1.
Ruhr (river)
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The Ruhr is a river in western Germany, a right tributary of the Rhine. The source of the Ruhr is near the town of Winterberg in the mountainous Sauerland region and it flows into the lower Rhine at an elevation of only 56 feet in the municipal area of Duisburg. Its total length is 218 km, its discharge is 79 m³/s at Mülheim near its mouth. Thus, its discharge is, for example, comparable to that of the River Ems in Northern Germany or the River Thames in the United Kingdom, the Ruhr first passes the towns of Meschede, Arnsberg, Wickede, Fröndenberg, Holzwickede, Iserlohn and Schwerte. Then the river marks the limit of the Ruhr area, passing Hagen, Dortmund, Herdecke, Wetter, Witten, Bochum, Hattingen, Essen, Mülheim. The Ruhr area was Germanys primary industrial area during the early- to mid-20th century, as a result, the German hyperinflation crisis grew even worse. The story was told in a 1951 book and the popular 1955 film made from it, there are five Ruhr reservoirs on the river, often used for leisure activities. Notes Sources This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. Media related to Ruhr at Wikimedia Commons
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
4.
States of Germany
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Germany is a federal republic consisting of sixteen federal states. Since todays Germany was formed from a collection of several states, it has a federal constitution. The remaining 13 states are called Flächenländer, the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 was through the unification of the western states created in the aftermath of World War II. West Berlin, while not part of the Federal Republic, was largely integrated and considered as a de facto state. In 1952, following a referendum, Baden, Württemberg-Baden, in 1957, the Saar Protectorate rejoined the Federal Republic as the Saarland. Federalism is one of the constitutional principles of Germany. After 1945, new states were constituted in all four zones of occupation, in 1949, the states in the three western zones formed the Federal Republic of Germany. This is in contrast to the development in Austria, where the Bund was constituted first. The use of the term Länder dates back to the Weimar Constitution of 1919, before this time, the constituent states of the German Empire were called Staaten. Today, it is common to use the term Bundesland. However, this term is not used officially, neither by the constitution of 1919 nor by the Basic Law of 1949, three Länder call themselves Freistaaten, Bavaria, Saxony, and Thuringia. He summarizes the arguments for boundary reform in Germany. The German system of dual federalism requires strong Länder that have the administrative and fiscal capacity to implement legislation, too many Länder also make coordination among them and with the federation more complicated. But several proposals have failed so far, territorial reform remains a topic in German politics. Federalism has a tradition in German history. The Holy Roman Empire comprised many petty states numbering more than 300 around 1796, the number of territories was greatly reduced during the Napoleonic Wars. After the Congress of Vienna,39 states formed the German Confederation, the new German Empire included 25 states and the imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine. The empire was dominated by Prussia, which controlled 65% of the territory, after the territorial losses of the Treaty of Versailles, the remaining states continued as republics of a new German federation
5.
North Rhine-Westphalia
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North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with a population of approximately 18 million, and the fourth largest by area. Its capital is Düsseldorf, the most populous city is Cologne, four of Germanys ten largest cities—Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, and Essen—are located within the state, as well as the largest metropolitan area on the European continent, Rhine-Ruhr. North Rhine-Westphalia was formed in 1946 as a merger of the provinces of North Rhine and Westphalia, the state has been run by a coalition of the Social Democrats and Greens since 2010. The Ubii and some other Germanic tribes such as the Cugerni were later settled on the west side of the Rhine in the Roman province of Germania Inferior, North of the Sigambri and the Rhine region were the Bructeri. By the 8th century the Frankish dominion was established in western Germany. But at the time, to the north, Westphalia was being taken over by Saxons pushing south. The Merovingian and Carolingian Franks eventually built an empire which controlled first their Ripuarian kin, the Ottonian dynasty had both Saxon and Frankish ancestry. As the central power of the Holy Roman Emperor weakened, the Rhineland split into small independent principalities, each with its separate vicissitudes. Such struggles as the War of the Limburg Succession therefore continued to create military, Aachen was the place of coronation of the German emperors, and the ecclesiastical principalities of the Rhine bulked largely in German history. Prussia first set foot on the Rhine in 1609 by the occupation of the Duchy of Cleves and about a century later Upper Guelders and Moers also became Prussian. At the peace of Basel in 1795 the whole of the bank of the Rhine was resigned to France. In 1920, the districts of Eupen and Malmedy were transferred to Belgium, around 1 AD there were numerous incursions through Westphalia and perhaps even some permanent Roman or Romanized settlements. The Battle of Teutoburg Forest took place near Osnabrück and some of the Germanic tribes who fought at this came from the area of Westphalia. Charlemagne is thought to have spent considerable time in Paderborn and nearby parts and his Saxon Wars also partly took place in what is thought of as Westphalia today. Popular legends link his adversary Widukind to places near Detmold, Bielefeld, Lemgo, Osnabrück, Widukind was buried in Enger, which is also a subject of a legend. Along with Eastphalia and Engern, Westphalia was originally a district of the Duchy of Saxony, in 1180 Westphalia was elevated to the rank of a duchy by Emperor Barbarossa. The Duchy of Westphalia comprised only an area south of the Lippe River. Parts of Westphalia came under Brandenburg-Prussian control during the 17th and 18th centuries, the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, signed in Münster and Osnabrück, ended the Thirty Years War
6.
Dortmund
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Dortmund is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the part of the state and is considered to be the administrative. Its population of 581,612 makes it the 8th largest city in Germany, moreover, Dortmund is the largest city by area and population in the Ruhr Area, an urban area with some 5.1 million inhabitants which is the largest urban agglomeration in Germany. Founded around 882, Dortmund became an Imperial Free City, throughout the 13th to 14th centuries, it was the chief city of the Rhine, Westphalia, the Netherlands Circle of the Hanseatic League. After the Thirty Years War the city was destroyed and decreased in significance until the onset of industrialization, the city then became one of Germanys most important coal, steel and beer centres. Thereby Dortmund was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II, the devastating bombing raids of the 12th March 1945 destroyed 98% of buildings in the inner city center. This bombing raids with more than 1,110 aircraft was a record to a target in World war II. The region has adapted since the collapse of its century long steel and coal industries and shifted to high technology biomedical technology, micro systems technology and also services. In 2009, Dortmund was classified as a Node city in the Innovation Cities Index published by 2thinknow and is the most sustainable city in Germany, the city is known as Westphalias green metropolis. Nearly half the territory consists of waterways, woodland, agriculture. This stands in a stark contrast with nearly a years of extensive coal mining. Dortmund is home to Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V, Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund, a successful club in German football. The first time Dortmund was mentioned in documents was around 882. as Throtmanni. After it was destroyed by a fire, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I had the town rebuilt in 1152 and it became an Imperial Free City. Throughout the 13th to 14th centuries, it was the city of the Rhine, Westphalia. After 1320, the city appeared in writing as Dorpmunde, in the years leading up to 1344, the English King even borrowed money from well-heeled Dortmund merchant families Berswordt and Klepping, offering the regal crown as security. In 1388, Count von Mark joined forces with Archbishop of Cologne, following a major siege lasting 18 months, peace negotiations took place and Dortmund emerged victorious. After Cologne was excluded after the Anglo-Hanseatic War, Dortmund was made capital of the Rhine-Westphalian, the 1661 earthquake made the Reinoldikirche collapse
7.
Essen
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Essen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Its population of approximately 589,000 makes it the ninth-largest city in Germany and it is the central city of the northern part of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area and seat to several of the regions authorities. Founded around 845, Essen remained a town within the sphere of influence of an important ecclesiastical principality until the onset of industrialization. The city then — especially through the Krupp family iron works — became one of Germanys most important coal and steel centers. Essen, until the 1970s, attracted workers from all over the country, following the region-wide decline of heavy industries in the last decades of the 20th century, the city has seen the development of a strong tertiary sector of the economy. Although it is the most indebted city in Germany, Essen continues to pursue its redevelopment plans, notable accomplishments in recent years include the title of European Capital of Culture on behalf of the whole Ruhr area in 2010 and the selection as the European Green Capital for 2017. In 1958, Essen was chosen to serve as the seat to a Roman Catholic diocese, in early 2003, the universities of Essen and the nearby city of Duisburg were merged into the University of Duisburg-Essen with campuses in both cities and a university hospital in Essen. Essen is located in the centre of the Ruhr area, one of the largest urban areas in Europe, comprising eleven independent cities and four districts with some 5.3 million inhabitants. The city limits of Essen itself are 87 km long and border ten cities, five independent and five kreisangehörig, the city extends over 21 km from north to south and 17 km from west to east, mainly north of the River Ruhr. The Ruhr forms the Lake Baldeney reservoir in the boroughs of Fischlaken, Kupferdreh, the lake, a popular recreational area, dates from 1931 to 1933, when some thousands of unemployed coal miners dredged it with primitive tools. Generally, large areas south of the River Ruhr are quite green and are quoted as examples of rural structures in the otherwise relatively densely populated central Ruhr area. According to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, Essen with 9. 2% of its covered by recreational green is the greenest city in North Rhine-Westphalia. The city has been shortlisted for the title of European Green Capital two consecutive times, for 2016 and 2017, winning for 2017, the city was singled out for its exemplary practices in protecting and enhancing nature and biodiversity and efforts to reduce water consumption. Essen participates in a variety of networks and initiatives to reduce gas emissions. The lowest point can be found in the borough of Karnap at 26.5 m. The average elevation is 116 m, Essen comprises fifty boroughs which in turn are grouped into nine suburban districts often named after the most important boroughs. Each Stadtbezirk is assigned a Roman numeral and has a body of nineteen members with limited authority. Most of the boroughs were originally independent municipalities but were annexed from 1901 to 1975
8.
