Willich

Willich is a town in the district of Viersen, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located near the cities of Düsseldorf, Mönchengladbach and Krefeld, about 30 kilometres from the border with the Netherlands.HistoryThe city was founded in 1970 out of the formerly independent villages of Willich, Anrath, Schiefbahn and Neersen, although the villages are much older. Anrath was mentioned for the first time in 1010, Willich in 1245, Neersen in 1262 and Schiefbahn in 1420.The villages belonged to the Electorate of Cologne until the French Revolutionary Wars when they were occupied and annexed by France in 1794. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 the villages fell to the Kingdom of Prussia.1891-1945In 1891 a tornado devastated Anrath. The village was already impoverished by the decline of previously dominant domestic weaving and now the municipal administration of Anrath even considered a dissolution of the village. To improve the economic situation a royal prison was built. It was completed in 1905.In 1908 Stahlwerk Becker (a steel mill) was built and up to its closing in 1932 was one of the largest employers in Willich. Under a new owner, the mill was reopened in 1934 and was used to manufacture military supplies. The factory was finally closed in 1945 and the grounds were converted to a military base for the British Armed Forces.