The Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

in the center of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It is part of the southern Ruhr urban area and has ca. 324,000 inhabitants (2012). The district's seat (

capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses t ...

) is Schwelm; the largest of its nine towns is

Witten Witten () is a city with almost 100,000 inhabitants in the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis (district) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Witten is situated in the Ruhr valley, in the southern Ruhr area. Bordering municipalities * Bochum * Dortmun ...

Geography

The name of the district describes its geographical location – it is located in the valleys of the rivers Ruhr and Ennepe. Geologically it is part of the north-eastern Rhenish Massif, a ''

Mittelgebirge A ''Mittelgebirge'' (German: ''Mittel'', "middle/medium"; ''Gebirge'', "mountain range") is a type of relatively low mountain range or highland area typical of the geography of central Europe, especially central and southern Germany; it refers to ...

'' landscape; only small parts of Witten belong to the flat

Westphalian Lowland The Westphalian Lowland, also known as the Westphalian Basin is a flat landscape that mainly lies within the German region of Westphalia, although small areas also fall within North Rhine (in the extreme southwest) and in Lower Saxony (on the nor ...

. File:Gevelsberg - Rocholzallee - Ennepe 05 ies.jpg, Ennepe in Gevelsberg File:Bergerdenkmal Witten Aussicht.jpg, Ruhr valley in Witten File:Ennepetal.Milspe.jpg, wooded hills in Ennepetal

Municipalities

The district consists of nine

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

, all entitled "Stadt" (town or city).

Adjacent cities and districts

The Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the district-free cities of Bochum, Dortmund and Hagen, the districts of

Märkischer Kreis The Märkischer Kreis is a district ('' Kreis'') in central North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Unna, Soest, Hochsauerland, Olpe, Oberbergischer Kreis, Ennepe-Ruhr, and the city of Hagen. History The district was creat ...

(with Schalksmühle and

Halver Halver is a town in Germany. History Around 950 the ''Oberhof Halvara'' was first mentioned in the ''Werdener Probsteiregister''. For more than 500 years Halver was the seat of a Fehmic court, the earliest definite evidence of which is in 1243; i ...

) and

Oberbergischer Kreis The Oberbergischer Kreis ( ksh, Boverbärjische Kreiß) is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Ennepe-Ruhr, Märkischer Kreis, Olpe, Altenkirchen, Rhein-Sieg, Rheinisch-Bergischer ...

(with

Radevormwald Radevormwald (; ksh, Radefürmwald) is a municipality in the Oberbergischer Kreis, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the oldest towns in the Bergischen Land, formerly the County and Duchy of Berg. Geography Radevormwald is locat ...

), the city of

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and tow ...

, the district of

Mettmann Mettmann () is a town in the northern part of the Bergisches Land, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Mettmann, Germany's most densely populated rural district. The town lies east of Düsseldorf ...

(with

Velbert Velbert ( Low Rhenish: ''Vèlbed'') is a town in the district of 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 on the hills of 'Niede ...

) and the city of Essen. Largest groups of foreigners :

History

The district was created in 1929 by merging the former district of Schwelm with parts of the former districts of Hattingen and Hagen. In 1970 and 1975 it was modified a bit during the reorganization of the districts in

; most notable was the inclusion of the previously

independent city An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province). Historical precursors In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states ...

of Witten in 1975.

Politics

2020 Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis district administrator election

Since 2015, the district administrator of the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis has been Olaf Schade of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). In the most recent election on 13 September 2020, Schade was re-elected with the support of the SPD and

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' *Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina *Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *Gree ...

, winning 61.6% of votes against Oliver Flüshöh, who was nominated by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP).

District council

2020 Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis district election

The Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis council governs the district alongside the administrator. The most recent district council election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows: ! colspan=2, Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Social Democratic Party (SPD) , 42,403 , 31.3 , 8.1 , 19 , 7 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , 36,275 , 26.8 , 1.9 , 16 , 3 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) , 28,175 , 20.8 , 7.8 , 13 , 5 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Free Democratic Party (FDP) , 7,864 , 5.8 , 1.3 , 4 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Alternative for Germany (AfD) , 7,250 , 5.4 , 1.8 , 3 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Left (Die Linke) , 5,174 , 3.8 , 1.6 , 2 , 2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Pirate Party Germany The Pirate Party Germany (german: Piratenpartei Deutschland), commonly known as Pirates (), is a political party in Germany founded in September 2006 at c-base. It states general agreement with the Swedish Piratpartiet as a party of the informa ...

(Piraten) , 3,326 , 2.5 , 0.2 , 1 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Free Voters Free Voters (german: Freie Wähler, FW or FWG) in Germany may belong to an association of people which participates in an election without having the status of a registered political party. Usually it involves a locally organized group of voters ...

(FW-EN) , 2,893 , 2.1 , 0.6 , 1 , 1 , - , , align=left, Citizens' Forum (BF) , 2,224 , 1.6 , New , 1 , New , - ! colspan=2, Valid votes ! 135,584 ! 98.4 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Invalid votes ! 2,199 ! 1.6 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Total ! 137,783 ! 100.0 ! ! 60 ! 6 , - ! colspan=2, Electorate/voter turnout ! 267,170 ! 51.6 ! ! ! , - , colspan=7, Source
District Ennepe-Ruhr

State Landtag

In the

Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia The Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia is the state parliament (''Landtag'') of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which convenes in the state capital of Düsseldorf, in the eastern part of the district of Hafen. The parliament ...

, the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis is divided between three constituencies: 104 Hagen II – Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis III (containing Breckerfeld, Ennepetal, and Gevelsberg), 105 Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis I (Hattingen, Schwelm, Sprockhövel, and Wetter), and 106 Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis II (Herdecke and Witten). In the 2017–22 parliamentary term, all three constituencies were held by the SPD. Hagen II – Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis III was represented by Falk Heinrichs, Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis I by Rainer Bovermann, and Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis II by Nadja Büteführ.

Federal parliament

In the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...

, the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis is divided between two constituencies: 138 Hagen – Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis I (Breckerfeld, Gevelsberg, Schwelm, and Ennepetal) and 139

Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis II Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis II is an electoral constituency (German: ''Wahlkreis'') represented in the Bundestag. It elects one member via first-past-the-post voting. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as constituency 139. It ...

(Hattingen, Herdecke, Sprockhövel, Wetter, and Witten). In the

20th Bundestag This is a list of members of the 20th and current Bundestag, the federal parliament of Germany. The 20th Bundestag was elected in the 2021 German federal election, 26 September 2021 federal election, and was constituted in its first session on 2 ...

, both are held by the SPD. Hagen – Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis I is represented by Timo Schisanowski, and Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis II by Axel Echeverria.

Coat of arms

In the middle of the coat of arms there is the checked red-white bar of the

County of Mark The County of Mark (german: Grafschaft Mark, links=no, french: Comté de La Marck, links=no colloquially known as ) was a county and state of the Holy Roman Empire in the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle. It lay on both sides of the Ruhr Rive ...

, which owned the area in medieval times. The two wavy lines above and below depict the two rivers which gave the district its name, the Ruhr and the Ennepe.

References

External links

Official Webpage
(German) {{Authority control