Gelsenkirchen (, , ; wep, Gelsenkiärken) is the 25th most populous city of Germany and the 11th most populous in the state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher River (a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...

of the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

), it lies at the centre of the Ruhr, the largest urban area of Germany, of which it is the fifth largest city after Dortmund, Essen,

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...

and Bochum. The Ruhr is located in the

Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region The Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region (german: Metropolregion Rhein-Ruhr) is the largest metropolitan region in Germany, with over ten million inhabitants. A polycentric conurbation with several major urban concentrations, the region covers ...

, one of Europe's largest urban areas. Gelsenkirchen is the fifth largest city of

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

after Dortmund, Bochum,

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Detmold and the ...

and

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

, and it is one of the southernmost cities in the Low German dialect area. The city is home to the football club

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine ...

, which is named after . The club's current stadium

Veltins-Arena Arena AufSchalke (), currently known as Veltins-Arena () for sponsorship reasons, is an indoor football stadium in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It opened on 13 August 2001, as the new home ground for Bundesliga club FC ...

, however, is located in . Gelsenkirchen was first documented in 1150, but it remained a tiny village until the 19th century, when the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

led to the growth of the entire area. In 1840, when the mining of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

began, 6,000 inhabitants lived in Gelsenkirchen; in 1900 the population had increased to 138,000. 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 gases flaring at night. In 1928, Gelsenkirchen was merged with the adjoining cities of Buer and . The city bore the name Gelsenkirchen-Buer, until it was renamed Gelsenkirchen in 1930. The city remained a center of coal mining and oil refining during the Nazi Era, so it was often a target of Allied bombing raids during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. There are no longer colliers in Gelsenkirchen with the city searching for a new image, having been hit for decades with one of the highest unemployment rates in Germany. Today Germany's largest

solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovolta ...

plant is located in the city. In Gelsenkirchen-Scholven there is a coal-fired power station with the tallest chimneys in Germany (302 m).

History

Ancient and medieval times

Although the part of town now called Buer was first mentioned by Heribert I in a document as ''Puira'' in 1003, there were hunting people on a hill north of the

Emscher The Emscher () is a river, a tributary of the Rhine, that flows through the Ruhr area in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. Its overall length is with an mean outflow near the mouth into the lower Rhine of . Description The Emscher h ...

as early as the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

– earlier than 1000 BC. They did not live in houses as such, but in small yards gathered together near each other. Later, the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

pushed into the area. In about 700, the region was settled by the

Saxons The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

. A few other parts of town which today lie in Gelsenkirchen's north end were mentioned in documents from the early

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, some examples being: ''Raedese'' (nowadays ''Resse''), Middelvic (''Middelich'', today part of Resse), ''Sutheim'' (''Sutum''; today part of Beckhausen) and ''Sculven'' (nowadays ''Scholven''). Many nearby farming communities were later identified as ' ("near Buer"). It was about 1150 when the name ''Gelstenkerken'' or ''Geilistirinkirkin'' appeared up for the first time. At about the same time, the first

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

in town was built in what is now Buer. This ' ("church at Buer") was listed in a directory of

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

churches by the sexton from Deutz, Theodericus. This settlement belonged to the

Mark Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * F ...

. However, in ancient times and even in the Middle Ages, only a few dozen people actually lived in the settlements around the Emscher basin.

Industrialisation

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 temporarily belonging to the

Grand Duchy A grand duchy is a country or territory whose official head of state or ruler is a monarch bearing the title of grand duke or grand duchess. Relatively rare until the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the term was often used in the o ...

Berg Berg may refer to: People *Berg (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) *Berg Ng (born 1960), Hong Kong actor * Berg (footballer) (born 1989), Brazilian footballer Former states * Berg (state), county and duchy of the Hol ...

, the land now comprising the city of Gelsenkirchen passed to the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. ...

, which assigned it to the province of Westphalia. Whereas the Gelsenkirchen of that time – not including today's north-end communities, such as Buer – was put in the ''

Amt Amt is a type of administrative division governing a group of municipalities, today only in Germany, but formerly also common in other countries of Northern Europe. Its size and functions differ by country and the term is roughly equivalent to ...

