Borbeck-Mitte is the central borough of ''Borbeck'', the fourth suburban district of

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 ...

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 ...

. Together with the other boroughs of the district, it was incorporated on April 1, 1915. Borbeck-Mitte has a population of roughly 13,500 people and a total area of . The name Borbeck derives from ''Bor(a)thbeki'', which means either ''river in a fertile lowland'' or ''river of the

Bructeri The Bructeri were a Germanic people, who lived in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia, just outside what was then the Roman Empire. The Romans originally reported them living east of the lower Rhine river, in a large area centred around present day ...

''.

History

Early history synopsis

The first document mentioning Borbeck dates back to 869, when ''Borthbeki'', a small rural commune, was mentioned as one of nine communes around

Essen Abbey Essen Abbey () was a community of secular canonesses for women of high nobility that formed the nucleus of modern-day Essen, Germany. A chapter of male priests were also attached to the abbey, under a dean. In the medieval period, the abbess ...

which were liable to

tax A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

. In 1288, princess-abbess ''Berta von Arnsberg'' bought probably mortgaged parts of the region and built the predecessor of ''Schloss Borbeck''. By the 14th century, Schloss Borbeck had become the favorite residence of the princess-abbesses, which came along with a rise of prestige for the region. In 1339, princess-abbess ''Katharina von der Mark'' had Borbeck's old Romanesque church modified so the abbesses and their entourage could adequately attend

mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

19th and 20th centuries

After the dissolution of Essen Abbey in 1803, Borbeck was occupied by

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and became a French

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in 1808. In 1815, following the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...

, Borbeck came to

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

and was declared the center of a new independent ''Bürgermeisterei'', which also included several townships around Borbeck. The

Year without a summer The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by . Summer temperatures in Europe were the coldest of any on record between 1766 and 2000, resultin ...

, 1816, brought the last

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenom ...

to Borbeck, and recovery took at least until 1819.

Industrialization Industrialisation (British English, UK) American and British English spelling differences, or industrialization (American English, US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an i ...

reached Borbeck in the 1840s, and the opening

coal mines Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

attracted many unemployed people. On February 1, 1862, two of the aforementioned townships, Lipperheide and Lirich, which accounted for two-thirds () of the total area of Borbeck, were excorporated and became parts of the new city of

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 ...

. The same happened with the townships of Altendorf, Frohnhausen and Holsterhausen, which formed the new Bürgermeisterei of Altendorf in 1874. Although having lost most of its land area and a good deal of its population, Borbeck, with a population of over 70,000 people, remained the largest administrative district in Prussia without

town privileges Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the traditio ...

. Prior to the excorporations, the population was over 100,000, which nowadays means that Borbeck would have been a

Großstadt A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

, i.e. a major city. During the negotiations regarding the incorporation of Borbeck in 1915,

Bürgermeister Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, ) is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief magistrate or executive of a city or town. The name in English was derived from the Dutch . In so ...

Rudolf Heinrich managed to use the size of Borbeck to attain several concessions from

, such as the construction of a public indoor

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming and associated activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built abo ...

if the new Stadtbezirk was to break 100,000 inhabitants again.

Institutions

The suburban district ''Stadtberzirk IV Borbeck'', amongst Borbeck-Mitte (~ 13,500 inhabitants, ), also comprises the following boroughs: * Bedingrade (~ 12400 inhabitants, ) * Bergeborbeck (~ 4300 inhabitants, ) * Bochold (~ 18000 inhabitants, ) * Dellwig (~ 9300 inhabitants, ) * Frintrop (~ 8700 inhabitants, ) * Gerschede (~ 8000 inhabitants, ) * Schönebeck (~ 10200 inhabitants, ) Borbeck-Mitte, as the central borough of the district, offers several central institutions for the district, including a

hospital A hospital is a healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized Medical Science, health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically ...

, a local district court, a branch of the city's

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

, as well as social welfare and employment offices and the aforementioned public swimming pool. The central

pedestrian precinct Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town restricted to use by people on foot or ...

features several mid-sized shops and a

street market A street market or open-air market, with alternative names such as: market square and sometimes charity market, in cases where the sale is made for charity reasons, is a market that is set up on certain days of the week, generally on the street i ...

each Tuesday and Friday.

