Ruhr Area

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Image:Lage des Ruhrgebiets.png Image:Ruhr area-map.png

The Ruhr Area, also called simply Ruhr, (German Ruhrgebiet, colloquial Ruhrpott) is an urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, consisting of a number of large formerly industrial cities bordered by the rivers Ruhr to the south, Rhine to the west, and Lippe to the north. Southwest it borders the Bergisches Land. The area, with some 5.3 million people, is considered part of the larger Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area of more than 12 million people.

Going from west to east, the area includes the city boroughs of Duisburg, Oberhausen, Bottrop, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Bochum, Herne, Hamm, Hagen, and Dortmund as well as parts of the more "rural" districts Wesel, Recklinghausen, Unna and Ennepe-Ruhr. These districts have grown into a large complex forming an industrial landscape of unique size, inhabited by some 5.3 million people, the fourth largest urban area in Europe after Moscow, Greater London, and Paris (see also: Istanbul). The Ruhr area is often mistakenly perceived as a single city because many maps do not show the boundaries between the individual cities.

1 History
2 Language
3 Migration
4 Public Transport
5 External links
6 See also

[edit] History

Being small cities or mere villages for most of their history, the places in the area first grew during the Industrial Revolution, mainly basing their economy on coal mining and steel production. As demand for coal slowly decreased after 1960, the area went through phases of structural crisis and industrial diversification, first developing the traditionally strong manufacturing, then moving into service industries and high technology. The proverbial air and water pollution of the area are largely a thing of the past. In 2005 “Essen for the Ruhrgebiet” was the official candidate for nomination as European Capital of Culture for 2010.

In January 1923 French forces occupied the Ruhr area as a means of reprisal after Germany proved incapable of fulfilling excessive reparation payments demanded from her after World War I. The German government answered with "passive resistance," which meant that coal miners and railway workers refused to obey to any instructions by the occupation forces. Production and transportation came to a standstill, but the financial consequences completely ruined public finances in Germany and passive resistance was called off in late 1923. In World War II, the Allies mounted a campaign specifically to encircle and capture the Ruhr Area. This effort succeeded in surrounding the entire area, trapping several hundred thousand Wehrmacht troops within what was known as the Ruhr Pocket. Due to its economic significance the region was very heavily bombed during the War and some of its towns, for example Dortmund were among the most devastated cities in Germany. During the Cold War, it was anticipated that a Red Army thrust into Western Europe would begin in the Fulda Gap, and would have the Ruhr Area as a primary target.

Following the German unconditional surrender after World War II the Ruhr area led a perilous existence for a few years. The Morgenthau Plan had set the tone in 1944 by requiring the entire area to be stripped of all mining and manufacturing industry, and its industrial worker population to be dispersed as widely as possible. The Ruhr area was then to be governed as an international zone. As late as 1947 internationalisation was still being seriously discussed. In the end, the beginning of the Cold War precluded any such action. The neighbouring Saar area, containing much of Germany's remaining coal deposits, was handed over to French administration in 1945 and did not return to Germany until 1956.

In 2006 the city of Essen, representing the whole Ruhr Area, was recommended by an independent jury to be the European Capital of Culture 2010. This was regarded as a big step in structural change since the decline in the coal and steel industries.

[edit] Language

The local dialect of German is commonly called Ruhrdeutsch or Ruhrpottdeutsch, although there is really no uniform dialect that justifies the designation of such one dialect. It is rather a working class sociolect with influences from the various dialects found in the area. A major common influence stems from the coal mining tradition of the area. For example, the Ruhr Area is more commonly known among locals as either "Ruhrpott", where "Pott" is a derivate of "Pütt" (pitmen's term for mine; cp. the English "pit"), or as "Revier" (pitmen's term for seam).

Single words in the dialect are of Polish origin (see below about the Polish immigration in the 19th century), e.g. the word "Mottek" meaning "hammer" which is derived of the Polish word "Młotek" with the same meaning.

The article "das" is often spoken "dat(t)" in Ruhrpottdeutsch, "was" is spoken "wat(t)" etc.

The influx of foreign workers has introduced new expressions arising from the circumstances of industrial work and led to a form of slang typical of certain groups of people in the area. So there is no unified grammar or spelling of the Ruhrdeutsch variations available, yet a substantial amount of literature has been published, including translations of the famous Asterix comic books representing a typical instance of the varieties spoken in the Ruhr Area.

[edit] Migration

In the 19th century the Ruhr area pulled up to 500,000 Poles from East Prussia and Silesia due to the event referred to as Ostflucht. Almost all of their descendants today speak German only and consider themselves Germans, with only their Polish family names remaining as a sign of their past.

In 1900, the main concentrations of the Polish minority were:

Gelsenkirchen, Landkreis (Provinz Westfalen) 13.1 %
Bochum, Landkreis (Provinz Westfalen) 9.1 %
Dortmund, Landkreis (Provinz Westfalen) 7.3 %
Gelsenkirchen, Stadtkreis (Provinz Westfalen) 5.1 %

[edit] Public Transport

All public transport companies in the Ruhr Area are run under the umbrella of the VRR (German: Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr), so that there is a ticket system valid all over the area. The Ruhr Area is excellently linked to the German railway system, both in passenger and cargo rail. For more information see the official web site of the VRR