Heinsberg (district)

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.

Heinsberg
District
CountryGermany
StateNorth Rhine-Westphalia
Adm. regionCologne
CapitalHeinsberg
Area
 • Total627.7 km2 (242.4 sq mi)
Population
 (31 December 2019)[1]
 • Total255,555
 • Density410/km2 (1,100/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Vehicle registrationHS
Websitehttp://www.kreis-heinsberg.de

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

References
  1. "Bevölkerung der Gemeinden Nordrhein-Westfalens am 31. Dezember 2019" (in German). Landesbetrieb Information und Technik NRW. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  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.

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