The Ruhr Area, (German Ruhrgebiet, colloquial Ruhrpott, Kohlenpott or Revier) is an urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, consisting of a number of 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, Hamm, Hagen, and Dortmund as well as parts of the more "rural" districts Wesel, Recklinghausen, Unna and Ennepe-Ruhr. These districts have grown into a large complex forming an industrial landscape of unique size, inhabited by some 5.3 million people, the fifth largest urban area in Europe after Moscow, London, Paris, and Madrid.
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Towns in the area first grew during the Industrial Revolution, mainly basing their economy on coal mining and steel production. As demand for coal slowly decreased after 1960, 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 proverbial 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.
In January 1923 French forces occupied the Ruhr area as a means of reprisal after Germany did not 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 completely ruined public finances in Germany and passive resistance was called off in late 1923.
1943 May: Operation Chastise
1944 October: Operation Hurricane
Bottrop, Castrop-Rauxel, Duisburg, Homburg, Kamen, Nordstern, Scholven, Sterkrade, Wanne-Eickel, Wesseling
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] 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."
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]
During the Cold War, it[who?] 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.
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".
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:
The city of Essen (representing the Ruhr area) was selected as European Capital of Culture for 2010 by the EU Council.
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.
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