North Rhine-Westphalia

Nordrhein-Westfalen
—  State of Germany  —

Flag
Coat of arms
Coordinates:
Country Germany
Capital Düsseldorf
Government
 - Minister-President Hannelore Kraft (SPD)
 - Governing parties SPD / Greens
 - Votes in Bundesrat 6 (of 69)
Area
 - Total 34,084.13 km2 (13,160 sq mi)
Population (2009-12-31)[1]
 - Total 17,872,763
 - Density 524.4/km2 (1,358.1/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 - Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code DE-NW
GDP/ Nominal € 541,07 billion (2008 [2])
NUTS Region DEA
Website www.NRW.de

North Rhine-Westphalia (German: Nordrhein-Westfalen [ˈnɔɐ̯tʁaɪn vɛstˈfaːlən] , usually shortened to NRW, official short form NW) is the westernmost, the most populous, and the most economically powerful state of Germany. North Rhine-Westphalia has a population of approximately 18 million inhabitants, contributes about 22% to Germany's gross domestic product and comprises a land area of 34,083 km² (13,158 square miles). North Rhine-Westphalia is situated in the western part of Germany and shares borders with Belgium in the southwest and the Netherlands in the west and northwest. It has borders with the German states of Lower Saxony to the north and northeast, Rhineland-Palatinate to the south and Hesse to the southeast.

The capital city is Düsseldorf, and the largest city is Cologne (Köln). Other major cities are Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg, Oberhausen, Aachen, Bielefeld, Bonn, Bochum, Bottrop, Bergisch Gladbach, Mönchengladbach, Mülheim, Münster, Gelsenkirchen, Krefeld, Hagen, Hamm, Herne, Iserlohn, Leverkusen, Neuss, Paderborn, Recklinghausen, Remscheid, Siegen, Solingen, Witten, and Wuppertal.

The Ruhr Area falls entirely within North Rhine-Westphalia. From the 1960s, this region was strongly affected by a structural change away from coal mining and steel industry. Nevertheless, the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region is the largest agglomeration of Germany and, of all states, North Rhine-Westphalia contributes the largest fraction to the national GDP.

Contents

Geography

The state is centred on the sprawling Rhine-Ruhr urbanised region, which contains the cities of Düsseldorf, Bonn and Cologne as well as the Ruhr Area industrial complex. The Ruhr area consists of, among others, the cities of Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg, Bochum, Gelsenkirchen and Oberhausen.

The state's area covers a maximum distance of 291 km from north to south, and 266 km from east to west.

The total length of the state's borders is 1,645 km. The following countries and states have a border with North Rhine-Westphalia:[3]

For many people North Rhine-Westphalia is synonymous with industrial areas and agglomerating cities. But the largest part of the state is used for agriculture (almost 52%), and forests cover 25%.[4] The southern parts of the Teutoburg Forest are located in the northeast. In the southwest, Nordrhein-Westfalen shares in a small part of the Eifel, located on the borders with Belgium and Rheinland-Pfalz. The southeast is occupied by the sparsely populated regions of Sauerland and Siegerland. The northwestern areas of the state are part of the Northern European Lowlands.

The most important rivers that run at least partially through North Rhine-Westphalia include: Rhine, Ruhr, Ems, Lippe and Weser. The Pader, which runs only through the city of Paderborn, is considered the shortest river in Germany.

Duisburg Lake Masuren in the industrial region of the Ruhr

Location and topography

North Rhine-Westphalia is located in the west of the Federal Republic of Germany. The north widely extends into the North German Plain. The northernmost point is the NRW-Nordpunkt near Rahden in the northeast of the state. The Nordpunkt is located only 100 km to the south of the North Sea coast. The deepest natural dip is arranged in the district Zyfflich in the city of Kranenburg with 9.2m above sea level in the northwest of the state. Though, the deepest point overground results from mining. The open-pit Hambach reaches at Niederzier a deep of 293m below sea level. At the same time, this is the deepest man-made dip in Germany. Approximately half of the state is located in the relative shallow regions of the Westphalian Lowland or rather the Rhineland. In the lowlands are a few isolated mountain ranges located, among them the Hohe Mark, the Beckumer Berge, the Baumberge and the Stemmer Berge. Towards the south as well as in the east of the state, the terrain rises. There, the state has a stake in the Mittelgebirgsregionen. To this are counted the Weser Hills with the Eggegebirge, the Wiehengebirge, the Wesergebirge and the Teutoburg Forest in the east, the Sauerland, the Bergisches Land, the Siegerland and the Siebengebirge in the south, as well as the Eifel left-bank in the southwest of the state. The Rothaargebirge in the border region to Hesse exhibits elevations about 800m above sea level. The highest among these mountains is the Langenberg with 843.2m above sea level, then follow the Kahler Asten (840.7m above sea level) and the Clemensberg (839.2m above sea level).