Duisburg
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Duisburg is a German city in the western part of the Ruhr Area in North Rhine-Westphalia. It is an independent metropolitan borough within Regierungsbezirk Düsseldorf, with the worlds biggest inland harbor and its proximity to Düsseldorf Airport, Duisburg has become an important venue for commerce and steel production. In the early Middle Ages it was a court of the Franks. Like many other cities, todays Duisburg is a result of numerous incorporations of surrounding towns and it is the fifteenth-largest city in Germany and the fifth-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia with 486,855 residents at the end of 2013. The city is renowned for its steel industry, the last remaining coal mine closed down in the summer of 2009, but Duisburg had never been a coal-mining center to the same extent as other places in the Ruhr region. All blast furnaces in the Ruhr are now located in Duisburg, in 2000 49% of all hot metal and 34. 4% of all pig iron in Germany was produced here. It also has a brewery, the König Brauerei, located in Duisburg-Beeck. The University of Duisburg-Essen, with 39,000 students, ranks among the 10 largest German universities, Duisburg is located in the Lowland Rhine area at the confluence of the Rhine and Ruhr and near the outskirts of the Bergisches Land. The city spreads along both sides of these rivers, the following cities border Duisburg, Oberhausen, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Ratingen, Düsseldorf, Meerbusch, Krefeld, Moers, Rheinberg, and Dinslaken. Duisburg therefore could mean fortified place in the floodplain, another interpretation assumes that the name is derived from the Old German duis which means hill. Duisburg could mean something like castle on the hill, thus, a place on a hill overlooking the Rhine, that could refer to the area of the present Town Hall. Duisburggau was also the name of the medieval Gau on the Lower Rhine, a legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the namesake Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca.2395 BC. There is nothing to any historical basis for such an early founding of Duisburg. Latest archaeological studies show that the present-day market-place was already in use in the first century and it has been the major central trading place of the city since the 5th century. The city itself was located at the Hellweg, an important medieval trade route, the Romans already guarded the ford. 420, The Franks usurp the Roman settlement and recolonize the old part of the town,883, The Normans conquer Duisburg and stay for the winter. Due to the towns favorable geographic position a palatinate was built, Duisburg became a member of the Hanseatic League. Around 1000 the river Rhine moved westward from the city and this put an end to the citys development as a trading town and it soon grew into a quiet rural city
9.
Bochum
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Bochum is a city in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and part of the Arnsberg region. It is located in the Ruhr area and is surrounded by the cities of Herne, Castrop-Rauxel, Dortmund, with a population of nearly 365,000, it is the 16th most populous city in Germany. The city lies on the low rolling hills of Bochum land ridge, the highest point of the city is at Kemnader Straße in Stiepel at 196 metres above sea level, the lowest point is 43 metres at the Blumenkamp in Hordel. The terrain of Bochum is characterised by rolling hills that rarely have more than three per cent graduation, the city extends north to south 13 km and 17.1 km east to west. The circumference of the city limits is 67.2 km, There is sedimentary rock of carbon and chalk. The geological strata can be visited in the quarry of the Zeche Klosterbusch. The urban area is divided into the river Ruhr catchment in the south, the Ruhr tributaries are the Oelbach, Gerther Mühlenbach, Harpener Bach, Langendreer Bach, Lottenbach, Hörsterholzer Bach and the Knöselbach. The Ruhr in combination with upstream reservoirs is used for drinking water abstraction. The Emscher tributaries are Hüller Bach with Dorneburger Mühlenbach, Hofsteder Bach, Marbach, Ahbach, Kabeisemannsbach, the ecological restoration of the Emscher tributaries initiated by the Emschergenossenschaft started with the Internationale Bauausstellung Emscher Park in 1989. The citys south has woods, the best known of which are the Weitmarer Holz and these are generally mixed forests of oak and beech. The occurrence of holly gives evidence of Bochums temperate climate, Bochum is divided into six administrative districts with a total of 362,213 inhabitants living in an urban area of 145.4 km2. Bochum-Mitte includes Innenstadt, Hamme, Hordel, Hofstede, Riemke, Grumme, Wattenscheid includes Wattenscheid-Mitte, Leithe, Günnigfeld, Westenfeld, Sevinghausen, Höntrop, Munscheid and Eppendorf. There are 74,602 inhabitants living in an area of 23.87 km², North includes Bergen, Gerthe, Harpen, Kornharpen, Hiltrop and Voede-Abzweig. There are 37,004 inhabitants living in an area of 18.86 km², East includes Laer, Werne, and Langendreer. There are 55,193 inhabitants living in an area of 23.46 km², south includes Wiemelhausen, Stiepel and Querenburg. There are 50,866 inhabitants living in an area of 27.11 km², southwest includes Weitmar, Sundern, Linden and Dahlhausen. There are 56,510 inhabitants living in an area of 19.50 km², Bochum dates from the 9th century, when Charlemagne set up a royal court at the junction of two important trade routes. It was first officially mentioned in 1041 as Cofbuokheim in a document of the archbishops of Cologne, the population of Bochum increased from about 4,500 in 1850 to 100,000 in 1904
10.
Metropolitan area
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As social, economic and political institutions have changed, metropolitan areas have become key economic and political regions. The Greater São Paulo is a term for one of the multiple definitions the large metropolitan area located in the São Paulo state in Brazil. A metropolitan area combines an urban agglomeration with zones not necessarily urban in character and these outlying zones are sometimes known as a commuter belt, and may extend well beyond the urban zone, to other political entities. For example, El Monte, California is considered part of the Los Angeles metro area in the United States, in practice, the parameters of metropolitan areas, in both official and unofficial usage, are not consistent. Population figures given for one area can vary by millions. A polycentric metropolitan area is one not connected by continuous development or conurbation, in defining a metropolitan area, it is sufficient that a city or cities form a nucleus that other areas have a high degree of integration with. The Australian Bureau of Statistics defines statistical divisions as areas under the influence of one or more major towns or a major city. However, this definition has become obsolete with the conurbation of several statistical divisions into a larger metropolitan areas. In Brazil, metropolitan areas are called metropolitan regions, each State defines its own legislation for the creation, definition and organization of a metropolitan region. The creation of a region is not intended for any statistical purpose, although the Brazilian Institute of Geography. Their main purpose is to allow for a management of public policies of common interest to all cities involved. They dont have political, electoral or jurisdictional power whatsoever, so living in a metropolitan region do not elect representatives for them. Statistics Canada defines a metropolitan area as an area consisting of one or more adjacent municipalities situated around a major urban core. To form a CMA, the area must have a population of at least 100,000. To be included in the CMA, adjacent municipalities must have a degree of integration with the core. As of the Canada 2011 Census, there were 33 CMAs in Canada, including six with a population over one million—Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton. In Denmark the only area is Greater Copenhagen, consisting of the Capital Region of Denmark along with the neighboring regions Region Zealand. Greater Copenhagen has an population of 1.25 million people
11.
Euro
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Outside of Europe, a number of overseas territories of EU members also use the euro as their currency. Additionally,210 million people worldwide as of 2013 use currencies pegged to the euro, the euro is the second largest reserve currency as well as the second most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar. The name euro was adopted on 16 December 1995 in Madrid. The euro was introduced to world markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999. While the euro dropped subsequently to US$0.8252 within two years, it has traded above the U. S. dollar since the end of 2002, peaking at US$1.6038 on 18 July 2008. In July 2012, the euro fell below US$1.21 for the first time in two years, following concerns raised over Greek debt and Spains troubled banking sector, as of 26 March 2017, the euro–dollar exchange rate stands at ~ US$1.07. The euro is managed and administered by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank, as an independent central bank, the ECB has sole authority to set monetary policy. The Eurosystem participates in the printing, minting and distribution of notes and coins in all states. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty obliges most EU member states to adopt the euro upon meeting certain monetary and budgetary convergence criteria, all nations that have joined the EU since 1993 have pledged to adopt the euro in due course. Since 5 January 2002, the central banks and the ECB have issued euro banknotes on a joint basis. Euro banknotes do not show which central bank issued them, Eurosystem NCBs are required to accept euro banknotes put into circulation by other Eurosystem members and these banknotes are not repatriated. The ECB issues 8% of the value of banknotes issued by the Eurosystem. In practice, the ECBs banknotes are put into circulation by the NCBs and these liabilities carry interest at the main refinancing rate of the ECB. The euro is divided into 100 cents, in Community legislative acts the plural forms of euro and cent are spelled without the s, notwithstanding normal English usage. Otherwise, normal English plurals are used, with many local variations such as centime in France. All circulating coins have a side showing the denomination or value. Due to the plurality in the European Union, the Latin alphabet version of euro is used. For the denominations except the 1-, 2- and 5-cent coins, beginning in 2007 or 2008 the old map is being replaced by a map of Europe also showing countries outside the Union like Norway
12.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
13.
