Hattingen is a town in the northern part of the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis district, 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 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 ...

History

Hattingen is located on the south bank of the River

Ruhr 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 ...

in the south of the

Ruhr region 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 populatio ...

. The town was first mentioned in 1396, when the Duke of

Mark Mark may refer to: In the Bible * Mark the Evangelist (5–68), traditionally ascribed author of the Gospel of Mark * Gospel of Mark, one of the four canonical gospels and one of the three synoptic gospels Currencies * Mark (currency), a currenc ...

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 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 was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...

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

. 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 (, ; ; ; ) 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 ...

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 ...

, Sprockhövel,

Velbert Velbert (, Low Rhenish: ''Vèlbed'') is a town in the district of Mettmann (district), Mettmann, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The town is renowned worldwide for the production of locks and fittings. Geography Velbert is located ...

, Witten and

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...

Division of the town

Hattingen is divided into the districts of Blankenstein, Bredenscheid-Stüter, Hattingen-Mitte, Holthausen, Niederbonsfeld, Niederelfringhausen, Niederwenigern, 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, University of California, Berkeley, California, Berkeley. H ...

, sociolinguist * Harald Siepermann, Character Designer * Marie-Luise Marjan, actress * Jamiri (Jan-Michael Richter), comic artist * Mirjam Müntefering, author * Caliban (band) * DJ Quicksilver, Disk Jockey * Jost Gippert, German linguist * Luke Hemmerich, 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 Form ...

(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 (, ), 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 ...

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/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 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 ...

, 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,

, 1,285 , 5.8 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Thomas Bausch , align=left,

, 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 (FDP) , 1,529 , 6.8 , 2.7 , 3 , 1 , - , 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 magazine ...

, 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 The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

, Witten is part of the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis II constituency. Axel Echeverria of the SPD was elected as representative in the 2021 German federal election.

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