Ruhr Area

Ruhr Area within Germany

The Ruhr Area, (German Ruhrgebiet, colloquial Ruhrpott, Kohlenpott or Revier) is an urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest urban agglomeration in Germany. It consists of several large, formerly industrial cities bordered by the rivers Ruhr to the south, Rhine to the west, and Lippe to the north. In the Southwest it borders on the Bergisches Land. The area with a population of some 5.3 million is considered part of the larger Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area of more than 12 million people.

From west to east, the area includes the city boroughs of Duisburg, Oberhausen, Bottrop, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Bochum, Herne, Hagen, Dortmund, and Hamm, as well as parts of the more "rural" districts Wesel, Recklinghausen, Unna and Ennepe-Ruhr. Historically, the western Ruhr towns, such as Duisburg and Essen, belonged to the historic region of the Rhineland, whereas the eastern part of the Ruhr Area, including Bochum, Dortmun, and Hamm, werer part of the region of Westphalia. Since the 19th century, these districts have grown together into a large complex with a vast industrial landscape, inhabited by some 5.3 million people, the fifth largest urban area in Europe after Moscow, London, Paris, and Madrid.

Contents

Geography

Map of the Ruhr Area

The urban landscape of the Rhine Area extends from the Lower Rhine Basin east onto the Westphalian Plain and south onto the hills of the Rhenish Massif. Through the center of the Ruhr Area runs a segment of the loess belt that extends across Germany from west to east. Historically, this loess belt has underlain some of Germany's richest agricultural agricultural regions.

Geologically, the region is defined by the occurrence of coal-bearing layers from the upper Carboniferous period, more or less independent of their depth. The coal seams reach the surface in a strip along the River Ruhr and dips downward from the river to the north. Beneath the River Lippe, the coal seams lie at a depth of 600 to 800 metres (2,000 to 2,600 feet). The thickness of the coal layers ranges from one to three metres (three to ten feet). This geological feature played a decisive role in the development of coal mining in the Ruhr Area.

According to the Regionalverband Ruhr (RVR, Ruhr Regional Association), 37.6% of the region’s area is built up. A total of 40.7% of the region’s land remains in agricultural use. Forests account for 17.6% of the region’s area. Bodies of water and other types of land use occupy the rest of the Ruhr Area’s land. The inclusion of four mainly rural districts in the otherwise mainly industrial Ruhr Area helps to explain the large proportion of agricultural and forested land. In addition, the city boroughs of the Ruhr Area have outlying districts with a rural character.

Seen on a map, the Ruhr Area could be considered a single city, since—at least in the north-south dimension—there are no visible breaks between the individual city boroughs. For this reason, the Ruhr Area is described as a polycentric urban area. The area is characterized by a similar history of urban and economic development.

Because of its history, the Ruhr Area is structured differently from monocentric urban regions such as Berlin and London, which developed through the rapid merger of smaller towns and villages with a growing central city. Instead, the individual city boroughs and urban districts of the Ruhr Area grew independently of one another during the Industrial Revolution. While large European cities typically have population densities of up to 20,000 inhabitants per square kilometre (about 50,000 per square mile), the population density of the central Ruhr Area—with only about 2,100 inhabitants per square kilometer (about 5,400 per square mile)—is thin compared to other German cities.

The transitions from one Ruhr city to another consist of relatively open suburbs and even open or agricultural fields. In some places, the borders between cities in the central Ruhr Area are unrecognizable due to continuous development across them.

Replanting of brownfield land has created new parks and recreation areas. The Emscher Landschaftspark (Emscher Landscape Park) lies along the River Emscher, formerly virtually an open sewer, parts of which have undergone natural restoration. This park connects strips of parkland running from north to south, which were developed through the regional planning in the 1920s, to form a green belt between the Ruhr cities from east to west.

History

The Ruhr Area first developed as an urban region during the Industrial Revolution. Before industrialisation began in the early 19th century, the region was mostly agrarian and indistinguishable from surrounding parts of Westphalia and the Rhineland. Its loess soil made it one of the richer parts of western Germany.

During the Middle Ages, much of region that later became the Ruhr Area lay within the counties of Berg, Mark, and Cleves. Other parts lay within the territories of the bishops of Münster and the archbishops of Cologne. The Hellweg, an important trade route, crossed the future Ruhr Area from east to west. Trade along the Hellweg spurred the growth of the medieval cities of Duisburg and Dortmund. Both were members of the Hanseatic League, and Dortmund was a free imperial city.

Industrialization began in the region with the establishment of several iron works in the late 18th century within the borders of the present-day city of Oberhausen. During the same period, locks built at Mülheim on the Ruhr allowed the expansion of coal mining further up the river and led to the expansion of Mülheim as a port. Development of the Ruhr Area’s coal deposits fueled further expansion of its iron and steel industry.

By 1850, almost 300 coal mines were in operation in the region. The coal was processed in coking ovens into coke, which was needed to fuel the region’s blast furnaces, which produced iron and steel. Before the coal deposits along the Ruhr were used up, new mines were sunk farther north. The Ruhr Area’s mining industry migrated northward from the Ruhr to the Emscher and finally to the Lippe, sinking ever deeper mines as it went. The expansion of railways across Germany beginning in the mid-19th century gave further impetus to the Ruhr Area’s iron and steel industry.

Employers recruited workers to the Ruhr Area’s mines and steel mills as industry expanded. The population climbed rapidly. The old cities along the Hellweg experienced rapid growth. Former villages developed into cities. Skilled workers in the mines were often housed in so-called miners’ colonies, many built by the mining firms. The Ruhr coal-mining district grew into the largest industrial region of Europe.

