Statistics
State:North Rhine-Westphalia
Adm. Region:Cologne
Capital:Heinsberg
Area:627.7 km²
Inhabitants:250,400 (2001)
pop. density:399 inh./km²
Car identification:HS
Homepage:http://www.kreis-heinsberg.de
Map

Heinsberg is a Kreis (district) in the west of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Viersen, district-free city Mönchengladbach, Neuss, Düren and Aachen, and also the dutch province Limburg.

Table of contents
1 History
2 Geography
3 Coat of arms
4 Towns and municipalities
5 External link

History

The area did fall 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 it's present size when the municipality Niederkrüchten was moved to the district Viersen.

Geography

Geographically it covers the lowlands of the Niederrheinische Bucht, the main river is the Rur.

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 dukes 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

  1. Erkelenz
  2. Geilenkirchen
  3. Heinsberg
  4. Hückelhoven
  5. Übach-Palenberg
  6. Wassenberg
  7. Wegberg
    Municipalities
  1. Gangelt
  2. Selfkant
  3. Waldfeucht

External link

Official website (German)