'' of

Wattenscheid Wattenscheid () is a Stadtbezirk of the city of Bochum. Until 1975, it was a separate town in the Ruhr area of North Rhine-Westphalia. Wattenscheid has a population of about 80,000 citizens. Some notable firms have their headquarters in there, ...

in the Bochum district, in the governmental region of Arnsberg, Buer, which was an ''Amt'' in its own right, was along with nearby Horst joined to Recklinghausen district in the governmental region of Münster. This arrangement came to an end only in 1928. After the discovery of

– lovingly known as "Black Gold" – in the Ruhr area in 1840, and the subsequent industrialisation, the

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

– Minden Railway and the Gelsenkirchen Main Railway Station were opened. In 1868, Gelsenkirchen became the seat of an ''Amt'' within the Bochum district which encompassed the communities of Gelsenkirchen, Braubauerschaft (since 1900, ), Schalke, Heßler, Bulmke and Hüllen. Friedrich Grillo founded the Corporation for Chemical Industry (''Aktiengesellschaft für Chemische Industrie'') in Schalke in 1872, as well as founding the ''Vogelsang & Co.'' with the Grevel family (later ''

Schalker Eisenhütte Maschinenfabrik Schalker Eisenhütte Maschinenfabrik GmbH is a German engineering company, a manufacturer of industrial locomotives and coking furnaces. History The company was founded in , Gelsenkirchen, in 1872 by Friedrich Grillo with backing from the Grevel ...

''), and also the Schalke Mining and Ironworks Association (''Schalker Gruben- und Hüttenverein''). A year later, and once again in Schalke, he founded the Glass and Mirror Factory Incorporated (''Glas- und Spiegel-Manufaktur AG''). After Gelsenkirchen had become an important heavy-industry hub, it was raised to city in 1875.

Independent city

In 1885, after the Bochum district was split up, Gelsenkirchen became the seat of its own district (''Kreis''), which would last until 1926. The cities of Gelsenkirchen and Wattenscheid, as well as the Ämter of Braubauerschaft (in 1900, Bismarck), Schalke, Ückendorf, Wanne and

all belonged to the Gelsenkirchen district. A few years later, in 1896, Gelsenkirchen split off from Gelsenkirchen district to become an

independent city An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province). Historical precursors In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states ...

(german: kreisfreie Stadt). In 1891, Horst was split off from the ''Amt'' of Buer, which itself was raised to city status in 1911, and to an independent city status the next year. Meanwhile, Horst became the seat of its own ''Amt''. In 1924, the rural community of Rotthausen, which until then had belonged to the Essen district, was made part of the Gelsenkirchen district. In 1928, under the Prussian local government reforms, the cities of Gelsenkirchen and Buer along with the ''Amt'' of Horst together became a new ''kreisfreie Stadt'' called Gelsenkirchen-Buer, effective on 1 April that year. From that time, the whole city area belonged to the governmental district of Münster. In 1930, on the city's advice, the city's name was changed to ''Gelsenkirchen'', effective 21 May. By this time, the city was home to about 340,000 people. In 1931, the Gelsenkirchen Mining Corporation (german: Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-Aktien-Gesellschaft) founded the Gelsenberg Petrol Corporation (german: Gelsenberg-Benzin-AG). In 1935, the Hibernia Mining Company founded the ''Hydrierwerk Scholven AG GE-Buer''

Coal liquefaction Coal liquefaction is a process of converting coal into liquid hydrocarbons: liquid fuels and petrochemicals. This process is often known as "Coal to X" or "Carbon to X", where X can be many different hydrocarbon-based products. However, the most ...

plant. Scholven/Buer began operation in 1936 and achieved a capacity of "''200,000 tons/year of finished product, mainly aviation base gasoline.'

After 1937, Gelsenberg-Benzin-AG opened the Nordstern plant for converting bituminous coal to synthetic oil.

Nazi Germany

The November 9 in German history, 9 November 1938

Kristallnacht () or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation fro ...

antisemitic riots destroyed Jewish businesses, dwellings and cemeteries, and a synagogue in Buer and one in downtown Gelsenkirchen. A new downtown Gelsenkirchen synagogue was opened on 1 February 2007. Gelsenkirchen was a target of strategic bombing during World War II, particularly during the 1943

Battle of the Ruhr The Battle of the Ruhr (5 March – 31 July 1943) was a strategic bombing campaign against the Ruhr Area in Nazi Germany carried out by RAF Bomber Command during the Second World War. The Ruhr was the main centre of German heavy industry wit ...

and the Oil Campaign. Three quarters of Gelsenkirchen was destroyed and many above-ground air-raid shelters such as near the town hall in Buer are in nearly original form.

