Eschweiler

City in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, 15 km/9 mi north of Aachen; population (1994) 56,200. It has opencast brown coal (lignite) mines, power stations, and plants producing machinery, sugar, food, and textiles.

Eschweiler was the birthplace of the industrialist August Thyssen (1842-1926), who was responsible for developing the Ruhr as Germany's main region for heavy industry and coalmining in the late 19th century, focused on Duisburg.