The planimetrical ascertained centre of North Rhine-Westphalia is located in the south of Dortmund-Aplerbeck in the Aplerbecker Mark (51° 28' 42" N, 7° 33' 18" O). The westernmost point is situated near Selfkant close to the Dutch border, the easternmost near Höxter on the Weser and the southernmost near Hellenthal in the Eifel region in the southwest of the state.

Subdivisions

The state consists of five administrative regions (Regierungsbezirke), divided into 31 districts (Kreise) and 23 urban districts (kreisfreie Städte). In total, North Rhine-Westphalia has 396 municipalities (1997), including the urban districts, which are municipalities by themselves.

The regional authorities Rhineland (green) and Westphalia-Lippe (red)
Cologne
Düsseldorf
Dortmund
Essen
Bonn
Münster

The districts of North Rhine-Westphalia:

North rhine w map.jpg
  1. Aachen
  2. Borken
  3. Coesfeld
  4. Düren
  5. Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis
  6. Rhein-Erft-Kreis
  7. Euskirchen
  8. Gütersloh
  9. Heinsberg
  10. Herford
  11. Hochsauerlandkreis
  1. Höxter
  2. Kleve
  3. Lippe
  4. Märkischer Kreis
  5. Mettmann
  6. Minden-Lübbecke
  7. Rhein-Kreis Neuss
  8. Oberbergischer Kreis
  9. Olpe
  10. Paderborn
  1. Recklinghausen
  2. Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis
  3. Rhein-Sieg-Kreis
  4. Siegen-Wittgenstein
  5. Soest
  6. Steinfurt
  7. Unna
  8. Viersen
  9. Warendorf
  10. Wesel

The urban districts:

The five administrative regions—also called regional districts—belonging to one of two Landschaftsverbände:

Regions of the three original parts of North Rhine-Westphalia:

History

Augustusburg Palace in Brühl, North Rhine-Westphalia.

The state of North Rhine-Westphalia was established by the British military administration on 23 August 1946. Originally, it consisted of Westphalia and the northern parts of the Rhine Province, both formerly part of Prussia. In 1947, the former state of Lippe was merged with North Rhine-Westphalia, hence leading to the present borders of the state. The constitution of North Rhine-Westphalia was then ratified through a plebiscite.

From 1966 to 2005, North Rhine-Westphalia was continuously governed by SPD or SPD-led governments. The 2005 state election granted the CDU an unexpected victory. Their top candidate Jürgen Rüttgers formed a coalition government with the FDP. With the result of the 2010 state elections, this government lost its majority in parliament. Exploratory talks among the parties in the newly elect parliament are still ongoing, and it remains uncertain as to which coalition will constitute the next state government.

Flag

The flag of North Rhine-Westphalia is green-white-red with the combined coats of arms of the Prussian Rhine province (white line before green background, symbolizing the river Rhine), Westfalen (the white horse) and Lippe (the red rose).

According to legend the horse in the Westphalian coat of arms is the horse that the Saxon leader Widukind rode after his baptism. Other theories attribute the horse to Henry the Lion. Some connect it with the Germanic rulers Hengist and Horsa.

A regional anthem is the Lied für NRW (Song for NRW).

Politics

These are the Prime Ministers (German: Ministerpräsident) of the Federal State (German: Bundesland) of North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW):

Minister-presidents of North Rhine-Westphalia
No. Name Born-Died Party affiliation Start of Tenure End of Tenure
1 Rudolf Amelunxen 1888–1969 Zentrum 1946 1947
2 Karl Arnold 1901–1958 CDU 1947 1956
3 Fritz Steinhoff 1897–1969 SPD 1956 1958
4 Franz Meyers 1908–2002 CDU 1958 1966
5 Heinz Kühn 1912–1992 SPD 1966 1978
6 Johannes Rau 1931–2006 SPD 1978 1998
7 Wolfgang Clement *1940 SPD 1998 2002
8 Peer Steinbrück *1947 SPD 2002 2005
9 Jürgen Rüttgers *1951 CDU 2005 2010
10 Hannelore Kraft *1961 SPD 2010 incumbent
The new composition of the Landtag