European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
14.
Rhine
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The largest city on the river Rhine is Cologne, Germany, with a population of more than 1,050,000 people. It is the second-longest river in Central and Western Europe, at about 1,230 km, with an average discharge of about 2,900 m3/s. The Rhine and the Danube formed most of the inland frontier of the Roman Empire and, since those days. The many castles and fortifications along the Rhine testify to its importance as a waterway in the Holy Roman Empire, in the modern era, it has become a symbol of German nationalism. The variant of the name of the Rhine in modern languages are all derived from the Gaulish name Rēnos, spanish is with French in adopting the Germanic vocalism Rin-, while Italian, Occitan and Portuguese retain the Latin Ren-. The Gaulish name Rēnos belongs to a class of river names built from the PIE root *rei- to move, flow, run, the grammatical gender of the Celtic name is masculine, and the name remains masculine in German, Dutch and French. The Old English river name was variously inflected as masculine or feminine, the length of the Rhine is conventionally measured in Rhine-kilometers, a scale introduced in 1939 which runs from the Old Rhine Bridge at Constance to Hoek van Holland. The river length is shortened from the rivers natural course due to a number of canalisation projects completed in the 19th and 20th century. The total length of the Rhine, to the inclusion of Lake Constance and its course is conventionally divided as follows, The Rhine carries its name without distinctive accessories only from the confluence of the Vorderrhein and Hinterrhein near Tamins-Reichenau. Above this point is the catchment of the headwaters of the Rhine. It belongs almost exclusively to the Swiss Canton of Graubünden, ranging from Gotthard Massif in the west via one valley lying in Ticino, traditionally, Lake Toma near the Oberalp Pass in the Gotthard region is seen as the source of the Vorderrhein and the Rhine as a whole. The Hinterrhein rises in the Rheinwald valley below Mount Rheinwaldhorn, the Vorderrhein, or Anterior Rhine, springs from Lai da Tuma, near the Oberalp Pass and passes the impressive Ruinaulta formed by the largest visible rock slide in the alps, the Flims Rockslide. A multiday trekking route is signposted along the young Rhine called Senda Sursilvana, the Hinterrhein/Rein Posteriur, or Posterior Rhine, starts from the Paradies Glacier, near the Rheinwaldhorn. One of its tributaries, the Reno di Lei, drains the Valle di Lei on politically Italian territory, after three main valleys separated by the two gorges, Roflaschlucht and Viamala, it reaches Reichenau. The Vorderrhein arises from numerous source streams in the upper Surselva, one source is Lai da Tuma with the Rein da Tuma, which is usually indicated as source of the Rhine, flowing through it. Into it flow tributaries from the south, some longer, some equal in length, such as the Reno di Medel, the Rein da Maighels, and the Rein da Curnera. The Cadlimo Valley in the Canton of Ticino is drained by the Reno di Medel, all streams in the source area are partially, sometimes completely, captured and sent to storage reservoirs for the local hydro-electric power plants. In its lower course the Vorderrhein flows through a gorge named Ruinaulta through the Flims Rockslide, the whole stretch of the Vorderrhein to the Rhine confluence near Reichenau-Tamins is accompanied by a long-distance hiking trail called Senda Sursilvana
15.
Lippe (river)
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The Lippe is a river in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is a tributary of the Rhine and 220.1 km in length with an elevation difference of 125 metres. The source is located at the edge of the Teutoburg Forest in Bad Lippspringe close to the city of Paderborn and it runs westward through Paderborn, Lippstadt and then along the northern edge of the Ruhr area, parallel to the river Emscher and river Ruhr. The river finally enters the Rhine at Wesel, the river Lippe has been used as an infrastructure in Roman times. For the Romans the river was a gateway to Germania, running from the river Rhine to the region around Paderborn, the watercourse was used for transport of supplies, so along the banks of the Lippe many former Roman camps can be found. In the last 200 years many of these camps have been identified, the distance between the camps is about a one-day walk of the troops, which is almost 30 km. Today’s identified Roman camps are, Olfen, Xanten, Haltern, today, the river appears as a two-tier water course, Upstream, eastward of the city of Hamm, the catchment is more rural. Downstream of Hamm settlements and industrial impacts characterize the situation, though the Lippe was partly navigable from 1820 on it was not sufficient for the transport of industrial goods. Moreover, this supported the coal and steel industry development in the northern Ruhr region. The historical city of Hamm and the towns Lünen, Haltern and Dorsten were small settlements located at the Lippe, since 1914 the Datteln-Hamm Canal and 1930 the Wesel-Datteln Canal are located in parallel to the Lippe which is not navigable for mass transportation. The canals receive Lippe water or feed the Lippe from a facility in Hamm. Until the 1970s water pollution played no important role in the public debate, towns, Wesel, Dorsten, Marl, Lünen and Haltern Cities, Paderborn, Lippstadt and Hamm Lippe – Roman settlements along the Lippe. Life Project Lippeaue – One of the Lippeaue renaturation projects
16.
Bergisches Land
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The Bergisches Land is a low mountain range region within the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, east of Rhine river, south of the Ruhr. The landscape is shaped by woods, meadows, rivers and creeks, wuppertal is the biggest town and seen as the regions capital, whereas the southern part nowadays has closer economic and socio-cultural ties to Cologne. Wuppertal and the cities of Remscheid, Solingen form the Bergisches Städtedreieck. Bergisches Land used to be territory of the County of Berg, which became the Duchy of Berg. The Duchy was dissolved in 1815 and in 1822 the region part of the Prussian Rhine Province. The region became famous during the period of its early industralisation in the 19th century, at that time Wupper Valley was a historical Silicon Valley. Its twin cities Barmen and Elberfeld were the trading- and industrial capitals of Prussia at that time, bergische Museumsbahnen Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company Rhineland Berg house www. bergisches-land. de by Bergisches Land Tourismus Marketing e. V
17.
Rhine-Ruhr
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The Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region is the largest metropolitan region in Germany with over 11 million inhabitants. It is of nature and the only megacity in Germany. It covers an area of 7,110 square kilometers and lies entirely within the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The metropolitan area is named after the Rhine and Ruhr rivers, the largest cities in the Rhine-Ruhr area are Cologne, with over 1 million inhabitants, followed by Düsseldorf, Dortmund and Essen, which each have a population of over 500,000. The northern border is similar to the border of the Ruhr Area, the table below shows an unofficial summary of regions. In the official definition the metropolitan area is much smaller, eurostats Urban Audit splits the Rhine-Ruhr region into six Larger Urban Zones. These six Urban Zones do not cover the cities of Remscheid, historically, most of the Ruhr area was for the most part characterized by heavy industry since the age of industrialisation in the late 19th and early 20th century. From within, Düsseldorf, Essen and Cologne are by far the largest economic centers, with specialisation in financial/high tech, other major economic centers are Bonn and Dortmund. The area has four commercial airports, and multiple smaller aerodromes for general aviation. North Rhine-Westphalia has the densest network of Autobahns in Germany, the rail, S-Bahn, U-Bahn and bus companies are administered through a consortium of local and regional transport liness, the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr. It offers a transit system which interconnects all cities and their respective local buses, trams, U- and S-Bahn systems. Their systems are highly integrated where even some subway lines continue from one city to the next, the region is divided into several urban zones and fares are paid according to the amount of urban areas passed through. Tickets include door to door transportation with all forms covered in one ticket with the exception of high speed rail, some excursions, theatre and opera tickets as well as museums offer free transportation from any point in the Rhine Ruhr area to the venue and return. Duisburg Port and Dortmund Port are large inland ports and serve as hubs along the Rhine. With a capacity of up to 20,000 people, the Lanxess Arena, the region is home to a total of 13 Bundesliga football clubs, of which five are active in the season of 2012/13. The most successful among them are Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Mönchengladbach,1, FC Köln, FC Schalke 04 and Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Signal Iduna Park, the stadium of Borussia Dortmund, is the biggest stadium in Germany, several tourist destinations within the region attract over 12 million tourists per year. Cologne Cathedral, Augustusburg and Falkenlust Palaces at Brühl and the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex at Essen are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, other sights include Schloss Benrath in Düsseldorf and several anchor points of the European Route of Industrial Heritage
18.
