Ruhr

For the river with the same name see Ruhr (river)
Ruhr Metropolitan Region
Metropolregion Ruhr
map of the Ruhr metropolitan region within Germany
Country  Germany
State  North Rhine-Westphalia
Largest Cities Dortmund
Essen
Duisburg
Bochum
Government
 - Body Regionalverband Ruhr
Area
 - Metro 4,435 km2 (1,712.4 sq mi)
Highest elevation 441 m (1,447 ft)
Lowest elevation 13 m (43 ft)
Population
 - Metro 7,300,000
 - Metro density 1,646/km2 (4,263.1/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
GRP 2007
Nominal € 136.3 billion[1]
Website http://www.metropoleruhr.de/

The Ruhr, also, and more accurately[2], called Ruhr district or Ruhr region (German Ruhrgebiet, colloquial Ruhrpott, Kohlenpott, Pott or Revier), is an urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With 4435 km² and a population of some 7.3 million (2008), 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. It is considered part of the larger Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region of more than 12 million people.

Since the Ruhr is polycentric, coordinates shown are general in nature and so can be used to focus on the entire region of the Ruhr: .

From west to east, the region 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-Kreis. 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, including Gelsenkirchen, Bochum, Dortmund and Hamm, were 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 7.3 million people, the fourth largest urban area in Europe after Moscow, London and Paris.

For 2010, Essen is one of the European Capitals of Culture.

Contents

Geography

Map of the Ruhr

The urban landscape of the Ruhr extends from the Lower Rhine Basin east onto the Westphalian Plain and south onto the hills of the Rhenish Massif. Through the centre of the Ruhr 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 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.

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's land. The inclusion of four mainly rural districts in the otherwise mainly industrial Ruhr helps to explain the large proportion of agricultural and forested land. In addition, the city boroughs of the Ruhr region have outlying districts with a rural character.

Seen on a map, the Ruhr 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 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 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 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—with only about 2,100 inhabitants per square kilometre (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 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

Zeche Zollern in Dortmund

The Ruhr 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 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 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'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'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's iron and steel industry.

Employers recruited workers to the Ruhr'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.

French and Belgian occupation

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 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 in 1925.

WWII Ruhr Bombing Operations

1943 March: Battle of the Ruhr
1943 May: Operation Chastise
1944 October: Operation Hurricane
1944 September: Bombing of German oil facilities during World War II

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

World War II

During World War II, the "Ruhr 1940–1945" bombing caused a loss of 30% of plant and equipment (compared to 15–20% for the entire German industry).[3] A second battle of the Ruhr (6/7 October 1944–end of 1944) is claimed to have begun with an attack on Dortmund.[4] In addition to the strategic bombing of the Ruhr, in April 1945, the Allies trapped several hundred thousand Wehrmacht troops in the Ruhr Pocket.

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 of military potential. The French Monnet Plan pushed for an internationalization of the area,[5] and the subsequent Ruhr Agreement was imposed as a condition for permitting for establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany.[6]

During the Cold War, the Western allies anticipated that any Red Army thrust into Western Europe would begin in the Fulda Gap and have the Ruhr as a primary target. Increased German control of the area was limited by the pooling of German coal and steel into a multinational community in 1951. The nearby Saar region, 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 two 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 6.7 million tons.[7] Dismantling finally ended in 1951.

As demand for coal slowly decreased after 1958, the area went through phases of structural crisis (see steel 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[8] 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 either "Ruhrpott", where "Pott" is a derivate of "Pütt" (pitmen's term for mine; cp. the English "pit"), or "Revier".

Migration

Italian Gastarbeiter, working at the Walsum mine (Duisburg)

During the 19th century the Ruhr 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. 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:

After World War II, even more immigrants flocked from the east. These guest workers or Gastarbeiter came mostly from Italy, Yugoslavia and Turkey and since the fall of communism most other Eastern European countries as well.

Culture

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

Transport

Road transport

The Ruhr has one of the densest motorway networks in all of Europe, with dozens of Autobahns and Autobahnähnliche Straßen (expressways) crossing the region. The Autobahn network is built in a grid network, with 4 east-west (A2, A40, A42, A44) and 7 north-south (A1, A3, A43, A45, A52, A57, A59) routes. A1, A2 and A3 are mostly used by through traffic, while other autobahns have a more regional function. Both A44 and A52 have several missing links, in various stages of planning. Some missing links are currently not considered to be constructed.

Additional expressways serve as bypasses and local routes, especially around Dortmund and Bochum. Due to the density of the autobahns and expressways, Bundesstraßes are less important for intercity traffic. The first Autobahns in the Ruhr opened during the mid-1930s. Due to the density of the network, and the number of alternate routes, traffic volumes are generally lower than other major metropolitan areas in Europe. Traffic congestion is an everyday occurrence, but far less compared to Randstad, another polycentric urban area. Most important Autobahns possess six lanes, but there are no eight-lane Autobahns in the Ruhr.

Public transport

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

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ metropoleruhr.de
  2. ↑ "Few foreigners know that in fact 'the Ruhr' is the name of a 150-mile-long Rhine right-bank tributary which, after meandering through the industrial basin now named after it, enters its parent near Europe's greatest inland port, Duisburg." See German International, Volume 10 (1966), p. 30. "The territory through which the Ruhr flows is called the Ruhr district." See Edmund Jan Osmańczyk and Anthony Mango, Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements: A to F, 2003, p.1970. "Many industries were built in the Ruhr region, where both iron ore and coal were found." Kathryn Lane, Germany: The Land (2001), p. 24.
  3. ↑ Botting (1985), p. 125
  4. ↑ Bishop,
  5. ↑ French Directorate for Economic Affairs, Memorandum on the separation of the German industrial regions, 8 September 1945
  6. ↑ Yoder (1955), pp. 345–358
  7. ↑ Gareau (1961), pp. 517–534
  8. ↑ http://en.kulturhauptstadt-europas.de/start.php "Essen for the Ruhrgebiet"

References

Further reading

External links