Winterswijk is a municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands.
Winterswijk (Winterswiek, Wenters) is a town with a population of some 30,000 in the Achterhoek which lies in the most eastern part of the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. It was formally known as Winethereswick, Winriswic or Wenterswic. Wic or the Anglo Saxon wich means the living place of a certain person. The person would likely have been called Wenether, Winitar or Winter.
Founded around 1000 AD it remained an isolated farming community until 1830 when the road from Borken to Zutphen via Winterswijk and Groenlo was built. Around 1840 many emigrated to America — Michigan in particular. After 1870 the town became a centre for textiles, such as spinning and weaving and indeed the Tricot fabriek employed a large proportion of the local population in its heyday. In 1878 the train line to Zutphen was built primarily for the textile industry, which was set up by Jan Willink. Some of the families such as the Willinks have lived there since 1284.
Winterswijk was accidentally liberated in 1944 by two lost British soldiers, one of whom was Bernard 'Peter' Lee. Lee and another soldier were driving a Jeep and became separated from their convoy. Taking the wrong road while trying to find the convoy, they ended up in Winterswijk. The soldiers were greeted by the majority of the town in celebration, waiving flags and throwing money at the two. Realizing that the Dutch thought they were being liberated, Lee and his companion fled thinking the German Army was still present in town. The German Army had retreated from the town a few days before. The story has been published in several local newspapers. Lee buried the majority of the money he received in a metal box in another Dutch town. He returned in 1978 to find a bus station had been built on the site.
Aalten Apeldoorn Arnhem Barneveld Berkelland Beuningen Brummen Bronckhorst Buren Culemborg Doesburg Doetinchem Druten Duiven Ede Elburg Epe Ermelo Geldermalsen Groesbeek Harderwijk Hattem Heerde Heumen Lingewaal Lingewaard Lochem Maasdriel Millingen aan de Rijn Montferland Neder-Betuwe Neerijnen Nijkerk Nijmegen Nunspeet Oldebroek Oost Gelre Oude IJsselstreek Overbetuwe Putten Renkum Rheden Rijnwaarden Rozendaal Scherpenzeel Tiel Ubbergen Voorst Wageningen West Maas en Waal Westervoort Wijchen Winterswijk Zaltbommel Zevenaar Zutphen
Coordinates: 51°58′N 6°43′E / 51.967, 6.717
Source: CIA Factbook, Wikipedia
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