Rheindahlen
Rheindahlen (called Dalen from the Early Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period around 1700, and Dahlen until 1878) is a town in the western and largest borough of the city of Mönchengladbach in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Since the reorganisation of Monchengladbach's boroughs (Stadtbezirke) on 22 October 2009 Rheindahlen has been part of Mönchengladbach West. From the granting of Nideggen town rights in 1354 until the incorporation of the mayoralty of Rheindahlen into M.-Gladbach on 30 June 1921, the place was an independent town. In 1878, the town was renamed from Dahlen to Rheindahlen in the Prussian Province of Düsseldorf by order of Emperor William I. Its renaming was primarily for postal reasons in order to avoid confusing the Dahlen in the Rhine Province with the municipality of Dahlen in Saxony within the North German Postal Zone. Its old name linguistically meant Delle or "hollow", which refers to the location of the village in a depression. Geography Location and surrounding area Rheindahlen is located in Mönchengladbach West, the largest urban district in the city of Mönchengladbach. It lies to the south-west of the main urban area and borders on the municipality of Schwalmtal to the west and the county of Heinsberg to the southwest. Its neighbouring communities within the borough of Mönchengladbach are Hardt to the north, Rheydt to the east and Wickrath to the south. The centre of Rheindahlen is about 7.5 kilometres southwest of the city centre of Mönchengladbach. Landscape and geology Around Rheindahlen, the landscape is dominated by the western foothills of Jülich-Zülpich Börde. It is situated on the southern edge of the Lower Rhine Plain on the Schwalm-Nette Plateau which, in the western part of the borough is characterised by wetlands and woods. To the south is the source region of the Niers. The Rheindahlen landscape lies on the southern edge of the Mönchengladbach Loam Plain and rises towards the south. Its lowest point measures , its highest point is . The village itself is 70–. Geologically, the area belongs to the Lower Rhine Bay on whose western edge it lies. Its topmost soil layer consists mainly of loess which is highly suitable for agriculture and which was deposited during the last ice age in a layer up to 10 metres thick on the gravels and sands of the Rhine. Beneath this upper layer are gravels, sands, clays, and brown coal strata of the Tertiary. The brown coal seams of the Lower Rhine Bay are very thick in places and are mined in large open-cast pits (in the area of Rheindalen in the Garzweiler Mine); The brown coal seam of Morken has, for example, a thickness of around 150 metres. In permeable beds, such as gravel and sands, groundwater is present on several superimposed levels. These levels are separated by relatively impermeable layers of silt and clay. The groundwater is pumped out by wells and drainage measures around the opencast mine of Garzweiler. This extraction of the groundwater results in widespread mining damage