The Schwelme is a creek about nine kilometers long that rises in the southern area of the city of Schwelm in western Westphalia and flows into the Wupper as a right tributary near Wuppertal-Oberbarmen. The water quality is II – IV. This makes the Schwelme one of the most polluted bodies of water in the area of the Wupper Association.
The name Schwelme goes back to "Swelma also Swelmna". But even before that, the name was changed, because it was originally called "Swelmenaha". The ending "aha" is old Germanic and means "flowing water". The word part "Swelm" indicates the old settlement and the Fronhof (the flowing water of those at Schwelm). According to another interpretation, the Germanic “Svelan” could have been the godfather, which can be translated both as “to swell more” and as “to make waves”. Accordingly, the stream name would have meant "flowing, swelling water". However, this is only a hypothesis and has not been confirmed. After 1449 the village was still written as Swelhem, its master now from Schwelhem and the manor already to Schwelm. The family name Schwelm, the over 500 year old town Schwelm in Westphalia and the brook all go back to the names Swelhem, Swelm, and Swelmna.
Around 1900 the water of the Schwelme filled the gondola ponds of the snuff mill, the largest restaurant in the region on today's valley road in Schwelm. From the middle of the 19th century until the 1970s, the water of the Schwelme was used by the Schwelm open-air swimming pool, located immediately north of the source (source: Wikipedia).