Heinsberg (district)


Heinsberg is a Kreis in the west of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany with the town of Heinsberg as its capital. Neighbouring districts are Viersen, Neuss, Düren and Aachen, the city of Mönchengladbach and the Dutch province Limburg.
The district became a center of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. The Robert Koch Institute listed Heinsberg as especially affected area. The district was, since the first local cases in the area, around 2 weeks “ahead“ of the rest of Germany. A research group of the University of Bonn started to use the affected area as a testing site to study the novel coronavirus and to search for ways to handle the situation in the best possible way.

History

The area fell to Prussia in 1815, which in 1816 created the three districts Heinsberg, Erkelenz and Geilenkirchen. In 1932 the districts Heinsberg and Geilenkirchen were merged, and in 1972 the Erkelenz district was merged as well. In 1975 the district got its present size when the municipality Niederkrüchten was moved to the district Viersen.

Geography

Geographically it covers the lowlands of the Lower Rhine Bay.

Rivers

Towns and municipalities