Small but nice: In Gescher, THE GOOD LIFE awaits you between the idyllic meadows of the Berkel, colourful weekly markets and many leisure opportunities. The town has a good 17,000 inhabitants and consists of two districts and five farming communities. It owes its nickname "bell town" to a historic bell foundry.
The town of Gescher is located in the Borken district to the south of Ahaus between Stadtlohn and Coesfeld and therefore very close to the border with the Netherlands. It is only 30 minutes by car to Winterswjik, which regularly attracts visitors with open Sundays. Enschede can be reached from Gescher in around 50 minutes - and Münster, Dortmund and Münster/Osnabrück Airport (FMO) are only an hour's drive away. The district town of Borken is half an hour away.
You can also reach the sea very quickly: via the nearby A31 motorway, you can reach the North Sea coast from Gescher in just two and a half hours.
Tip: The Münsterland is a cycling region! 4500 kilometres of cycle paths offer you almost unlimited possibilities in the city and in the countryside: you can easily commute to work by bike and go on great tours with friends and family.
The two large districts are the town centre of Gescher and the district of Hochmoor, which is a 15-minute drive from the centre. The five districts of Harwick, Estern, Büren, Tungerloh-Capellen and Tungerloh-Pröbsting are located around the town centre.
The inner city is characterised by well-kept town houses, the spacious villas of former textile manufacturers and the church of St. Pancratius. To the north, east and west are green residential areas. The small river Berkel, which even has its own festival dedicated to it, flows to the west of the city.
Although rental and purchase prices are following the general property trend overall, there are still numerous niches to be discovered in Münsterland when it comes to building, buying or renting. Here you can find the average purchase and rental prices for a house or flat in the rural area of Münsterland. In the property market report, you can view information on sales and price trends on the property market in the Borken district.
The Hochmoor district is Gescher's second residential centre with a good 2,000 inhabitants. Originally there was actually a moor on this site, but today it is home to a few small shops and mainly housing estates.
In Gescher there is an old custom that is distantly reminiscent of Saint Martin and has the beautiful name "Äppelken poop Äppelken" ("little apples, little apples"): Every year on the day of St. Michael the Archangel (29 September), the children of the town go from house to house singing an old Low German song. In return, they are given sweets. Originally, they were given the leftover apples from the gardens - hence the name of this old custom.
Gescher is the town of short distances: bakeries and supermarkets are spread over both parts of the town. Every Thursday, the weekly market takes place in the centre. From May to September you can also visit the popular after-work market , which is accompanied by a changing musical and cultural programme.
Gescher does not have a classic pedestrian zone, but you can still find everything you need along the main street . For example, you can stop off in cosy restaurants, cafés and bistros in the town centre or browse for beautiful individual items in small boutiques. You'll also find lots of accessories for bicycles or e-bikes in several specialist bicycle shops. And if you want to shop in a completely different way, you can either drive across the border to Winterswijk or to the Designer Outlet in Ochtrup. Both are only about 30 minutes away from Gescher by car.
There are about ten childcare facilities in Gescher, including an independent daycare centre, church childcare centres and some run by the German Red Cross (DRK). You can register for a place at a childcare facility directly through the respective institution. An overview is available on the municipality's website.
Gescher has a total of six schools for children and young people of all ages:
Two secondary schools and three grammar schools are located in neighbouring Coesfeld.
Gescher was long characterised by the textile industry and agriculture - as evidenced by the textile company HUESKER Syntheticwhich still has its headquarters in the town of bells. However, Gescher has many other economic sectors to offer, from the metal and plastics industry to waste disposal and service companies to software companies, such as d.velop, with high growth potential. The HIMMEL Technologies Group, headquartered in Gescher, brings together a total of eight companies from the fields of machine and drive technology, automation technology, plant engineering, water treatment and environmental technology.