In March 1921, French and Belgian troops occupied Duisburg, which formed part of the demilitarised Rhineland, according to the Treaty of Versailles. In January 1923 French and Belgian forces occupied the rest of the Ruhr area as a reprisal after Germany failed to fulfill reparation payments demanded by the Versailles Treaty. The German government answered with "passive resistance," which meant that coal miners and railway workers refused to obey any instructions by the occupation forces. Production and transportation came to a standstill, but the financial consequences contributed to German hyperinflation and completely ruined public finances in Germany. Consequently, passive resistance was called off in late 1923. The end of passive resistance in the Ruhr allowed Germany to undertake a currency reform and to negotiate the Dawes Plan, which led to the withdrawal of French and Belgian troops from the Ruhr Area.

WWII Ruhr Bombing Operations

1943 May: Operation Chastise
1944 October: Operation Hurricane

WWII Ruhr Synthetic Oil Plants[1]

Bottrop, Castrop-Rauxel, Duisburg, Homburg, Kamen, Nordstern, Scholven, Sterkrade, Wanne-Eickel, Wesseling

Map from March 1946 showing details of a French post war proposals for the detachment of an expanded Ruhr area from Germany.
World War II

The Battle of the Ruhr was a campaign of strategic bombing during World War II that began on March 5, 1943 with an RAF air raid on Essen.[1] Through July, twenty-six major Combined Bomber Offensive targets were bombed in the Ruhr Area,[2] including the Essen Krupp works. The "principal target of air bombing",[3]:125 the Ruhr Area lost 30% of "plants and machinery" (compared to 15-20% for the entire German industry).[3] In April 1945, the Allies trapped several hundred thousand Wehrmacht troops within the "Ruhr Pocket." This battle led to the loss of 105,000 lives shortly before the end of the war.

Post-World War II

The Level of Industry plans for Germany abolished all German munitions factories and civilian industries that could support them and severely restricted civilian industries which might have a military potential. The French Monnet plan pushed for an internationalization of the area,[2] and the subsequent Ruhr Agreement was imposed as a condition for permitting for establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany.[4]

See also: International Authority for the Ruhr

During the Cold War, it was anticipated that a Red Army thrust into Western Europe would begin in the Fulda Gap, and would have the Ruhr Area as a primary target. The increased German control of the area was limited by the pooling of German coal and steel into a [[[European Coal and Steel Community |multinational community in 1951]]. The nearby Saar area, containing much of Germany's remaining coal deposits, was handed over to economic administration by France as a protectorate in 1947 and did not politically return to Germany until January 1957, with economic reintegration occurring a few years later. Parallel to the question of political control of the Ruhr, the Allies conducted an effort to decrease German industrial potential by limitations on production and dismantling of factories and steel plants, predominantly in the Ruhr. By 1950, after the virtual completion of the by then much watered-down "level of industry" plans, equipment had been removed from 706 manufacturing plants in the west, and steel production capacity had been reduced by 6,700,000 tons.[5] Dismantling finally ended in 1951.

As demand for coal slowly decreased after 1958, the area went into phases of structural crisis and industrial diversification, first developing traditional heavy industry, then moving into service industries and high technology. The air and water pollution of the area are largely a thing of the past. In 2005 “Essen for the Ruhrgebiet” was the official candidate for nomination as European Capital of Culture for 2010.

Language

The local dialect of German is commonly called Ruhrdeutsch or Ruhrpottdeutsch, although there is really no uniform dialect that justifies designation as a single dialect. It is rather a working class sociolect with influences from the various dialects found in the area and changing even with the professions of the workers. A major common influence stems from the coal mining tradition of the area. For example, quite a few locals prefer to call the Ruhr Area either "Ruhrpott", where "Pott" is a derivate of "Pütt" (pitmen's term for mine; cp. the English "pit"), or "Revier".

Migration

During the 19th century the Ruhr area attracted up to 500,000 ethnic Poles, Masurians and Silesians from East Prussia and Silesia in a migration known as Ostflucht. By 1925, the Ruhrgebiet had around 3.8 million inhabitants. Most of the new inhabitants migrated from Eastern Europe, however, immigrants also came from France, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. It has been claimed that immigrants came to the Ruhr from over 140 different nations. After World War II, even more immigrants flocked from the east. These guest workers or "gastarbeiter" came mostly from Italy, and Turkey.

Almost all of their descendants today speak German only and consider themselves Germans, with only their Polish family names remaining as a sign of their past.

In 1900, the main concentrations of the Polish minority were:

Culture

The city of Essen (representing the Ruhr area) was selected as European Capital of Culture for 2010 by the EU Council.

Public Transport

All public transport companies in the Ruhr Area are run under the umbrella of the VRR (German: Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr), which provides a uniform ticket system valid for the entire area. The Ruhr Area is well-integrated into the Deutsche Bahn, both in passenger and cargo rail.

External links

Notes

  1. ↑ Galland, Adolf (1968 Ninth Printing - paperbound). The First and the Last: The Rise and Fall of the German Fighter Forces, 1938-1945. New York: Ballantine Books. pp. tbd. 
  2. ↑ Gurney, Gene (Major, USAF) (1962), The War in the Air: a pictorial history of World War II Air Forces in combat, New York: Bonanza Books, pp. 113 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Botting, Douglas (1985). From the Ruins of the Reich: Germany 1945-1949. New York: Crown Publishing. p. 125. ISBN 0-517-55865-3. 
  4. ↑ Amos Yoder, "The Ruhr Authority and the German Problem", The Review of Politics, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Jul., 1955), pp. 345-358
  5. ↑ Frederick H. Gareau "Morgenthau's Plan for Industrial Disarmament in Germany" The Western Political Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Jun., 1961), pp. 517-534

Bibliography

See also

World's fifty most-populated urban areas