Mülheim, officially Mülheim an der Ruhr (, ; ; ) and also described as ''"City on the River"'', is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

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 ...

in western

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. 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 ...

between

Duisburg Duisburg (; , ) is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine (Lower Rhine) and the Ruhr (river), Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruh ...

Essen Essen () 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 Dortmund, as well as ...

Oberhausen Oberhausen (, ) is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen ( ). The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Rout ...

and Ratingen. It is home to many companies, and two Max Planck Institutes. Mülheim an der Ruhr received its town charter in 1808, and 100 years later the population exceeded 100,000, making Mülheim officially a city. At the time of the city's 200th anniversary with approximately 170,000 residents, it was counted among the smaller cities of Germany.

Geography

Geographical location

Mülheim an der Ruhr is located to the southwest of

in the Ruhr valley. Ruhrtalbruecke-Sonnenuntergang

Geology

The northern foothills of the

Rhenish Massif The Rhenish Massif, Rhine Massif or Rhenish Uplands (, : 'Rhenish Slate Uplands') is a geologic massif in western Germany, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg and northeastern France. It is drained centrally, south to north by the river Rhine and a few ...

are characterised by the distinctive rock formation of the bare mountain slopes through which run coal-bearing layers which formed during the

carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...

period. Here the Ruhr cuts more than 50 meters deep into this

Mittelgebirge A ''Mittelgebirge'' (; German: ''Mittel'', "middle or mid"; ''Gebirge'', "mountains or mountainous area") is a type of relatively low mountain range or highland area typical of the geography of central Europe, especially central and southern Germ ...

. This natural

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

partly uncovered these mineable black coal deposits, which enabled their exploration and extraction using adits. However, the coal-rich layers became ever deeper as one progressed northward, which required setting up mines to extract the black coal. In contrast, the broad

bayou In usage in the Southern United States, a bayou () is a body of water typically found in a flat, low-lying area. It may refer to an extremely slow-moving stream, river (often with a poorly defined shoreline), marshy lake, wetland, or creek. They ...

(dead arm of a river) of Styrum borough is characteristic of the features of the Lower Rhine Plain.''

History

During

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 ...

, forced laborers of the 3rd SS construction brigade were dispatched in the town by the Nazis in 1943.

Transport

The U18 metro line connects the city with

Politics

Mayor

The current mayor of Mülheim is Marc Buchholz of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 2020. 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, Marc Buchholz , align=left, Christian Democratic Union , 16,479 , 25.4 , 27,716 , 56.9 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Monika Griefahn , align=left, Social Democratic Party , 16,385 , 25.3 , 20,984 , 43.1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Wilhelm Steitz , align=left, Alliance 90/The Greens , 10,178 , 15.7 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Horst Bilo , align=left,

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

, 5,394 , 8.3 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Jürgen Abeln , align=left,

, 4,907 , 7.6 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Andreas Brings , 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 magazine ...

, 3,940 , 6.1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Alexander von Wrese , 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 ...

, 3,920 , 6.0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Amrei Debatin , align=left, Free Democratic Party , 1,853 , 2.9 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Jochen Dirk Hartmann , align=left,

, 945 , 1.5 , - , , align=left, Martin Ulrich Fritz , align=left, Civic Awakening Mülheim , 808 , 1.2 , - ! colspan=3, Valid votes ! 64,809 ! 98.7 ! 48,700 ! 98.6 , - ! colspan=3, Invalid votes ! 879 ! 1.3 ! 679 ! 1.4 , - ! colspan=3, Total ! 65,688 ! 100.0 ! 49,379 ! 100.0 , - ! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout ! 130,571 ! 50.3 ! 130,561 ! 37.8 , - , colspan=7, Source
State Returning Officer

City council

The Mülheim 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) , 16,970 , 26.3 , 0.9 , 14 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) , 15,097 , 23.4 , 12.4 , 13 , 7 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Social Democratic Party (SPD) , 13,765 , 21.3 , 10.2 , 12 , 5 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

(AfD) , 4,629 , 7.2 , 1.9 , 4 , 1 , - , , align=left, Mülheimer Citizens' Initiative (MBI) , 3,043 , 4.7 , 5.4 , 3 , 2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Free Democratic Party (FDP) , 3,003 , 4.7 , 0.7 , 3 , ±0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

