Ratingen ( li, Rotinge) is a town in the district of Mettmann in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It lies in the northwestern part of Berg about 12 km northeast of Düsseldorf.

Administration

With a communal reform of 1975 the independent municipalities of Breitscheid, Eggerscheidt, Hösel,

Lintorf Lintorf is a village at the transition of the Berg region into the lower Rhine plain in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Since 1975 it has been a quarter of the city of Ratingen. History, geography & transport Lintorf was suburbanised in 1975. Rat ...

(seat Angerland) as well as the local part of Homberg and the municipality of Homberg-Meiersberg (seat Hubbelrath) were added into the city of Ratingen.

History

Ratingen was settled before 849. Since the Middle Ages, the Ratingen area belonged to the count and later dukes of Berg. On December 11, 1276 the settlement received city rights. Ratingen was one of the four places of Berg which experienced an economic boom in the end of the Middle Ages, but slowed during the Thirty Years' War. At the beginning of the Industrial Age, the first manufacturing plants opened in 1783. In Cromford the first mechanical spinnery of Europe opened, which grew into the '' Textilfabrik Cromford'', now part of the '' Rheinisches Industriemuseum'' (Rhine Industry Museum). In the

Napoleonic Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

times, it became part of the city of Berg and in 1815, into the Kingdom of Prussia. In the communal re-organization of 1929, Ratingen maintained its independence. After relatively small war damage, Ratingen in the 1960s and the 1970s experienced years of growth and development (West Ratingen with 20,000 inhabitants, developed in the late 1960s-1980s). In 1970, before further incorporations the number of inhabitants surpassed 50,000.

Politics

The current mayor of Ratingen is Klaus Konrad Pesch of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 2014. 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, Klaus Konrad Pesch , align=left, Christian Democratic Union , 16,433 , 41.5 , 12,874 , 52.1 , - , , align=left, Rainer Vogt , align=left, Citizens' Union Ratingen , 7,490 , 18.9 , 11,833 , 47.9 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christian Wiglow , 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 For ...

, 6,178 , 15.6 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Heinz Martin Tönnes , 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 ...

, 5,434 , 13.7 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Markus Sondermann , align=left,

Free Democratic Party Free Democratic Party is the name of several political parties around the world. It usually designates a party ideologically based on liberalism. Current parties with that name include: *Free Democratic Party (Germany), a liberal political party in ...

, 2,344 , 5.9 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Hans Michael Gericke , align=left, Die PARTEI , 1,029 , 2.6 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Manfred Evers , align=left, Independent , 700 , 1.8 , - ! colspan=3, Valid votes ! 39,608 ! 98.9 ! 24,707 ! 99.4 , - ! colspan=3, Invalid votes ! 432 ! 1.1 ! 162 ! 0.7 , - ! colspan=3, Total ! 40,040 ! 100.0 ! 24,869 ! 100.0 , - ! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout ! 72,748 ! 55.0 ! 72,741 ! 34.2 , - , colspan=7, Source: City of Ratingen
1st round

City council

The Ratingen 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, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , 13,595 , 34.4 , 0.2 , 24 , 4 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

(Grüne) , 7,553 , 19.1 , 9.5 , 14 , 9 , - , , align=left, Citizens' Union Ratingen (BU) , 6,964 , 17.6 , 6.7 , 12 , 2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

(SPD) , 6,056 , 15.3 , 5.6 , 11 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

(FDP) , 2,479 , 6.3 , 1.7 , 4 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Alternative for Germany Alternative for Germany (german: link=no, Alternative für Deutschland, AfD; ) is a right-wing populist * * * * * * * political party in Germany. AfD is known for its opposition to the European Union, as well as immigration to Germany. I ...

