353. It was one of the list of epidemics, most fatal pandemics in human history; as many as people perished, perhaps 50% of Europe's 14th century population. ...

in the following centuries left their mark on the town. After the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

, legislation removed several rights from cities and towns, and as a result many cities and towns in Münsterland became heavily economically and religiously dependent upon the

Bishop of Münster A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role ...

. The town's long period of economic stagnation slowly came to an end in the 19th century. From 1803 to 1806 Beckum was under

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

n rule and from 1806 to 1816 under French rule. In 1816 Beckum became the district town of Beckum district. In the second half of the 19th century, chalk and cement industries developed quickly, and in 1827 the first cement plant opened in Beckum. Eventually the town became one of the most important and largest cement production areas in the world. After the end of the First World War, inflation brought Beckum's economic growth to a halt. In 1933, the Nazi regime ended democracy in the Beckum town parliament - as everywhere in Germany. During the Second World War, Beckum was fortunate and Allied bombings destroyed only small areas of the town. In the difficult post-war era, the townspeople developed Beckum into a modern industrial town. In 1974, the

n state government reorganized the boundaries of several districts and towns. As of 1 January 1975, the Beckum and Warendorf districts merged into one, and Warendorf remained district town of the whole area.''Geschichte Beckums''
accessed on 28 August 2013.

Geography

Beckum is situated in the southeast corner of the agriculturally orientated Münsterland. Due to Münsterland's varied landscape of fields, pastures, hedgerows and small forests, it is often compared to a park. A range of low hills, the

, almost completely surrounds Beckum in the south and east. The three brooks Kollenbach, Lippbach and Siechenbach rise in these hills and flow through the town. They are so symbolic of the area that they appear on the town's coat of arms as three silver wavy lines on a red background. The brooks converge near the town centre and form the River

Werse The Werse [] (river no. 32) is a , left-hand tributary of the Ems (river), River Ems in Münsterland, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. The Drainage basin, catchment area of the Werse is 762.47 km². Its name may be derived from a pre-Indo- ...

, which flows past Ahlen and Münster to the River

Ems Ems or EMS may refer to: Places and rivers * Domat/Ems, a Swiss municipality in the canton of Grisons * Ems (river) (Eems), a river in northwestern Germany and northeastern Netherlands that discharges in the Dollart Bay * Ems (Eder), a river o ...

. Although Beckum is located in Münsterland, the nearest large city is not Münster but Hamm, which is 20 km (12 miles) away. Ahlen, Beckum's neighbour 11 km (7 miles) to the west, is the largest town in Warendorf District. Autobahn 2, which runs from Berlin to 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 ...

, passes to the north of Beckum. The two federal highways, B61 from Bielefeld to Hamm and B475 from Warendorf to Soest, intersect near the town centre. To the north of the town, B58 connects Ahlen to the B475.

Component municipalities

Beckum consists of four municipalities: Beckumˌ Neubeckumˌ Vellern and Roland.

Economy

The industry in Beckum is influenced by machine engineering, the cement industry and its suppliers. However, commerce and service industries have also become a strong area of Beckum's economy. Möllers, Blumenbecker, and Beumer count as some of the largest machine engineering companies. CEMEX and Phoenix both have cement plants located in Beckum. Polysius and Christian Pfeiffer are two suppliers of cement manufacturing systems.

Notable people

* Pauline Horson (1858–1918), soprano *

Uri Avnery Uri Avnery (, also transliterated Uri Avneri; 10 September 1923 – 20 August 2018) was a German-born Israeli writer, journalist, politician, and activist, who founded the Gush Shalom peace movement. A member of the Irgun as a teenager and a vet ...

(1923–2018), later an Israeli

Knesset The Knesset ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...

member *

Wendelin Wiedeking Wendelin Wiedeking (born August 28, 1952 in Ahlen, Germany) is the former president and chief executive officer of the German car manufacturer, Porsche AG, a post he held from 1993 through July 23, 2009. He was also speaker of the company's execu ...

(born 1952), former chairman of

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...

Twin towns – sister cities

Beckum is twinned with: *

La Celle-Saint-Cloud La Celle-Saint-Cloud () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. It is a western outer suburb of Paris, from its centre, on the departmental border with Hauts-de-Seine. In 2021, it had a popula ...

, France *

Grodków Grodków (; ; ) is a town in Brzeg County, Opole Voivodeship in Poland, the administrative seat of Gmina Grodków. It is located in the Silesian Lowlands of the Oder basin, in the historic Upper Silesia region, about south of Brzeg. In the nort ...

, Poland *

Heringsdorf Heringsdorf is a semi-urban municipality and a popular seaside resort on Usedom Island in Western Pomerania, Germany. It is also known by the name Kaiserbad ('). The municipality was formed in January 2005 out of the former municipalities of H ...

, Germany

References

{{Authority control Towns in North Rhine-Westphalia Members of the Hanseatic League Warendorf (district)