(PARTEI) , 2,866 , 4.4 , New , 2 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Left (Die Linke) , 1,751 , 2.7 , 1.4 , 1 , 1 , - , , align=left, We From Mülheim (WIR) , 1,560 , 2.4 , 1.0 , 1 , ±0 , - , , align=left, Civic Awakening Mülheim (BAMH) , 1,173 , 1.8 , New , 1 , New , - , colspan=7 bgcolor=lightgrey, , - , , align=left, Alliance for Education (BüfBi) , 424 , 0.7 , 0.3 , 0 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Independents , 226 , 0.4 , – , 0 , – , - ! colspan=2, Valid votes ! 64,507 ! 98.3 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Invalid votes ! 1,144 ! 1.7 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Total ! 65,651 ! 100.0 ! ! 54 ! ±0 , - ! colspan=2, Electorate/voter turnout ! 130,571 ! 50.3 ! 0.0 ! ! , - , colspan=7, Source
State Returning Officer

Education and research

Mülheim is home to two Max Planck Institutes, a university campus, and various other educational and scientific institutions. * Max Planck Institute for Coal Research * Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion * Ruhr West University of Applied Sciences, main campus *IWW Water Centre, water research institute of the

University of Duisburg-Essen The University of Duisburg-Essen () is a public research university in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. In the 2019 ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'', the university was awarded 194th place in the world. It was originally ...

*39 Schools, among them 22

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

s, 12 general

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

s, 2

vocational school A vocational school (alternatively known as a trade school, or technical school), is a type of educational institution, which, depending on the country, may refer to either secondary education#List of tech ed skills, secondary or post-secondar ...

s, 1 Waldorf school, and 2

special school Special education (also known as special-needs education, aided education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, and SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates their individual d ...

Companies

* Plus (founded 1972), a supermarket chain * Tengelmann (founded 1867), a

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

* Aldi Süd (founded 1946, split in two parts in 1960, renamed to Aldi Süd in 1962), a discount supermarket chain * Harke Group, formerly Syntana (founded 1965), a chemical and plastics distributor * Europipe GmbH (founded 1991), main manufacturer of seamless pipes for the Nord Stream pipelines

Sports clubs

* 1. FC Mülheim (founded 1923), a

football club In association football, a football club (or association football club, alternatively soccer club) is a sports club that acts as an entity through which association football teams organise their sporting activities. The club can exist either as ...

* VfB Speldorf (founded 1919), a football club * HTC Uhlenhorst Mülheim (founded 1920), a

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

club

Sister cities

Mülheim's

sister cities A sister city or a twin town relationship is International relations, a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there ar ...

are: *

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...

, United Kingdom (1953) *

Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...

, France (1962) * Opole, Poland (1989) *

Kfar Saba Kfar Saba ( ), officially Kfar Sava , is a List of Israeli cities, city in the Sharon plain, Sharon region, of the Central District (Israel), Central District of State of Israel, Israel. In 2019 it had a population of 110,456, making it the 16th-l ...

, Israel (1993) *

Beykoz Beykoz () is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Istanbul Province, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 310 km2, and its population is 247,875 (2022). It lies at the northern end of the Bosphorus on the Anatolian side. The name i ...

, Turkey (2007) * Kouvola, Finland (2009) *

Qalqilya Qalqilya or Qalqiliya () is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, which serves as the administrative center of the Qalqilya Governorate. The city had a population of 51,683 in 2017. Qalqilya is surrounded by the Israeli West Bank barrier, Israeli We ...

, Palestine

People

* Wilhelm Rittenhausen (1644–1708), founder of the first

paper mill A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt ...

in North America * Gerhard Tersteegen (1697–1769), Reformed religious writer * Carl Arnold Kortum (1745–1824), physician, writer and poet * August Bungert (1845–1915), opera composer and poet * Wilibald Nagel (1863–1929), musicologist * Hugo Stinnes (1870–1924), industrialist and founder of the German People's Party * Fritz Thyssen (1873–1951), industrialist associated with the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

* Carl Otto von Eicken (1873–1960), otorhinolaryngologist * Heinrich Thyssen (1875–1947), German-Hungarian entrepreneur and art collector * Arthur Kaufmann (1888–1971), painter * Walter Hartmann (1891–1977), general of

artillery Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...