Metropolitan regions in Germany
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The metropolitan regions in Germany are eleven densely populated areas in the Federal Republic of Germany. They comprise the major German cities and their catchment areas. The eleven metropolitan regions in Germany were organised into units for planning purposes. Using a narrower definition of metropolises, only four cities surpass the threshold of at least one million inhabitants within its borders, namely, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich. They are, Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf/Cologne, Frankfurt/Rhine-Main and Munich, globalization and World Cities Study Group considers Frankfurt and Munich α Global Cities, while the others are considered β global cities
19.
Oberhausen
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Oberhausen is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen. The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is a point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. The citys Sea Life Centre was home to Paul the Octopus, Oberhausen was named for its 1847 railway station which had taken its name from the Castle Oberhausen. The new borough was formed in 1862 following inflow of people for the coal mines. Awarded town rights in 1874, Oberhausen absorbed several neighbouring boroughs including Alstaden, parts of Styrum, Oberhausen became a city in 1901, and they incorporated the towns of Sterkrade and Osterfeld in 1929. The Ruhrchemie AG synthetic oil plant was a target of the Oil Campaign of World War II. In 1973 Thyssen employed 14,000 people in Oberhausen in the steel industry, in 1954 the city began hosting the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, and the 1982 Deutscher Filmpreis was awarded to a group that wrote the Oberhausen Manifesto. The age breakdown of the population is, There are 12. 5% non-Germans living in Oberhausen
20.
Bottrop
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Bottrop is a city in west central Germany, on the Rhine-Herne Canal, in North Rhine-Westphalia. Located in the Ruhr industrial area, Bottrop adjoins Essen, Oberhausen, Gladbeck, the city had been a coal-mining and rail center and contains factories producing coal-tar derivatives, chemicals, textiles, and machinery. Bottrop grew as a mining center beginning in the 1860s, was chartered as a city in 1921, in 1975 it unified with the neighbour communities of Gladbeck and Kirchhellen, but Gladbeck left it in 1976, leading to Kirchhellen becoming a district of Bottrop as Bottrop-Kirchhellen. The total area of the territory is about 101 square kilometres. The longest north-south distance is 17 kilometres, and from west to east 9 kilometres, the highest peak within the citys territory is 78 metres, the lowest one being 26 metres above sea level. Bottrop is divided into 3 boroughs, they are, Bottrop-Mitte, Bottrop-Süd and Bottrop-Kirchhellen, each one having a borough representation and they are 11 Altstadt 12 Nord-Ost 13 Süd-West 21 Fuhlenbrock-Heide 22 Fuhlenbrock-Wald From 1919 until 1976 Kirchhellen was its own town. From 1976 until 1978 it was a part of GlaBotKi, in 1978 Kirchhellen became part of Bottrop. Most of Kirchhellen is Catholic - there are three churches there, the Quadrat is a Museum housing permanent exhibitis on local history and displaying works by Josef Albers as well as many temporary exhibitions. City Hall is regarded as the emblem of the city, saalbau, convention center Alpincenter - the worlds longest indoor ski slope Tetraeder - a 50 m tall walkable steel tetrahedron, placed on a 90 m slag heap. It has been the landmark since its construction in 1995. bottrop-portal. de Informations about Bottrop with Images, facts. Media related to Bottrop at Wikimedia Commons
21.
Gelsenkirchen
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Gelsenkirchen is a city in the North Rhine-Westphalia state of Germany. It is located in the part of the Ruhr area. Its population in 2015 was c, Gelsenkirchen was first documented in 1150, but it remained a tiny village until the 19th century, when the Industrial Revolution led to the growth of the entire area. In 1840, when the mining of coal began,6,000 inhabitants lived in Gelsenkirchen, in the early 20th century, Gelsenkirchen was the most important coal mining town in Europe. It was called the city of a thousand fires for the flames of mine gasses flaring at night, in 1928, Gelsenkirchen was merged with the adjoining cities of Buer and Horst. The city bore the name Gelsenkirchen-Buer, until it was renamed Gelsenkirchen in 1930, during the Nazi era Gelsenkirchen remained a centre of coal production and oil refining, and for this reason it was bombed in Allied air raids during World War II. There are no longer colliers in Gelsenkirchen with the city searching for a new image, today Germanys largest solar power plant is located in the city. In Gelsenkirchen-Scholven there is a power station with the tallest chimneys in Germany. Gelsenkirchen is home of the football club Schalke 04, which is named after the borough Schalke, while the clubs stadium. They did not live in houses as such, but in small yards gathered together near each other, later, the Romans pushed into the area. In about 700, the region was settled by the Saxons, a few other parts of town which today lie in Gelsenkirchens north end were mentioned in documents from the early Middle Ages, some examples being, Raedese, Middelvic, Sutheim and Sculven. Many nearby farming communities were identified as iuxta Bure. It was about 1150 when the name Gelstenkerken or Geilistirinkirkin appeared up for the first time, at about the same time, the first church in town was built in what is now Buer. This ecclesia Buron was listed in a directory of churches by the sexton from Deutz. This settlement belonged to the Mark, however, in ancient times and even in the Middle Ages, only a few dozen people actually lived in the settlements around the Emscher basin. Up until the middle of the 19th century, the area in and around Gelsenkirchen was only thinly settled and almost exclusively agrarian. In 1815, after belonging to the Grand Duchy of Berg, the land now comprising the city of Gelsenkirchen passed to the Kingdom of Prussia. This arrangement came to an end only in 1928, in 1868, Gelsenkirchen became the seat of an Amt within the Bochum district which encompassed the communities of Gelsenkirchen, Braubauerschaft, Schalke, Heßler, Bulmke and Hüllen
22.
Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia
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Herne is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Ruhr area directly between the cities of Bochum and Gelsenkirchen, like most other cities in the region, Herne was a tiny village until the 19th century. Herne is located on the axis between Bochum to the South and Recklinghausen to the North, Münster yet further North, Gelsenkirchen to the West and Castrop-Rauxel. The physical border between Herne and Recklinghausen in fact is, and has been for a time, the bridge at the Bochumer Strasse across the Rhine-Herne Canal. After World War II Herne was known as Die Goldene Stadt because of the limited damage suffered during World War II. In reference to the Kreuzkirche, if you will, but seems to be obliterated, razed, eliminated, forgotten. Herne, Wanne and Eickel as well as independent settlements or villages like Baukau, Börnig, Crange. Farms bearing these names were probably or possibly founded in the 11th and 12th centuries and were integrated at one time or another into the city of Herne. In 1860 the first of a number of coal mines started operating. In the following thirty years the population increased twentyfold, for the first time, Herne would be called a city. The same process took place in Wanne and Eickel, the two of which merged in 1926 to form the new city of Wanne-Eickel. In 1975 Wanne-Eickel, by then a city with over 70,000 inhabitants, was incorporated into Herne, Herne was targeted by the RAF on 4 June 1940, early in World War II, and air-raids became daily and nightly occurrences. On one occasion, three high-explosive torpedo-bombs were dropped, severely damaging a number of houses in the Vincke-Strasse and resulting in the deaths of all the inhabitants, phosphorus bombs were dropped in several locations and caused fires that lasted for days. Herne was probably targeted because of the coal mines as well as the Rhein-Herne Kanal with two double chambered locks at that time, within the city-confines of Herne and at the Northern edge. Goldfinger and Otto Normalverbraucher star Gerd Fröbe is or was a native of Wanne-Eickel, the Krupp Treibstoffwerke oil refinery near the local Shamrock ¾ coal mine was bombed during the Oil Campaign of World War II. A fair called Cranger Kirmes is held in the citys Crange district every first week of August and this is the second largest carnival in Germany with an average of around 4,500,000 visitors. Its origins can be traced back to the 15th century, when farmers started trading horses on Saint Lawrence’s Day and that is why the official opening always takes place on the first Friday in August. The horse market tradition is kept up, by arranging a horse show, today there are about 500 stalls every year covering 111,000 square metres, meaning that it takes a 5 kilometre walk to see the whole fairground
23.
