Gevelsberg (; Westphalian: ''Gievelsbiärg'') 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 town ...

, 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 state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

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 ...

Geography

The town lies in the valley of 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 ...

in the

Süder Uplands The Süder UplandsRhenish Massif. Gevelsberg lies about halfway between

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and tow ...

and Hagen, and is part of the industrial

Ruhr Region The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...

. The lowest elevation is the Ennepe river at Vogelsang () and highest is the Hageböllinger Kopf (). Its east-to-west length is and the north to south length is .

Division of the town

* Asbeck * Berge * Gevelsberg * Silschede

History

The town has a history of nearly 785 years. The archbishop of Cologne

Engelbert II of Berg Count Engelbert II of Berg, also known as Saint Engelbert, Engelbert of Cologne, Engelbert I, Archbishop of Cologne or Engelbert I of Berg, Archbishop of Cologne (1185 or 1186, Schloss Burg – 7 November 1225, Gevelsberg) was archbishop of C ...

was killed on November 7, 1225 by his cousin Frederick of Isenberg in ''Gievilberch''. As a consequence, a monastery of atonement (German: ''Sühnekloster)'' was established at the place of Engelbert's death and became the origin of the settlement resulting in today's Gevelsberg. The population grew strongly in the 19th century, when many small industries related to iron processing were developed.

Coat of arms

Gevelsberg received its coat of arms (a brick gable on a green hill, and a cogwheel indicating its industry) by decree of the Prussian Department of the Interior in 1903. In the mid-1950s a city wall was added to the coat of arms.

Politics

The current mayor of Gevelsberg is Claus Jacobi 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 2004. In the most recent mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, Jacobi was re-elected with 87.1% of votes, defeating Felix Keßler, who was endorsed by the CDU,

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 ...

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 *Gree ...

, and FDP.

City council

The Gevelsberg 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) , 8,675 , 62.9 , 0.6 , 27 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , 2,022 , 14.7 , 4.1 , 6 , 2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) , 1,730 , 12.5 , 6.3 , 5 , 2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Alternative for Germany (AfD) , 685 , 5.0 , New , 2 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Left (Die Linke) , 339 , 2.5 , 1.9 , 1 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Free Democratic Party (FDP) , 334 , 2.4 , New , 1 , New , - ! colspan=2, Valid votes ! 13,785 ! 98.2 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Invalid votes ! 246 ! 1.8 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Total ! 14,031 ! 100.0 ! ! 42 ! ±0 , - ! colspan=2, Electorate/voter turnout ! 25,727 ! 54.5 ! ! ! , - , colspan=7, Source
City of Gevelsberg

Transport

Gevelsberg is connected to the national road network by the A1 autobahn and the B 7 and B 234 roads. The municipality is served by several regional train lines of the

Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr The Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (), abbreviated VRR, is a public transport association (Verkehrsverbund) in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It covers most of the Ruhr area, as well as neighbouring parts of the Lower Rhine region, includ ...

. There are four stations on the local line from Hagen to Wuppertal ( Gevelsberg-Knapp,

Gevelsberg Hauptbahnhof Gevelsberg Hauptbahnhof (German for Gevelsberg main station) is a railway station in the municipality of Gevelsberg in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The station was opened along with a section of the Düsseldorf-Derendorf–Dortmund ...

, Gevelsberg-Kipp and Gevelsberg West) served by the S 8 trains of the

Rhein-Ruhr S-Bahn The Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn (german: S-Bahn Rhein-Ruhr) is a polycentric and electrically driven S-train network covering the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region in the German federated state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This includes most of the Ruhr (and ci ...

. Three hourly

Regional-Express In Germany, Luxembourg and Austria, the Regional-Express (RE, or in Austria: REX) is a type of regional train. It is similar to a semi-fast train, with average speed at about 70–90 km/h (top speed often 160 km/h) as it calls at ...

services, the

Wupper-Express The Wupper-Express (RE 4) is a Regional-Express service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) running from Aachen via Mönchengladbach, Düsseldorf, Wuppertal, Hagen to Dortmund. The service is operated every hour by DB Regio NRW ...

(RE 4) between Dortmund and Aachen via

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

, the

Rhein-Münsterland-Express The Rhein-Münsterland-Express (RE 7) is a Regional-Express service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The hourly service initially runs to the south east from Krefeld via Neuss to Cologne and then turns to run to the northeast vi ...

(RE 7) between

Krefeld Krefeld ( , ; li, Krieëvel ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, i ...

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 ...

via

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 ...

and Hamm and the

Maas-Wupper-Express The Maas-Wupper-Express (RE 13) is a Regional-Express service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), running from the Dutch border town of Venlo to Hamm in Westphalia. Route Together with the Wupper-Express (RE 4) and Rhine-Ruhr S ...

(RE 13) between

Venlo Venlo () is a city and municipality in the southeastern Netherlands, close to the border with Germany. It is situated in the province of Limburg, about 50 km east of the city of Eindhoven, 65 km north east of the provincial capital Maastricht, a ...

(Netherlands) and Hamm via

Mönchengladbach Mönchengladbach (, li, Jlabbach ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Dutch border. Geography Municipal subdivisions Since 2009, the territory of Mönchengladbac ...

, stop at

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 ...

Twin towns – sister cities

Gevelsberg is twinned with: *

Vendôme Vendôme (, ) is a subprefecture of the department of Loir-et-Cher, France. It is also the department's third-biggest commune with 15,856 inhabitants (2019). It is one of the main towns along the river Loir. The river divides itself at the ...

, France (1973) *

Szprotawa Szprotawa (german: Sprottau) is a town in western Poland, in Żagań County, Lubusz Voivodeship. It has 11,820 inhabitants (2019). History The region was part of Poland after the emergence of the Piast monarchy in the 10th century. The first me ...

, Poland (1996) *

Butera Butera ( Sicilian: ''Vutera'') is an Italian town and a ''comune'' in the province of Caltanissetta, in the southern part of the island of Sicily. It is bounded by the ''comuni'' of Gela, Licata, Mazzarino, Ravanusa and Riesi. It has a populatio ...

, Italy (2004)

Festivities

*Gevelsberg Kirmes – held every last weekend of June *Quellenfest – every year on Ascension Thursday to Sunday

Notable people

Elisabeth Höngen Elisabeth Höngen (7 December 1906 – 7 August 1997) was a German operatic mezzo-soprano and singing-actress. She was particularly associated with Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss roles, and with Verdi's Lady Macbeth. From 1947 onward she was o ...

(1906–1997), operatic mezzo-soprano * Michael Cramer (born 1949), politician (The Greens), member of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

Klaus-Peter Thaler Klaus-Peter Thaler (born 14 May 1949 in Eckmannshausen, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a former professional cyclist whose career spanned from 1976 to 1988, he was successful in road-racing and cyclo-cross. He was world cyclo-cross champion twice ...

(born 1949), cyclist *

Alexandra Popp Alexandra Popp (; born 6 April 1991) is a German footballer and Olympic gold medalist. She plays as a striker for VfL Wolfsburg and the Germany national team. She previously played for FCR 2001 Duisburg and 1. FFC Recklinghausen. Popp was nam ...

(born 1991), footballer * Lukas Klostermann (born 1996), footballer

External links

Official website

References

{{Authority control Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis