Wetter (Ruhr) is a town in western

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 ...

, in the federal 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 States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

and 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 ...

. The river

Ruhr 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 ...

flows through the urban area, separating the district of Alt-Wetter from the districts of Esborn, Volmarstein and Wengern. The cities of

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

and

Bochum Bochum ( , also , ; wep, Baukem) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 364,920 (2016), is the sixth largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) of the most populous Germany, German federal state o ...

are within 20 minutes by road or rail.

Geography

Neighbour municipalities

Neighbour municipalities are

Gevelsberg Gevelsberg (; Westphalian: ''Gievelsbiärg'') is a town in the district of Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography The town lies in the valley of the river Ennepe in the Süder Uplands, which is part of the Rhenish Mas ...

Hagen Hagen () is the Largest cities in Germany, 41st-largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany. The municipality is located in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the south eastern edge of the R ...

Herdecke Herdecke () is a town in the district of Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It is located south of Dortmund in the Ruhr Area. Its location between the two Ruhr reservoirs Hengsteysee and Harkortsee has earned it the nickname ...

Sprockhövel Sprockhövel is a town in the district of Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Sprockhövel is located in the southern suburban part of the Ruhr area. It is 6 km southeast of Hattingen, 8 km northwest of Gevels ...

and

Witten Witten () is a city with almost 100,000 inhabitants in the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis (district) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Witten is situated in the Ruhr valley, in the southern Ruhr area. Bordering municipalities * Bochum * Dortmu ...

. The Cities of

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...

and

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 to ...

are near.

City arrangement

* Alt-Wetter * Wengern * Esborn ** Albringhausen * Volmarstein ** Grundschöttel ** Oberwengern ** Schmandbruch

Population

Bevölkerungsstand Wetter (Ruhr) Statistik 1970-heute

History

The town of Wetter is first documented in the year 1214 in relation with the Castle Wetter and the knights Bruno and Friedrich. Another famous castle ruin is the Castle Volmarstein which was built in the 11th century by the

archbishop of Cologne The Archbishop of Cologne is an archbishop governing the Archdiocese of Cologne of the Catholic Church in western North Rhine-Westphalia and is also a historical state in the Rhine holding the birthplace of Beethoven and northern Rhineland-Palati ...

Frederick I Frederick I may refer to: * Frederick of Utrecht or Frederick I (815/16–834/38), Bishop of Utrecht. * Frederick I, Duke of Upper Lorraine (942–978) * Frederick I, Duke of Swabia (1050–1105) * Frederick I, Count of Zoll ...

. The castle is located on the other side of the

in the district of Volmarstein which has been part of Wetter since the municipal community-reform in 1970. In 1819

Friedrich Harkort Friedrich Harkort (February 22, 1793, Hagen - March 6, 1880), known as the "Father of the Ruhr," was an early prominent German industrialist and pioneer of industrial development in the Ruhr region.(29 December 2009)Friedrich Harkort - Vorbild u ...

founded the first industrial workshop at Castle Wetter, producing steam engines and gas light equipment. Thus he did not just develop education and social policy but also laid the cornerstone of the early industrialization of the

area and Germany. The reservoir between Wetter and

, Harkortsee, and the highest mountain in the area, Harkortberg, were both named after him. Due to the lowering bombardments in 1944/45, during the

second world war 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 opposin ...

, the town became the domicile of the Reichsgau south-Westfalia, originally residing in

Politics

The current mayor of Wetter is Frank Hasenberg 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 2007. In the most recent mayoral election on 13 and 27 September 2020, Hasenberg advanced to the runoff with 46.9% of votes against Karen Haltaufderheide of

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 ...

, who won 20.1%. CDU candidate Stefan Wedegärtner placed third with 16.3%, followed by the FDP's Alexander Stuckenholz (10.7%), independent Eva Holzhauer (3.7%), and Christian-Social Reformers candidate Christopher Krüger (2.3%). In the runoff, on a turnout of 40.3%, Hasenberg won with 59.7% of votes.

