Gronau, North Rhine-Westphalia

Geography

Gronau lies in the lowlands surrounding the Dinkel, which flows from the south to the north of the town. The lies to the northeast.

Local history

Documentary evidence of Gronau dates to 1365, and of district Epe to 1188.

Industrialisation took hold in Gronau with the founding of the first textile factory in 1854. Dutch investors, in particular, drove the growing textile industry. In 1875, railway lines were opened from Gronau to Münster, Dortmund, and Enschede.

With the growth of the textile industry and the founding of the Gronauer Bauverein (homebuilding) in the eastern part of the city (1893), an expansion of the settlement area began. By the time of World War I, a new town hall, the district court, the parish church of , schools, hospitals, an indoor swimming pool, waterworks, an electricity plant, and the city park had been built in Gronau.

On 27 December 1897, Gronau was granted town rights. In 1910, the skeleton of a Cretaceous plesiosaur was discovered and is now housed in the Geological-Paleontological Museum of Münster.

On the night of 9 to 10 November 1938, also known as "Reichspogromnacht", the synagogue in Wallstraße was desecrated in connection with the persecution of the Jewish population. Eventually, most Jews from Gronau and Epe were deported to the extermination camps. There is still a Jewish cemetery in Gronau today. In the Epe district, the former Jewish synagogue is currently being rebuilt as a cultural centre.

In 1975, Gronau and the municipality of Epe were merged into the new municipality of Gronau.

The bankruptcy of the , founded in 1854, in 1980-1981 marked the end of the era of the textile industry in Gronau.

Culture

Since 1989 an annual music festival, the , takes place in Gronau. A broad range of national and international musicians have performed at the festival, including Jan Garbarek, McCoy Tyner, Klaus Doldinger’s Passport, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Al Di Meola, Avishai Cohen, Al Jarreau, Ian Anderson, Richard Galliano, Ron Carter, Mother's Finest, Gregory Porter, Maceo Parker, Stefanie Heinzmann.

The Jazzfest is currently funded to a large extent by local and regional sponsors and enjoys a constantly growing audience. The annual number of visitors swings between 12,000 and 18,000 visitors (incl. open-air events). The share of foreign visitors is around 65%.

Transport

Gronau can be reached by road via the Autobahn A 30 and A 31, the Dutch Rijksweg 35, the Bundesstraße B 54n. Gronau (Westf) railway station connects Gronau with Enschede in the Netherlands via the Dortmund–Gronau railway and the Münster–Enschede railway. The nearest airports are Münster Osnabrück Airport and Enschede Airport Twente, although the latter has no scheduled flights.

The town is connected to the regional Flamingo cycle path.

Politics

Mayors

The following is a list of the mayors of Gronau since 1974:

• 1974–1979: Bruno Jäkel (SDP)
• 1979–1984: Gerhard Schultewolter (CDU)
• 1984–1989: Bruno Jäkel (SDP)
• 1989–1994: Norbert Diekmann (SDP)
• 1994–1999: Gerhard Gleis-Preister (CDU)
• 1999–2013: Karl-Heinz Holtwisch (CDU)
• 2013–2019: Sonja Jürgens (SPD)
• since 2019: Rainer Doetkotte (CDU)

Town insignia

The current coat of arms of Gronau features a green shield with a broad yellow stripe running down the middle. In the middle of the stripe is a duck colored in blue. On the left hand side of the design is a yellow coil, while on the right is a yellow stalk of corn. The most recent design before the one adopted in 1981 featured a similar design, with a different direction for the stripe and the duck colored in red. File:DEU Gronau (Westfalen) COA.svg|Coat of arms File:Banner Gronau.svg|Banner File:Flagge Gronau.svg|Flag File:DEU Gronau1898 COA.svg|Coat of arms 1898 to 1937 File:DEU Gronau1937 COA.svg|Coat of arms 1937 to 1981 File:DEU Epe (Westf.) COA.svg|Coat of arms of the former municipality of Epe

Notable people

The Dutch singer Rania Zeriri lives in Gronau. The Polish tennis player Agnieszka Radwańska grew up here; her father was a tennis coach at the local club. Blaise Nkufo, a Swiss footballer with African roots, former player of the Dutch football club FC Twente, lived in Gronau. , a German artist, grew up in Gronau.

Born in Gronau

• Winfried Berkemeier (born 1953), footballer
• Bernd Düker (born 1992), footballer
• Rolf Eckrodt (born 1942), CEO of Mitsubishi Motors from 2001 until 2005
• Tim Hölscher (born 1995), footballer
• Cengiz Koç (born 1977), former German heavyweight boxer of Turkish descent
• (1938–2006), painter, elder brother of Udo Lindenberg
• Udo Lindenberg (born 1946), singer and musician
• Gregor Luthe (born 1970 in Epe), chemist, toxicologist, nanotechnologist, inventor and entrepreneur
• Jens Wissing (born 1988), football player

Places of interest

• City Park and Zoo – built before World War I
• Lake Driland, artificially created in the 1970s

Twin towns – sister cities

Gronau is twinned with:

• Epe, Netherlands
• Bromsgrove, United Kingdom
• Mezőberény, Hungary

References

References

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2. Muthesius, Volkmar. (1954). "100 Jahre M. van Delden & Co: 1854–1954; Zur Geschichte d. münsterländischen Baumwollindustrie". M. van Delden & Company.
3. Reekers, Stephanie. (1977). "Die Gebietsentwicklung der Kreise und Gemeinden Westfalens 1817–1967.". Aschendorff.
4. Bertling, Markus. (2013). "Gronausaurus wegneri HAMPE, 2013". [[University of Münster]].
5. Pracht-Jörns, Elfi. (2002). "Jüdisches Kulturerbe in Nordrhein-Westfalen". J. P. Bachem.
6. "Die Alte Synagoge Epe".
7. (1975). "Die Gemeinden und Kreise nach der kommunalen Gebietsreform in Nordrhein-Westfalen.". Deutscher Gemeindeverlag.
8. Hassink, Robert. (2010). "The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography". Edward Elgar.
9. "36. Jazzfest in Gronau vom 30.04 – 05.05.2024".
10. "Jazzfest Gronau (history)".
11. "Radfahren in Gronau". Münsterland e.V. Tourismus.
12. Wiedau, Klaus. (30 January 2017). "Unbeugsame Lust auf Leben".
13. (18 March 2013). "Gronauer bekommen Bürgermeisterin". {{ill.
14. "Der Bürgermeister".
15. [https://web.archive.org/web/20190505080628/https://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/westfalen-lippe/stichwahl-buergermeisterwahl-gronau-100.html "Rainer Doetkotte neuer Bürgermeister in Gronau"], [[Westdeutscher Rundfunk]], 24 March 2019
16. (28 July 2024). "Akteure stellen Chronik zum 20-jährigen Bestehen des Rock- und Popmuseums vor". {{ill.
17. "Städtepartnerschaften". Gronau.