Крефельд: История и особенности города на Рейне

Krefeld ('/k//r//eɪ//f//ɛ//l//d//, // //ɛ//l//t/ KRAYfeld, felt, ; ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, its center lying just a few kilometers to the west of the river Rhine; the borough of Uerdingen is situated directly on the Rhine. Because of its economic past, Krefeld is often referred to as the "Velvet and Silk City". It is accessed by the autobahns A57 (Cologne–Nijmegen) and A44 (Aachen–Düsseldorf–Dortmund–Kassel). Krefeld's residents now speak [[Standard German, or standard German, but the native dialect is a Low Franconian variety, sometimes locally called Krefelder Platt, Krieewelsch Platt, or sometimes simply Platt. The Uerdingen line isogloss, separating general dialectical areas in Germany and neighboring Germanic speaking countries, runs through and is named after Krefeld's Uerdingen district, originally an independent municipality.

Records first mention Krefeld in 1105 under the name of Krinvelde. In February 1598, Walburga, wife of Adolf van Nieuwenaar, and last Countess of Limburg and Moers, gave the County of Moers, which included Krefeld, to Maurice, Prince of Orange. After her death in 1600, John William of Cleves took possession of these lands, but Maurice successfully defended his heritage in 1601. Krefeld and Moers would remain under the jurisdiction of the House of Orange and the Dutch Republic during the Dutch Golden Age (1588 1672). Krefeld was one of few towns spared the horrors of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). The town of Uerdingen, incorporated into Krefeld in the 20th century, had been destroyed at the hands of troops from Hesse during the Thirty Years' War, and almost ceased to exist. After the death of William III of Orange in 1702, Krefeld passed to the Kingdom of Prussia. They sought refuge in the lands of the more tolerant House of Orange Nassau, at the time rulers of Krefeld; in 1657 their congregation was officially recognized and in 1693 they were allowed to build their own church, although hidden in a back yard (which still exists, reconstructed after World War II, with about 800 members). Also the Quaker Evangelists received a sympathetic audience among the larger of the German Mennonite congregations around Krefeld, Gronau, Emden and Altona, Hamburg. In 1683 a group of thirteen Mennonite families (twelve of them Mennonite Quakers), the so called Original 13, including three of the Op den Graeff families left Krefeld to re settle in Pennsylvania in order to enjoy religious freedom. They crossed the Atlantic on the ship Concord, and founded the settlement of Germantown (now incorporated in Philadelphia), invited by William Penn, and thus beginning the Pennsylvania Dutch ethnic identity. The most important Mennonite family of Krefeld were the silk merchants and silk weaving industrialists Von der Leyen who, by 1763, employed half of Krefeld's population of 6,082 in their factories. Their residence, built from 1791, is the current City Hall.

Jews were listed as citizens of Krefeld from 1617. In 1764 a synagogue was erected, and by 1812, under French rule, the town included 196 Jewish families, with three Jewish owned banks. Under Napoleon, the town became the capital for the surrounding Jewish communities including over 5000 Jews, and by 1897 they comprised 1.8% of the population. In 1846 a Jewish representative was voted onto the town's municipal council, while rising antisemitism was noted during these elections. In 2008 a new synagogue, library and Jewish cultural center were erected on the location of one of the demolished synagogues. Around 1100 Jews were reported to live in and around Krefeld at the time.

On 11 December 1941, during World War II, a detailed report on the transport of Jews from Krefeld and its surroundings listed 1007 Jews from Krefeld and Duisburg, were deported to the Šķirotava Railway Station near Riga, later to become Jungfernhof concentration camp. They were transported in freezing conditions with no drinking water for more than two days. Almost immediately upon arrival they were shot in the Rumbula forest massacre. On 21 June 1943 British bombs destroyed many buildings in the east part of the city; a firestorm consumed large parts of the city center (apart from the central train station, which remained intact apart from minor damage). On 3 March 1945 US troops entered Krefeld, among them the later U. S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. During the Cold War, the city was host to the 16th Signal Regiment of the United Kingdom's Royal Corps of Signals stationed at Bradbury Barracks. The town became part of the new state of North Rhine Westphalia after World War II.

Krefeld is connected to the Deutsche Bahn network with several stations, including its main station, Krefeld Hauptbahnhof. They are served by Intercity, Regional Express and Regionalbahn trains. The Düsseldorf based Rheinbahn operates a Stadtbahn service to the centrally located Rheinstraße stop. This line was the first electric inter city rail line in Europe, established in 1898, and commonly called the K Bahn because of the letter "K" used to denote the trains to Krefeld. Nowadays, in the VRR notation, it is called U76, with the morning and afternoon express trains numbered as U70, the line number there coloured red instead of the usual blue used for U Bahn lines. The term K Bahn, however, prevails in common usage. The city of Krefeld itself operates four tramway and several bus lines under the umbrella of SWK MOBIL, a city owned company. Since 2010, 19 of the oldest trams of the type Duewag GT8 were replaced by modern barrier free trams of the type Bombardier Flexity Outlook. SWK Mobil owns an option to buy another 19 trams of the same type to replace the last 19 Duewag M8 trams. The whole tram fleet will then be barrier free. Next to that the city plans to extend the line 044 in Krefeld Hüls to connect the northern district of Hüls with the Krefeld downtown area.

The headquarters of Fressnapf, a pet food retailer franchise company, are situated in Krefeld. The Nirosta steelworks, once owned by ThyssenKrupp, was sold in 2012 to Outokumpu.

Since 1964, the city has hosted an "honors program in foreign language (German) studies" for high school students from Indiana, United States. The program annually places approximately thirty carefully selected high school juniors with families in and around Krefeld for intensive German language training. Since 1973, the fire services of Krefeld and twin city Leicester have played each other in an annual 'friendly' football match.