Everything about The Ruhr Area totally explained
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,
Madrid, and
Paris.
History
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 didn't 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.
In
World War II, the
Allies mounted a campaign specifically to encircle and capture the Ruhr Area. This effort succeeded in surrounding the entire area, trapping several hundred thousand
Wehrmacht troops within what was known as the "
Ruhr Pocket." Due to its economic significance, the region was very heavily bombed during the War and some of its towns (
Dortmund, for example) were among the most devastated cities in Germany.
Following the German unconditional surrender after World War II, the Ruhr area led a perilous existence. The
Morgenthau Plan had set the tone in 1944 by requiring the entire area to be stripped of all mining and manufacturing industry, and its industrial worker population to be dispersed as widely as possible. The Ruhr area was then to be governed as an international zone. The French
Monnet plan also pushed for an internationalization (see also
French proposal from September 1945).
The Ruhr Agreement was imposed on the Germans as a condition for permitting them to establish the
Federal Republic of Germany. (see also the
International Authority for the Ruhr (IAR)).
In the end, the beginning of the
Cold War led to increased German control of the area, although permanently limited by the pooling of German coal and steel into a multinational community in 1951 (see
European Coal and Steel Community). The nearby
Saar area, containing much of Germany's remaining coal deposits, was handed over by the U.S. to economic administration by France as a protectorate in 1947 and didn't 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. (see also
The industrial plans for Germany). 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. Dismantling finally ended in 1951.
After Cold War tensions increased, it 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.
Language
The local dialect of
German is commonly called
Ruhrdeutsch or
Ruhrpottdeutsch, although there's 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, the Ruhr Area is more commonly known among locals as either "Ruhrpott", where "Pott" is a derivate of "Pütt" (pitmen's term for
mine; cp. the English "pit"), or as "Revier"
Migration
During the 19th century the Ruhr area attracted up to 500,000
Poles 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:
Public Transport
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.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Ruhr Area'.
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