Oberst ''Oberst'' () is a senior field officer rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and Norway. The Swedish ...

Werner Mölders Werner Mölders (18 March 1913 – 22 November 1941) was a World War II German Luftwaffe pilot, wing commander, and the leading German fighter ace in the Spanish Civil War. He became the first pilot in aviation history to shoot down 10 ...

the legendary

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

Fighter pilot was born here. The

Gelsenberg Lager The Gelsenberg Lager was a subcamp of the concentration camp Buchenwald in Gelsenkirchen-Horst. About 2000 Hungarian Jewish women were held in this subcamp, and were given the task of clearing the area of the Gelsenberg Benzin AG of rubble in the ...

subcamp of

KZ Buchenwald Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or sus ...

was established in 1944 to provide

forced labor Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...

of about 2000 Hungarian women and girls for Gelsenberg-Benzin-AG. About 150 died during September 1944 bombing raids (shelters and protection ditches were forbidden to them). From 1933 to 1945, the city's mayor was the appointed

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

Carl Engelbert Böhmer. In 1994, the Institute for City History opened the documentation centre "Gelsenkirchen under National Socialism" ().

After the war

On 17 December 1953, the ''Kokerei Hassel'' went into operation, billed as Germany's "first new

coking plant Coke is a grey, hard, and porous coal-based fuel with a high carbon content and few impurities, made by heating coal or oil in the absence of air—a destructive distillation process. It is an important industrial product, used mainly in iron ...

" since the war. When

postal code A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal a ...

s (''Postleitzahlen'') were introduced in 1961, Gelsenkirchen was one of the few cities in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

to be given two codes: Buer was given 466, while Gelsenkirchen got 465. These were in use until 1 July 1993. The "first comprehensive school in

" was opened in 1969. Scholven-Chemie AG (the old hydrogenation plant) merged with Gelsenberg-Benzin-AG to form the new corporation VEBA-Oel AG. In 1987,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

celebrated

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

before 85,000 people at Gelsenkirchen's Parkstadion. The Pope also became an honorary member of FC Schalke 04. In 1997, the Federal Garden Show (''Bundesgartenschau'' or ''BUGA'') was held on the grounds of the disused

coalmine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use c ...

in Horst. In 1999, the last phase of the

Internationale Bauausstellung Emscher Park The Internationale Bauausstellung Emscher Park (IBA Emscher Park) or International Architecture Exhibition Emscher Park was a programme for structural changes in the so-called German Ruhr region from 1989 to 1999 in order to show new concepts in ...

, an undertaking that brought together many cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, was held. Coke was produced at the old Hassel coking works for the last time on 29 September 1999. This marked the shutdown of the last coking plant in Gelsenkirchen, after being a coking town for more than 117 years. In the same year, Shell Solar Deutschland AG took over production of photovoltaic equipment. On 28 April 2000, the Ewald-Hugo colliery closed – Gelsenkirchen's last colliery. Three thousand coalminers lost their jobs. In 2003, Buer celebrated its thousandth anniversary of first documentary mention, and FC Schalke 04 celebrated on 4 May 2004 its hundredth anniversary.

Jewish history

19th century

The

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

community of Gelsenkirchen was officially established in 1874, relatively late compared to the Jewish Ashkenazi communities in Germany. In a list of 1829 to determine the salary for the Chief Rabbi of

, , three families were named: the families of Ruben Levi, Reuben Simon, and Herz Heimann families."Das Judentum in Gelsenkirchen"
by Chajm Guski With the growth of the town during the second half of the 19th century, its Jewish population also grew bigger, with about 120 Jews living in town in 1880, and a synagogue established in 1885. With the growth of the community, a bigger building was built to serve as the community school.

20th century

The community continued to grow and around 1,100 Jews were living in Gelsenkirchen in 1901, a number that reached its peak of 1,300 individuals in 1933. At the turn of the 20th century the

Reform Jewish Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous sear ...

community was the most dominant among all Jewish communities in town, and after an organ was installed inside the synagogue, and most prayers performed mostly in German instead of traditional Hebrew, the town's

orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

community decided to stop attending the synagogue and tried to establish a new orthodox community, led by Dr. Max Meyer, Dr. Rubens and Abraham Fröhlich, most of them living on Florastraße. In addition, another Jewish orthodox congregation of Polish Jews was found in town. In 1908, a lot on Wanner Straße was purchased and served the community as its cemetery until 1936, today containing about 400 graves. In addition, another cemetery was built in 1927 in the suburb of .

