The Ruhr

1 - The Ruhr region has no clearly defined boundaries. It takes its name from the small River Ruhr, which runs along its southern edge. The Rhine and Lippe rivers border the region to the west and north.

2 - Today, the Ruhr region seems like one vast city that never ends. You have to pay close attention to the street signs to know where you are. Just over 5.3 million people live in the Ruhr region. Nowhere else in Germany do so many people live in such a small area. 3 - The Ruhr region includes the major cities of Bochum, Bottrop, Dortmund, Duisburg, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Hagen, Hamm, Herne, Mühlheim/Ruhr and Oberhausen, as well as the districts of Ennepe-Ruhr, Recklinghausen, Unna and Wesel. These districts also include smaller towns such as Hattingen, Schwelm, Wetter, Witten, Castrop- Rauxel, Datteln, Dorsten, Gladbeck, Herten, Marl, Bergkamen, Holzwickede, Lünen, Schwerte, Werne, Dinslaken, Kamp- Lintfort, Moers and Xanten. 4 - Two hundred years ago, the Ruhr region was mostly fields, meadows, forests and small villages, with far fewer people. The city of Essen, which today has 596,000 residents, had only 4,000 inhabitants in 1813. Dortmund has about 612,000 people today; in 1812, it had 4,800. Gelsenkirchen had about 500 residents 200 years ago; today it has 272,000. 5 - A lot has happened since then. Much of it has to do with the coal beneath the Ruhr region. People had been mining this “black gold” here for centuries. Then, about 200 years ago, a period began that we call the “Industrial Revolution.” Suddenly, a great deal of coal was needed. Within a few decades, the rural area between the Ruhr and Lippe rivers became the “Ruhr coalfield.” Mines and blast furnaces were built to produce steel. But eventually, steel production declined.6 - Coal mining finally came to an end in 2018. The last mines closed. Mining coal in the Ruhr region is too expensive, and burning coal harms the climate. New jobs had to be created in the cities of the Ruhr region. Many old industrial sites were dismantled or turned into monuments to industrial heritage.