Kamp-Linfort is a small town between Duisburg and the Netherlands, about 40 minutes from Düsseldorf, with an interesting past dating to more than 800 years ago. Nowadays, about 60,000 people live here, and they sure love their small town, offering both nature and the benefits of the big cities.
The name‘Kamp-Lintfort’ indicates the names of the two original settlements that formed it: ‘Kamp’ and ‘Lintfort’.
‘Kamp’ was a settlement that succesfully evolved around a French monastery, encouraging the founding of more monasteries, as these ended up extending up to the Baltic states. However, In 1802, Napoleon occupied Kamp and dissolved the monateries.
Today, however a few monks are living there again, and the monastery has become a tourist attraction, with its beautiful abbey and terrace garden; which is said to have been the inspiration for Sanssouci, the former summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia.
Quite differently, ‘Lintfort’ evolved around the mine Friedrich-Heinrich, which built most of the houses there (and to this day it can be confusing as they are all similar!) and continues to be one of the main employers in Kamp-Lintfort. The second big employer in Kamp-Lintfort was Siemens, which produced cell phones here. However, in 2005 Siemens sold their factory, which then declared bankruptcy and closed down the factory.
As a result, many people are unemployed here. To make matters worse, German coal is too expensive and the mines will be shut down, causing more jobs to be lost. Even though people love their Kamp-Lintfort, this might be a story with a sad ending. What will happen to this beautiful town? After all these years, will new companies come here, or will people leave Kamp-Lintfort?
