Qualla: Eilendorf (Aachen)

Eilendorf (Aachen): Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Trockennasenaffe, CC0. The name used to be Erlendorf, meaning village of the alders, because alders need wet ground and the soil here held water. Then Aachen mouths got hold of it. The local dialect rounded the consonants, slurred the syllables, smoothed out the consonant cluster that had named the place - and Erlendorf gradually became Eilendorf. The town's actual trees, the alders that gave it the name, are mostly gone. The wetness is mostly drained. But the linguistic fossil persists, repeated by 15,000 inhabitants who live in an Aachen borough that still keeps two crossed mining hammers on its coat of arms.

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Image: Trockennasenaffe | CC0

Eilendorf (Aachen): Smithsonite and the Cornelius Horn

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Trockennasenaffe, CC0. Eilendorf grew up around a smithsonite mine - smithsonite being a zinc carbonate ore that the medieval Rhineland prized for making brass. There was a dolomite quarry as well, and a needle manufactory. None of these survive in operation. But the coat of arms, divided vertically, k...

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Image: Trockennasenaffe | CC0

Eilendorf (Aachen): The Foreign Armies Came Through

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Trockennasenaffe, CC0. Sitting on the road between Aachen and Cologne, Eilendorf collected centuries of trouble that had nothing to do with anyone living there. From 1577 to 1583 foreign troops involved in the Cologne War billeted themselves on local farms, taking what they wanted. From 1630 to 1640 th...

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Image: Trockennasenaffe | CC0

Eilendorf (Aachen): View from the Wolfsberg

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Trockennasenaffe, CC0. The highest ground in Eilendorf is a hill called the Wolfsberg, or Gottes Segen - God Bless. It rises to 230 meters above sea level, which sounds modest until you stand on it and look. From the top, the whole basin of Aachen unfolds: the cathedral spire to the west, the Lousberg ...

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Image: Trockennasenaffe | CC0

Eilendorf (Aachen): Two Churches, One Parish

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit ArthurMcGill, CC BY-SA 4.0. St. Severin Church traces back to the founding of Kornelimünster Abbey. Abbot Hyazinth Alfons - Count von Suys, who held the office from 1713 to 1745 - laid the foundation stone for a new place of worship on the site of an earlier, probably Romanesque church. The Cologne master b...

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Image: ArthurMcGill | CC BY-SA 4.0

Eilendorf (Aachen): Pannhaus, Pranger, and the Slow Erasure

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit A.Savin, FAL. The oldest surviving structure in Eilendorf is the Pannhaus Brewery, a building once associated with the abbey. A cornerstone added at some later date used to serve as the village pranger - the pillory where wrongdoers were put on public display. Half a century ago there were sti...

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Image: A.Savin | FAL