Waldbröl

Town hall in Waldbröl

Coat of arms

Waldbröl

Location of Waldbröl within Oberbergischer Kreis district

Coordinates: 50°52′44″N 7°36′54″E / 50.87889°N 7.61500°ECoordinates: 50°52′44″N 7°36′54″E / 50.87889°N 7.61500°E

Country

Germany

State

North Rhine-Westphalia

Government

• Mayor

Peter Köster (CDU)

Area

• Total

63.02 km² (24.33 sq mi)

Elevation

200 - 400 m (−1,100 ft)

Population (2015-12-31)

• Total

19,194

• Density

300/km² (790/sq mi)

CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)

51545

02291

Website

Waldbröl is a town in the southern part of the Oberbergischer Kreis (district), in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

The city lies on the slopes of the Nutscheid and is part of the Naturpark Bergisches Land. The city of Cologne lies about 50 kilometers west of Waldbröl.

Waldbröl is much larger than all its surrounding municipalities and is thus the main shopping and service centre. Clockwise, from the north, starting from the Reichshof, are the areas of Morsbach, Windeck, Ruppichteroth and Nümbrecht.

Besides the town centre with its 11,000 inhabitants, there are 64 separate districts:

The first attestation of Waldbröl was in 1131 when the town's name was mentioned in "the Papal possession confirmation for the inhabitant of Bonner St. Cassiusstift".

Originally the town's name appeared as Waltprugele.

In 1131 the place was mentioned as Waltprugele in a Papal possession confirmation for the pencil Saint Cassius in Bonn. Pope Innozenz II confirmed the possession of the church and the tenth in Waldbröl in the document. The settlement belonged to this time to the county mountain. In 1131 it was begun with the construction of a new church whose steeple stands even today (Protestant church).

In 1174 Waldbröl came to the rule Homburg them the counts of Sayn belonged. However, the possession relations between the counts of Berg and from Sayn were always argumentative. The first citizen of Waldbröl was mentioned in 1212 when the priest Wolradu resident here in a document made to donations to the abbey Michael's mountain. In 1261 the knight's genders were called by Isengarten, in 1300 from Diezenkausen and in 1323 by Beuinghausen the first time. They were long time ministerial of the counts of Sayn and from Berg and had received from the counts in the area of the today's town fief possession.

In 1314 experienced Waldbröl a plague epidemic and a big famine. The first today's districts of Waldbröl were mentioned in 1316. Till 1575 almost all today's districts on a map are mentioned by Arnoldus Mercator. By the Siegburger comparison Waldbröl falls to the dukedom mountain and is slammed to the office Windeck. When Johann Wilhelm, the last duke died of Jülich Kleve mountain, in 1609, the Wittelsbacher dukedom received Pfalz-Neuburg in the contract from Xanten Berg and with it also Waldbröl ascribed. The town was a head of the district authority seat of the Prussian administrative district existing from 1816 to 1932 Waldbröl.

The big English novelist D H Lawrence, at that time, admittedly, still almost absolutely unknown, came in May, 1912 with the Brölbähnchen in Waldbröl. He visited his cousin Hannah Krenkow who lived as a woman of the justice secretary at the Waldbröl district court, Karl Krenkow, in the today's house Hartmann in the high street and had invited him. He took part here in a rainy Ascension procession, observed sluggish ox's teams and wrote numerous letters to Frieda von Richthofen who had left because of him just her man, and worked on the novel "Sons and Lovers" („sons and lovers“) which appeared next year and founded the worldwide fame of his author. After two-week-long stay Lawrence travelled on to Munich. In his last letter from Waldbröl from the 23rd of May, 1912 he wrote: „I will come back later to Waldbröl. It is simply excellent here.“ A year later visited emperors Wilhelm II. Waldbröl, and from the high street became Kaiserstrasse.

...
Wikipedia