Baumberg
Baumberg (also Monheim-Baumberg) is part of the city of Monheim am Rhein in the district of Mettmann in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) at the southern border of Düsseldorf, placed on the eastern bank of the river Rhine. Baumberg consists of an area of about 6 km², with about 14,000 residents in 2023 (one third of the 43,000 in Monheim am Rhein). History Baumberg was first recorded in 1296 as "Boimberg", a village part of the Earldom of Berg. The tower of the Catholic Church St Dionysius which was built in medieval times is left until today whereas the church has been rebuilt according to blueprints of the architect Bernhard Rotterdam in the 1950s. Until the 20th century Baumberg was a rural village, inhabited by mainly fishermen, (goat-)farmers and traditional craftsmen like basket weavers. The eel smokehouse in Baumberg existed from 1857 to 2009 and used fish from its own catch until water pollution in the Rhine became too severe in the 1960s, and then eels from Northern Europe. At the end of the year 1900 about 1,200 people were living in Baumberg and 98 per cent of them were Catholics. The communities of Monheim and Baumberg joined the goat breeding association