Heinsberg (district)

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Heinsberg
District
Flag of Heinsberg
Flag
Coat of arms of Heinsberg
Coat of arms
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
CountryGermany
StateNorth Rhine-Westphalia
Adm. regionCologne
CapitalHeinsberg
Area
 • Total627.7 km2 (242.4 sq mi)
Population
 (31 December 2020)[1]
 • Total256,458
 • Density410/km2 (1,100/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Vehicle registrationHS
Websitehttp://www.kreis-heinsberg.de

Heinsberg is a Kreis (district) in the west of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany with the town of Heinsberg as its capital. Neighbouring districts are Viersen, Neuss, Düren and Aachen, the city of Mönchengladbach and the Dutch province Limburg.

The district became a center of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. The Robert Koch Institute listed Heinsberg as especially affected area ("besonders betroffenes Gebiet"). The district was, since the first local cases in the area, around two weeks "ahead" of the rest of Germany. A research group of the University of Bonn started to use the affected area as a testing site to study the novel coronavirus and to search for ways to handle the situation in the best possible way.[2]

History[]

The area fell to Prussia in 1815, which in 1816 created the three districts Heinsberg, Erkelenz and Geilenkirchen. In 1932 the districts Heinsberg and Geilenkirchen were merged, and in 1972 the Erkelenz district was merged as well. In 1975 the district got its present size when the municipality Niederkrüchten was moved to the district Viersen.

Geography[]

Geographically it covers the lowlands of the Lower Rhine Bay.

Rivers[]

Coat of arms[]

The coat of arms show two lions in the top part, in the left the silver lion of the city and the dukes of Heinsberg, in the right the black lion on yellow ground of the duchy of Jülich. The bottom part derives from the coat of arms of the former district Erkelenz, the fleur-de-lis from the city of Erkelenz represent the Maria-abbey in Aachen, and the blue flax flower in the middle remembers the old tradition of flax and linen trading in Erkelenz.

Towns and municipalities[]

Towns and municipalities in Kreis Heinsberg
Towns Municipalities
  1. DEU Erkelenz COA.svg Erkelenz
  2. DEU Geilenkirchen COA.svg Geilenkirchen
  3. DEU Heinsberg COA.svg Heinsberg
  4. DEU Hueckelhoven COA.svg Hückelhoven
  5. DEU Uebach-Palenberg COA.svg Übach-Palenberg
  6. DEU Wassenberg COA.svg Wassenberg
  7. DEU Wegberg COA.svg Wegberg
  1. DEU Gangelt COA.svg Gangelt
  2. DEU Selfkant COA.svg Selfkant
  3. DEU Waldfeucht COA.svg Waldfeucht

References[]

  1. ^ "Bevölkerung der Gemeinden Nordrhein-Westfalens am 31. Dezember 2020" (in German). Landesbetrieb Information und Technik NRW. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  2. ^ H. Streeck; et al. "Infection fatality rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a German community with a super-spreading event". medRxiv. doi:10.1101/2020.05.04.20090076.

External links[]

Media related to Kreis Heinsberg at Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 51°00′N 6°10′E / 51.0°N 6.17°E / 51.0; 6.17

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