Gronau, North Rhine-Westphalia

Gronau lies in the lowlands surrounding the Dinkel, which flows from the south to the north of the town. The Gildehauser Venn [de] lies to the northeast.

Documentary evidence of Gronau dates to 1365, and of district Epe to 1188.

Industrialisation took hold in Gronau with the founding of the first textile factory in 1854.^[3] Dutch investors, in particular, drove the growing textile industry. In 1875, railway lines were opened from Gronau to Münster, Dortmund, and Enschede.

With the growth of the textile industry and the founding of the Gronauer Bauverein (homebuilding) in the eastern part of the city (1893), an expansion of the settlement area began. By the time of World War I, a new town hall, the district court, the parish church of St. Antonius [de], schools, hospitals, an indoor swimming pool, waterworks, an electricity plant, and the city park had been built in Gronau.

On 27 December 1897, Gronau was granted town rights.^[4] In 1910, the skeleton of a Cretaceous plesiosaur was discovered and is now housed in the Geological-Paleontological Museum of Münster.^[5]

On the night of 9 to 10 November 1938, also known as "Reichspogromnacht", the synagogue in Wallstraße was desecrated in connection with the persecution of the Jewish population.^[6] Eventually, most Jews from Gronau and Epe were deported to the extermination camps. There is still a Jewish cemetery in Gronau today. In the Epe district, the former Jewish synagogue is currently being rebuilt as a cultural centre.^[7]

In 1975, Gronau and the municipality of Epe were merged into the new municipality of Gronau.^[8]

The bankruptcy of the van Delden Group [de], founded in 1854, in 1980-1981 marked the end of the era of the textile industry in Gronau.^[9]

Since 1989 an annual music festival, the Jazzfest Gronau [de],^[10] takes place in Gronau. A broad range of national and international musicians have performed at the festival, including Jan Garbarek, McCoy Tyner, Klaus Doldinger’s Passport, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Al Di Meola, Avishai Cohen, Al Jarreau, Ian Anderson, Richard Galliano, Ron Carter, Mother's Finest, Gregory Porter, Maceo Parker, Stefanie Heinzmann.^[11]

The Jazzfest is currently funded to a large extent by local and regional sponsors and enjoys a constantly growing audience. The annual number of visitors swings between 12,000 and 18,000 visitors (incl. open-air events). The share of foreign visitors is around 65%.^[11]

Gronau can be reached by road via the Autobahn A 30 and A 31, the Dutch Rijksweg 35, the Bundesstraße B 54n. Gronau (Westf) railway station connects Gronau with Enschede in the Netherlands via the Dortmund–Gronau railway and the Münster–Enschede railway. The nearest airports are Münster Osnabrück Airport and Enschede Airport Twente, although the latter has no scheduled flights.

The town is connected to the regional Flamingo cycle path.^[12]

The Dutch singer Rania Zeriri lives in Gronau. The Polish tennis player Agnieszka Radwańska grew up here; her father was a tennis coach at the local club. Blaise Nkufo, a Swiss footballer with African roots, former player of the Dutch football club FC Twente, lived in Gronau. Klaus Vogelgesang [de], a German artist, grew up in Gronau.

• City Park and Zoo – built before World War I
• Lake Driland, artificially created in the 1970s
• Rock'n'Pop Museum [de]^[17]

City Park in Gronau

Lake Driland [de]

Gronau is twinned with:^[18]

• Epe, Netherlands
• Bromsgrove, United Kingdom
• Mezőberény, Hungary