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.