Culture, public life and education

Borbeck-Mitte has a distinctive cultural life, mainly on personal initiative. Several

church choirs Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

exist, as well as six

carnival Carnival (known as Shrovetide in certain localities) is a festive season that occurs at the close of the Christian pre-Lenten period, consisting of Quinquagesima or Shrove Sunday, Shrove Monday, and Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Carnival typi ...

and six

sport-shooting Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms (firearms and airguns, in forms such ...

associations and three

amateur theater Amateur theatre, also known as amateur dramatics, is theatre performed by amateur actors and singers. Amateur theatre groups may stage plays, revues, musicals, light opera, pantomime or variety shows, and do so for the social activity as well as f ...

groups. The cultural historical society maintains a small

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

and meeting place in the ''Alte Cuesterey'' near the central market place. () is the central cultural institution of both borough and district. An institution of the cultural office of the city of Essen, it regularly hosts exhibitions and concerts. A permanent exhibition on the history of the

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...

and the

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 ...

has been established in 2006. Essen's public

music school A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger in ...

has been conducting classes here since 1999. The

register office A register office, commonly referred to unofficially as a registry office or registrar's office is an office in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and some Commonwealth countries responsible for the civil registration of births, deaths, marri ...

has set up a special room for marriages. The park is open to the public and the largest park in the northwestern part of Essen. A street nowadays separates a smaller part in front of the castle from the rest of the park; this smaller part mostly consists of hilly lawns and includes a former

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

arena, which is now used for concerts. A

steam beer Steam beer, also known as California common beer, is made by fermenting lager yeast at a higher than normal temperature. Historically steam beer came from Bavaria, Germany, and is associated with San Francisco and the West Coast of the United S ...

brewery near Borbeck's train station offers a variety of beers and

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 ...

specialties. The brewery was founded in 1896 on the premises of the old brewery of the castle. It was later taken over by the local competitors ''Stern'' and, in the 1990s, ''Stauder''. Brewing has continued, but has been shifted to Stauder's main facilities. The brewery has since become a

restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...

and is popular with final years, class reunions and corporate events, mainly from the Borbeck area. On one corner of the new market place, a fountain commemorates the habits of shortening old trousers for the

summer Summer or summertime is the hottest and brightest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, daylight hours are the longest and darkness hours are the shortest, with day ...

months or buying clothes, especially trousers, a few sizes larger for children to grow into. Throughout the Ruhr Area, this habit has become known as ''Borbecker Halblang'' (''Borbeck's half long''). Since 1949, a weekly local newspaper called ''Borbecker Nachrichten'' reports on cultural events, sports and general news from the district. The gazette, which at times had been the largest local newspaper in Germany, remained independent until 2000, when it was acquired by Essen-based

WAZ-Mediengruppe Funke Mediengruppe (formerly ''WAZ-Mediengruppe'') is Germany's third-largest newspaper and magazine publisher with a total of over 500 publications in eight countries. WAZ-Mediengruppe is privately held by the Funke family and is headquartered i ...

. Well-known educational institutions in Borbeck are the '' Gymnasium Borbeck'' and the ''Mädchengymnasium Borbeck'', the latter being the single public Gymnasium for girls only 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 ...

;

sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

classes are sometimes offered in co-operation of both schools. Two

Realschule Real school (, ) is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), F ...

n, two

Gesamtschule A comprehensive school is a secondary school for pupils aged 11–16 or 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is restricted on the basis ...

n, several

primary schools 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 ...

(the latter mainly run by the church) and a special school for children with

speech disorders Speech disorders, impairments, or impediments, are a type of communication disorder in which normal manner of articulation, speech is disrupted. This can mean fluency disorders like stuttering and cluttering. Someone who is unable to speak due to ...

can also be found in Borbeck-Mitte.

Notable personalities

* Heinrich Uhlendahl (1868-1954),

librarian A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...

and founder of the German

national bibliography A national bibliography is a systematic bibliography of acquisitions of a national library. Most countries either have a national bibliography or are in the process of compiling one. Some countries that do not have a national bibliography of their ...

* Otto Doppelfeld (1907-1979),

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

* Heinz-Horst Deichmann (1926-),

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

Albert Vögler Albert Vögler (8 February 1877 – 14 April 1945) was a German politician, industrialist and entrepreneur. He was a co-founder of the German People's Party, and an important executive in the munitions industry during World War II. Vögler was ...

(1877-1945), entrepreneur

Footnotes

References

*Most sections of this article are translations from the German Wikipedia. The version used can be foun
under this link
The original authors of the German-language version can be foun
here

Literature

* The periodicals of the Cultural Historical Society of Borbeck, called ''Borbecker Beiträge'', since 1987 * Walter Wimmer: ''Gewachsen in 11 Jahrhunderten - Borbecker Chronik'', Verlag Borbecker Nachrichten, Essen (1980 - 1993) * Lutz Niethammer: ''Die Unfähigkeit zur Stadtentwicklung. Erklärung der seelischen Störung eines Communalbaumeisters in Preußens größtem Industriedorf'', in: Engelhart, U. u.a. (eds.): ''Soziale Bewegung und politische Verfassung. Beiträge zur Geschichte der modernen Welt'', Stuttgart 1976. * Ludwig W. Wördehoff: ''Borbeck in seinen Straßennamen'', Rainer-Henselowsky-Verlag, Essen 1987

External links

Cultural Historical Society of Borbeck
''(German only)''
Old pictures and postcards from Borbeck

Portrait of the borough on the website of the city of Essen
''(German only)'' {{Authority control Essen