Rees

Rees is a town in the Kleve district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on the right bank of the Rhine about 20 kilometers east of Kleve. Founded in 1228 and granted municipal rights by the Archbishop of Cologne that year, it is considered the oldest town in the Lower Rhine area. The town built a fortified city wall between 1289 and 1350, passed to the County of Cleves in 1392, and later became part of Prussia in 1701. Rees was almost completely destroyed by an Allied air raid on February 16, 1945, during World War II, and had a Nazi forced labor camp operating nearby from November 1944 to March 1945. Its 2025 population was 21,446.