The name of the glacial stage of Tiglian (part of the Pleistocene) is derived from Tegelen because of the many fossils found there from this era in the local clay.

This explains the differences between the local dialects of the neighbouring towns and the rivalry between these parts of the city that persists to this day.

Economic and social life before that war was dominated by a small number of factory-owning families that would scratch each other's backs.

The producers of clay products claimed that the embargo on Germany brought them to the brink of bankruptcy, and the only way they could survive was to drastically reduce wages.

The local clergy helped negotiate a settlement allowing labourers to return to work for a salary that barely exceeded subsistence levels.

It later transpired that there had never been any risk of any of the producers going bankrupt, and that this drastic reduction in labour cost had allowed them to make exorbitant profits.

One chimney, previously owned by a stone cutter named Canoy Herfkens, is still standing as a reminder of Tegelen's industrial heyday.

By far the most famous of these is "Baron" Joachim Reinhold von Glasenapp [nl], a Prussian aristocrat who inherited the castle of Holtmuhle in the 18th century.

More locally famous, before the Second World War, were the pub owners "Joës en Petatte Nelke", Gustaaf Schreurs and Petronella Muller, who had a song written about them and a statue erected for them in the market square.