Kaldenkirchen

Kaldenkirchen is a village in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany, situated close to the Dutch border at Venlo. It is part of the municipality of Nettetal.

History
For the first time the place name “Caldenkirken” appeared in a document dated 1206. Until 1794 the city belonged to the Duchy of Jülich. Some inhabitants of Kaldenkirchen belonged to the 13 German families who were members of the Religious Society of Friends and Mennonites. These families left Krefeld in 1683 with a ship called Concord and headed for Philadelphia where they settled in the newly founded suburb called Germantown. Subsequent emigrants from Kaldenkirchen to Germantown included Paulus and Gertrude Kuster, the great-great-great-great-grandparents of U.S. Army colonel George Armstrong Custer.

In 1856 King Frederick William IV of Prussia permitted the use of “town” for this city. After the Wiener Kongress Congress of Vienna in 1814 Kaldenkirchen belonged to Prussia. In 1903 the German Emperor Wilhelm II permitted the city arms.

The synagogue was destroyed during the Kristallnacht. During the last weeks of the Second World War the city was evacuated. In 1947 a fire destroyed 90% of the forest. In 1961 Kaldenkirchen had 6305 inhabitants, 23% of them Heimatvertriebene. On January 1, 1970 Kaldenkirchen became part of the newly founded city of Nettetal.

Economy
For more than 150 years the economic life of Kaldenkirchen was characterized by the tobacco industry. At the turn of the century the roof tiles industry was active for some years due to the resources of clay in the Grenzwald (forest bordering Germany and the Netherlands).

As Kaldenkirchen is situated near the border it was an important reloading point with a main customs office and many freight forwarders until 1993. Currently there are various inter-regional companies like the plant nursery Lappen, the producer of sound cards TerraTec, the food company Halal Mekkafood and the German Branch Office of Panini Comics.

Transport
Kaldenkirchen has direct access to the autobahn A61 and has two exits. It also has a train station with double-tracked passenger and freight traffic to Venlo/NL and single-tracked traffic to Mönchengladbach.



Main sights
The main sights are the Catholic Parish Church St. Clemens, the Protestant Church and the Rokoko Pavillon built in the second half of the 18. century. . The manor house Altenhof was almost 500 years the property of Earl of Spee. The nearby Grenzwald is a popular Recreation area and Nature reserve.

Right at the border there is the Sequoiafarm Kaldenkirchen, a precious Arboretum that has been used as a Biological institute for many years and is full of historical interest.

Notable natives

 * Anton van Eyk (1911–2004), artist
 * Leo Peters (born 1944), Historian

Kaldenkirchen Raceway
The village had its own Stock Car circuit which hosted major international events including the Superstox World Championship in 1975, 1978 and 1987. It also staged the first running of the Stock Saloon World Championship on 19 September 1982. The track was closed at the end of the 1987 racing season.