Nazi Germany

With the rise of

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

and

National Socialism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Naz ...

in 1933, Jewish life in Gelsenkirchen was still relatively unaffected at first. In August 1938, 160 Jewish businesses were still open in town. In October 1938, though, an official ban restricted these businesses and all Jewish doctors became unemployed. In the same month, the Jewish community of the town was expelled. Between 1937 and 1939, the Jewish population of Gelsenkirchen dropped from 1,600 to 1,000. During

, the town's synagogue was destroyed, after two thirds of the town's Jewish population had already left. On 27 January 1942, 350 among the 500 remaining Jews in town were deported to the Riga Ghetto; later, the last remaining Jews were deported to Warsaw and the

Theresienstadt concentration camp Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination ca ...

The Gelsenkirchen transport

On 31 March 1942, a Nazi deportation train set out from Gelsenkirchen and, carrying 48 Jews from the town area, made its way to the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...

. The train was the first to deport Jews to Warsaw and not to

Trawniki concentration camp The Trawniki concentration camp was set up by Nazi Germany in the village of Trawniki about southeast of Lublin during the occupation of Poland in World War II. Throughout its existence the camp served a dual function. It was organized on the g ...

in southern Poland, as used before. After it left Gelsenkirchen, the train was boarded by other Jews from

, Dortmund and a few other stops along the way, and mostly by the Jews of

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, 500 in number. The arrival of this transport from Westphalia and Upper Saxony was recorded in his diaries by Adam Czerniakov, the last chairman of the Warsaw Ghetto

Judenrat A ''Judenrat'' (, "Jewish council") was a World War II administrative agency imposed by Nazi Germany on Jewish communities across occupied Europe, principally within the Nazi ghettos. The Germans required Jews to form a ''Judenrat'' in every c ...

. He stated that those older than 68 were allowed to stay in Germany. The majority of these deportees were killed later on the different death sites around modern-day Poland.

After World War II

In 1946, 69 Jews returned to Gelsenkirchen and in 1958, a synagogue and cultural centre were built for the remaining community. In 2005, about 450 Jews were living in town. During the last decade of the 20th century, a noted number of Jews came to the town, after emigrating out of the former USSR. This situation made it necessary to extend the synagogue. Eventually, a new and bigger synagogue was built to serve the increasing Jewish community of Gelsenkirchen. The current community practices Orthodox Judaism, even though no family practices it at home. On 16 May 2014, antisemitic graffiti were painted on the town synagogue.

Sites

The building at Husemannstraße 75 belonged to Dr. Max Meyer, who built it between 1920 and 1921. A

mezuzah A ''mezuzah'' ( he, מְזוּזָה "doorpost"; plural: ''mezuzot'') is a piece of parchment, known as a '' klaf'', contained in a decorative case and inscribed with specific Hebrew verses from the Torah ( and ). These verses consist of the ...

sign can still be seen on the top right side of the door. On Florastraße, near Kennedyplatz, (formerly Schalker Straße 45), stands the house of the Tepper family, a Jewish family that vanished during the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

. As part of the national

Stolperstein A (; plural ; literally 'stumbling stone', metaphorically a 'stumbling block') is a sett-size, concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. The project, initia ...

project, five bricks, commemorating the Jewish inhabitants, were installed outside the house.

Economy and infrastructure

Gelsenkirchen presents itself as a centre of solar technology. Shell Solar Deutschland GmbH produces solar cells in Rotthausen. Scheuten Solar Technology has taken over its solar panel production. There are other large businesses in town: , Gelsenwasser, e.on, BP Gelsenkirchen GmbH, Shell Solar Deutschland GmbH and

Pilkington Pilkington is a Japanese-owned glass-manufacturing company which is based in Lathom, Lancashire, United Kingdom. In the UK it includes several legal entities and is a subsidiary of Japanese company NSG Group. Prior to its acquisition by NSG ...

