StädteRegion

As far as statistics are concerned, Eschweiler is as “jeck” (crazy) as no other town. This does not only apply to the city region, but nationwide, if not even worldwide. After all not less than 22 carnival clubs every year cause a lot of commotion and when the Shrove Monday parade brings 56,000 inhabitants into a state of carnival euphoria, then up to 300,000 spectators from at home and abroad cheerfully celebrate the 6,500 actors in the 6 kilometres long procession.
 
Established was the Shrove Monday Parade tradition already in 1850. At that time the Eschweiler Bergwerksverein (association of miners) was just a dozen years old and Eschweiler, which eight years later received her town charter, was already an outstanding centre of the Rhenish iron and steel industry. About one and a half years later there isn’t much left of it. There is still metal industry, but it no longer shapes the life in town. The end of the mineral coal mining era came in 1944, brown coal strip mining ended in 1985.

Where once the excavators of the Rhenish brown coal mining (Rheinische Braunkohlewerke) dug the ground for taking out more than 500 million tons of feed for the nearby power station, today sailing boats are crossing down the wind. The Blausteinsee is a central leisure, sports and recreation area in the city region. Divers are as much at home here as the canoeists, sun worshippers, joggers, inline skaters and music lovers. For the latter the 180 hectare leisure time area with the „floating“ lake stage offers a very special “location”.

Also at the west bank of the lake something extraordinary intends to invite you to stay: here an attractive viewing platform is under construction – based on the unmistakable architecture of the spoil spreaders, which in the past where active here. Modern accommodations for clubs, a „water school“ for groups of children and youngsters, cafés, restaurants and beer gardens provide for a varied gastronomic offer. Two hotels with apartments are also planned, as well as a public golf course. A private one has long existed: The golf course House Kambach  with its idyllic water castle, which accommodates a public restaurant, meets highest standards and is the venue for numerous prestigious tournaments.

The fact that Eschweiler has recently been awarded the title „place of variety“, is not only manifested in its cosmopolitanism and the refusal of xenophobic and racist tendencies. The town also offers variety in sports – with indoor and open-air swimming pool, major sports complex Dürwiß, 26 tennis courts and indoor ice rink – and in many other areas.

For example in culture: regularly the „Art Open“  attracts thousands of art lovers into the ateliers of the local artists. The clientele experiences a wide spectrum of artistic design possibilities. Also wide is the range offered to the visitors of the annual Eschweiler music festival, briefly called EMF: hiphop and folk from the most different culture groups.

The balancing act between tradition and modern life has also been successfully performed in the townscape. On the one hand, there are five castles as symbols of a well-fortified past and, on the other hand, a modern pedestrian zone. The steel industry still alive in companies of world renown has found its pendant in a modern industrial and business park in nature setting.
 
Since Einhard, historian of Charlemagne, documented Eschweiler (Ascvilare) for the first time in the year of 828, the town at the river Inde has made a good process and is today optimally prepared, to tackle the next stages in good company.