Neunkirchen (the Saar)
See also: Neunkirchen
Neunkirchen is a city located in the Saar on the Blies. With approximately 50.000 inhabitants, it is the second city of the Land after Saarbrucken (located at 20 km in south-west).
Colonization the oldest date of approximately 700 years before our era. In this time, one exploited already coal in the area of Neunkirchen.
The oldest district is Wiebelskirchen, which was mentioned for the first time in 765. This name constitutes the Christian toponym oldest of the the Saar; it is said that a Franc which was called “Wibilo” built a church ( Kirche ) on its ground. The name Neunkirchen (“new church”) was mentioned for the first time in 1281. Neunkirchen belonged to the princes of Nassau-Saarbrucken. They built two castles in wood. The first castle was destroyed during a war, the second during the Révolution.
In 1593, the first forging mill was built in the valley of the Blies. The local carboniferous layers, jointly with the Lorraine Iron ore, constituted the base of the development of an iron and steel industry. The industrialization of Neunkirchen was related to the family von Stumm-Halberg. Those had the forging mill as of 1806. In 1922, Neunkirchen obtained the statute of city.
The February 10th 1933, the enormous explosion of a gasometer killed 68 men, wounded 190 and destroyed many houses of them. An air raid destroyed the three-quarters of the downtown area the March 15th 1945.
The decline of irons and steel industry severely touched Neunkirchen: in 1968, the last coal mine was closed and, in 1982, the blast furnaces closed, except for the rolling mill. So the city then occupied the first place in the German statistics concerning unemployment.
Meanwhile, the city was begun again. Today, Neunkirchen has a great shopping mall (the “Saarpark-Center”); the city became a commercial city attracting vast customers.
Some parts of the blast furnaces were preserved as an industrial monument.
Neunkirchen is the birthplace of Erich Honecker, former president of GDR.
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