Hagen
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Hagen is the 41st-largest city in Germany. The municipality is located in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and it is located on the south eastern edge of the Ruhr area,15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne and Volme meet the river Ruhr. As of 31 December 2010, the population was 188,529, the city is home to the FernUniversität Hagen, which is the only state funded distance education university in Germany. Counting more than 67,000 students, it is the largest university in Germany, Hagen was first mentioned c.1200, presumably the name of a farm at the junction of the Volme and the Ennepe. After the conquest of Burg Volmarstein in 1324, Hagen passed to the County of Mark, in 1614 it was awarded to the Margraviate of Brandenburg according to the Treaty of Xanten. In 1701 it became part of the Kingdom of Prussia, after the defeat of Prussia in the Fourth Coalition, Hagen was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Berg from 1807–13. In 1815 it became part of the new Prussian Province of Westphalia, the growth of the city began in the 19th century with the mining of coal and the production of steel in the Ruhr Area. Hagen was the scene of fighting during the Ruhr Uprising,13 March -2 April 1920 and has a monument to the Ruhr Red Army, in 1928, Hagen developed into a city of more than 100,000 inhabitants. During World War II, Hagen was bombed repeatedly, by both the Royal Air Force and the Eighth Air Force, on the night of 1 October 1943,243 Lancasters and 8 Mosquitoes from the Royal Air Forces Bomber Command attacked the city. According to the Bomber Command Campaign Diary, This raid was a complete success achieved on a completely cloud-covered target of small size, with only a moderate bomber effort, Hagen sustained severe damage from that raid, and hundreds of civilians were killed. After World War II, the became part of the new state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Owing to the use of water power along the rivers Ruhr, Lenne, Volme and Ennepe, metal processing played an important role in the region of Hagen in. In the 17th and 18th century, textile and steel industries as well as paper production followed, Hagen is the home of the Suedwestfaelische Industrie- und Handelskammer, as well as Sparkasse Hagen, the local municipal savings bank. The banks former headquarters, the Sparkasse Hagen tower, was a landmark until its demolition in 2004. The city is heavily indebted and in the process of cutting city services in order to balance its budget and it is located near the Hagen community of Eilpe. The Historisches Centrum Hagen includes the city museum and Werdringen castle, in the Blätterhöhle cave in Hagen the oldest fossils of modern people in Westphalia and the Ruhr were found. Some date back to the early Mesolithic,10,700 years B. C and it seems that the descendants of Mesolithic people in this area maintained a foraging lifestyle for more than 2000 years after the arrival of farming societies. Some localities of Hagen, Hagen-Dahl Hagen-Emst Hagen-Priorei Hagen-Rummenohl Hagen-Halden The following table shows the largest foreign resident groups in the city of Hagen, schulz The Autobahnen A1, A45 and A46 touch Hagen
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Hamm
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Hamm is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the part of the Ruhr area. As of December 2003 its population was 180,849, the city is situated between the A1 motorway and A2 motorway. Hamm railway station is an important hub for transport and renowned for its distinctive station building. The coat of arms has been in use in its present form for about 750 years and it shows the markish chessboard in red and silver on a golden field. Originally it was the coat of arms, i. e. the Counts of Mark. The chessboard and the colours are displayed in the coats of arms of further towns founded by that family line. Similarly, the colours of the city are red and white, the name Ham means corner in the old Low German dialect spoken at that time. In the old times the name thom Hamme would be used,1350 The Black death killed nearly all of the citizens. 1469 Hamm became a member of the Hanseatic League and it was one of the most powerful towns in the region, while the large cities of the todays Ruhr area still were only tiny villages. Almost all buildings were destroyed, except for the main church St. Georg,1657 Establishment of the Gynasium illustre with three faculties. 1820 The regional appeal court moves from Cleve to Hamm,1944 Coal-mine Maximillian closes after several problems with water drainage of the hole mine. 1945 First meeting of the city council after the war 1946 Establishment of the industrial court,1956 Sport airfield founded in the Lippe meadows. 1976 Coal-mine Sachsen closes 1984 First Landesgartenschau of North Rhine-Westphalia is held in Hamm, the old area of the coal-mine Maximillian was used for this purpose. The world greatest Glasselefant is built as main attraction and until today is one of the landmarks of the city. The Oberbürgermeister is elected directly for a five years term, together with the city council, in 1939,1968 and 1975 Hamm incorporated several towns and municipalities, in 1939 the village Mark and in 1968 the villages of Berge and Westtünnen. The number of more than doubles from 83.000 in 1974 to 173.000 in 1975. The following table shows the situation in 2006, every quarter is named with the prefix Hamm, like Hamm-Bockum-Hövel or Hamm-Mitte
25.
Wesel
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Wesel is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the capital of the Wesel district, Wesel is situated at the confluence of the Lippe River and the Rhine. Suburbs of Wesel include Lackhausen, Obrighoven, Ginderich, Feldmark, Fusternberg, Büderich, Flüren, the city originated from a Franconian manor that was first recorded in the 8th century. In the 12th century, the Duke of Clèves took possession of Wesel, the city became a member of the Hanseatic League during the 15th century. Within the Duchy of Cleves, Wesel was second only to Cologne in the lower Rhine region as an entrepôt and it was an important commercial centre, a clearing station for the transshipment and trading of goods. In 1590 the Spanish captured Wesel after a four-year siege, the city changed hands between the Dutch and Spanish several times during the Eighty Years War. In 1672 a French force under Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé captured the city, Wesel was inherited by the Hohenzollerns of the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1609 but they were unable to take control of Wesel until the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678. Although the city had been heavily fortified the Prussians evacuated the city during the Seven Years War and it was returned to Prussia at the end of the war. Friedrich Wilhelm von Dossow was the Prussian Governor of Wesel during the 18th century, Wesel was ceded to the French in 1805 under the treaty of Schönbrunn. The French heavily fortified the city constructing a fort called the Citadelle Napoleon at Büderich. Though blockaded by the Allies in 1813 the city remained in French hands until after the Battle of Waterloo, after the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century, the city became part of the Prussian Rhine Province and the Citadelle Napoleon was renamed Fort Blücher. During World War II, as a depot, Wesel became a target of Allied bombing. On the 16,17 and 19 February 1945, the town was attacked with impact and air-burst bombs, the Wehrmacht blew up bridges along the Rhine and Lippe to prevent Allied forces from advancing. The Wehrmacht also destroyed the 1, 950m-long railway bridge, the last Rhine bridge remaining in German hands, on 23 March, Wesel came under the fire of over 3,000 guns when it was bombarded anew, in preparation for Operation Plunder. The shelling was assisted by a raid of RAF bombers and a raid that night. At 2100 hours on the 23rd, ten individual bombers each dropped a 10,000 kg bomb on Wesel, before the town was finally taken by Allied troops, 97% of its structures were destroyed. In the ensuing attacks by Allied forces, the town was taken for minimal casualties, Operation Varsity – the largest airborne landings of the war – dropped 18,000 troops into the area to take the hills behind Wesel. The British 1st Commando Brigade was already attacking Wesel carried into action by LVT Buffalos, the remainder of the Allied force crossed the Rhine in more amphibious vehicles
26.
Recklinghausen
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Recklinghausen is the northernmost city in the Ruhr-Area and the capital of the Recklinghausen district. It borders the rural Münsterland and is characterized by fields and farms in the north. Recklinghausen is the 60th-largest city in Germany and the 22nd-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, first mentioned in 1017 as Ricoldinchuson, in 1150 the city was the center of the surrounding Vest Recklinghausen. In 1236, the city of Recklinghausen received town privileges, as part of the County of Vest, ownership of Recklinghausen changed several times in the 15th and 16th century, and in 1576, the entire county was pawned to the Elector of Cologne. Recklinghausen was also the site of more than 100 witchcraft trials, the trial activity reached a climax twice, In the time period of 1580/81 and again in 1588/89. The last person to be convicted of witchcraft was Anna Spickermann, after spending 16 months in prison, she was sentenced to death by sword, circa 1600, the administration of the Vest Recklinghausen was divided into two parts, with the eastern part administered by Recklinghausen. Circa 1815, the Vest was made a Bürgermeisterei, with the town becoming the seat, in 1819, Herten joined the Recklinghausen Bürgermeisterei, and Erkenschwick followed in 1821. Recklinghausen is home to a museum of icons, which more than 1,000 Orthodox works from Russia, Greece. The icon museum - the largest outside the Orthodox world - was founded in 1956, the Ruhrfestpielhaus, whose remodeling in 2001 won the German Architecture Award is home of Die Liegende Nr 5, a famous sculpture by Henry Moore. At the Lohtor in front of a memorial for the victims of World War I, Recklinghausen hosts the annual Ruhrfestspiele, a cultural festival with an international reputation. Every year there is a programme with many national and international theatrical productions starting on 1 May. In 2008 the programme included the play Speed the Plow starring Kevin Spacey, the main theatrical stage is the Ruhrfestspielhaus but other theatres in and around Recklinghausen participate. The two major motorways crossing the area of the city are the A2 and the A43, the city is connected to the larger waterways by the Rhein-Herne-Kanal. The Central Station, which is served by Intercity and EuroCity services, and the South Station
27.
