Hellenthal – city facts

Founding and age

For centuries the present municipal area was divided among several lordships, in particular Reifferscheid and Wildenburg, with shares of further lordships. Through the Act on the Reorganisation of Municipalities of the former District of Schleiden of 24 June 1969, the municipality of Hellenthal was formed on 1 July 1969 from the previously independent municipalities of Hellenthal, Hollerath, Udenbreth and Losheim; the municipal reorganisation of the years 1969 to 1972 brought these together, including further territory, into today’s municipality of Hellenthal.

According to the historical account of the municipality of Hellenthal, the municipal reorganisation of the years 1969 to 1972 brought the municipalities previously linked in the Amt—Hellenthal, Hollerath, Udenbreth and Losheim—together, including the so-called Ländchen, into the new municipality of Hellenthal. The municipality’s coat-of-arms page specifies that through the Act on the Reorganisation of Municipalities of the former District of Schleiden of 24 June 1969 the municipality of Hellenthal was formed on 1 July 1969 from the previously independent municipalities of Hellenthal, Hollerath, Udenbreth and Losheim.

A stone axe from the Neolithic period (4500–1700 BC), found at Büschem near Reifferscheid, provides according to the municipal history the first indication of human presence in prehistoric times; most of today’s municipal area was unsettled woodland in Roman times. Finds of ceramics and iron slag at Hönningen and Wollenberg as well as cremation graves at Giescheid and Hellenthal attest early traces. Around 920 Sibodo, an ancestor of the Counts of Are, built a church on the heights of Steinfeld; the allodium of Steinfeld later included, among other things, the lordships of Reifferscheid and Wildenburg. The lords of Reifferscheid are first named at the end of the 12th century; around 1195 the brothers Gerhard and Philipp divided the land into Reifferscheid and Wildenburg. Concerning Burg Wildenburg, the municipality states that the castle remodelled in the 18th century by the abbots of Steinfeld using medieval remains was already mentioned in 1190, was owned by the lords of Palandt from 1414 to 1639, and was purchased by Steinfeld Abbey in the 18th century. Most of today’s municipal area belonged until the French occupation of 1794 to the lordships of Reifferscheid and Wildenburg; in addition, the lordships of Schleiden, Kronenburg and Schönberg extended into the area. With the entry of French troops in autumn 1794 the medieval territorial lordships ended; Reifferscheid, Kronenburg and Schleiden became canton capitals with subordinate mairies. Prussia took over the area in 1819 and largely retained the administrative division: Hellenthal, Hollerath and Udenbreth formed mayoralties that later belonged to the District of Schleiden. In the 19th century engineered roads were built; in 1884 the Kall–Hellenthal railway line was opened. From autumn 1944 to spring 1945 the area lay on the main battle line of the Second World War. The municipal reorganisation of 1969–1972 created today’s municipality; by deed of 8 July 1988 it received the right to bear its present coat of arms. According to company information, HOLTEC GmbH & Co. KG has been based in the municipality of Hellenthal since 1970. The municipality’s street directory lists, besides the main settlement, among others the districts Blumenthal, Hecken, Hollerath, Losheim, Miescheid, Ramscheid, Reifferscheid, Udenbreth, Wiesen, Wolfert and Zingscheid as well as numerous further hamlets and settlement names, including Dommersbach, Rescheid, Kehr, Wildenburg and Grube Wohlfahrt.

Important information

The municipality of Hellenthal describes itself as a National Park municipality and places tradition and progress side by side: castles and churches, an attractive Eifel landscape and modern industry. On around 138 square kilometres the municipality comprises, according to its own account, no fewer than 61 villages and hamlets. The street directory names, besides the main settlement, among others Blumenthal, Hecken, Hollerath, Losheim, Miescheid, Ramscheid, Reifferscheid, Udenbreth, Wiesen, Wolfert and Zingscheid as well as numerous hamlets and settlement names. By deed of 8 July 1988 it bears a coat of arms divided blue and silver, with a silver Cross of Saint Anthony above and a reference below to the ancestral arms of Reifferscheid. On the municipal territory at Kehr, according to the municipal account, lies at the same time the southernmost point of the municipality, the district of Euskirchen, the administrative district of Cologne and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. According to its own National Park presentation, Hellenthal lies with around 56 hectares in the Eifel National Park and maintains a National Park information point in the town hall.

