The Ruhr (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 5.3 million, 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 area 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 area of the Ruhr: .

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-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 Area, 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 5.3 million people, the fourth largest urban area in Europe after Moscow, London and Paris.

Geography

The urban landscape of the Ruhr Area 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 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 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 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 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 in 1925.

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). A second battle of the Ruhr (6/7 October 1944–end of 1944) is claimed to have begun with an attack on Dortmund. In addition to the strategic bombing of the Ruhr Area, 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, and the subsequent Ruhr Agreement was imposed as a condition for permitting for establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany.

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 Area 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 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 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. 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 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. 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:

• District of Gelsenkirchen (Westfalia) 13.1 %
• District of Bochum (Westfalia) 9.1 %
• District of Dortmund (Westfalia) 7.3 %
• City of Gelsenkirchen (Westfalia) 5.1 %

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 area) was selected as European Capital of Culture for 2010 by the Council of the European Union.

Public transport

All public transport companies in the Ruhr Area are run under the umbrella of the 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.

See also

• Occupation of the Ruhr (1923–1924)
• Rhine-Ruhr
• Ruhrpolen
• Wuppertal

Notes

1. Bishop, Patrick Bomber Boys Fighting Back 1940–1945
2. Memorandum on the separation of the German industrial regions (8 September 1945)
3. Amos Yoder, "The Ruhr Authority and the German Problem" in The Review of Politics, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Jul., 1955), pp. 345–358
4. Frederick H. Gareau: "Morgenthau's Plan for Industrial Disarmament in Germany" in The Western Political Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Jun., 1961), pp. 517–534
5. http://en.kulturhauptstadt-europas.de/start.php “Essen for the Ruhrgebiet”

Bibliography

• Kift, Roy, 'Tour the Ruhr – the English language guide' (third updated edition 2008) (ISBN 3-88474-815-7 Klartext Verlag, Essen [14248]
• Berndt, Christian. Corporate Germany Between Globalization and Regional Place Dependence: Business Restructuring in the Ruhr Area (2001)
• Crew, David. Town in the Ruhr: A Social History of Rochum, 1860–1914 (1979) (ISBN 0231043007)
• Gillingham, John. Industry and Politics in the Third Reich: Ruhr Coal, Hitler, and Europe (1985) (ISBN 0231062605)
• Chauncy D. Harris, "The Ruhr Coal-mining District," Geographical Review, 36 (1946), 194–221.
• Norman J. G. Pounds. The Ruhr: A Study in Historical and Economic Geography (1952) online
• Royal Jae Schmidt. Versailles and the Ruhr: Seedbed of World War II (1968)
• Elaine Glovka Spencer. Management and Labor in Imperial Germany: Ruhr Industrialists as Employers, 1896–1914. Rutgers University Press. (1984) online

External links

• Post-Surrender Program for Germany (Sept. 1944)
• Ruhr Delegation of the United States of America, Council of Foreign Ministers American Embassy Moscow, March 24, 1947
• Draft, The President's Economic Mission to Germany and Austria, Report 3, March, 1947; OF 950B: Economic Mission as to Food…; Truman Papers.
• France, Germany and the Struggle for the War-making Natural Resources of the Rhineland Describes the contest for the Ruhr and Saar over the centuries.
• Ruhrgebietsbilder: Photos about the Ruhr