Stumbling Stones (Stolpersteine) in Kempen
Small brass plaques set into the pavement across Kempen commemorate residents who were persecuted and murdered under National Socialism. They are part of Gunter Demnig's Europe-wide memorial project.
In many places throughout Kempen's streets you will find Stolpersteine – small brass plaques set flush into the pavement that commemorate the victims of Nazi persecution. They return remembrance to the very spots where these people once lived, in the midst of everyday life in the town.
At a Glance
- Type
- Decentralised memorial project in public streets
- Artist
- Gunter Demnig (project running since 1992)
- Number in Kempen
- at least 84 stones (as listed on Wikipedia)
- Districts
- Kempen (town centre) and St. Hubert
- First installation
- 15 December 2015
- Installation dates
- at least 8 between 2015 and 2022
- Access
- freely accessible, no opening hours, no admission fee
- Local initiative
- PROJEKT STOLPERSTEINE (Kempen)
The Project
The Stolpersteine are an art project by the artist Gunter Demnig, which began in Cologne in 1992 – the first stone was laid on 16 December 1992 in front of the historic Cologne City Hall. Each stone consists of a square brass plaque measuring 96 × 96 millimetres, mounted on a concrete cube 100 millimetres high and set flush into the street paving. The letters are struck by hand. As a rule, a stone lies in front of the last home a person freely chose to live in before being persecuted, deported, murdered, driven out or driven to suicide during the Nazi era.
Stolpersteine have since been laid in Germany and 31 other European countries; they are regarded as the largest decentralised memorial in the world. On 26 May 2023, Demnig laid the 100,000th Stolperstein in Nuremberg.
The Installations in Kempen
The first Stolpersteine in Kempen were laid on 15 December 2015. In the years that followed, more were added on at least eight occasions – including 24 November 2016, 18 December 2017, 29 May 2018, 27 May 2019, 22 June 2020, 17 June 2021 and 9 June 2022. To date at least 84 stones have been created in this way, spread across the centre of Kempen and the district of St. Hubert.
They are dedicated to individuals and to entire families of the town, among them the Mendel, Hirsch, Bruch, Goldschmidt, Winter, Rath, Servos and Lambertz families. All names, inscriptions, addresses and photographs of the individual stones are documented in the Wikipedia article "Liste der Stolpersteine in Kempen".
The Local Initiative
The installations in Kempen are the work of the local initiative "PROJEKT STOLPERSTEINE (Kempen)" (stolpersteine-kempen.de). The historical research behind them draws in part on the work of Hans Kaiser, whose book "Kempen unterm Hakenkreuz – Eine niederrheinische Kreisstadt im Nationalsozialismus" appeared in the publication series of the Viersen district (volumes 49,1 and 49,2).
Visiting
The stones lie freely accessible in public streets, distributed across the town. There are no opening hours and no admission fee. Those wishing to seek out the locations can find the complete overview, with all sites, in the Wikipedia list mentioned above.
Gallery
Map
Blue dots: other places nearby — tap to explore.
Address
Engerstraße (u.v.a.)
47906 Kempen
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Sources & links
- Official website
- Wikipedia (retrieved 2026-07-12)
- Official website (retrieved 2026-07-12)
- rp-online.de (retrieved 2026-07-12)
Auto-generated, last verified: 2026-07-12
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