The results of the North Rhine-Westphalia state election, 2010 were as follows. Voter turnout was at 59%, a decrease of 4% over the previous election in 2005.

e • d  Summary of the 9 May 2010 election results for the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia
Party Party list votes Vote % (change) Seats (change) Seat %
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) 2,681,736 34.6% (-10.3%) 67 (-22) 35.44%
Social Democratic Party (SPD) 2,675,536 34.5% (-2.6%) 67 (-7) 35.44%
Alliance '90/The Greens (Die Grünen) 940,770 12.1% (+5.9%) 23 (+11) 12.1%
Free Democratic Party (FDP) 522,436 6.7% (+0.6%) 13 (+1) 6.8%
Die Linke (previously PDS and WASG) 434,846 5.6% (+2.5%) 11 (+11) 5.82%
Pirate Party 119,581 1.5% (+1.5%) -
Pro NRW 106,932 1.4% (+1.4%) -
All Others 277,487 3.6% - -
Totals 7,759,325 100.0% 181 (-6) 100.0%

Economy

A ThyssenKrupp steel mill near Duisburg in 1988. Thyssen Krupp is the biggest company in Germany producing coal, iron, and steel.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Westphalia was known as Land von Kohle und Stahl or the land of coal and steel. In the post-WWII recovery, the Ruhr was one of the most important industrial regions in Europe, and contributed to the German Wirtschaftswunder. As of the late 1960s, repeated crises led to contractions of these industrial branches. On the other hand, producing sectors, particularly in mechanical engineering and metal and iron working industry, experienced substantial growth. Some of former coal mining areas retain high unemployment rates. Despite this structural change and an economic growth which was under national average, the 2007 GDP of 529.4 billion Euro (21.8 percent of the total German GDP) made the land the economically most important in Germany, as well as one of the most important economical areas in the world.[5] On a per capita base, however, Northrhine-Westfalia remains one of the weaker among the Western German lands.[6] As of February 2010, the unemployment rate is 9.3%, second highest among all western German states, and in particular well above the West German average.[7]

Religion

42 %[8] of the people are Roman Catholic and 28 %[9] of the people are members of the Evangelical Church in Germany.

Notes and references

  1. ↑ "Amtliche Bevölkerungszahlen" (in German). Landesbetrieb Information und Technik NRW. 31 December 2009. http://www.it.nrw.de/statistik/a/daten/amtlichebevoelkerungszahlen/index.html. 
  2. ↑ Statistisches Bundesamt
  3. ↑ Length of borders taken from Statistisches Jahrbuch NRW 2005, 47. Jahrgang, Landesamt für Datenverarbeitung und Statistik Nordrhein-Westfalen, p. 22
  4. ↑ Tatsachen über Deutschland (2003) Nordrhein-Westfalen, p. 44
  5. ↑ Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Mittelstand und Energie des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen: Konjunkturindikatoren NRW
  6. ↑ Arbeitskreis Volkswirtschaftliche Gesamtrechnungen der Länder: Volkswirtschaftliche Gesamtrechnungen der Länder
  7. ↑ Bundesagentur für Arbeit: Arbeitslosenzahlen im November 2009. -Länder und Kreise-
  8. ↑ chiesa cattolica http://www.dbk.de/imperia/md/content/kirchlichestatistik/bev-kath-l__nd-2008.pdf
  9. ↑ EKD http://www.ekd.de/download/kirchenmitglieder_2007.pdf

External links

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Flag of North Rhine-Westphalia Urban and rural districts in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany Flag of Germany
Urban districts Deutschland Lage von Nordrhein-Westfalen.svg
Rural Districts
Aachen · Borken · Coesfeld · Düren · Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis · Euskirchen · Gütersloh · Heinsberg · Herford · Hochsauerlandkreis · Höxter · Kleve (Cleves) · Lippe · Märkischer Kreis · Mettmann · Minden-Lübbecke · Oberbergischer Kreis · Olpe · Paderborn · Recklinghausen · Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis · Rhein-Erft-Kreis · Rhein-Kreis Neuss · Rhein-Sieg-Kreis · Siegen-Wittgenstein · Soest · Steinfurt · Unna · Viersen · Warendorf · Wesel