Herne () is a city in

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

, Germany. It is located in the

Ruhr area The Ruhr ( ; , 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 1,160/km2 and a populati ...

directly between the cities of

Bochum Bochum (, ; ; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 372,348 (April 2023), it is the sixth-largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federa ...

, and

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; ) is the List of cities in Germany by population, 25th-most populous city of Germany and the 11th-most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher, Emscher River (a tribu ...

History

Herne (ancient Haranni) was a tiny village until the 19th century. When the mining of coal (and possibly ore) and the production of coke (the fuel processed from the harvested coal) and steel began, the villages of the Ruhr area had an influx of people, mostly from the east of Germany. Herne is located on the direct axis between

to the south and Recklinghausen to the north, with Münster in the north,

to the west, and Castrop-Rauxel and

Dortmund Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...

to the east. The physical border between Herne and Recklinghausen is the bridge at the Bochumer Strasse across the

Rhine–Herne Canal The Rhine–Herne Canal () is a transportation canal in the Ruhrgebiet, Ruhr area of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with five canal locks. The canal was built over a period of eight years (5 April 1906 – 14 July 1914) and connects the har ...

. A little further north of the canal flows the Emscher river, with the former abundance of wild horses that were caught in the Emscher Valley (Emschertal), then sold and/or traded at the yearly horse market at Crange, which later developed into the " Cranger Kirmes". After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Herne was known as "Die Goldene Stadt" ("The Golden City") because of the comparatively limited damage suffered during World War II. Present-day Herne includes the former settlements of Haranni, originating at the south end of the Bahnhofstrasse and just across the Evangelische Hauptkirche Herne (main Lutheran Church—seems to be called "Kreuzkirche" now) and the crossing of Sodingerstrasse, running to the east at that point, then turning into Wiescherstrasse; formerly independent settlements or villages like Baukau, Börnig, Crange, Horsthausen, Pöppinghausen, Sodingen, and others became the present Herne. These farms bearing these names were probably or possibly found in the 11th and 12th centuries. In 1860, the first of a number of coal mines started operating. In the following thirty years, the population increased twenty-fold. In 1975, Wanne-Eickel, by then a city with over 70,000 inhabitants, was incorporated into Herne, which had a population larger than "Wanne-Eickel" at that point in time.

World War II

Herne was targeted by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

on 4 June 1940, early in World War II, and air raids became daily and nightly occurrences. On one occasion, three high-explosive torpedo-bombs were dropped, severely damaging a number of houses in the Vincke-Strasse (only some of the outer shell had remained) and resulting in the deaths of all the inhabitants. Phosphorus bombs were dropped in several locations and caused fires that lasted for days. The canal was the major mode of transportation for coal and coke from the many coal mines in the area to the factories for iron ore to be processed into steel (Blau-Stahl), and coal was transported along the inter-connecting waterways in all other directions to be used for industrial as well as domestic use. In particular, the bridge across

, closest to the easternmost double-chambered lock and the wharf on the north shore, was hit and taken out. The

Krupp Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp (formerly Fried. Krupp AG and Friedrich Krupp GmbH), trade name, trading as Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century as well as Germany's premier weapons manufacturer dur ...

Treibstoffwerke oil refinery near the local Shamrock, ¾ of the coal mine, was bombed during the oil campaign of World War II.

Politics

Mayor

The current mayor of Herne is Frank Dudda 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 Form ...

(SPD), elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2020. The most recent mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows: ! colspan=2, Candidate ! Party ! Votes ! % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Frank Dudda , align=left,

, 30,758 , 63.4 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Timon Radicke , align=left, Christian Democratic Union , 8,685 , 17.9 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Pascal Krüger , align=left,

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (, ), often simply referred to as Greens (, ), is a Green (politics), green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of the Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (formed in East Ger ...

, 5,014 , 10.3 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Daniel Kleibömer , align=left, The Left , 2,026 , 4.2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Thomas Bloch , align=left, Free Democratic Party , 2,025 , 4.2 , - ! colspan=3, Valid votes ! 48,508 ! 98.0 , - ! colspan=3, Invalid votes ! 980 ! 2.0 , - ! colspan=3, Total ! 49,488 ! 100.0 , - ! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout ! 119,462 ! 41.4 , - , colspan=5, Source
State Returning Officer

City council

The Herne 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) , 21,560 , 44.1 , 0.6 , 28 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , 9,775 , 20.0 , 5.9 , 12 , 3 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

(Grüne) , 7,723 , 15.8 , 6.5 , 10 , 4 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Alternative for Germany Alternative for Germany (, AfD, ) is a Far-right politics in Germany (1945–present), far-right,Far-right: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Right-wing populism, right-wing populist and National conservatism, national-conservative p ...

