Every design for Mönchengladbach

Until 1888 the town was plain Gladbach. To tell it apart from the other Gladbach it became München-Gladbach, after its abbey, and the spelling kept shifting until 1960 finally settled it as Mönchengladbach. Locals never quite adopted the long version: Gladbach it still often is, and Jlabbach in the dialect. The abbey itself was founded in 974 by Gero, Archbishop of Cologne, and the town grew up around it, named after a narrow brook that now runs mostly underground.

Mönchengladbach lies west of the Rhine, roughly halfway between Düsseldorf and the Dutch border, in flat Lower Rhine country that rises unexpectedly into hills around the Abteiberg and at Odenkirchen in the south. Woods and parks cover large parts of the city, and the Hardter Wald in the west belongs to the Maas-Schwalm-Nette nature park. Since 1975 Rheydt has been part of the same city, which explains why it has two main railway stations – the only German city that does.

Coming home to Gladbach means stepping off at one of those two stations, passing Der Dicke Turm or Schloss Rheydt, and knowing exactly which half of town is yours.