Aachen – Stadt des verborgenen Wassers

Aachen's textile industry, dominated by the processing of wool into yarns and fine cloth, is largely a thing of the past. That was not always the case: since the Middle Ages, Aachen cloth had been able to compete with cloth from other woolen cloth centers on the German and European markets thanks to its quality. The relatively soft, low-lime water in Aachen played an important role in the production of cloth, for example in wool washing, wet finishing of woven raw materials, and dyeing. In addition, the streams in Aachen served as a guarantee for the operation of fulling and spinning mills in the pre-industrial and early industrial periods. Finally, the issue of water pollution caused by the Aachen cloth industry must be addressed.

Jochen Buhren studied social sciences, German language and literature, and economic history. He worked as a teacher and was involved for many years in setting up and running the “Tuchwerk Aachen” textile museum.

With the event series “Aachen – City of Hidden Water,” Frankenb(u)erger e.V. and the Bürgerstiftung Lebensraum Aachen (Aachen Community Foundation) aim to broaden perspectives and present the interrelationships between the individual aspects of this broad topic of water.