(AfD) , 1,607 , 4.1 , 1.0 , 3 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Die PARTEI , 1,159 , 2.9 , New , 2 , New , - , colspan=7 bgcolor=lightgrey, , - , , align=left, The Optimists , 119 , 0.3 , New , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Independent Manfred Evers , 40 , 0.1 , New , 0 , New , - ! colspan=2, Valid votes ! 39,572 ! 98.9 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Invalid votes ! 458 ! 1.1 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Total ! 40,030 ! 100.0 ! ! 70 ! 12 , - ! colspan=2, Electorate/voter turnout ! 72,748 ! 55.0 ! 3.4 ! ! , - , colspan=7, Source
City of Ratingen

Economy

Several important international enterprises (particularly from the IT industry) as Vodafone, ASUS,

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

, SAP, CEMEX and

Esprit Esprit or L'Esprit may refer to: * the French for Spirit; as a loanword: ** Enthusiasm, intense interest or motivation ** Morale, motivation and readiness ** Geist "mind/spirit; intellect" * Esprit (name), a given name and surname * ''Esprit'' (m ...

maintain branches and/or main centres in Ratingen. It is also the hometown of automotive dealer

Gottfried Schultz Gottfried Schultz GmbH, based in Ratingen, is the largest car dealership, dealer for the automotive brands owned by Volkswagen Group. The company employs approximately 1,900 people in 26 plants. It distributes and services cars of the marques Volk ...

Sport

Since 1997 the town has hosted the Mehrkampf-Meeting, an annual

decathlon The decathlon is a combined event in Athletics (sport), athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek language, Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ...

and

pentathlon A pentathlon is a contest featuring five events. The name is derived from Greek: combining the words ''pente'' (five) and -''athlon'' (competition) ( gr, πένταθλον). The first pentathlon was documented in Ancient Greece and was part of t ...

meeting.

Twin towns – sister cities

Ratingen is twinned with: *

Maubeuge Maubeuge (; historical nl, Mabuse or nl, Malbode; pcd, Maubeuche) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is situated on both banks of the Sambre (here canalized), east of Valenciennes and about from the Belgian border ...

, France (1958) * Le Quesnoy, France (1963) * Vermillion, United States (1969) * Kokkola, Finland (1989) * Beelitz, Germany (1990) *

Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space. Tr ...

, Russia (1998) * Huishan (Wuxi), China (2007) Between 1972 and 2016 Ratingen was also twinned to Cramlington/

Blyth Valley Blyth Valley was a local government district and borough in south-east Northumberland, England, bordering the North Sea and Tyne and Wear. The two principal towns were Blyth and Cramlington. Other population centres include Seaton Delaval, and ...

, United Kingdom.

Notable people

Martin J. Beckmann Martin Joseph Beckmann (5 July 1924, Ratingen, Germany – 11 April 2017) was a professor for Economics and Applied Mathematics. He was professor at the University of Chicago, Yale University and Brown University, as well as the University of B ...

(1924–2017), economist * Heribert Fassbender (born 1941), sports presenter *

Claudia Jung Claudia Jung (born Ute Krummenast; 12 April 1964) is a German Schlager singer and politician. Biography Jung was born in Ratingen, North Rhine-Westphalia. From 1974 till 1980, she attended the school Liebfrauenschule in Ratingen. As a child sh ...

(born 1964), singer *

Johann Peter Melchior Johann Peter Melchior (8 March 1747 – 13 June 1825) was a German porcelain modeller. Melchior was born in Lintorf. He was interested in art from an early age and was apprenticed to a sculptor in Düsseldorf. He made a name for himself ...

(1747–1825), sculptor and porcelain designer * Marius Müller-Westernhagen (born 1948), rock musician and actor *

Rosemarie Nitribitt Maria Rosalia Auguste Nitribitt (February 1, 1933 – October 29, 1957The exact time of day of her death was found to be unsatisfactorily determined during the trial for her murder. See Guido Golla: ''Rosemarie Nitribitt. Recherchen und Theo ...

(1933–1957), luxury call girl *

Dieter Nuhr Dieter Herbert Nuhr (born 29 October 1960) is a German kabarett artist, comedian, author and television presenter. Nuhr's stage program ''nuhr in Berlin'' (the title is a pun; for explanation, see below) is the first German stand-up comedy whic ...

(born 1960), comedian, author and cabaret artist *

Norbert Pohlmann Norbert Pohlmann (born 20 March 1960) is a computer scientist and a professor at the . He is also chairman of the board of the IT security association TeleTrusT. Career Born in Ratingen, Pohlmann studied electrical engineering from 1981 to 1985, ...

(born 1960), computer scientist * Sönke Wortmann (born 1959), film director

References

External links

Official websiteLUX - local community center
{{Authority control Towns in North Rhine-Westphalia Mettmann (district) Members of the Hanseatic League