According to the municipality, Hellenthal lies in the centre of the Eifel at the southern tip of North Rhine-Westphalia and borders the Belgian Eifel to the west. The municipality gives the geographical position as about 50° 29–30′ north latitude and 06° 26–27′ east longitude. The municipal boundary is altogether 84.00 km long, of which 28.80 km is the border with the Kingdom of Belgium and 12.80 km the border with the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. According to the municipal table, the greatest extent is 21.00 km north–south and 16.00 km east–west. According to the municipal account, the Eifel National Park stretches between Nideggen in the northeast and Belgium in the southwest and comprises the southern parts of the districts of Aachen and Düren as well as the western part of the district of Euskirchen; Hellenthal lies with around 56 ha in the northwestern part of its municipal area within the National Park. The large protected area, lying around 65 kilometres southwest of Cologne, is given by the municipality as about 110 square kilometres. Near the village of Kehr, according to the municipal account, lies the southernmost point of the municipality of Hellenthal, of the district of Euskirchen, of the administrative district of Cologne and of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia; the exact point is the confluence of two small streams at the Losheimer Graben.

According to the municipality’s tourism presentation, around 80 percent of the municipal area is covered by unsettled nature with meadows and forests, hills and valleys, crossed by numerous brooks and rivers. The municipality’s land-use balance shows a total area of 137.82 km², of which 73.93 km² is forest and 48.80 km² agricultural land. In the National Park portion, according to municipal information, majestic beech forests, gnarled oak woods, pristine stream valleys and rugged rocks shape the landscape and provide refuges for more than 1,800 endangered animal and plant species. The municipality’s hiking pages describe an attractive upland landscape with extensive forests, valleys and heights as well as species-rich mat-grass pastures, mountain meadows and heaths in the Ländchen. From late March to early May, according to the municipal account, wild yellow daffodils turn the meadow valleys of the upper Olef valley into yellow carpets of blossom in the Nordeifel Nature Park. The municipality describes the National Park slogan “Wald, Wasser und Wildnis” and names seasonal features from the daffodil bloom to the glassy winter forest.

On the ground of the former iron industry, according to the municipal history, manufacturing businesses in steel, stainless steel and plastics processing spread out, earning the municipality the name of an industrial location. At the same time tourism was promoted. According to the municipality’s portrait, industry in the valley locations of Hellenthal and Blumenthal with around 1,500 jobs is the economic foundation; the businesses are said to have grown on the soil of the Eifel industry that existed until the mid-19th century and was known worldwide. According to company information, HOLTEC GmbH & Co. KG has been based in Hellenthal since 1970 and manufactures plant for the wood-processing industry at the Dommersbach site; among other awards, the company received the German Innovation Award 2026 for the concept “Sägewerk der Zukunft”.

Hellenthal promotes hiking and cycling offers, the wildlife park with birds of prey station, the Olef reservoir, the visitor mine Grube Wohlfahrt, the Wildenburg, the hill castle Reifferscheid, the Weißer Stein leisure area, the daffodil bloom in the Olef valley and a starlit night landscape. Named among other things are 22 EifelSchleifen and EifelSpuren, Freifahrt-Eifel mountain-bike routes and the roughly 125 km long Kyll cycle path from Belgian Weywertz via Hellenthal-Losheimergraben to Trier. The municipality names over 220 km of marked hiking trails, including the castles route from the Olef reservoir via Reifferscheid to the Wildenburg, the Rur-Olef route in combination with the Eifelsteig, daffodil hiking trails in the Olef and Jansbach valleys, the 94 km long Path of Remembrance through the German-Belgian border area, and three Geo-Routes totalling 75 km. Nordeifel Tourismus GmbH describes the 37 km long Rur-Olef route as a partner trail of the Eifelsteig from Gemünd via Schleiden to Hellenthal and on to Einruhr; stages include, among others, Gemünd–Hellenthal (17 km) and Hellenthal–Einruhr (20 km), with the return via the Eifelsteig. According to Nordeifel Tourismus, ideal starting and end points for hikes and cycle tours are the cycling and hiking stations Hellenthal and Blumenthal. The tourist information office and the National Park information point are in the town hall, Rathausstraße 2; the municipality also refers to the exhibition “Wildnis(t)räume” and to Vogelsang IP in the Eifel National Park as an exhibition, culture and education centre. Shareholders of Nordeifel Tourismus GmbH include, among others, the district of Euskirchen as well as several municipalities including Hellenthal.

Prominent cultural-historical sites include the castle ruin Reifferscheid with its historic village centre and the Wildenburg as the only undestroyed hill castle in the district of Euskirchen. According to the municipal account, the Wildenburg stands on a steep, narrow ridge; the keep and dungeon still exist, at the entrance to the outer bailey stands a 16th-century gatekeeper’s lodge, and part of the building serves as a church. The premises are today in private ownership, can be hired for celebrations and are an outpost of the registry office. In Hellenthal-Losheim on the German-Belgian border lies the Ardenner Cultur Boulevard with four core attractions: ArsKrippana as Europe’s largest and most important nativity-art exhibition on more than 2,500 m² with craftwork from over 60 countries; ArsTechnica as one of Europe’s first digital model railways with over 2,000 m of track and over 100 trains; ArsFIGURA with around 200 antique porcelain, wax, papier-mâché, wood and celluloid dolls from 1800 to 1940 in reconstructed parlours and a merchant’s shop; and ArsMineralis as a sales exhibition of minerals and fossils. The portrait names for ArsTechnica several tens of thousands of visitors annually. Nordeifel Tourismus also names the exhibitions ArsArdenn and ARSMineralis. The municipal page on the Ardenner Cultur Boulevard also lists the special exhibition “Losheim 1945–1958 – Grenze und ihre Geschichte” with themes of the Westwall, customs, coffee smuggling and reconstruction. Every year on the first Advent weekend a Christmas market is held on the Reifferscheid castle grounds which, according to the municipal account, has attracted many visitors for over 20 years.

Central sights according to the municipal account include, among others, the Olef reservoir, Hellenthal wildlife park with birds of prey station, visitor mine Grube Wohlfahrt, Wildenburg, Burg Reifferscheid (first mention 1106), Weißer Stein leisure area with observation tower and SternenBlick, the St. Eduard Chapel (forest chapel) near the Olef reservoir, and Westwall remains. According to municipal information, the wildlife park covers 64 hectares with a good dozen native or formerly native animal species, including lynx, red deer, fallow deer, roe deer and sika deer, as well as one of Europe’s most important birds of prey stations with around 40 birds of prey species and regular flight demonstrations; the grounds are accessed among other things by the Adlerexpress. According to the portrait, the oldest building fabric of the castle ruin Reifferscheid goes back to the 11th century; the Wildenburg is described as a 12th-century hill castle and, according to the municipal page, was already mentioned in 1190. At Kehr on the Losheimer Graben lies the southernmost point of municipality, district, administrative district and state of North Rhine-Westphalia; a bronze plaque of 1986 on a Westwall dragon’s-teeth obstacle points this out. The municipality’s National Park information point is in the tourist information office in the town hall.

