Eupen

Eupen (German pronunciation [ˈʔɔʏpn̩], French [øpɛn]; Walloon Nèyåw; obsolete French Néau) is a Belgian town in the east of the province of Liège in the Walloon Region. Located on the edge of the High Fens-Eifel Nature Park about 16 km south of Aachen and 45 km from Liège and Maastricht, the town is divided into the districts of Oberstadt with the neighbouring hamlet of Stockem and Unterstadt on the banks of the Weser with the Haas and Berg districts. With the municipality merger of 1977, the village of Kettenis with its hamlets of Gemehret, Libermé, Nispert and Oberste Heide was added as a new district. Since 1975 there has been a town twinning with the municipality of Temse in the province of East Flanders.

As part of the German-speaking Community (DG) in eastern Belgium, the official language is German and the city's 20,100 or so inhabitants are majority German speakers, with their Eupener Platt belonging to the Lower Franconian (Limburg) and Ripuarian dialect groups.

Since Belgium's gradual transformation into a federal state, Eupen has been the headquarters of the parliament, the government and the ministry of the German-speaking Community and thus the political centre of Belgium's German-speaking minority population of around 78,000. In addition, Eupen is the administrative seat of the Euregio Meuse-Rhine.

Coat of arms

Logo: "In gold a continuous red cross of thorns; on the upper edge of the shield a pewtered black-grooved silver mural crown with a central round tower with projecting battlements, two embrasures and a black gate, as well as two equally smaller gate-less flank towers." (City arms in baroque oval shield with rolled edges). The red-golden split flag bears the city arms on the split.

History

The village of Eupen in the Duchy of Limburg was first mentioned in documents in the Annales Rodenses as a place that belonged to the parish of Baelen around 1040, together with Membach and Henri-Chapelle, and was given to the Abbey of Klosterrath in 1178 by Duke Heinrich III of Limburg. From the 13th century onwards, Eupen was governed regionally by the lords of Stockem and Eupen as a "lordship", whose coat of arms showed a crooked ordinary cross with a jagged crossbar. As a result of the Battle of Worringen, the Duchy of Limburg fell to the Duchy of Brabant under John I in 1288. In 1387 Brabant and Limburg passed to the House of Burgundy. During the war against the Duchy of Guelders, Eupen was burnt down.

In 1445, 156 households ("Feuerstätten") were counted in Eupen, 25 in the neighbouring hamlet of Nispert and 16 in Stockem. In 1477, Eupen, together with Brabant and Limburg, became part of the Austrian Netherlands ruled by the Habsburgs. In 1544, Emperor Charles V granted the town the right to hold two free fairs. In 1554, Eupen became known for its trade in cloth and nails. A year later, Eupen, together with Brabant and Limburg, became part of the Spanish Netherlands.

The first mention of the Protestant movement in Eupen dates from 1565. In 1582, Eupen was burnt down by 50% in the night by Dutch mercenaries. In 1627, there were 700 households and over 2,000 adult believers in Eupen. In 1635, a plague epidemic decimated the population. In 1648, Eupen, with its three lathofs Stockem, Frambach (upper town) and St. Marien (lower town), became a free lordship with its own court and in 1674 was granted town rights by seal.

By decree of King Louis XIV of 6 May 1680, the people of Eupen were granted generous rights to acquire land for the operation of mills, factories and shops, to procure the necessary wood for their facilities from the surrounding forests and to hire foreign workers. In 1680, a first fine cloth factory was then established in Eupen. At the beginning of its heyday, Eupen was granted the right to hold five free fairs in 1688. During the heyday of the cloth industry, which lasted for around 200 years, around 7,000 of the almost 10,000 inhabitants of Eupen found employment in the cloth trade and in the subcontracting firms.

Between 1707 and 1714, Eupen was briefly under the rule of the United Netherlands. Subsequently, after the Peace of Utrecht, the city reverted to the Austrian Netherlands along with Brabant and Limburg. In 1718, the city received permission for the free import of wool, oil, dyes and all materials necessary for the manufacture of cloth and fabrics, which was followed in 1760 by the duty-free import of cowhair. In 1734, the citizens of Eupen were given the right to elect mayors and neumans. In 1783, a merchants' college, a kind of chamber of commerce, was established, and in 1787, a court of first instance was set up.

In 1794, the town came under the rule of France and henceforth belonged to the Département Ourthe, Prefecture of Liège, Sub-Prefecture of Malmedy. In 1806, the first raising and shearing machines were introduced for cloth production and the manufacturer Bernhard Georg von Scheibler (1783-1860) set up the first mechanical wool spinning mill. In the years that followed, the Unterstadt district was upgraded to a new industrial location and a large number of new factories were founded on the Weser and Hill rivers.

In 1815, the Congress of Vienna assigned Eupen to the Rhine Province of the Kingdom of Prussia and it became the county seat of the Eupen County. In 1821, a weavers' revolt occurred after the installation of a new cloth shearing machine. During these years Eupen experienced an economic crisis and increased poverty among the population, which led to the introduction of various poor schools. It was not until the end of the decade that the cloth industry recovered. In 1827, the Eupen newspaper appeared as the first newspaper in the city. In 1864, the city of Eupen was granted a city coat of arms. From 1871, the Prussian kingdom and thus also Eupen belonged to the newly founded German Empire.

After the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles, the territory of Eupen-Malmedy was assigned to Belgium in 1920 and was part of the General Governorate of Eupen-Malmedy under General Herman Baltia until 1925. From 1929 to 1940, the 2nd Regiment of Carabiniers-Cyclistes took over the buildings of the "Gewerbliche und kaufmännische Fachschule für Knaben und Mädchen", founded by Robert Wetzlar and directed by his wife Mathilde and closed in 1920, and established the Caserne Sous-Lieutenant Antoine there.

On 10 May 1940, the Second World War began for Belgium with the Fall of Yellow. Hitler had a total of seven of his armies invade and occupy the neighbouring neutral states of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. On 18 May 1940, the area around Eupen was reincorporated into the German Reich and assigned to the Rhine Province, Regierungsbezirk Aachen. In September 1944, the Wehrmacht troops retreated before the approaching US troop units, thus removing the area from the influence of the Nazis. However, from October 1944 onwards, fierce fighting continued to take place at some distance from Eupen for a few months during the Battle of Aachen, the Battle of Hürtgenwald and the Ardennes Offensive, as a result of which numerous military hospitals and logistics bases were established in the town area.

After the war, the old pre-war borders were restored in Belgium. On 15 February 1947, the Royal Military Institute for Physical Education moved into the Eupen barracks.

In 1974 the 300th anniversary of the granting of the town charter was celebrated.

A new coat of arms was granted by King Baudouin of Belgium in 1983, the same year the city became the seat of the first government of the German-speaking Community of Belgium.