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Aachen and Europe
Ever since Charlemagne chose Aachen for his imperial seat, the city has also played a decisive role for Europe. Aachen’s significance in those times is still apparent from the impressive size of some of its buildings, such as the Granus Tower of the former imperial palace or the octagon of the palace chapel, which was then the highest building of its type north of the Alps and forms the basis of today’s Aachen Cathedral.
After Charlemagne, 31 kings of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation were crowned in Aachen in the years between 936 and 1531, and all held their coronation dinners in Aachen Town Hall. But the city was also important for Europe in a spiritual way. Ever since 1349, the valuables of Charlemagne’s relic treasure have been unveiled traditionally every seven years for the Aachen Pilgrimage. Franz Blondel from Liège later converted Aachen into a spa, which soon became popular with notables from all over Europe.
At the end of the 18th century, the French occupied the city, which was in the midst of an economic upswing at the time. In 1841, the railway line from Cologne to Aachen was inaugurated, in and in 1859 over two hundred steam engines were in use in Aachen’s factories. The Royal Rhenish-Westphalian Polytechnic School was founded in 1870.
When the Americans freed the city in the October of 1944, there were only 11,139 inhabitants left. Only years after the Second World War, the citizens of Aachen have proven their desire for a European unification as well as their will to dismantle borders by founding the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen, which is awarded annually to people who have contributed to the European unification, and has been respected highly for a long time now.
Today, the European capital Brussels is practically right on Aachen’s doorstep, and if you take the train to Paris it will not take you any longer than three hours to get there. The European togetherness of people in and around Aachen has led to a common ground that is not often found in other regions.
Aachen and the Euregio Meuse-Rhine
The people in Aachen live Europe – living, working, studying and shopping in three different countries is natural in and around Aachen. Moreover, numerous transborder projects facilitate the coalescence of the region.
The Euregio Meuse-Rhine was founded in 1976 and it is one of the oldest transborder cooperation syndicates. In the border triangle of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany, the unifies five partner regions: the south of the province of Limburg (Netherlands), the province of Limburg (Belgium), the province of Liège (Belgium), the region of Aachen (Germany), and the German-speaking Community of Belgium. In an area of approximately 11,000 sqare metres, the Euregio counts 3.9 million inhabitants who speak three different languages – German, French, and Dutch. This makes the region practically a laboratory of what the Europe of tomorrow might be like.
At the interface of the great economic and industrial conurbations of northwestern Europe (Paris, Luxembourg, Brussels, the German Ruhr district as well as the Dutch Randstadt), the Euregio Meuse-Rhine has an extremely favourable geographical position. There are two regional airports, and the international airports of Düsseldorf, Cologne, Amsterdam, and Brussels are all in close proximity. The European high speed train stops in Liège as well as in Aachen.
Almost 100,000 young people are enrolled at the five universities and fifteen colleges of the Euregio Meuse-Rhine. Approximately 100,000 business companies form a stable economic groundwork. Furthermore, over one million visitors contribute to the vitality of the region every year.
Science
Science is international. Scientists contrive to link competencies, experience, and creativity across national, linguistic, and cultural borders. This fact is very noticeable in the European city of Aachen. Ever since the eigth century, the history of Aachen has been connected to science, as Charlemagne already gathered academics from all over Europe around him. With his palace school, the emperor turned his favourite palatinate into a reservoir of artistic and intellectual life.
Today, Aachen is home to the largest Technical University of Western Europe, RWTH Aachen University, which was awarded the title of an elite university in the October of 2007. Furthermore, North Rhine-Westphalia’s largest college is also located in Aachen. Both academias closely collaborate with the Jülich Research Center.
Three Fraunhofer Institutes, numerous further research establishments, competency- and sectoral networks, as well as a centre of medical engineering are all decisive economic location factors. A yearly average of approximately 10,000 graduates with an excellent education from the scientific institutions forms the basis of innovative and entrepeneurial activities.
Research facilities of international corporate groups use this potential and have thus settled in the city as well as in the region of Aachen – for instance, Ericsson, Ford, Microsoft, and Philips.
Economy
Aachen is one of the oldest industrial regions in Europe. Old-established concerns are based in Aachen and benefit from the fact that it is a centre of science and research: Philips, Zentis, Bombardier Transportation, Continental, Saint-Gobain, Uniroyal, Grünenthal, Lambertz, Lindt&Sprüngli. In addition to these, there are major enterprises of the tertiary sector like the insurer AachenMünchener. Moreover, small spinoffs which are created by students sometimes evolve into internationally operating companies very fast.
Increasingly fast product cycles, the force of growth and internationalisation, cost pressure and increasingly complex value-added chains – Aachen as a location helps to master these challenges: a dense infrastructure with production facilities and rendition of services at close quarters; internationality and multilingualism; room for expansion as well as room for recreation; a great potential of well-trained engineers. Aachen is one of the very few locations which offer all of this at the same time: a high density of engineering firms, two neighbouring countries and two different foreign languages close by, available industrial real estate, academias and a great national park right on the doorstep.
Culture and Leisure
The historical monuments are an imposing illustration of Aachen’s long history. Dignified Roman buildings meet airy gothic arches, and master builder Johann Josef Couven’s baroque style meets neoclassical buildings like the Elisa Fountain and the theatre building.
Numerous museums make the cultural offerings of the city complete. The Ludwig Forum for International Art exposes modern art from the 1960s until today in its many facets. Alongside paintings from different epochs, one of Germany’s most distinguished sculpture collections from the 12th to the 16th century can be found in Aachen’s Suermondt-Ludwig Museum. The Couven Museum provides an insight into the domestic culture of the city from rococo to Louis-Seize. The International Newspaper Museum exhibits a unique collection of 190,000 newspapers in all languages.
Aachen theatre, as well as a number of smaller theatre companies, stages modern as well as classical plays, and on top of that there are operas, dances, and symphony concertos. The ‘Musikbunker’ and the ‘Jakobshof’ are both popular venues for concerts and cabaret. Aachen is also a stronghold of the Rhenish Carnival. During the summer and autumn, cultural festivals attract visitors to the numerous open air events in the city centre.
Around the city centre, there are many small as well as big night life venues. Students like to meet for a beer or a cocktail in the ‘Pont Quarter’, which is located between the university and the city centre.
A special sporting highlight ist he annual World Equestrian Festival CHIO, which is regarded as the world’s best horse show. It also serves as a social meeting point for an international audience.
Aachen is surrounded by a highly diverse landscape: the Eifel, the Ardennes, the Dutch Mergelland, the Meuse, the Rur river scenery, and the Hautes Fagnes in the German-Belgian Nature Park are all practically right on the doorstep - and the possible leisure activities are just as diverse as the scenery: you can go hiking, horse riding, sailing, rowing, rock climbing, golfing, or even ballooning.
