Hattingen is a town in the northern part of the

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 ...

district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

History

Hattingen is located on the south bank of 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 ...

in the south of the Ruhr region. The town was first mentioned in 1396, when the Duke of Mark granted permission to build a city wall. Today, Hattingen has a picturesque historic district with '' Fachwerk'' (timber-framed houses) built between the 14th and 16th centuries. The old city is still partly surrounded by the city walls today. There are three castles remaining within the municipal area of Hattingen.Historic Town Center – Hattingen
Historische Stadt- & Ortskerne. Retrieved March 9, 2010

Isenburg Castle Isenburg may refer to: Places * Neu-Isenburg, town in the district of Offenbach in Hesse, Germany * Isenburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, municipality in the district of Neuwied, Germany * , village in the borough of Wipperfürth in Oberbergischen Krei ...

was built in the 12th century in the hillsides above the Ruhr. The castle was destroyed in 1225, but prominent ruins remain. Blankenstein Castle was built in the 13th century above the Ruhr river and

Haus Kemnade Haus is a Germanic word meaning ''house''. It may refer to: People * Anton Haus (1851–1917), Austrian grand admiral, fleet commander of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in World War I * Georg Haus (1895–1945), German general * Hermann A. H ...

is a moated castle from the 16th century. All three castles are famous tourist landmarks and open to the public. Hattingen became part of the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German to ...

in 1554 and became an important trading town. In 1720, there were 52 operating coal mines within the municipal area and Hattingen became one of the first industrial cities of the Ruhr region. Steel production started in 1853, when the Henrichshütte was founded. The Henrichshütte became one of the most important employers of the whole region and dominated the town until it closed in 1987. Today, Hattingen still faces problems concerning structural change of the economy, but is becoming a centre of tourism, especially its historical downtown.

Neighbouring cities

The cities bordering Hattingen are

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 ...

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 ...

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 Gevelsbe ...

, Velbert, Witten and Wuppertal.

Division of the town

Hattingen is divided into the districts of Blankenstein, Bredenscheid-Stüter, Hattingen-Mitte, Holthausen, Niederbonsfeld, Niederelfringhausen,

Niederwenigern Niederwenigern is a small borough of the city of Hattingen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the river Ruhr, 4 km east of Kupferdreh (a borough of Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, se ...

, Oberelfringhausen, Oberstüter, Welper and Winz-Baak.

Notable people

* Mathilde Franziska Anneke, feminist * Erich Warsitz, world's first jet pilot *

John J. Gumperz John Joseph Gumperz (January 9, 1922 – March 29, 2013) was an American linguist and academic. Gumperz was, for most of his career, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His research on the languages of India, on code-switching i ...

, sociolinguist *

Harald Siepermann Harald Siepermann (10 June 1962 – 16 February 2013) was a German animator and character designer. His feature film credits included ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'', ''Tarzan'', and '' Enchanted''. He lectured extensively on character design and ani ...

, Character Designer *

Marie-Luise Marjan Marie-Luise Marjan (given name: Marlies Lause, born 9 August 1940) is a German actress.Jamiri Jamiri (real name Jan-Michael Richter, born 3 May 1966 in Hattingen-Blankenstein, Germany) is one of the most recognized comics artists in Germany. Jamiri has published nine comic collections since 1990. He has published one- and two-page com ...

(Jan-Michael Richter), comic artist * Andreas Bieber, singer and actor *

Mirjam Müntefering Mirjam Müntefering (born January 29, 1969 in Arnsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a German author and a lesbian. She writes about LGBT themes, but also wrote a book on dog training. In 2000, she founded the dog obedience school "HUNDherum fit" i ...

, author * Caliban (band) * DJ Quicksilver, Disk Jockey * Jost Gippert, German linguist *

Luke Hemmerich Luke Hemmerich (born 9 February 1998) is a German footballer who plays as a left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition fr ...

, German Football Player

Politics

In the local elections of 2004 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 For ...

(SPD) was the largest party on the council with 24 seats. It was followed by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) with 18 and the

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 ...

with 7, the WBG (a conservative lis) and Free Democrats with four each, FLW (also a conservative list) with three, National Democratic Party two, and the

PDS PD, P.D., or Pd may refer to: Arts and media * ''People's Democracy'' (newspaper), weekly organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) * ''The Plain Dealer'', a Cleveland, Ohio, US newspaper * Post Diaspora, a time frame in the '' Honorverse' ...

/WAL (socialists) and AUF Witten (a left wing list) with one each. From 2004 to 2020, for the first time in its history, the council was led by a female mayor: Sonja Leidemann (SPD). In the election of 2020 she lost her mandate to Lars König (CDU).

Mayor

The current mayor of Hattingen is Dirk Glaser, who ran as an independent. 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, Dirk Glaser , align=left, Independent , 8,756 , 39.4 , 9,356 , 58.3 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Frank Mielke , align=left,

, 6,723 , 30.2 , 6,695 , 41.7 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Frank Staacken , align=left,

, 4,281 , 19.3 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christian Siever , align=left, Independent , 1,285 , 5.8 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Thomas Bausch , align=left, Independent , 1,185 , 5.3 , - ! colspan=3, Valid votes ! 22,230 ! 97.3 ! 16,051 ! 99.0 , - ! colspan=3, Invalid votes ! 614 ! 2.7 ! 154 ! 1.0 , - ! colspan=3, Total ! 22,844 ! 100.0 ! 16,205 ! 100.0 , - ! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout ! 45,151 ! 50.6 ! 45,151 ! 35.9 , - , colspan=7, Source: City of Hattingen
1st round

City council

The Hattingen 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) , 7,404 , 33.1 , 8.8 , 16 , 3 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , 6,893 , 30.9 , 2.8 , 15 , ±0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

(Grüne) , 5,288 , 23.7 , 11.7 , 11 , 5 , - , bgcolor=, , 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 ...

(FDP) , 1,529 , 6.8 , 2.7 , 3 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Die PARTEI , 1,229 , 5.5 , New , 3 , New , - ! colspan=2, Valid votes ! 22,343 ! 97.8 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Invalid votes ! 496 ! 2.2 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Total ! 22,839 ! 100.0 ! ! 48 ! 2 , - ! colspan=2, Electorate/voter turnout ! 45,151 ! 50.6 ! 0.7 ! ! , - , colspan=7, Source
City of Hattingen

State Landtag

In the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hattingen is part of the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis I constituency. Rainer Bovermann of the SPD has been representative since the constituency's creation in the 2005 election; he was most recently re-elected in 2017.

Federal parliament

In the Bundestag, Witten is part of the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis II constituency.

Axel Echeverria Inaki Axel Echeverría Stefanski (born 19 March 1980) is a Spanish-German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag since 2021. Early life and education Echeverria was born in 1980 in the We ...

of the SPD was elected as representative in the

2021 German federal election Federal elections in Germany, Federal elections were held in Germany on 26 September 2021 to elect the members of the List of members of the 20th Bundestag, 20th Bundestag. States of Germany, State elections in 2021 Berlin state election, Berli ...

Gallery

Image:Hattingen 070912 017 10.jpg, Historic town Image:Hattingen, der Glockenturm in straatzicht DmA137 foto4 2015-04-19 13.10.jpg, ''Glockenturm'' in the background Image:Hattingen 20070915 1.jpg, Historic ''Fachwerk'' house, the Bügeleisenhaus Image:Hattingen, Menschen aus Eisen foto5 2012-03-27 16.08.JPG, Menschen aus Eisen

References

External links

* {{Authority control Towns in North Rhine-Westphalia Members of the Hanseatic League Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis