Mönchengladbach

Mönchengladbach (German pronunciation: [mœnçn̩ˈɡlatbax]), formerly known as München Gladbach is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located west of the Rhine half way between Düsseldorf and the Dutch border.

Mönchengladbach is home of the football club Borussia Mönchengladbach, Formula One race car drivers Nick Heidfeld and Heinz-Harald Frentzen, author/cartoonist Walter Moers, cabaret artist Volker Pispers, philosopher Hans Jonas, Goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen and the former football players and managers Günther Netzer and Jupp Heynckes. Joseph Pilates, the creator of the Pilates method of physical fitness, was born here in 1883.

History

Name and origins

The original name of the city was Gladbach, which is even today often applied to the town. To distinguish the town from another town of the same name (the present Bergisch Gladbach), it took the name München-Gladbach in 1888. This spelling could mislead people to think that Gladbach was a borough of Munich (München in German), and consequently the name was changed to Mönchen-Gladbach in 1950 and Mönchengladbach in 1960.

Mönchengladbach (electoral district)

Mönchengladbach is one of the 299 single member constituencies (German: Wahlkreis) used for the German parliament, the Bundestag. One of sixty four constituencies in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, it is coterminous with the city of Mönchengladbach. The constituency elects one representative under the mixed member proportional representation (MMP) system. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as constituency 109.

The constituency has existed since the 1965 election, when it replaced the former Rheydt – M.Gladbach – Viersen constituency. Like its predecessor, the constituency has been held by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in most elections since its creation. The exception was the 1998 election, the only election in which it was won by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). The current representative is Günter Krings of the CDU, who retained the constituency at the 2013 election.

Boundaries

The Rheydt – M.Gladbach – Viersen constituency which was created in 1949 contained the cities of Mönchengladbach and Rheydt (which was merged with the city of Mönchengladbach in 1975) and the district of Viersen. The constituency assumed its current name at the 1965 election, when Rheydt was removed. For the 1980 election, the Viersen district was removed and Rheydt, which had become part of Mönchengladbach city in 1975, was restored. The boundaries have been unchanged since then.