Local council

2020 Wetter (Ruhr) City Council election

The Wetter 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) , 4,081 , 35.2 , 10.6 , 15 , 2 , - , 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) , 2,972 , 25.6 , 11.7 , 11 , 6 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , 2,448 , 21.1 , 2.3 , 9 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Free Democratic Party (FDP) , 1,114 , 9.6 , 5.1 , 4 , 2 , - , , align=left, Citizens for Wetter (BfW) , 616 , 5.3 , 1.4 , 2 , 1 , - , , align=left, Christian-Social Reformers (CSR) , 248 , 2.1 , New , 1 , New , - , colspan=7 bgcolor=lightgrey, , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Die PARTEI (''Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Animal Protection, Promotion of Elites and Grassroots Democratic Initiative''), or Die PARTEI (''The PARTY''), is a German political party. It was founded in 2004 by the editors of the German satirical magazi ...

, 120 , 1.0 , New , 0 , New , - ! colspan=2, Valid votes ! 11,599 ! 98.4 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Invalid votes ! 194 ! 1.6 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Total ! 11,793 ! 100.0 ! ! 42 ! 6 , - ! colspan=2, Electorate/voter turnout ! 22,448 ! 52.5 ! ! ! , - , colspan=7, Source
City of Wetter (Ruhr)

Town twinnings

Wetter is twinned with South Elmsall (England),

Turawa Turawa (german: Turawa) is a village in Opole County, Opole Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) of Gmina Turawa. It is approximately northeast of the regional capital Opole. Its population is ...

(Poland) and

Stadtilm Stadtilm is a town in the Ilm-Kreis district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the river Ilm, 15 km northeast of Ilmenau, and 11 km southeast of Arnstadt. In July 2018 the former municipality of Ilmtal was merged into Stadtilm. ...

(Germany).

Culture and objects of interest

Objects of interest

* Harkortsee (Lake Harkort). Starting point for walks, bicycle- and Inlineskating tours around the two ruhr lakes Harkortsee and

Hengsteysee The Hengsteysee (Lake Hengstey) is a reservoir on the Ruhr river between the cities of Hagen, Dortmund and Herdecke, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was built in 1929 and is one of five reservoirs on the Ruhr. The reservoir is about l ...

(Lake Hengstey). *Harkortberg. Starting point of extensive walking-tours through the Ardeygebirge with good view on the Harkort lake. Here also is located the Harkort-Tower, a far away visible registration number of Wetter. *Henriette Davidis museum. Life and work of the most famous German cooking book author. *Modell of planets in Wetter, the center is located at the local High School Wetter.

Notable people

Henriette Davidis Johanna Friederika Henriette Katharina Davidis (1 March 1801 in Wengern – 3 April 1876 in Dortmund) arguably is Germany's most famous cookbook author. Although many similar cookbooks had been published by then, amongst others Sophie Wilhelmine ...

, Today the Henriette-Davidis-museum reminds visitors of her *

, German entrepreneur and politician in the early days of the industrialisation of the ruhr area *

Hoffmann von Fallersleben August Heinrich Hoffmann (, calling himself von Fallersleben, after his hometown; 2 April 179819 January 1874) was a German poet. He is best known for writing "Das Lied der Deutschen", whose third stanza is now the national anthem of Germany, an ...

, German poet, best known for writing the national anthem of Germany * Freiherr vom Stein was between 1784 and 1793 headmaster of the mining-office in Wetter. He restructured the accountancy and is considered as the initiator of the municipal self-administration *

Eduard Scheve Eduard Model Accessories is a Czech manufacturer of plastic models and finescale model accessories. Formed in 1989 in the city of Most, Eduard began in a rented cellar as a manufacturer of photoetched brass model components. Following the suc ...

(1836–?), in the district of Volmarstein was the originator of the deaconry of the Fellowship of the Protestant Free Churches.

Economy

Demag Demag Cranes AG is a German heavy equipment manufacturer now controlled by Japan-based Tadano via a $215 million deal. The roots of Demag date back prior to its formation, but became Märkische Maschinenbau-Anstalt, Ludwig A.-G in 1906 as the ...

Cranes & Components GmbH *

Taprogge GmbH Taprogge GmbH is a medium-sized company based in Wetter, Germany. The company is named after founding brothers Ludwig and Josef Taprogge. Founded in 1953, the company is known for its tube cleaning systems for steam turbine condensers, heat exc ...

ABUS ABUS August Bremicker Söhne KG, commonly known as ABUS, is a German manufacturer of preventative security technology based in Wetter, North Rhine-Westphalia. Its name is an acronym of its original name, August Bremicker und Söhne ("August Bre ...

* Burg Wächter (locks)

References

External links

* {{Authority control Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis Members of the Hanseatic League