Düren

The small German city of Düren is situated on the Ruhr river in the foothills of the Eifel mountains some 18 miles east of Aachen. The site was probably first occupied by Romans. Pippin III the Short, king of the Franks, established a residence here and a town grew around it, documented first in 748. Pippin's son Charlemagne held diets here in 775 and 779. It was ruled by the dukes of Jülich from 1242, was burned to the ground by the army of the Emperor Charles V in 1543, was taken by France in 1801, and passed to Prussia in 1814. World War II saw it nearly totally destroyed by aerial bombardment, but it was rebuilt following the war. In the 1970s it grew rapidly due to its absorption of two nearby towns. Düren is an industrial center, producing glass, chemicals, metal wares, textiles, paper, and sugar. It is also a center of scientific research, with a botanical garden and an astronomical observatory. Its estimated population for 2004 was 93,000.