DUREN

city, North Rhine-Westphalia Land (state), western Germany. It lies along the Ruhr River, on the northeastern slopes of the Eifel Hills. A Frankish settlement first mentioned in 748, it grew from the Villa Duria of Pippin III the Short, the king of the Franks. It was subsequently the seat of diets and synods under Charlemagne and the base for several of his Saxon campaigns. After passing to the dukes of Jlich in about 1242, it was destroyed (1543) in a war between William V of Jlich and the Holy Roman emperor Charles V and was later rebuilt. Almost totally destroyed again in World War II, Dren has been largely reconstructed. The annexations in the early 1970s of Gurzenich and Birkesdorf enlarged the city's area by more than half. Dren produces paper, metal goods, textiles, glass, sugar, and chemicals. Pop. (1996 est.) 90,274.