Unna
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Unna is a city of around 59,000 people in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the seat of the Unna district. Unna is situated on an ancient salt-trading route, the Westphalian Hellweg, trade on this route and during the period of the Hanseatic League came from as far as London. The city is located at the extremity of the Ruhr district. The history of settlement in what is now the city of Unna can be traced back to the Neolithic Era. In the Middle Ages, Unna gained significance as a way station on the Hellweg and it is first recorded by name in an ecclesiastical document of 1032. Around 1200, Count Friedrich von Altena-Isenberg was invested with the fiefdom of Unna, among other estates, over the next few hundred years the town was repeatedly fought over, and burned down several times. In the 14th century the town became wealthy, a mint was established and this is documented by the discovery of around 70 gold coins during excavation works in 1952. The coins originated from countries and are thought to have been buried around 1375. From the mid-15th century on, the town was a trade centre. In 1597 more than half the population died of the Bubonic plague, in the early 17th century, the town changed hands several times in religious wars, and in 1666 fell under the control of Prussia. In the early 19th century, the character of the town started to change from agricultural to industrial, with improved communications by road, rail. Coal mining started in 1870, together with industries dependent on it, the population rose from around 2,500 at the start of the 19th century to 15,000 in 1900. At the beginning of the 19th century, the city district Königsborn gained prominence as a resort with mineral springs. The cityscape of Königsborn still shows many buildings from that era. In 2013, a survey showed that the mineral springs could still be used for health purposes. During the Second World War, in 1943-45 there were air attacks directed at the significant barracks. In the older part of the city, there are many half-timbered buildings built between the 16th and 19th centuries, Unnas economy was largely based on agriculture until the 19th century, when it became industrialised. After World War II, the district which had survived bombing was largely torn down to make way for modern development
28.
Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis
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The Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis is a district in the center of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is part of the southern Ruhr urban area and has ca.324,000 inhabitants, the districts seat is Schwelm, the largest of its nine towns is Witten. The name of the district describes its geographical location – it is located in the valleys of the rivers Ruhr, geologically it is part of the north-eastern Rhenish Massif, a Mittelgebirge landscape, only small parts of Witten belong to the flat Westphalian Lowland. The district consists of nine municipalities, all entitled Stadt, the district was created in 1929 by merging the former district of Schwelm with parts of the former districts of Hattingen and Hagen. In 1970 and 1975 it was modified a bit during the reorganization of the districts in North Rhine-Westphalia, in the middle of the coat of arms there is the checked red-white bar of the County of Mark, which owned the area in medieval times. The two wavy lines above and below depict the two rivers gave the district its name, the Ruhr and the Ennepe. Media related to Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis at Wikimedia Commons Official Webpage
29.
Wuppertal
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Wuppertal is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in and around the river Wupper valley, and is situated east of the city of Düsseldorf, with a population of approximately 350,000, it is the largest city in the Bergisches Land. Wuppertal is known for its steep slopes, its woods and parks, and its suspension railway and it is the greenest city of Germany with two-thirds green space of the total municipal area of Wuppertal. From any part of the city, it is only a walk to one of the public parks or woodland paths. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Wupper valley was one of the largest industrial regions of continental Europe, the increasing demand for coal from the textile mills and blacksmith shops encouraged the expansion of the nearby Ruhrgebiet. Wuppertal still is an industrial centre, being home to industries such as textiles, metallurgy, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, electronics, automobiles, rubber, vehicles. Aspirin originates from Wuppertal, patented in 1897 by Bayer, as is the Vorwerk-Kobold vacuum cleaner, the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy and the European Institute for International Economic Relations are located in the city. Wuppertal in its present borders was formed in 1929 by merging the cities of Barmen and Elberfeld with the communities Vohwinkel, Ronsdorf, Cronenberg, Langerfeld. The initial name Barmen-Elberfeld was changed in a 1930 referendum to Wuppertal, the new city was administered as part of the Prussian Rhine Province. Uniquely for Germany, it is a city, owing to the steep hillsides along the River Wupper. Its highest hill is the Lichtscheid, which is 351 metres above sea level, the dominant urban centres Elberfeld and Barmen have formed a continuous urbanized area since 1850. During the succeeding decades, “Wupper-Town” became the dominant industrial agglomeration of northwestern Germany, during the 20th century, this conurbation had been surpassed by Cologne, Düsseldorf, and the Ruhr area, all with a more favourable topography. From July 5,1933 to January 19,1934, the Kemna concentration camp was established in Wuppertal and it was one of the early Nazi concentration camps, created by the Third Reich to incarcerate their political opponents after the Nazi Party first gained power in 1933. The camp was established in a factory on the Wupper river in the Kemna neighborhood of the Barmen part of Wuppertal. Wuppertal is famous as an important place of resistance in Germany, the Barmen Declaration or The Theological Declaration of Barmen was a document adopted by Christians in Nazi Germany who opposed the Deutsche Christen philosophy. During World War II, about 40% of buildings in the city were destroyed by Allied bombing, as were many other German cities and industrial centres. However, a number of historic sites have been preserved, such as, Ölberg, literally “Oil mountain”. The name came about during the 1920s as the district continued using oil lamps while the surrounding bourgeois residential quarters were electrified, in traditional use, the name Ölberg refers to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem
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Rhineland
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The Rhineland is the name used for a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine River, chiefly its middle section. In the High Middle Ages, numerous Imperial States along the river emerged from the stem duchy of Lotharingia. The term covered the whole occupied zone west of the Rhine including the bridge-heads on the eastern banks, after the collapse of the French dominated West Bank in the early 19th century, the regions of Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg were annexed to the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1822 the Prussian administration reorganized the territory as the Rhine Province, following the First World War, the western part of Rhineland was occupied by Entente forces, then demilitarized under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. German forces remilitarized the territory in 1936, as part of a diplomatic test of will, stretching down to the North Palatine Uplands in the south, this area, except for the Saarland, more or less corresponds with the modern use of the term. The southern and eastern parts are mainly hill country, cut by valleys, principally the Middle Rhine up to Bingen and its Ahr, Moselle. The border of the North German plain is marked by the lower Ruhr, in the south, the river cuts the Rhenish Massif. The area encompasses the western part of the Ruhr industrial region, toponyms as well as local family names often trace back to the Frankish heritage. The lands on the shore of the Rhine are strongly characterised by Roman influence. In the core territories, large parts of the population are members of the Catholic Church. On the right bank of the Rhine, between the Main and the Lahn, were the settlements of the Mattiaci, a branch of the Germanic Chatti, while farther to the north were the Usipetes and Tencteri. Julius Caesar conquered the tribes on the left bank, and Augustus established numerous fortified posts on the Rhine. The Frankish conquerors of the Rhenish districts were singularly little affected by the culture of the Roman provincials they subdued, by the 8th century the Frankish dominion was firmly established in western Germania and northern Gaul. On the division of the Carolingian Empire at the Treaty of Verdun the part the province to the east of the fell to East Francia. As the central power of the Holy Roman Emperor weakened, the Rhineland split up into small independent principalities, each with its separate vicissitudes. After the Imperial Reform of 1500/12, the territory was part of the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian, Upper Rhenish, aachen was the place of coronation of the German emperors, and the ecclesiastical principalities of the Rhine played a large role in German history. At the Peace of Basel in 1795, the whole of the bank of the Rhine was taken by France. The population was about 1.6 million in small states
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Westphalia
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Westphalia is a region in northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of 7,802 sq mi and 7.9 million inhabitants, the region is almost identical with the Province of Westphalia which was a part of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1815 to 1918 and the Free State of Prussia from 1918 to 1946. In 1946, Westphalia merged with the Northern Rhineland, another part of Prussia. In 1947, the state with its two parts was joined by a third one, Lippe, a former principality and free state. All of the 17 districts and 9 independent cities of Westphalia, the Westphalian language, a variant of the German language, spreads north of Westphalias borders into southwest Lower Saxony. Being a part of the North German Plain, most of Westphalias north is flat, in the south the German Central Uplands emerge. Westphalia is divided into the following landscapes, other important rivers are the Ems and the Lippe. The Langenberg and the Kahler Asten in the Sauerlands part of the Rothaar Mountains are Westphalias, Westphalia is divided into three governmental districts. These are subdivided into districts and independent cities. All districts and independent cities of the districts of Arnsberg. The District of Lippe as successor of the Free State of Lippe in the Governmental District of Detmold is rather considered to be a historic region. The traditional symbol of Westphalia is the Westphalian Steed, a horse on a red field. It is derived from the Saxon Steed in the coat of arms of the medieval Duchy of Saxony which most of todays Westphalia was part of. In official contexts the coat of arms of Westphalia is being used by the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association which represents these two historic parts of North Rhine-Westphalia. The coat of arms of Lower Saxony uses a different version of the Saxon Steed since the state also covers parts of the Old Saxons duchy. The colors of Westphalia are white and red, the flag of the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association uses these colors with the Westphalian coat of arms in its center. The flag of North Rhine-Westphalia is a combination of the Northern Rhinelands colors green/white, the flag of the Prussian Province of Westphalia already displayed the colors white and red. The flag of Lower Saxony shows the colors of Germany and the Saxon Steed, composed in Iserlohn in 1886 by Emil Rittershaus, the Westfalenlied is an unofficial anthem of Westphalia
