City history

Welcome to the town on the Itter River, which is more than a thousand years old. A medieval document shows that a court of the archbishop of Cologne already existed in Hilden in 985. Soil finds provide information about an earlier settlement in the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. The farm developed into a village. At the beginning of the 13th century, one of the most important architectural monuments in the Lower Rhine region was built, the present-day Reformation Church, which was originally dedicated to St. Jacob. Hilden's most famous buildings date from the 16th and 17th centuries. In addition to the two reformed theologians Anton and Wilhelm Hüls, the wound surgeon Wilhelm Fabry (1560-1634) deserves special mention. Because of the development of new instruments and surgical methods, he is considered the founder of modern surgery in Germany.

After the brief French rule at the beginning of the 19th century, Hilden took a rapid rise since the incorporation of the Rhineland into the Kingdom of Prussia in 1815.

Important stations on the way from the village to the town were the first pharmacy, a post office, lanterns for street lighting and a savings bank. With the onset of industrialization, the textile industry first came to Hilden, followed shortly by metal processing companies and finally leather manufacturing. After the town was elevated to the status of a city in 1861, the connection to the railroad network in 1874 was a milestone for the development of the young town.

Hilden received its own town coat of arms in 1900, the same year as the first town hall. The period after the First World War was marked by unemployment, inflation and strikes.

This was followed by the years of National Socialism with persecution of political opponents, oppression and forced labor. One of the darker sides of the city's history was the murder of Jewish citizens on Reichspogromnacht.

Due to refugees and displaced persons, the population of Hilden grew rapidly after the Second World War. The building boom and economic miracle turned the city into a large construction site. But soon the economic structure changed. Leather and textiles said goodbye, and the large companies from the metal sector abandoned Hilden as a location around 1980. The city accepted the challenge and managed the structural change. The settlement of businesses in the following years was characterized by a mix of industries. Today, the vast majority of companies in Hilden are service providers. Conveniently located with good connections to the surrounding major cities and a major airport, Hilden presents itself today with its historic city center around the Old Market and the Reformation Church with a wide range of goods in the pedestrian zone as a lively city; in which it is worth living.

("Hilden" ed. Wolfgang Ruland 2006)