ZOOM Erlebniswelt Gelsenkirchen ZOOM Erlebniswelt Gelsenkirchen, founded on April 14, 1949, as "Ruhr-Zoo", is one of the most modern zoological gardens in Germany. It was founded on a heavily bomb, shelled area in Gelsenkirchen adjacent to a port on the Rhine–Herne Canal. It ...

is a

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoo ...

founded in 1949 as "Ruhr-Zoo" which is now operated by the city.

Transport

Gelsenkirchen lies on

autobahn The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track' ...

s A 2, A 40, A 42 and A 52, as well as on Bundesstraßen (Federal Highways) B 224, B 226 and B 227.

Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the German city of Gelsenkirchen. It connects the city to the regional and long-distance rail service of Deutsche Bahn and other railway companies in Germany. History The Gelsenkirchen railway ...

(central station) lies at the junction of the Duisburg–Dortmund, the Essen–Gelsenkirchen and the Gelsenkirchen–Münster lines. The

Rhine–Herne Canal The Rhine–Herne Canal (german: Rhein-Herne-Kanal) is a transportation canal in the Ruhr area of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with five canal locks. The canal was built over a period of eight years (5 April 1906 – 14 July 1914) and c ...

has a commercial-industrial harbour in Gelsenkirchen. has a yearly turnover of 2 million tonnes and a water surface area of about , one of Germany's biggest and most important canal harbours, and is furthermore connected to Deutsche Bahn's railway network at Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof. Local transport in Gelsenkirchen is provided by the Bochum/Gelsenkirchen tramway network and buses run by the Bochum-Gelsenkirchener Straßenbahn AG (BOGESTRA), as well as by buses operated by Vestische Straßenbahnen GmbH in the city's north (despite its name, it nowadays runs only buses). Some

Stadtbahn ' (; German for "city railway"; plural ') is a German word referring to various types of urban rail transport. One type of transport originated in the 19th century, firstly in Berlin and followed by Vienna, where rail routes were created that co ...

and tram lines are operated by . All these services have an integrated fare structure within the VRR. There are three tram lines, one light rail line, and about 50 bus routes in Gelsenkirchen.

Media

Gelsenkirchen is the headquarters of the ''Verband Lokaler Rundfunk in Nordrhein-Westfalen e.V. (VLR)'' (Network of Local Radio in North Rhine-Westphalia Registered Association). REL (''Radio Emscher-Lippe'') is also headquartered in Gelsenkirchen. Among newspapers, the ''Buersche Zeitung'' was a daily till 2006. The ''

Ruhr Nachrichten ''Ruhr Nachrichten'' is a daily newspaper that has been published in Dortmund, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Ru ...

'' ceased publication in Gelsenkirchen in April 2006. Now, the ''

Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung'' (''WAZ'') is a commercial newspaper from Essen, Germany, published by Funke Mediengruppe. History and profile ''Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung'' was founded by Erich Brost and first published 3 April ...

'' is the only local newspaper in Gelsenkirchen. The local station also reports the local news. There is also a free weekly newspaper, the ''Stadtspiegel Gelsenkirchen'', along with monthly, or irregular, local publications called the ''Familienpost'' and the ''Beckhausener Kurier''.

Education and science

Gelsenkirchen has 51 elementary schools (36 public schools, 12 Catholic schools, 3 Protestant schools), 8 ''

Hauptschule A ''Hauptschule'' (, "general school") is a secondary school in Germany, starting after four years of elementary schooling (''Grundschule''), which offers Lower Secondary Education (Level 2) according to the International Standard Classification ...

n'', 6 ''

Realschule ''Realschule'' () is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), ...

n'', 7 '' Gymnasien'', and 5 ''

Gesamtschule A comprehensive school typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is res ...

n'', among which the ''Gesamtschule Bismarck'', as the only comprehensive school run by the Westphalian branch of the Evangelical (

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

) Church, warrants special mention. The '' Fachhochschule Gelsenkirchen'', founded in 1992, also has campuses in Bocholt and Recklinghausen. It offers courses in

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

, Engineering Physics, Electrical Engineering,

Mechanical Engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, an ...

, and Supply and Disposal Engineering. There is a ''

Volkshochschule Folk high schools (also ''Adult Education Center'', Danish: ''Folkehøjskole;'' Dutch: ''Volkshogeschool;'' Finnish: ''kansanopisto'' and ''työväenopisto'' or ''kansalaisopisto;'' German: ''Volkshochschule'' and (a few) ''Heimvolkshochschule; ...

