Schleiden

Schleiden is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It lies in the Eifel hills, in the district of Euskirchen, and has 12,998 inhabitants as of 30 June 2017. Schleiden is connected by a tourist railway to Kall, on the Eifel Railway between Cologne and Trier. The town consists of 18 settlements, the largest of which are Gemünd and Schleiden proper. The borough of Schleiden is divided into 18 settlements (population figures of those at their main residence as at September 2020): North: Heimbach (Eifel) (County of Düren) East: Mechernich, Kall (both in the county of Euskirchen) South: Hellenthal (County of Euskirchen) West: Monschau, Simmerath (both in the Borough of Aachen) In the Middle Ages and Early Modern times, Schleiden was the centre of a lordship, later the County of Schleiden, which itself was part of the Duchy of Luxembourg, from 1441/43 as part of the Burgundian Netherlands (first under the Burgundians, then the Habsburgs). After the division of the Netherlands, the Duchy of Luxembourg with Schleiden remained as part of the Spanish line of the Habsburgs. After the War of Spanish Succession, the Duchy of Luxembourg, along with Schleiden, went to the Austrian line of the House of Habsburg. When revolutionary France conquered the Austrian Netherlands in 1794/95, the Duchy of Luxembourg was quickly divided into the three French departments: Forêts, Sambre-et-Meuse and Ourthe. Schleiden was in Ourthe (capital: Liege). At the Vienna Congress of 1815, the formerly Luxembourgian areas east of the Our, Sauer and Moselle rivers were given to the Kingdom of Prussia. Thus, Schleiden became "Prussian" and, in 1871, part of the German Empire after having belonged to the Duchy of Luxembourg for centuries. The small town of Schleiden has produced two important Christian humanists: Johannes Sleidanus and Johannes Sturm, also known as Ioannes Sturmius. In 1944 the Battle of Wahlerscheid took place nearby.