Gerresheim is one of the City of

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

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 ...

's fifty quarters. Part of Borough 7, it is located in the eastern part of the municipality. Gerresheim is much older than Düsseldorf itself, having been an independent city with a rich history for over 1,000 years. Gerresheim merged voluntarily with Düsseldorf in 1909. Gerresheim has an area of , and 29,641 inhabitants (2020).

History

In 870, a

frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages, a group of Low Germanic languages also commonly referred to as "Frankish" varieties * Francia, a post-Roman ...

nobleman Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

named Gerricus founded the church of the women's collegiate foundation (''Stift'') of St. Margaret's (Gerresheim Abbey). In 1368, the Count of Berg made the village of Gerresheim surrounding the religious house a city with city rights. In the 17th century, many of the convent's aristocratic ladies moved away and the city of Gerresheim became increasingly impoverished. Soldiers raided Gerresheim during the

Cologne War The Cologne War (, ''Kölnischer Krieg'', '' Truchsessischer Krieg''; 1583–1588) was a conflict between Protestant and Catholic factions that devastated the Electorate of Cologne, a historical ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Em ...

and later during 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 ...

. The city's reputation suffered in consequence. The

Reichsdeputationshauptschluss The ' (formally the ', or "Principal Conclusion of the Extraordinary Imperial Delegation"), sometimes referred to in English as the Final Recess or the Imperial Recess of 1803, was a resolution passed by the ' (Imperial Diet) of the Holy Roman Em ...

abolished the abbey in 1803 and the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

took over Gerresheim in 1815. Ferdinand Heye founded the ''Gerresheimer Glashütte'' 1864.

Buildings and attractions

* Basilica Saint Margaretha, formerly St. Hippolytus, Roman Catholic church,

Romano-Gothic In architecture, "Romano-Gothic" is a term (rarely used in writing in English) for an architectural style, part of Early Gothic architecture, which evolved in Europe in the 12th century CE from the Romanesque style, and was an early style in Goth ...

abbey church, was sanctified in 1236 in the place of a church of the Staufens. * The church's treasures comprise a crucifix from the 10th century and a

Gospel book A Gospel Book, Evangelion, or Book of the Gospels ( Greek: , ) is a codex or bound volume containing one or more of the four Gospels of the Christian New Testament – normally all four – centering on the life of Jesus of Nazareth and the roo ...

from the 11th century. * Abbey buildings date from the 13th century. * Quadenhof Castle dates from the 15th century. * Gustav Adolf Church, Protestant (Lutheran) church dates from 1878. File:Gerresheim Rathaus 10598.JPG, City Hall File:Duesseldorf-Gerresheim Sonnbornstr.jpg, Villas in Gerresheim File:St. Margareta in Duesseldorf-Gerresheim, von Westen.jpg, Saint Margaretha, Vaticanic Basilica Minor File:Gustav-Adolf-Kirche in Duesseldorf-Gerresheim, von Westen.jpg, Protestant Gustav Adolf Church File:St. Katharina in Duesseldorf-Gerresheim, von Sueden.jpg, Rom.-Cath. St. Cathrina Church File:Duesseldorf-Gerresheim Evangelische Gnadenkirche.jpg, Protestant Mercy Church File:Duesseldorf-Gerresheim St Maria vom Frieden.JPG, Rom.-Cath. Saint Mary of Peace File:DEU_Gerresheim_(historic)_COA.svg, Coats of Arms

Infrastructure

Gerresheim has had its own railway station since 1838. Today, three regional train lines stop there: S8, S68, and S28. They connect with Düsseldorf Central Station, Düsseldorf-Bilk,

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...

Neuss Neuss (; written ''Neuß'' until 1968; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. Neuss is the largest city within the Rhein-Kreis Neuss district. It is primarily known for its ...

Mönchengladbach Mönchengladbach (, ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany, west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Netherlands, Dutch border. Geography Municipal subdivisions Since 2009, th ...

Hagen Hagen () is a city in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, on the southeastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne and Volme meet the Ruhr (river), Ruhr. In 2023, the ...

Kaarst Kaarst (; ) is a town in Germany. It lies in the district of Rhein-Kreis Neuss in North Rhine-Westphalia. It is 5 km west of Neuss and 12 km east of Mönchengladbach. Division of the town Kaarst consists of 5 subdivisions * Kaarst (2 ...

, and

Mettmann Mettmann () is a town in the northern part of the Bergisches Land, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the Mettmann (district), district of Mettmann, Germany's most densely populated rural district. The town lies ...

. Tram lines 703, 709 and 713 connect Gerresheim with the Düsseldorf's central districts and bus lines with other parts of the city.

Literary references

It is at the Gerresheim Stadtbahn station that the hero of

Günter Grass Günter Wilhelm Grass (; 16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gda ...

's novel ''Die Blechtrommel'' (

The Tin Drum ''The Tin Drum'' (, ) is a 1959 novel by Günter Grass, the first book of his Danzig Trilogy. It was adapted into a 1979 film, which won both the 1979 Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1980. To "beat a ti ...

) abandons his stolen

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

to save Victor Weluhn from execution, as the book draws to an end.

References

External links

Communal District Administration (German)

Communal Administration (German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dusseldorf-Gerresheim Gerresheim