(AfD) , 4,127 , 8.4 , 4.3 , 5 , 3 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Left (Die Linke) , 1,980 , 4.1 , 2.2 , 3 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Free Democratic Party (FDP) , 1,615 , 3.3 , 0.5 , 2 , ±0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Pirate Party Germany (Piraten) , 767 , 1.6 , 1.1 , 1 , 1 , - , , align=left, Independent Citizens Herne (UB Herne) , 804 , 1.6 , 0.0 , 1 , ±0 , - , colspan=7 bgcolor=lightgrey, , - , , align=left, Voters' Association Wanne-Herne (WWH) , 443 , 0.9 , New , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Independents , 49 , 0.1 , – , 0 , – , - ! colspan=2, Valid votes ! 48,843 ! 98.6 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Invalid votes ! 694 ! 1.4 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Total ! 49, 537 ! 100.0 ! ! 62 ! 2 , - ! colspan=2, Electorate/voter turnout ! 119,462 ! 41.5 ! 0.7 ! ! , - , colspan=7, Source
State Returning Officer

Gallery

File:Herne, kerk in straatzicht foto3 2010-08-07 17.07.JPG, Herne, church File:Baukau, Schloss Strünkede foto6 2012-03-28 10.27.JPG, Baukau, castle: Schloss Strünkede File:Baukau, Schlosskapelle Strünkede foto1 2012-03-28 10.32.JPG, Baukau, chapel: Schlosskapelle Strünkede The largest communities of migrants:

Notable places

A fair called Cranger Kirmes is held in the city's Crange district every first week of August. This is the second largest-carnival in Germany, with an average of around 4.5 million visitors. Its origins can be traced back to the 15th century, when farmers started trading horses on Saint Lawrence's Day. The horse show and horse equipment sales were arranged at the same place where horses were traded years ago for tradition.

Notable people

Famous Hernians or Wanne-Eickelians include: * Cigdem Akyol * Yıldıray Baştürk * Kurt Edelhagen * Gudrun Heute-Bluhm * Andrea Jürgens * Jürgen von Manger, known as "Mr. Tegtmeier", '' Tegtmeiers Reisen'' * Jürgen Marcus * Bernd Storck * Peavy Wagner * Leonie Saint * Bärbel Beuermann * Gregor Willmes, musicologist * Rudolf Witzig * Jan Zweyer

Notable business

* Heitkamp BauHolding, founded 1892, specialized construction work in different construction business areas

Sports

Herne is home to several football clubs, including SC Westfalia Herne, DSC Wanne-Eickel and SV Sodingen. ''Herne-West'' is a mockery name of the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club Schalke 04, most commonly used by the fans of

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

Sister cities

Herne is twinned with: *

Hénin-Beaumont Hénin-Beaumont (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department in the Hauts-de-France region of Franc about east of Lens, Pas-de-Calais, Lens. History The commune came into existence in 1970, the r ...

, France (1954) *

Castleford Castleford is a town within the City of Wakefield district, West Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 45,106 at a 2021 population estimate. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to the north of the t ...

, England, United Kingdom (1956) * Altagracia, Nicaragua (1988) * Moyogalpa, Nicaragua (1988) * Belgorod, Russia (1990) *

Eisleben Eisleben is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is famous as both the hometown of the influential theologian Martin Luther and the place where he died; hence, its official name is Lutherstadt Eisleben. First mentioned in the late 10th century ...

, Germany (1990) *

Konin Konin () is a city in central Poland, on the Warta River. It is the capital of Konin County and is located within the Greater Poland Voivodeship. In 2021 the population of the city was 71,427, making it the fourth-largest city in Greater Poland af ...

, Poland (1991) *

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 18 km2 and its population is 175,190 (2022). It is located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and ...

, Turkey (2016) *

Luzhou Luzhou ( zh, s=泸州, p=Lúzhōu; Sichuanese Pinyin: Nu2zou1; Minjiang dialect, Luzhou dialect: ) is a prefecture-level city located in the southeast of Sichuan Province, China. It is also known as the "Liquor City" (). It was named Jiangyang () ...

, China (2018)

References

External links

Herne Notgeld
(emergency banknotes) depicting the legend of "Der tolle Jost von Strünkede

{{Authority control Cities in North Rhine-Westphalia Urban districts of North Rhine-Westphalia Arnsberg (region)