page_title: Erkelenz
section_title: Manorialism
hierarchical_section_title: Erkelenz / History / Manorialism
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Wappen der Stadt Erkelenz aus der Chronik des Mathias Baux, 1562
context_page_description: Erkelenz is a town in the Rhineland in western Germany that lies 15 kilometres southwest of Mönchengladbach on the northern edge of the Cologne Lowland, halfway between the Lower Rhine region and the Lower Meuse. It is a medium-sized town and the largest in the district of Heinsberg in North Rhine-Westphalia.
  Despite the town having more than 1,000 years of history and tradition, in 2006 the eastern part of the borough was cleared to make way for the Garzweiler II brown coal pit operated by RWE Power. This is planned to be in operation until 2045. Over five thousand people from ten villages have had to be resettled as a result. Since 2010, the inhabitants of the easternmost village of Pesch have left and most have moved to the new villages of Immerath and Borschemich in the areas of Kückhoven and Erkelenz-Nord.
context_section_description: On 17 January 966, St. Mary's Abbey in Aachen (Marienstift zu Aachen) was given inter alia the settlements of Erkelenz and its neighbour, Oestrich, in the County of Eremfried in the Mühlgau as part of an exchange with the Lotharingian Count Immo. Emperor Otto the Great confirmed this exchange in the aforementioned deed at an imperial assembly (Hoftag) in Aachen. From then on the abbey was the owner of the entire estate in Erkelenz and the surrounding villages with the proviso that territorial lordship was exercised by the count. Later the estates owned by the abbey were divided between the provost and chapter. The farms were not managed independently, but were leased. Not until 1803 did the abbey lose these rights of ownership, when France introduced secularisation into the Rhineland.
caption: Coat of arms of the town of Erkelenz from the chronicle of Mathias Baux, 1562
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