Venlo (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈvɛnloː] ⓘ) is a city and municipality in southeastern Netherlands, close to the border with Germany.

Documents from the 9th century mention Venlo as a trade post; it developed into one of the more important ones in the Meuse-Rhine area, receiving city rights in 1343, and becoming a member of the Hanseatic League in 1375.

The incident was used by the Nazis to link Great Britain to Georg Elser's failed assassination of Hitler at the Bürgerbräukeller the day before and to justify their later invasion of the Netherlands, a neutral country, on 10 May 1940.

These failed, and it was the retreating German troops who in the end blew up the bridges in an attempt to stop the allied advance.

In the next decade this number rose to about 248, because German Jews were trying to evade the discriminatory laws and growing hate in Germany.

[6] National and municipal officials launched the Q-4 Project and Tango initiatives that, amongst other measures, included moving the town's largest coffeeshops[7] to the outskirts, where they continue to do business, while the city centre was freed from disturbances.

[8] Venlo, being a city with a 100,000-plus population, is served by a large number of schools both at primary and secondary education levels.

In addition, Venlo is a higher-education hub within the southern Netherlands, with several institutes of higher education.

In recent years it has been a yo-yo club, winning the Eerste Divisie in 2009 and 2017 and being promoted to the highest Dutch professional football league, the Eredivisie, as a result.

Seen in conjunction with the neighbouring German region of Niederrhein (Lower Rhine), Greenport Venlo is even the largest in Europe.

The cooperation revolves around stimulating innovation, creating an attractive working and living environment and integral regional development.