Ratingen (; ) is a town in the district of Mettmann 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 ...

. It lies in the northwestern part of Berg about 12 km northeast of

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

Administration

With a communal reform of 1975 the independent municipalities of Breitscheid, Eggerscheidt, Hösel, Lintorf (seat Angerland) as well as the local part of Homberg and the municipality of Homberg-Meiersberg (seat Hubbelrath) were added to the city of Ratingen.

History

Ratingen was settled before 849. From the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

the Ratingen area belonged to the count and later dukes of Berg. On December 11, 1276 the settlement received city rights. Ratingen was one of the four places of Berg which experienced an economic boom in the end of the Middle Ages, but slowed during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

. At the beginning of the Industrial Age, the first manufacturing plants opened in 1783. In Cromford the first mechanical spinnery of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

opened, which grew into the '' Textilfabrik Cromford'', now part of the '' Rheinisches Industriemuseum'' (Rhine Industry Museum). In the Napoleonic times, it became part of the city of Berg and in 1815, into the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

. In the communal re-organization of 1929, Ratingen maintained its independence. After the defeat of German forces in the

Second World War 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 ...

, Field Marshal Walter Model committed suicide in the forest adjacent to the city. After relatively small war damage, Ratingen in the 1960s and the 1970s experienced years of growth and development (West Ratingen with 20,000 inhabitants, developed in the late 1960s-1980s). In 1970, before further incorporations the number of inhabitants surpassed 50,000.

Politics

The current mayor of Ratingen is Klaus Konrad Pesch of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 2014. 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, Klaus Konrad Pesch , align=left, Christian Democratic Union , 16,433 , 41.5 , 12,874 , 52.1 , - , , align=left, Rainer Vogt , align=left, Citizens' Union Ratingen , 7,490 , 18.9 , 11,833 , 47.9 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christian Wiglow , align=left, Social Democratic Party , 6,178 , 15.6 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Heinz Martin Tönnes , align=left, Alliance 90/The Greens , 5,434 , 13.7 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Markus Sondermann , align=left, Free Democratic Party , 2,344 , 5.9 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Hans Michael Gericke , 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 ...

, 1,029 , 2.6 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Manfred Evers , align=left, Independent , 700 , 1.8 , - ! colspan=3, Valid votes ! 39,608 ! 98.9 ! 24,707 ! 99.4 , - ! colspan=3, Invalid votes ! 432 ! 1.1 ! 162 ! 0.7 , - ! colspan=3, Total ! 40,040 ! 100.0 ! 24,869 ! 100.0 , - ! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout ! 72,748 ! 55.0 ! 72,741 ! 34.2 , - , colspan=7, Source: City of Ratingen
1st round

City council

The Ratingen 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) , 13,595 , 34.4 , 0.2 , 24 , 4 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) , 7,553 , 19.1 , 9.5 , 14 , 9 , - , , align=left, Citizens' Union Ratingen (BU) , 6,964 , 17.6 , 6.7 , 12 , 2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Social Democratic Party (SPD) , 6,056 , 15.3 , 5.6 , 11 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Free Democratic Party (FDP) , 2,479 , 6.3 , 1.7 , 4 , 1 , - , 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) , 1,607 , 4.1 , 1.0 , 3 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

, 1,159 , 2.9 , New , 2 , New , - , colspan=7 bgcolor=lightgrey, , - , , align=left, The Optimists , 119 , 0.3 , New , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Independent Manfred Evers , 40 , 0.1 , New , 0 , New , - ! colspan=2, Valid votes ! 39,572 ! 98.9 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Invalid votes ! 458 ! 1.1 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Total ! 40,030 ! 100.0 ! ! 70 ! 12 , - ! colspan=2, Electorate/voter turnout ! 72,748 ! 55.0 ! 3.4 ! ! , - , colspan=7, Source
City of Ratingen

Economy

Several important international enterprises (particularly from the IT industry) as

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public Limited Company () is a British Multinational company, multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates Service (economic ...

, ASUS,

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

, SAP, CEMEX and Esprit maintain branches and/or main centres in Ratingen. It is also the hometown of automotive dealer Gottfried Schultz. On 1 June 2021 Trading Hub Europe, the market area manager for the German natural gas market, was founded in Ratingen.

Sport

Since 1997 the town has hosted the Mehrkampf-Meeting, an annual

decathlon The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of 10 track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ἄθλος (''áthlos'', or ἄ ...

and

pentathlon A pentathlon is a contest featuring five events. The name is derived from Greek language, Greek: combining the words ''pente'' (five) and -''athlon'' (competition) (). The first pentathlon was documented in Ancient Greece and was part of the Anci ...

meeting.

Twin towns – sister cities

Ratingen is twinned with: *

Maubeuge Maubeuge (; historical or ; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department in northern France. It is situated on both banks of the Sambre (here canalized), east of Valenciennes and ab ...

, France (1958) * Le Quesnoy, France (1963) * Vermillion, United States (1969) *

Kokkola Kokkola (; , ) is a town in Finland and the regional capital of Central Ostrobothnia. It is located on the west coast of the country, on the Gulf of Bothnia. The population of Kokkola is approximately , while the Kokkola sub-region, sub-region h ...

, Finland (1989) * Beelitz, Germany (1990) * Gagarin, Russia (1998) * Huishan (Wuxi), China (2007) Between 1972 and 2016 Ratingen was also twinned to Cramlington/ Blyth Valley, United Kingdom.

Notable people

* Martin J. Beckmann (1924–2017), economist * Heribert Fassbender (born 1941), sports presenter * Claudia Jung (born 1964), singer * Johann Peter Melchior (1747–1825), sculptor and porcelain designer * Marius Müller-Westernhagen (born 1948), rock musician and actor * Rosemarie Nitribitt (1933–1957), luxury call girl * Dieter Nuhr (born 1960), comedian, author and cabaret artist * Norbert Pohlmann (born 1960), computer scientist * Sönke Wortmann (born 1959), film director

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Towns in North Rhine-Westphalia Mettmann (district) Members of the Hanseatic League