1. History

2. The coat of arms

3. Communities, localities and villages

4. Main sights

5. Education

6. Twin towns

7. Sport

8. Notable people

9. References

10. External links

Gummersbach is a town in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, being the district seat of the Oberbergischer Kreis. It is located 50 km east of Cologne. The town is famous for its first league handball team VfL Gummersbach.

History

In 1109 Gummersbach was mentioned in official documents for the first time. The document in question concerned the lowering of the episcopal tax for the church in Gummersbach by Archbishop Frederick I. At that time the name of the town was spelled as Gumeresbracht. Gummersbach received town privileges in 1857. In 1855 Gummersbach's industrial history began with the foundation of the company Steinmüller. With the company's success the little village began to grow to a town. After going out of business most of the company's area was unused. Due to the fact that by the time this area made up half of the downtown area the town of Gummersbach bought this area to develop it. Today (2016) a multifunctional arena, a shopping mall, university buildings and offices have already been built.

The coat of arms

The arms were granted on July 27, 1892. Gummersbach developed rapidly from a small village to a large town during the early 19th century, due to the metal and textile industry. The right part of the arms thus show a spindle as a symbol for the textile industry. The left part shows the arms of the Counts of the Mark, as the area belonged to the Mark since 1287.

Communities, localities and villages

Apfelbaum - Becke - Berghausen - Bernberg - Birnbaum - Börnchen - Bracht - Bredenbruch - Brink - Bruch - Brunohl - Berghausen - Deitenbach - Derschlag - Dieringhausen - Drieberhausen - Dümmlinghausen - Elbach - Erbland - Erlenhagen - Flaberg - Frömmersbach - Grünenthal - Gummeroth - Hardt - Hardt-Hanfgarten - Helberg - Herreshagen - Hesselbach - Höfen -Hömel - Hülsenbusch - Hunstig - Kalkuhl - Karlskamp - Koverstein - Lantenbach - Lieberhausen - Liefenroth - Lobscheid - Lützinghausen - Luttersiefen - Mühle - Neuenhaus - Neuenschmiede - Niedergelpe - Niedernhagen - Niederseßmar - Nochen - Oberrengse - Ohmig -Peisel - Piene - Rebbelroth - Recklinghausen - Reininghausen - Remmelsohl - Rodt - Rospe - Schneppsiefen - Schönenberg - Schusterburg - Sonnenberg - Steinenbrück - Straße - Strombach - Unnenberg - Veste - Vollmerhausen - Waldesruh - Wasserfuhr - Windhagen - Wörde - Würden

Main sights

• The Vogteihaus, former residence of the Vogt, built in 1700. It is also referred to as die Burg ("the castle"), and lies in the town center, on the Kaiserstraße.
• The Bunte Kerke ("colourful church") in the village Lieberhausen, a Protestant church with medieval wall paintings.
• The Protestant church of the village Hülsenbusch, rebuilt in the 18th century after a fire, in Baroque style.

Education

• Communal elementary schools in the towncentre and the districts Becke, Bernberg, Derschlag, Dieringhausen, Hülsenbusch, Niederseßmar, Steinenbrück and Windhagen
• Jakob Moreno school, school for learning-disabled children
• Town secondary school Gummersbach-Hepel, http://www.rs-hepel.de/
• Town secondary school Gummersbach-Steinberg
• Town high school - Lindengymnasium, http://www.lindengymnasium.de/
• Occupational lecture Gummersbach
• Business school Gummersbach
• Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering Science, https://www.th-koeln.de/informatik-und-ingenieurwissenschaften/
• Educational center for technology and economy
• Music school Gummersbach e.V.
• Town comprehensive school, http://gesamtschulegm.de
• Waldorf School Oberberg, http://fws-oberberg.de

Twin towns

Gummersbach is twinned with:^[1]

• La Roche-sur-Yon, France (since 1968)
• Burg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany (since November 1, 1990)
• Afantou, Rhodes, Greece (since 16 October 2001)
• Lębork, Poland (formerly Lauenburg), amicable relations - no official partnership.

Sport

The men's team VfL Gummersbach was one of the most successful handball teams of Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. It is still in the top league of the German handball competition: the Handball-Bundesliga.

Notable people

• Heiner Brand, (born 1952), former handball player and former coach of the handball national team
• Jürgen Domian, call-in radio show host
• Harald Fischer, doctor killed in Palestine on November 15, 2000
• Wolfgang Karius, conductor, organist, and harpsichordist
• Hella von Sinnen, TV personality
• Jan Sosniok, movie actor
• Adele Bloesch-Stöcker, Swiss-German violinist and composer
• Fritz Eschmann, former district administrator and member of the German parliament of SPD
• Jürgen Habermas, (born 1929), well known philosopher

References

External links

• {{Official website}} {{de icon}} {{en icon}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090707212821/http://www.gummersbach.de/de/171/ Marksteine Gummersbacher Geschichte] A survey about the most important historical events
• Steinmüllergelände - official website of the city development project Steinmüller terrain
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20050324215231/http://homepages.compuserve.de/Czoelner/Stadt_Gummersbach/stadt_gummersbach.html City of Gummersbach: Coat of Arms and Notes of the History of Gummersbach] {{de icon}}

• Commonwealth Games Council for England
• Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland
• Commonwealth games council for scotland
• Commonwealth Games Council for Wales
• Commonwealth Games Cricket
• Commonwealth Games England
• Commonwealth Games in 2014
• Commonwealth games mascot
• Commonwealth Games programme at Delhi
• Commonwealth games record
• Commonwealth Games record
• Commonwealth Games records
• Commonwealth Games records in athletics
• Commonwealth Games records in swimming
• Commonwealth Games sport
• Commonwealth Games symbols
• Commonwealth Games Village 2010
• Commonwealth Games Village, Delhi
• Commonwealth (Goebel novel)
• Commonwealth government
• Commonwealth Government
• Commonwealth Hall
• Commonwealth Heads of Government
• Commonwealth heads of government
• Commonwealth Heads of government Meeting