Ennepetal (; wep, Iämpedal) is a town in the district of

Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis 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 (2012). The district's seat (capital city) is Schwelm; the largest of its nine towns ...

, in

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

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It was created in 1949 out of the former municipalities Milspe and Voerde. It was named after the river

Ennepe The Ennepe is a river, and a left tributary of the Volme in Northern Sauerland, Germany. It gave its name to the town Ennepetal, and the district Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis. Course of River The Ennepe begins in the Märkischer Kreis southeast of Halver ...

, which flows through the municipality. The town was featured in the headlines when on April 12, 2005, a hostage taker snatched several school children from a school bus and took them as hostages, see

Ennepetal hostage taking On April 12, 2005, at around 1 p.m. local time, a 50-year-old Iranian national seized a regular bus with a number of school children in the town of Ennepetal, Germany in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The kidnapper entered the bus at a bus s ...

Division of the town

Ennepetal is divided into nine quarters (''Ortsteile''), which resemble former towns and villages. The population is shown as of 10 June 2015: * Altenvoerde (3663) * Bülbringen/Oberbauer (1470) * Büttenberg (3689) * Hasperbach (1208) * Königsfeld (1090) * Milspe (9776) * Oelkinghausen (573) * Rüggeberg (1482) * Voerde (7438)

Politics

The current mayor of Ennepetal is

independent politician An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have political views th ...

Imke Heymann. She was first elected in 2015 with the endorsement of the CDU,

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties * Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' * Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina * Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *G ...

, Free Voters, and FDP. In the most recent mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, Heymann was re-elected with 70.3% of votes with the backing of the

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been t ...

and CDU. She was opposed by Sotirios Kostas (18.2%) and Cornelia Born-Maijer (11.5%), who both ran as independents.

Local council

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

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) , 3,792 , 31.5 , 7.1 , 11 , 5 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , 3,556 , 29.5 , 3.3 , 11 , ±0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens ...

(Grüne) , 2,252 , 18.7 , 8.9 , 7 , 3 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Free Democratic Party (FDP) , 1,089 , 9.0 , 2.9 , 3 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Free Voters Free Voters (german: Freie Wähler, FW or FWG) in Germany may belong to an association of people which participates in an election without having the status of a registered political party. Usually it involves a locally organized group of voters ...

Ennepetal (FWE) , 780 , 6.5 , 2.3 , 2 , 2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Left (Die Linke) , 572 , 4.8 , 0.8 , 2 , ±0 , - ! colspan=2, Valid votes ! 12,041 ! 98.0 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Invalid votes ! 248 ! 2.0 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Total ! 12,289 ! 100.0 ! ! 36 ! 6 , - ! colspan=2, Electorate/voter turnout ! 24,726 ! 49.7 ! ! ! , - , colspan=7, Source
City of Ennepetal

Twin towns – sister cities

Ennepetal is twinned with: *

Vilvoorde Vilvoorde (, french: Vilvorde ; historically known as ''Filford'' in English) is a Belgian municipality in the Flemish province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality comprises the city of Vilvoorde proper with its two outlying quarters of Koningslo ...

, Belgium

Transport

The

Ennepetal (Gevelsberg) station Ennepetal (Gevelsberg) station is a 160-year-old station on the Elberfeld–Dortmund railway built by the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company. It is in the city of Ennepetal in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The former station buildin ...

on the Wuppertal–Dortmund railway is served by

regional trains Regional rail, also known as local trains and stopping trains, are public transport, passenger rail transport, rail services that operate between towns and cities. These trains operate with more stops over shorter distances than inter-city rail ...

. The town also had a station named "Voerde" on the

Kleinbahn Haspe-Voerde-Breckerfeld The term ''Kleinbahn'' (literally 'small railway', plural: ''Kleinbahnen'') was a light railway concept used especially in Prussia for a railway line that "on account of its low importance for general railway transport" had less strict requirements ...

, which in former times was the longest streetcar in Germany. Today, the former track is being used as a walk and bicycle way, connecting the Ruhr area to the nearby

Sauerland The Sauerland () is a rural, hilly area spreading across most of the south-eastern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, in parts heavily forested and, apart from the major valleys, sparsely inhabited. The Sauerland is the largest tourist region in ...

Notable places

The Klutert Cave is one of the largest natural caves of Germany with a length of over 5 km.

Economy

dormakaba dormakaba Holding AG (former Kaba Holding AG) is a global security group based in Rümlang, Switzerland. It employs around 15,000 people in over 50 countries. It formed as the result of a merger between former Kaba and former Dorma in Septem ...

* febi - Ferdinand Bilstein * ABC - Altenloh Brinck & Co (

screw A screw and a bolt (see '' Differentiation between bolt and screw'' below) are similar types of fastener typically made of metal and characterized by a helical ridge, called a ''male thread'' (external thread). Screws and bolts are used to fa ...

s) * Dahlhaus Leuchten, GmbH * Ernst Mager KG (screws)

Notable people

Sons and daughters of the town

Karl-Heinz Peters Karl-Heinz Peters (1903–1990) was a German film actor. Selected filmography * ''Alarm at Station III'' (1939) * ''Men Are That Way'' (1939) * '' The Governor'' (1939) * ''Enemies'' (1940) * '' Mein Leben für Irland'' (1940) * ''Between Hamburg ...

(1903–1990), film actor

People who are connected to Ennepetal

Dirk Rauin Dirk Rauin (born 16 March 1957 in Hückeswagen) is a former West German handball player who competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were a ...

(born 1957), handball player and coach *

Ralf Waldmann Ralf Waldmann (14 July 1966 – 10 March 2018) was a German Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. __TOC__ Motorcycle racing career In 1996, Waldmann finished second to Max Biaggi in the 250cc world championship.Kluterthöhle
{{Authority control Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis