The history of Laurensberg

Laurensberg can look back on a long history rich in tradition. In Roman times, there was a Roman sanctuary on the Kirchberg, which was proven by the discovery of a four-god stone. Roman manor houses were also located in the Laurensberg district.

A church was built on the Kirchberg in Carolingian times and was first mentioned in a document on October 17, 870. In that document, Louis the German donated the church to Prüm Abbey "ad antiquum campum", i.e. the church at the old camp, the estate on the Kirchberg that is still called that today.

In 896, King Zwentibold of Lorraine gave the Seffent and Schurzelt estates to his relative, Abbess Gisela of Nivelles, the daughter of King Lothar II of Lorraine. Later, the church and probably the estates reverted to the Empire and thus to Archbishop Engelbert of Cologne.

The first documentary evidence of the place name St. Laurentii Bergh dates back to 1218, when the archbishop donated the church to the Marienstift in Aachen, of which he had previously been provost. At this time, Laurensberg and its parish church were already the center of an extensive parish that included Orsbach, Seffent, Laurensberg, Vetschau and Soers as well as Richterich, Scheid, Horbach and Steinstraß.

However, Laurensberg was not an independent municipality until the 18th century, but formed a "Hirtschaft" or "Quartier" in the Aachen Empire and belonged to the county of "Pont".

The proximity of the Aachen Palatinate is probably the reason why royal ministerial estates settled early on in this area of the former Roman estates, which had passed into Frankish fiscal ownership, and gave rise to numerous important estates, as a result of which agriculture, supported by the mills on the water-rich streams, remained dominant.

Laurensberg has seen and experienced both good and bad times in the course of its historical development. The wars and feuds that have been fought in Aachen's surroundings over the centuries have also left their mark on the municipality of Laurensberg. Often plundered by angry hordes of soldiers, its inhabitants had to help finance the defensive wars of the magistrate of the "Free Imperial City" of Aachen with high contributions.

It was not until the time of the French Revolution that conditions changed and the old ties of the feudal system were dissolved. During the Revolutionary Wars, the community once again had to endure alternating quarterings and the associated excesses on the part of the Imperial and French forces, and it was not until 1797, when the entire area on the left bank of the Rhine came under French rule, that the armed conflicts ceased.

Laurensberg, with the boundaries of the old parish, first became a municipality and then a mayor's office under the new administrative regulations. After the fall of Napoleon, Laurensberg belonged to the Rhine Province and thus to Prussia.

Once again, the community suffered through the two world wars of this century, and Laurensberg also had many fallen and missing citizens to mourn. Although the fury of war swept over the community, it was spared major destruction.

In the last two decades before its incorporation into Aachen in 1972, Laurensberg had developed into a suburban community of Aachen thanks to generously developed new residential areas in an excellent location. This trend has continued to this day, which is easily demonstrated by the increase in the population from 9,978 in 1970 to 20,436 at the end of 1995.