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European Capital of Culture
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The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by the European Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension. An international panel of experts is in charge of assessing the proposals of cities for the title according to criteria specified by the European Union. Consequently, the beneficial socio-economic development and impact for the city are now also considered in determining the chosen cities. The European Capital of Culture programme was called the European City of Culture and was conceived in 1983, by Melina Mercouri. Mercouri believed that at the time, culture was not given the attention as politics and economics. The European City of Culture programme was launched in the summer of 1985 with Athens being the first title-holder, during the German presidency of 1999, the European City of Culture programme was renamed the European Capital of Culture. 1 A new framework makes it possible for a city in a country or potential candidate for EU membership to hold the title every third year as of 2021. This will be selected through a competition, meaning that cities from various countries may compete with each other. Association for Tourism and Leisure Education
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Rhenish Massif
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The Rhenish Massif is a geologic massif in western Germany, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg and northeastern France. The Rhenish Massif consists of the Belgian and French Ardennes, the German Eifel, the Mosel and Hunsrück hills form its southwestern part, the Westerwald, Lahn-Dill area and the Taunus occupy the southeastern part. The massif is divided in two by the Middle Rhine Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage site, geologically the Rhenish Massif consists of metamorphic rocks, mostly slates, deformed and metamorphosed during the Hercynian orogeny. Most of the massif is part of the Rhenohercynian zone of this orogeny, most rocks in the Rhenish Massif were originally sediments, mostly deposited during the Devonian and Carboniferous in a back-arc basin called the Rhenohercynian basin. In some places in the Ardennes, even older rocks of Cambrian to Silurian age crop out as massifs overlain by Devonian slates and these older rocks form smaller massifs of their own. In the eastern Rhenish Massif some very limited outcrops in the Sauerland show rocks of Ordovician, further Ordovician rock exposures are part of the southern Taunus. The second rock type are Tertiary and Quaternary igneous rocks, which most prominently occur in the Vulkaneifel, the Westerwald and the Vogelsberg. The mountain and hill ranges within the Rhenish Massif - some with maximum height in metres sea level ) are given below, Walter
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Loess
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Loess is a clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. It covers about 10% of the Earths surface and it is usually homogeneous and highly porous and is traversed by vertical capillaries that permit the sediment to fracture and form vertical bluffs. It was first applied to Rhine River valley loess about 1821, Loess is homogeneous, porous, friable, pale yellow or buff, slightly coherent, typically non-stratified and often calcareous. Loess grains are angular with little polishing or rounding and composed of crystals of quartz, feldspar, mica, Loess can be described as a rich, dust-like soil. Loess deposits may become thick, more than a hundred meters in areas of China. It generally occurs as a deposit that covers areas of hundreds of square kilometers. Loess often stands in either steep or vertical faces, because the grains are angular, loess will often stand in banks for many years without slumping. This soil has a characteristic called vertical cleavage which makes it easily excavated to form cave dwellings, in several areas of the world, loess ridges have formed that are aligned with the prevailing winds during the last glacial maximum. These are called paha ridges in America and greda ridges in Europe, the form of these loess dunes has been explained by a combination of wind and tundra conditions. Loess comes from the German Löss or Löß, and ultimately from Alemannic lösch meaning loose as named by peasants, the term Löß was first described in Central Europe by Karl Cäsar von Leonhard who reported yellowish brown, silty deposits along the Rhine valley near Heidelberg. Charles Lyell brought this term into usage by observing similarities between loess and loess derivatives along the loess bluffs in the Rhine and Mississippi. At that time it was thought that the yellowish brown silt-rich sediment was of fluvial origin being deposited by the large rivers. It wasnt until the end of the 19th century that the origin of loess was recognized. A tremendous number of papers have been published since then, focusing on the formation of loess and on loess/palaeosol sequences as archives of climate and these water conservation works were carried out extensively in China and the research of Loess in China has been continued since 1954. Much effort was put into the setting up of regional and local loess stratigraphies, and Frechen, Horváth & Gábris for the Austrian and Hungarian loess stratigraphy, respectively. During the autumn and winter, when melting of the icesheets and icecaps ceased, as a consequence, large parts of the formerly submerged and unvegetated floodplains of these braided rivers dried out and were exposed to the wind. Because these floodplains consist of sediment containing a high content of glacially ground flour-like silt and clay, they were susceptible to winnowing of their silts. Once entrained by the wind, particles were then deposited downwind, the loess deposits found along both sides of the Mississippi River Alluvial Valley are a classic example of periglacial loess
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Coal
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Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure. Coal is composed primarily of carbon, along with quantities of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen. A fossil fuel, coal forms when plant matter is converted into peat, which in turn is converted into lignite, then sub-bituminous coal, after that bituminous coal. This involves biological and geological processes that take place over time, throughout history, coal has been used as an energy resource, primarily burned for the production of electricity and heat, and is also used for industrial purposes, such as refining metals. Coal is the largest source of energy for the generation of electricity worldwide, the extraction of coal, its use in energy production and its byproducts are all associated with environmental and health effects including climate change. Coal is extracted from the ground by coal mining, since 1983, the worlds top coal producer has been China. In 2015 China produced 3,747 million tonnes of coal –47. 7% of 7,861 million tonnes world coal production, in 2015 other large producers were United States, India, European Union and Australia. The word originally took the col in Old English, from Proto-Germanic *kula. In Old Turkic languages, kül is ash, cinders, öčür is quench, the compound charcoal in Turkic is öčür kül, literally quenched ashes, cinders, coals with elided anlaut ö- and inflection affixes -ülmüş. At various times in the geologic past, the Earth had dense forests in low-lying wetland areas, due to natural processes such as flooding, these forests were buried underneath soil. As more and more soil deposited over them, they were compressed, the temperature also rose as they sank deeper and deeper. As the process continued the plant matter was protected from biodegradation and oxidation and this trapped the carbon in immense peat bogs that were eventually covered and deeply buried by sediments. Under high pressure and high temperature, dead vegetation was slowly converted to coal, as coal contains mainly carbon, the conversion of dead vegetation into coal is called carbonization. The wide, shallow seas of the Carboniferous Period provided ideal conditions for coal formation, the exception is the coal gap in the Permian–Triassic extinction event, where coal is rare. Coal is known from Precambrian strata, which predate land plants — this coal is presumed to have originated from residues of algae, in its dehydrated form, peat is a highly effective absorbent for fuel and oil spills on land and water. It is also used as a conditioner for soil to make it able to retain. Lignite, or brown coal, is the lowest rank of coal, jet, a compact form of lignite, is sometimes polished and has been used as an ornamental stone since the Upper Palaeolithic
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Carboniferous
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The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period 358.9 million years ago, to the beginning of the Permian Period,298.9 Mya. The name Carboniferous means coal-bearing and derives from the Latin words carbō and ferō, and was coined by geologists William Conybeare and William Phillips in 1822. Based on a study of the British rock succession, it was the first of the system names to be employed. The Carboniferous is often treated in North America as two periods, the earlier Mississippian and the later Pennsylvanian. Terrestrial life was established by the Carboniferous period. Amphibians were the dominant land vertebrates, of one branch would eventually evolve into amniotes. Arthropods were also common, and many were much larger than those of today. Vast swaths of forest covered the land, which would eventually be laid down, the atmospheric content of oxygen also reached their highest levels in geological history during the period, 35% compared with 21% today, allowing terrestrial invertebrates to evolve to great size. A major marine and terrestrial extinction event, the Carboniferous rainforest collapse, occurred in the middle of the period, the later half of the period experienced glaciations, low sea level, and mountain building as the continents collided to form Pangaea. In the United States the Carboniferous is usually broken into Mississippian and Pennsylvanian subperiods, the Silesian is roughly contemporaneous with the late Mississippian Serpukhovian plus the Pennsylvanian. In Britain the Dinantian is traditionally known as the Carboniferous Limestone, the Namurian as the Millstone Grit, and the Westphalian as the Coal Measures and Pennant Sandstone. There was also a drop in south polar temperatures, southern Gondwanaland was glaciated throughout the period and these conditions apparently had little effect in the deep tropics, where lush swamps, later to become coal, flourished to within 30 degrees of the northernmost glaciers. Mid-Carboniferous, a drop in sea level precipitated a major extinction, one that hit crinoids. This sea level drop and the unconformity in North America separate the Mississippian subperiod from the Pennsylvanian subperiod. This happened about 323 million years ago, at the onset of the Permo-Carboniferous Glaciation, the Carboniferous was a time of active mountain-building, as the supercontinent Pangaea came together. The southern continents remained tied together in the supercontinent Gondwana, which collided with North America–Europe along the present line of eastern North America, in the same time frame, much of present eastern Eurasian plate welded itself to Europe along the line of the Ural mountains. Most of the Mesozoic supercontinent of Pangea was now assembled, although North China, the Late Carboniferous Pangaea was shaped like an O. There were two major oceans in the Carboniferous—Panthalassa and Paleo-Tethys, which was inside the O in the Carboniferous Pangaea, other minor oceans were shrinking and eventually closed - Rheic Ocean, the small, shallow Ural Ocean and Proto-Tethys Ocean