in World War II * Dagmar Mühlenfeld (born 1951), mayor of Mülheim an der Ruhr * Otto Pankok (1893–1966), painter, printmaker and sculptor * Otto Roelen (1897–1993), chemist * Karl Ziegler (1898–1973), chemist,

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

winner * Clärenore Stinnes (1901–1990), car racer, the first person to circumnavigate the world by automobile * Werner Best (1903–1989), jurist, police chief and Nazi leader * Carl Balhaus (1905–1968), actor and director * Ferdinand aus der Fünten (1909–1989), SS-Hauptsturmführer, war criminal * Fritz Buchloh (1909–1998), footballer * Günther Smend (1912–1944), officer and a resistance fighter involved in the July 20 Plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler * Johannes Bölter (1915–1987),

German Army The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...

tank commander during World War II * Karl Albrecht (1920–2014), entrepreneur, Aldi founder *

Theo Albrecht Theodor Paul Albrecht (; 28 March 1922 – 24 July 2010) was a German entrepreneur. He established the discount supermarket chain Aldi with his brother Karl Albrecht. In 2010, Theo was ranked by ''Forbes'' as the 31st richest person in the wo ...

(1922–2010), entrepreneur, Aldi founder * Wilhelm Knabe (1923–2021), ecologist, pacifist, civil servant, politician and co-founder of the Green Party in Germany * Wim Thoelke (1927–1995), TV entertainer *

Hermann Bottenbruch Hermann Bottenbruch (14 September 1928 – 20 May 2019) was a German mathematician and computer scientist. Biography Bottenbruch grew up in . Toward the end of World War II, he served as a . In 1947, he began the study of mathematics at the ...

(1928–2019), mathematician and computer scientist * Jürgen Sundermann (born 1940), football player and manager * Hans Walitza (born 1945), football player and manager * Rudolf Seliger (born 1951), footballer * Bodo Hombach (born 1952), politician ( SPD) * Monika Griefahn (born 1954), politician (SPD) * Hans-Günter Bruns (born 1954), footballer *

Helge Schneider Helge Schneider (born 30 August 1955 in Mülheim an der Ruhr) is a German entertainer, comedian, musician, composer, author, film and theatre director, actor, and screenwriter. He frequently appears on German television and is probably best kno ...

(born 1955), comedian, musician, author, film and theatre director and actor * Ralph Morgenstern (born 1956), television presenter and actor * Albrecht von Croÿ (born 1958), journalist * Ulla Kock am Brink (born 1961), television presenter * Hannelore Kraft (born 1961), politician (SPD) and Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia * Ralf Lübke (born 1965), athlete * Carolin Emcke (born 1967), journalist * Willi Landgraf (born 1968), footballer * Sven Meinhardt (born 1971), field hockey player, Olympic winner * André Lenz (born 1973), footballer * Lars Burgsmüller (born 1975), tennis player * Marion Rodewald (born 1976), field hockey player, Olympic winner * Kai Gehring (born 1977), politician * Felix Erdmann (born 1978), rowing cox * Simone Hanselmann (born 1979), actress * Salih Altın (born 1987), footballer * Bobby Gunns (born 1992), professional wrestler * Jonathan Rommelmann (born 1994), Olympic medalist * Stephanie Stebich (born 1966), art historian * Rüdiger Emshoff (born 1960), maxillofacial surgeon and associate professor * Karl Schmitz-Scholl (1868-1933), businessman

Gallery

File:Schloss-Broich-2013-01-Alternative.jpg, Courtyard of Schloss Broich File:Rathaus-Muelheim-Nordseite-2013.jpg, Town Hall File:MH-Stadthalle-2011.jpg, Mülheim Stadthalle File:Mülheim an der Ruhr, straatzicht3 Aktienstraße foto2 2012-08-19 15.19.jpg, View to the street and tram station Aktienstraße File:Friedrichstraße.jpg, Friedrichstraße File:Mülheim an der Ruhr, die Petrikirche foto3 2012-08-19 15.38.JPG, Petrikirche File:Luftbild-MH-Nordosten-2009.jpg, Highrise buildings in the city centre File:Müga Wasserspiele sw 2013.jpg, Water feature in MüGa-Park

References

External links

*
Official city homepage

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mulheim Cities in North Rhine-Westphalia Urban districts of North Rhine-Westphalia 1808 establishments in the Confederation of the Rhine Districts of the Rhine Province Düsseldorf (region)