KLEVE

'Kleve', traditionally known in English and French as 'Cleves' (Dutch: ''Kleef'') is a city in the north-west of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany, near the Dutch border and the River Rhine, at . Today it belongs to and is capital of the district of Kleve.

Contents

History

Twin cities

Language and dialect

See also

External links

History

The name ''Kleve'' probably derives from the word cliff (German ''Kliff''), although the city's coat of arms displays three clovers, which is close enough to the local pronuciation of the name (German ''Klee'', Dutch ''Klaver'').
The Schwanenburg (English: ''Swan Castle''), where the dukes of Cleves resided, was founded on a steep hill. The old castle has a massive tower, the ''Schwanenturm'' 180 feet high, that is associated in legend with the Knights of the Swan, immortalized in Richard Wagner's ''Lohengrin''.
Medieval Kleve grew together from four parts — the Castle Schwanenburg, the village below the castle, the first city of Kleve on the Heideberg Hill, and the ''Neustadt'' ("New City") from the 14th century. In 1242 Kleve received city rights. The Duchy of Cleves, which roughly covered today's districts of Kleve, Wesel and Duisburg, was united with the Duchy of Mark in 1368, was made a duchy itself in 1417, and then united with the neighboring duchies of Jülich and Berg in 1521, when John III, Duke of Cleves, married Mary, the heiress of Jülich-Berg-Ravenburg.
Kleve's most famous native is Anne of Cleves (1515-1557), daughter of John III, Duke of Cleves and wife of Henry VIII of England.
The local line became extinct in the male line in 1609, when Kleve passed to the son-in-law, the elector of Brandenburg and became an exclave of the territory of Prussia.
The mineral waters of Kleve and the wooded parkland surrounding it made it a fashionable spa in the 19th century.
Kleve suffered heavy bombing during the Second World War, with over 90% of buildings in the city severely damaged. As a result, relatively little of the pre-1945 City remains, although the Schwanenburg and the ''Stiftskirche'', the Catholic parish church, do remain and positioned as they are on top of a hill, dominate the surrounding flat countryside for many miles.
Since 1953 there has been a broadcasting facility for FM radio and television from regional broadcaster WDR near Kleve. It uses as aerial mast a 126.4 metre high guyed steel tube mast with a diameter of 1.6 metres, which is guyed 57 and 101.6 metres above ground. This mast replaced the old radio mast from the 1960s, which was used until 1993, additionally for transmissions in the medium wave range.

Twin cities

Kleve is twinned with

★ Ronse (Belgium)

★ Fitchburg (Massachusetts) (USA)

★ Worcester (UK)

Language and dialect

Historically Dutch, not German was the dominant language in the region of, and surrounding Cleves, this can still be seen today as most towns in the region have Germanized names of Dutch origin. Because of this, many historical persons (for example: Govert Flinck) from Cleves are considered Dutch, rather than Germans. Although German took over at the end of the 19th century, the Dutch history is still notable. Even today, the traditional local dialect, Zuid Gelders, belongs to Dutch.

See also

★ Marie of Cleves

★ Joachim Murat of the Napoleonic years.

★ Duke Englebert of Cleves, Count of Nevers

External links

★ Official site

★ Edicts of Jülich, Cleves, Berg, Grand Duchy Berg, 1475-1815 (Coll. Scotti) online

★ Settlement of Dortmund between Brandenburg and Palatinate-Neuburg and the conflict of succession in Jülich, in full text