'' for adult education as well as a city library with three branches. The Institute for Underground Infrastructure, founded in 1994 and associated with the

Ruhr University Bochum The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction began in ...

, provides a wide range of research, certification, and consulting services. The

science park A science park (also called a "university research park", "technology park”, "technopark", “technopole", or a "science and technology park" (STP)) is defined as being a property-based development that accommodates and fosters the growt ...

created in 1995 by

, , provides a pathway to restructure the local economy from coal- and steel-based industries to solar energy and project management.

Politics

Mayor

The current Mayor of Gelsenkirchen is Karin Welge of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

(SPD) since 2020. The most recent mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, with a runoff held on 27 September, and the results were as follows: ! rowspan=2 colspan=2, Candidate ! rowspan=2, Party ! colspan=2, First round ! colspan=2, Second round , - ! Votes ! % ! Votes ! % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Karin Welge , align=left,

, 31,341 , 40.4 , 29,397 , 59.4 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Malte Stuckmann , align=left, Christian Democratic Union , 19,468 , 25.1 , 20,101 , 40.6 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Jörg Schneider , align=left, Alternative for Germany , 9,355 , 12.1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, David Fischer , align=left, Alliance 90/The Greens , 7,188 , 9.3 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Susanne Cichos , align=left, Free Democratic Party (Germany), Free Democratic Party , 3,360 , 4.3 , - , , align=left, Ali-Riza Akyol , align=left, Voter Initiative NRW , 2,752 , 3.6 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Martin Karl-Heinz Gatzemeier , align=left, The Left (Germany), The Left , 2,300 , 3.0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Claudia Kapuschinski , align=left, Die PARTEI , 1,722 , 2.2 , - ! colspan=3, Valid votes ! 77,486 ! 98.8 ! 49,498 ! 98.9 , - ! colspan=3, Invalid votes ! 924 ! 1.2 ! 548 ! 1.1 , - ! colspan=3, Total ! 78,410 ! 100.0 ! 50,046 ! 100.0 , - ! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout ! 188,716 ! 41.5 ! 188,369 ! 26.6 , - , colspan=7, Source
State Returning Officer

City council

The Gelsenkirch city council governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows: ! colspan=2, Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

(SPD) , 27,082 , 35.1 , 15.2 , 31 , 3 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , 17,932 , 23.2 , 2.2 , 20 , 6 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Alternative for Germany (AfD) , 9,944 , 12.9 , 7.9 , 11 , 8 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) , 9,457 , 12.2 , 6.4 , 11 , 7 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Free Democratic Party (Germany), Free Democratic Party (FDP) , 3,114 , 4.0 , 2.0 , 4 , 3 , - , , align=left, Voter Initiative NRW (WIN) , 2,804 , 3.6 , 0.3 , 3 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Left (Germany), The Left (Die Linke) , 2,671 , 3.5 , 1.2 , 3 , ±0 , - , , align=left, Animal Welfare Here! (Tierschutz hier!) , 1,735 , 2.2 , New , 2 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Die PARTEI (PARTEI) , 1,527 , 2.0 , New , 2 , New , - , , align=left, Alternative, Independent, Progressive Gelsenkirchen (AUF) , 943 , 1.2 , 0.2 , 1 , ±0 , - , colspan=7 bgcolor=lightgrey, , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Independents , 30 , 0.0 , – , 0 , – , - ! colspan=2, Valid votes ! 77,239 ! 98.5 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Invalid votes ! 1,143 ! 1.5 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Total ! 78,382 ! 100.0 ! ! 88 ! 25 , - ! colspan=2, Electorate/voter turnout ! 188,716 ! 41.5 ! 1.6 ! ! , - , colspan=7, Source
State Returning Officer

Culture

* Musiktheater im Revier * Hans-Sachs-Haus * * Architecture (Brick Expressionism), heritage listings *

/Ruhr-Zoo * Industrial Heritage Trail (''Route der Industriekultur'') – Gelsenkirchen * Nordsternpark * Ruhr.2010 – European Capital of Culture * Rock Hard Festival * Filming of ''The Miracle of Father Malachia''

