Hemer is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located at the north end of the Sauerland near the Ruhr river, at 51° 23' North, 7° 46' East. Population: 38,206 (2002). Area: 67.55 km². The highest elevation with 546 m is in the Balver Wald in the south of the city, the lowest elevation with 160 m is at the Edelburg in the northeast. The city belongs to the district Märkischer Kreis.
Twin towns are Beuvry and Steenwerck (France); and it has city friendships with Shelkovo (Russia), Obervellach (Austria), and the German cities Bretten and Doberlug-Kirchhain.
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2 Points of interest 3 Coat of arms 4 Economics 5 External links |
Hemer was first mentioned in 1072 with its old name Hademare in a paper from the bishop of Cologne. At that time it had one church and two farms. In the following centuries more and more small villages grew up in the area. In 1700 the church St. Peter and Paul was built.
1841 the Amt Hemer was created for the administration of the municipalities Becke, Brockhausen, Calle, Deilinghofen, Evingsen, Frönsberg, Ihmert, Kesbern, Landhausen, Lössel, Niederhemer, Oberhemer, Sundwig and Westig. 1910 Niederhemer and Oberhemer were merged into Hemer, in 1929 Hemer, Sundwig, Westig and Landhausen were merged into one municipality - which on January 30, 1936 got the right to call itself a city.
During the World War II Hemer did have one of the prisoner of war camps, the Stalag VIa, in which mostly Russian prisoners had to work during the war. With the reorganization of the districts and municipalities in 1974 the Amt was dissolved. Evingsen became part of Altena in 1969 already, in 1974 Kesbern became part of Iserlohn, while the other municipalities Becke, Deilinghofen, Frönsberg and Ihmert were added to the city Hemer.
The Heinrichshöhle is a Devonian limestone cave in Hemer, officially found in 1812, but probably known by locals long before. 470m of the cave system are accessible to visitors, with some stalactites and one skeleton of a cave bear being on display.
Nearby the Felsenmeer is a small Karst area, partially created by medieval mining, now located in a beech forest.
Shared with Menden and Balve is the Hönnetal, a narrow valley with some beautiful cliffs carved into the same limestone bedrock by the river Hönne.
History
List of mayors
Since 1995 the mayor is a professional post, before it was a honorary post.
Points of interest
Coat of arms
The three golden wolf-hooks are derived from the arms of the Brabeck family, who lived in Hemer for long time - Jobst Edmund von Brabeck founded the St.Peter and Paul church. The red-white bordure in the left side derived from the sign of the Counts of the Mark.Economics
The wire production is traditionally a big industry in Hemer as well as other cities, however only few factories survived till today. The world-wide know armature producer Grohe is originally based in Hemer.