Mülheim

Mülheim an der Ruhr
Castle Broich in Mülheim
Mülheim an der Ruhr
Coordinates
Administration
Country Germany
State North Rhine-Westphalia
Admin. region Düsseldorf
District Urban district
City subdivisions 3 districts, 9 boroughs
Lord Mayor Dagmar Mühlenfeld (SPD)
Basic statistics
Area 91.26 km2 (35.24 sq mi)
Elevation 26-153 m
Population 167,344 (31 December 2010)[1]
 - Density 1,834 /km2 (4,749 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate MH
Postal codes 45468–45481
Area code 0208
Website www.muelheim-ruhr.de

Mülheim an der Ruhr, also called "City on the River", is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It is located in the Ruhr Area between Duisburg, Essen, Oberhausen and Ratingen. It is home of many companies, especially in the food industry, such as the Aldi Süd Company or the Tengelmann Group.

Mülheim received its town charter in 1808, and 100 years later the population exceeded 100,000, making Mülheim officially a city. At the time of the city's 200th anniversary with approximately 170,000 residents, the city was counted among the smaller cities of Germany.

Mülheim was the first city in the Ruhr Area to become totally free of coal mines, when its last coal mine "Rosenblumendelle" was closed. The former leather and coal city had successfully made a complete transformation to a diversified economic centre. With more than 50% covered by greenery and forest, the city is regarded as an attractive place to live between Düsseldorf and the Ruhr. It is the home of two Max Planck Institutes and, since 2009, the technical college Ruhr West. It has a station on the important railway between Dortmund and Duisburg and is served by Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn lines S1 and S3.

Contents

Geography

Geographical location

Mülheim an der Ruhr lies at the junction of the hill country of the Lower Bergisches Land, the western Hellweg and the plane of the middle Lower Rhine region.

The central city lies on both banks of the Ruhr river, about 12 km east of where the Ruhr's mouth opens onto the Rhine. The Ruhr traverses the whole city for a length of 14 km from south-east to north-west. With the district of Broich on its left bank and the Kirchenhügel (Church Hill) on its right bank – the gate of Mülheim – the Ruhr leaves the foothills of the Rhenish Massif and enters the Lower Rhine Plain. [2] The city's location right by the Ruhr is a characteristic of only Mülheim in the Ruhr region.

Geology

When looking at its geological structure, the city lies on the border region, known as the Marl border, of three regions – the Mittelgebirge of the Bergisches Land, the Lower Rhine Plain and the Westphalian Lowland. The areas lying northeast of the Ruhr, with their rich loess-containing soils, belong to the natural region known as West Hellweg. Whereas it's difficult to tell from the surface formations where the Westphalian Lowlands begin, the landscapes of the Bergisches Land and the Lower Rhine Plain are easily recognisable.

The northern foothills of the Rhenish Massif are characterised by the distinctive rock formation of the bare mountain slopes through which run coal-bearing layers which formed during the carboniferous period. Here the Ruhr cuts more than 50 meters deep into this Mittelgebirge. This natural erosion partly uncovered these mineable black coal deposits, which enabled their exploration and extraction using adits. However, the coal-rich layers became ever deeper as one progressed northward, which required setting up mines to extract the black coal. In contrast, the broad bayou (dead arm of a river) of Styrum borough is characteristic of the features of the Lower Rhine Plain.[3]


Panorama of Mülheim – view towards the south

History

The town Mülheim was first mentioned in a document of the Werden Abbey in 1093. Later it belonged to the Duchy of Berg and became a free city in 1808. After the Congress of Vienna Mülheim was Prussian and from 1822 was a part of the Prussian Rhine Province. Mülheim became the centre of the Ruhr Uprising in 1920.

Boroughs

# Borough District Area [km²] Population Density [km²]
1 Altstadt I Rechtsruhr-Süd 3,20 19.741 6.169
2 Altstadt II Rechtsruhr-Süd 5,79 24.718 4.269
3 Styrum Rechtsruhr-Nord 4,44 15.605 3.515
4 Dümpten Rechtsruhr-Nord 5,51 19.031 3.454
5 Heißen Rechtsruhr-Süd 8,88 21.537 2.425
6 Menden-Holthausen Rechtsruhr-Süd 17,30 13.778 796
7 Saarn Linksruhr 26,92 23.878 887
8 Broich Linksruhr 8,78 13.941 1.588
9 Speldorf Linksruhr 10,46 18.183 1.738

International relations

Mülheim is twinned with:

Notable bands

Notable clubs

Notable companies

Notable institutes

Notable people

See also


References

External links