Baumberg

Baumberg (also "Monheim-Baumberg") is part of the city of Monheim am Rhein in the district of Mettmann in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) at the southern border of Düsseldorf, placed on the eastern bank of the river Rhine. Baumberg consists of an area of about 6 km², with about 13000 residents (2005).

History

Baumberg was first recorded in 1296 as "Boimberg", a village part of the Earldom of Berg. The tower of the Catholic church "St Dionysius" was build in the 12th century. Until the 20th century Baumberg was a rural village, inhabited by mainly fishermen, (goat-)farmers and traditional craftsmen like basket-makers.At the end of the 19th century about 1000 people were living in Baumberg, at the end of the second world war it were about 1,200 and 98 per cent of them were Catholics. In 1951 Baumberg became part of southern neighbouring Monheim. The federal social housing projects in the late 1960s boosted population from 5,000 residents in 1965 to 10,000 in 1969.

In the eastern part of Baumberg a new quarter with block of flats and terraced houses, the so-called Austrian quarter, was created from the late Seventies to the Nineties.

By the moving in of new citizens the fraction of Protestant citizens grew so that the construction of an own Protestant church was necessary in the Sixties, which was called "bunker" by the people because of its design. So the name of the newspaper of the Protestant reformed church was "bunker echo". The Protestant church was baptized Friedenskirche (freedom church) in the Eighties.

The Bürgerhaus (citizens' meeting house) in Baumberg was also built in the Eighties. It is used for events by associations and can be rented by the citizens for celebrations, too.

Today Baumberg is mainly a residential area with many commuters to Düsseldorf, Cologne and the Ruhr area.