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Berlin
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Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
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London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
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Industrial Revolution
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The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain and most of the important technological innovations were British, aided by these legal and cultural foundations, an entrepreneurial spirit and consumer revolution drove industrialisation in Britain, which would be emulated in countries around the world. A change in marrying patterns to getting married later made able to accumulate more human capital during their youth. The Industrial Revolution marks a turning point in history, almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. In particular, average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth, mechanised textile production spread from Great Britain to continental Europe in the early 19th century, with important centres of textiles, iron and coal emerging in Belgium, and later in France. Since then industrialisation has spread throughout much of the world, the precise start and end of the Industrial Revolution is still debated among historians, as is the pace of economic and social changes. Economic historians are in agreement that the onset of the Industrial Revolution is the most important event in the history of humanity since the domestication of animals and plants. The term Industrial Revolution applied to change was becoming more common by the late 1830s. Friedrich Engels in The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 spoke of an industrial revolution, however, although Engels wrote in the 1840s, his book was not translated into English until the late 1800s, and his expression did not enter everyday language until then. Credit for popularising the term may be given to Arnold Toynbee, some historians, such as John Clapham and Nicholas Crafts, have argued that the economic and social changes occurred gradually and the term revolution is a misnomer. This is still a subject of debate among some historians, the commencement of the Industrial Revolution is closely linked to a small number of innovations, beginning in the second half of the 18th century. By the 1830s the following gains had been made in important technologies, Textiles – mechanised cotton spinning powered by steam or water greatly increased the output of a worker, the power loom increased the output of a worker by a factor of over 40. The cotton gin increased productivity of removing seed from cotton by a factor of 50, large gains in productivity also occurred in spinning and weaving of wool and linen, but they were not as great as in cotton. Steam power – the efficiency of steam engines increased so that they used between one-fifth and one-tenth as much fuel, the adaptation of stationary steam engines to rotary motion made them suitable for industrial uses. The high pressure engine had a power to weight ratio. Steam power underwent an expansion after 1800. Iron making – the substitution of coke for charcoal greatly lowered the fuel cost for pig iron, using coke also allowed larger blast furnaces, resulting in economies of scale. The cast iron blowing cylinder was first used in 1760 and it was later improved by making it double acting, which allowed higher furnace temperatures
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Brownfield land
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Land that is more severely contaminated and has high concentrations of hazardous waste or pollution, such as a Superfund site, does not fall under the brownfield classification. After clean up, such an area can become a community park or business development, the term brownfields first came into use on June 28,1992, at a U. S. congressional field hearing hosted by the Northeast Midwest Congressional Coalition. Also in 1992, the first detailed analysis of the issue was convened by the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission. The United States Environmental Protection Agency selected Cuyahoga County as its first brownfield pilot project in September 1993, the term applies more generally to previously used land or to sections of industrial or commercial facilities that are to be upgraded. Brownfield land is an area of previously used or built upon, as opposed to greenfield land. Land that is severely contaminated and has high concentrations of hazardous waste or pollution, such as a Superfund site. Mothballed brownfields are properties that the owners are not willing to transfer or put to productive reuse, Brownfield status is a legal designation which places restrictions, conditions or incentives on redevelopment and use on the site. In the United Kingdom, the term brownfield has a meaning roughly equivalent to the American usage described above, i. e. vacant or derelict land or property. In terms of British Town and Country Planning, however, the meaning of brownfield is more complex, small brownfields also may be found in older residential neighborhoods, as for example dry cleaning establishments or gas stations produced high levels of subsurface contaminants. Typical contaminants found on contaminated brownfield land include hydrocarbon spillages, solvents, pesticides, heavy metals such as lead, tributyl tins, old maps may assist in identifying areas to be tested. The primary issue facing all nations involved in attracting and sustaining new uses to brownfield sites is that industries are globally oriented and this directly affects brownfield reuse, such as limiting the effective economic life of the use on the revitalized sites. United States estimates suggest there are over 500,000 brownfield sites contaminated at levels below the Superfund caliber in the country, the Clinton-Gore administration and US EPA launched a series of brownfield policies and programs in 1993 to tackle this problem. Canada has an estimated 200,000 contaminated sites across the nation, the provincial governments have primary responsibility for brownfields. The provinces´ legal mechanisms for managing risk are limited, as there are no tools such as No Further Action letters to property owners finality and certainty in the cleanup. Yet, Canada has cleaned up sites and attracted investment to contaminated lands such as the Moncton rail yards, a strip of the Texaco lands in Mississauga is slated to be part of the Waterfront Trail. However, Imperial Oil has no plans to sell the 75-acre property which has been vacant since the 1980s.9 billion. The report listed significant sites called the Big Five with a liability of $1.8 billion, Faro mine, Colomac Mine, Giant Mine, Cape Dyer-DEW line, the Port Hope, Ontario site has a liability of $1 billion. By 2010 it was projected that it would cost well over a billion dollars for the remediation project
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Emscher
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The Emscher is a relatively small river and tributary of the Rhine, flowing through the Ruhr area in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. Its total length is 84 km with an average discharge near the mouth into the lower Rhine of 16 m³/s, the Emscher has its source in Holzwickede, east of the city of Dortmund, and flows west through the Ruhr area. Towns along the Emscher include Dortmund, Castrop-Rauxel, Herne, Recklinghausen, Gelsenkirchen, Essen, Bottrop, Oberhausen and Dinslaken, where it flows into the Rhine. In the geographical centre of a vast industrial area of 5 million inhabitants, massive mining subsidences from the many coal mines in the Emschers course had made parallel subterranean sewer pipes unfeasible as they would break too easily. A huge modern sewage treatment plant at its mouth ensures that the water of the Emscher enters the Rhine in an acceptable quality, since the early 1990s, a huge renaturation project for the Emscher river has been progressing. The first section of the subject to renaturation is in the city of Dortmund. The total project is managed by the water board Emschergenossenschaft. The financial frame is 4.5 billion Euro and the aim is to finish the work by the year 2020
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History of the Ruhr
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In the Middle Ages, local power was vested primarily in the counts of Berg, Mark and Cleves. The left bank of the Rhine was held by the Archbishop of Cologne, the Hellweg was an important trade route crossing the region from Duisburg to Dortmund and beyond as far as the rivers Weser and Elbe. The most important towns of the region were concentrated along the Hellweg, as a result of the Congress of Vienna the entire area came under the control of Prussia. This event was almost concomitant with developments which would make the region one of the most important industrial areas in the world. In 1946 the state of North Rhine-Westphalia came into being, centred on the Ruhr, nowadays, its hitherto important coal and steel industries have drastically declined and the region is in a state of re-adjustment. During the Carboniferous Period, in the Paleozoic era, which began 360 million years ago and ended 300 million years ago, layers of slate, coal,400 to 300 million years ago, new mountains were uplifted during the Variscan mountain-building period. In the Silesian, layers were deposited which become seams of coal over a period lasting millions of years, the main representatives of flora in the coal marshes were of the genus Lepidodendron and genus Sigillaria, tree-like plants, which belong to the plant classification Lycopodiophyta. Members of both genus reached heights of up to 40 meters with a diameter of over a meter. In the Cretaceous,135 million to about 66 million years ago, on the floor of the sea, a thick layer of marl formed. The sediments covered the layers of carbon and contained also the shells of giant ammonites, the Ice Age brought changes between warm and cold weather. During the Drenthe Stadium of the Wolstonian Stage, an ice sheet over Northern Germany covered the Ruhr, the shape of the middle and lower Ruhr valley is due to meltwaters and the powerful force of the ice. Meltwater from the glaciers flowed westwards through the Ruhr valley, where Essen lies today, this flow was temporarily hindered by a barrier of ice and rocky debris, forming an enormous lake which filled the valley at Schwerte. – The region of the present-day Ruhr was already settled during the Neanderthal period, during the building of the Rhine-Herne Canal in 1911, stone tools and traces of encampment with bones from wooly rhinoceros, bison and mammoth were found in Herne. Humanoids also settled elsewhere in the Emscher valley, similar finds in the 1960s were made in Bottrop. – In November 1978 stone-age flint instruments were found on the Kaiserberg in Duisburg which belong to the phases of the last Ice Age. The oldest remains of humans in the area of the current Ruhr stem from the early Middle Stone Age. They were discovered in Spring 2004 in the Blätterhöhle in Hagen-Hohenlimburg, 6000–4500 BC – several settlements are known in the regions of Bochum, Hagen and Dortmund from the Linear Pottery culture and the Rössen culture. In Spring 2004, the skeletons of humans from the Michelsberg culture were discovered in the Blätterhöhle in Hagen-Hohenlimburg
Germany
North Rhine-Westphalia
listen)), or the Ruhr district, Ruhr region, Ruhr area or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.[a] With a population density of 2,800/km2 and a population of over 5 million (2011),[3] it is the largest urban area in Germany, and third-largest in the European Union.[4] It consists of several large, industrial cities bordered by the rivers Ruhr to the south, Rhine to the west, and Lippe to the north. In the southwest it borders the Bergisches Land. It is considered part of the larger Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region of more than 12 million people, which is among the largest in Europe.
