The district of Aachen (Kreis Aachen) is a Kreis (district) in the west of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Heinsberg, Düren, Euskirchen, district-free Aachen (the city, giving the surrounding district the name, but is not part of the district), and also the province Limburg (Netherlands) and the Liège province (Belgium).

History

The district as known today was created in 1975 in the reorganization of the districts of North Rhine-Westphalia, by merging the former districts of Aachen and Monschau, and some parts of the districts of Düren, Jülich and Schleiden as well as the Selfkant district, while a part of the former district was incorporated to the district-free city of Aachen.

The Landkreis Aachen was formed in 1816 from the two French cantons Burtscheid and Eschweiler, with its capital set to the city of Burtscheid. In 1897 Burtscheid was incorporated into the city of Aachen, but the administrative seat stayed there, even though the capital was no longer part of the district.

Geography

Geographically the district covers a part of the Eifel mountains in the south, but also the lowlands of the Niederrheinische Bucht.

Coat of arms

The top of the coat of arms shows the black lion, the sign of Jülich, as the district contains mostly former parts of the duchy of Jülich. In the bottom the swan on a deer antler is the sign of the city of Burtscheid, which was the capital of the district till it was incorporated into the city of Aachen.

Towns and municipalities

External links

• Official Website (German, English, Dutch, French, Polish)