Vlodrop-station is a hamlet in the Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 province of Limburg

Limburg (Netherlands)

Limburg is the southernmost of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. It is located in the southeastern part of the country and bordered by the province of Gelderland to the north, Germany to the east, Belgium to the south and part of the west, andthe Dutch province of North Brabant partly to...

. It is located on the German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 border, about 5 km east of the village Vlodrop

Vlodrop

Vlodrop is a town in the south-eastern part of The Netherlands in the municipality of Roerdalen. The town is situated near the German border, about 8 km southeast of Roermond....

.

The hamlet is named after the railway station of Vlodrop, which was located on the Iron Rhine connection between Antwerp and Germany. The large distance to the village meant that the station had little importance for passenger traffic. The location was chosen because the Belgian owners of the railway line could get free land there, and because of the proximity to the border meant that customs officers had extra powers there. The station was bombed in 1944, and never rebuilt.

The Saint Ludwig College, close to the hamlet, was a Franciscan

Franciscan

Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....

 monastery and boarding school. It was built between 1904 and 1909 by Germans, who in the previous years had moved to the Netherlands because of Bismarck's Kulturkampf

Kulturkampf

The German term refers to German policies in relation to secularity and the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, enacted from 1871 to 1878 by the Prime Minister of Prussia, Otto von Bismarck. The Kulturkampf did not extend to the other German states such as Bavaria...

. After it closed, it became property of the Transcendental Meditation movement

Transcendental Meditation movement

The Transcendental Meditation movement is a world-wide organization, sometimes characterised as a neo-Hindu new religious movement, founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 1950s...

 and was renamed Maharishi European Research University

MERU, Holland

MERU, Holland, is a residential and office complex which includes the residence of the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a capital of the Global Country of World Peace, a campus of Maharishi European Research University , and other institutions of the Transcendental Meditation movement. It occupies the...

 (MERU). It was the residence and global headquarters of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi , born Mahesh Prasad Varma , developed the Transcendental Meditation technique and was the leader and guru of the TM movement, characterised as a new religious movement and also as non-religious...

until his death.