Neunkirchen

Neunkirchen, or Ober-Neunkirchen, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, on the Blies, 12 m. N.W. of Saarbriicken by rail. Pop. (1905) 3 2 ,35 8, consisting almost equally of Protestants and Roman Catholics. It contains two Gothic Evangelical and a Romanesque Roman Catholic church, several schools, and a monument to Freiherr von Stumm (d.IgoI), a former owner of the iron-works here. The principal industrial establishment is a huge iron-foundry, employing upwards of 4800 hands, and producing about 320,000 tons of pig-iron per annum; and there are also boiler-works, saw-mills, soap manufactories and a brewery. Around the town are important coal mines from which about 22 million tons of coal are raised annually. The castle built in 1570 was destroyed in 1797, and is now a ruin. The town is first mentioned in 1280, and became important industrially during the 18th century.