Barrier

‘Barrier’ referred to a way barrier with a toll which was levied to maintain the road. After the expansion of a first section of the Neuss-Bergheimer Communalstraße (today: Bergheimer Straße, L477) through Eppinghoven and Speck up to the Gohr municipal boundary such a toll was collected here ‘at the barrier’ from 1849 to 1926. The tariff amount was paid by the users of the road for one and a half miles.

Since 1849, the barrier on the Neuss-Bergheimer Communalstraße in the Prussian national colours black and white also prominently featured the toll house for the toll collector. It was a freestanding house, massively built with bricks and covered with Dutch roof tiles, with an attached stable. The leasing of the toll point was administered by the city of Neuss. Between 1455 and 1794, when the area belonged to the Electorate of Cologne, this site already featured a customs border point for Neuss.

After the decision of the city council of Neuss in 1926 to waive the toll collection for one year, the toll house ceased it operation after 77 years. The toll house inn kept the memory alive until the aftermath of the Second World War. In 1958, the old complex gave way to a new building. On 17 November 1958, the city council of Neuss decided to name the adjacent street ‘An der Barriere’ (At the Barrier). The replica of the barrier, initiated by Reuschenberg citizens, was inaugurated on 07 July 1990.

Sources and texts: Neuss municipal archives
Graphic design: Cornelius Uerlichs
Translation: A.C.T. Fachübersetzungen GmbH

This plaque was donated by: the heritage society Heimatverein Gartenvorstadt Reuschenberg 2000 e.V.