Sports

Gelsenkirchen is home of the football club FC Schalke 04, currently in the Bundesliga, the first tier of German football. The club has won 7 Bundesliga titles. Schalke's home ground, Arena AufSchalke. It was one of 12 German cities to host matches during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, hosting matches between Poland national football team, Poland and Ecuador national football team, Ecuador, Argentina national football team, Argentina and Serbia national football team, Serbia and Montenegro, Portugal national football team, Portugal and Mexico national football team, Mexico, and United States men's national soccer team, USA and Czech Republic national football team, Czech Republic. German football players İlkay Gündoğan, Mesut Özil, Olaf Thon and Manuel Neuer were born in Gelsenkirchen. German football manager Michael Skibbe was also born in Gelsenkirchen. Since 1912, Gelsenkirchen owns the harness racing track Trabrennbahn Gelsenkirchen (also referred as GelsenTrabPark).

Notable people

* Alfons Goldschmidt (1879–1940), journalist, economist, university lecturer * Claire Waldoff (1884–1957), kabarett singer in Berlin * Wilhelm Zaisser (1893–1958), communist politician, first Stasi, Minister for State Security of East Germany * Hans Krahe (1898–1965), philologist, linguist * Anton Stankowski (1906–1998), graphic designer, photographer, painter *

(1913–1941), officer of the Luftwaffe * Klaus Wolfgang Niemöller (born 1929), musicologist * Harald zur Hausen (born 1936), virologist, Nobel laureate (2008), 1983–2003 chief scientific officer of German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg * Heinrich Breloer (born 1942), film director * Tom Angelripper (born 1963), singer and bassist of the thrash metal band Sodom * Oliver Mark (born 1963), photographer * Gregor Hagedorn (born 1965), botanist * Anne Schwanewilms (born 1967), opera soprano * Kai Twilfer (born 1976), author and businessman * Terry Reintke (born 1987), politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the The Greens–European Free Alliance, Greens-EFA group

Sport

* Ernst Kuzorra (1905–1990), footballer and manager, 12 caps and 7 goals for Germany national football team, Germany, 6x German Champion, 450 Appearances and 419 Goals for FC Schalke 04, Schalke, part of their 'Team of the Century' * Fritz Szepan (1907–1974), footballer with 34 caps and 8 goals for Germany national football team, Germany, 6x German Champion, 434 Appearances and 309 Goals for FC Schalke 04, Schalke, part of their 'Team of the Century' * Norbert Nigbur (born 1948), footballer with 6 caps for West Germany national football team, West Germany, 1974 World Cup winner, 440 appearances for FC Schalke 04, Schalke, part of their 'Team of the Century' * Michael Skibbe (born 1965), former football player and current coach * Olaf Thon (born 1966), footballer and manager, 52 caps for Germany national football team, Germany, 1990 World Cup winner, 3x Bundesliga Winner, 383 appearances for FC Schalke 04, Schalke, part of their 'Team of the Century' * Hamit Altıntop (born 1982), footballer with 82 caps and 7 goals for Turkey national football team, Turkey, league winner in Bundesliga, Germany, La Liga, Spain and Süper Lig, Turkey * Manuel Neuer (born 1986), footballer with 97 caps for Germany national football team, Germany, 2014 World Cup winner, 8x Bundesliga Winner, 2x UEFA Champions League, Champions League Winner and 5x IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper, World's Best Goalkeeper * Mesut Özil (born 1988), footballer with 92 caps and 23 goals for Germany national football team, Germany, 2014 World Cup winner and La Liga winner * İlkay Gündoğan (born 1990), footballer with 37 caps and 7 goals for Germany national football team, Germany, league winner in Bundesliga, Germany and Premier League, England

Twin towns – sister cities

Gelsenkirchen is Sister city, twinned with: *Newcastle upon Tyne, England, UK (1948) *Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina (1969) *Shakhty, Russia (1989) *Olsztyn, Poland (1992) *Cottbus, Germany (1995) *Büyükçekmece, Turkey (2004)

References

External links

* * (in German),
2006 archive
in English)
Gelsenzentrum – Documentation center of urban and contemporary history of GelsenkirchenMusiktheater im RevierGelsenkirchen at MapQuest (interactive)
{{Authority control Gelsenkirchen, Oil campaign of World War II Cities in North Rhine-Westphalia Holocaust locations in Germany