The municipality lists, among other things, a primary school with main site in Reifferscheid and branch site in Hellenthal as well as a secondary modern school (Hauptschule) in Hellenthal, several day-care centres, sports facilities, community halls and eight fire-station buildings. For technical infrastructure the municipal table names, among other things, around 729.5 km of roads in total, 39.4 km of footpaths, 142.1 km of sewers, 24 pumping stations as well as 16 cemeteries, 10 community halls, 6 sports and club houses, one event hall, one administrative building and one municipal works yard.

According to its own tourism presentation, Hellenthal is among the few places in Europe not affected by light pollution, with a particularly clear night sky; at the Weißer Stein, under good conditions, the Milky Way can be seen with the naked eye. From late March to early May wild yellow daffodils bloom in the meadow valleys of the upper Olef valley and turn the meadows in the Nordeifel Nature Park into yellow carpets of blossom; a spring walk through the wild daffodil meadows in Hellenthal-Hollerath is especially named. The starting point of the signed daffodil circular hiking trails is the Hollerather Knie car park on the B265 (Luxemburger Straße). Every two years the municipality, in cooperation with the Nordeifel Nature Park and the NRW Foundation, celebrates the traditional daffodil festival. A further distinctive feature is the southernmost point of North Rhine-Westphalia at Kehr. The municipality also describes itself as a gateway to the Eifel National Park with around 56 hectares of National Park area in the municipal territory.

• National Park municipality Hellenthal
• Location on the German-Belgian border
• Olef Reservoir
• Wildlife park with birds of prey station
• Hill castle Reifferscheid
• Wildenburg
• Weißer Stein recreation area
• Starry night landscape
• Grube Wohlfahrt visitor mine
• Historic iron industry in the Schleidener Tal
• Starry night landscape and SternenBlick
• 61 villages and hamlets
• Ardenner Cultur Boulevard with ArsKrippana, ArsTechnica and ArsFIGURA
• Christmas market at Reifferscheid Castle
• St. Eduard Chapel (forest chapel)
• Westwall relics and dragon's teeth lines
• Municipal coat of arms with Antonius cross
• Southernmost point of North Rhine-Westphalia near Kehr
• Over 220 km of marked hiking trails
• Daffodil bloom and daffodil festival in the Olef Valley
• Path of Remembrance in the German-Belgian border region
• HOLTEC as industrial site since 1970
• Europe-active municipality 2021
• Geo routes totaling 75 km
• Castle route to Reifferscheid and Wildenburg
• Rur-Olef Route as partner trail of the Eifelsteig
• 64-hectare wildlife park with around 40 bird of prey species
• ArsKrippana on more than 2,500 m²
• National Park information point in the town hall
• Grubenhaus Museum from 1999 in Rescheid
• Special exhibition Losheim 1945–1958 on border history

• Schleiden
• Kall
• Blankenheim
• Dahlem
• Nettersheim
• Nideggen
• Büllingen
• Monschau
• Ormont
• Mechernich
• Gemünd
• Einruhr
• Rescheid
• Udenbreth
• Reifferscheid
• Blumenthal
• Oberhausen
• Olef

Notable events

Documented turning points in local history include, among other things, witch persecutions in the lordship of Wildenburg in the 17th century, fires and wartime destruction, the decline and transformation of the iron industry, construction of the reservoir, the Westwall, the battle line of the Second World War, the municipal reorganisation, the building of the forest chapel after the hunting accident of 1897, the marking of the southernmost point of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1986, the designation as a Europe-active municipality in 2021, the rebuilding of the mine house in 1999, and the museum presentation of Losheim’s border history 1945–1958.

Notable people

In the official historical account and the portrait pages of the municipality of Hellenthal, territorial rulers of the Reifferscheid and Wildenburg region, early ecclesiastical donors, local office-holders of the post-war and coat-of-arms period, and commemorative figures such as Count Eduard von Briey are named; the history and Westwall texts draw among others on Walter Hanf. Also identifiable are, among others, the initiator of the bronze plaque at the southernmost point, Regierungspräsident Antwerpes, the onomastic scholar Günter Breuer, and company founders and executives of HOLTEC.

Sources