Recklinghausen (; ) is the northernmost city in the Ruhr-Area and the capital of the Recklinghausen district. It borders the rural Münsterland and is characterized by large fields and farms in the north and industry in the south. Recklinghausen is the 60th-largest city in Germany and the 22nd-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia.

History

First mentioned in 1017 as ''Ricoldinchuson'', in 1150 the city was the center of the surrounding Vest Recklinghausen. In 1236, Recklinghausen received town privileges. There is record of

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

in the city as early as 1305. As part of the County of Vest, ownership of Recklinghausen changed several times in the 15th and 16th century, and in 1576, the entire county was pawned to the Elector of Cologne. In 1582–83, again in 1586, and again in 1587, the city was plundered by partisan armies during the Cologne War, a feud over religious parity in Electorate of Cologne and electoral influence in the Holy Roman Empire. Recklinghausen was also the site of more than 100 witchcraft trials (1514–1710). The trial activity reached a climax twice: In the time period of 1580/81 and again in 1588/89. The last person to be convicted of

witchcraft Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meanin ...

was Anna Spickermann; after spending 16 months in prison, she was sentenced to death by sword and burned afterward. , the administration of the Vest Recklinghausen was divided into two parts, with the eastern part administered by Recklinghausen. The town of Recklinghausen including the parish of Recklinghausen and the parishes Ahsen, Datteln, Flaesheim, Hamm-Bossendorf, Henrichenburg, Herten, Horneburg, Oer, Suderwich,

Waltrop Waltrop ( is a town in the Recklinghausen (district), district of Recklinghausen, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the Datteln-Hamm Canal, approximately 15 km east of Recklinghausen and 15 km north-west of Dortmund. ...

and Westerholt. In 1803-1811 became the capital of a sovereign Principality of the Dukes of Arenberg who retain the title. , the Vest was made a Bürgermeisterei, with the town becoming the seat. In 1819, Herten joined the Recklinghausen Bürgermeisterei, and Erkenschwick followed in 1821. During

World War II 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 ...

, in December 1939, the Stalag XX-B

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...

was founded in the city, however, it was relocated after a few days, and from 1941 to 1943, a forced labour camp was operated in the city. As a target of the Oil Campaign of World War II, oil production at Recklinghausen/Forstezung was bombed by the RAF on 15 January 1945; and South Recklinghausen (''Recklinghausen Süd'') was captured by the US 137th Infantry on 1 April 1945.

Main sights

Recklinghausen is home to a museum of icons, which includes more than 1,000 Orthodox works from

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and the Balkan countries, as well as early Coptic

Christian art Christian art is sacred art which uses subjects, themes, and imagery from Christianity. Most Christian groups use or have used art to some extent, including early Christian art and architecture and Christian media. Images of Jesus and narrative ...

from

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. The icon museum – the largest outside the Orthodox world – was founded in 1956 and reopened after renovation in February 2006 for its 50th anniversary. The Ruhrfestspielhaus (Ruhr Festival Theatre), whose remodeling in 2001 won the German Architecture Award is home of "Die Liegende Nr 5", a famous sculpture by

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental Bronze sculpture, bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore ...

. At the Lohtor in front of a memorial for the victims of World War I, there is a large sculpture made of more than 30,000 bricks by

Per Kirkeby Per Kirkeby (1 September 1938 – 9 May 2018) was a Danish Painting, painter, poet, film maker and sculptor. His works have been exhibited worldwide and are represented in many important public collections, including the Tate, Metropolitan Museum ...

Annual events

Recklinghausen hosts the annual Ruhrfestspiele (Ruhr Festival), a cultural festival with an international reputation. Every year there is a cultural programme with many national and international theatrical productions starting on 1 May. In 2008 the programme included the play ''Speed the Plow'' starring

Kevin Spacey Kevin Spacey Fowler (born July 26, 1959) is an American actor. Known for Kevin Spacey on screen and stage, his work on stage and screen, he List of awards and nominations received by Kevin Spacey, has received numerous accolades, including two ...

and Jeff Goldblum as one of the major productions. The main theatrical stage is the Ruhrfestspielhaus but other theatres in and around Recklinghausen participate.

Transport

The two major motorways crossing the area of the city are the A2 and the A43. The city is connected to the larger waterways by the Rhein-Herne-Kanal. Recklinghausen has two railway stations. The ''Central Station'' ( Recklinghausen Hauptbahnhof), which is served by

Intercity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the train categories in Europe, classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to InterRegio, regional train, r ...

and

EuroCity EuroCity (EC) is an international Train categories in Europe, train category and brand for European inter-city rail, inter-city trains that cross international borders and meet criteria covering comfort, speed, food service, and cleanliness. E ...

services, and the '' South Station'' (Recklinghausen Südbahnhof). There are two Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn lines - S 2 to Dortmund via Herne - Castrop-Rauxel and S 9 to Hagen via Gladbeck - Bottrop - Essen - Velbert - Wuppertal.

Politics

Mayor

The current mayor of Recklinghausen is Christoph Tesche of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The most recent mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows: ! colspan=2, Candidate ! Party ! Votes ! % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christoph Tesche , align=left, Christian Democratic Union , 26,556 , 60.8 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Andreas Becker , align=left, Social Democratic Party , 7,286 , 16.7 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Thorben Terwort , align=left, Alliance 90/The Greens , 4,031 , 9.2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Sascha Menkhaus , 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 ...

, 2,264 , 5.2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Erich Burmeister , align=left, The Left , 1,493 , 3.4 , - , , align=left, Claudia Ludwig , align=left, Independent Citizens Party , 1,213 , 2.8 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Irina Oberpichler , 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 ...

, 864 , 2.0 , - ! colspan=3, Valid votes ! 43,707 ! 99.0 , - ! colspan=3, Invalid votes ! 435 ! 1.0 , - ! colspan=3, Total ! 44,142 ! 100.0 , - ! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout ! 92,107 ! 47.9 , - , colspan=7, Source
City of Recklinghausen

City council

The Recklinghausen 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) , 16,078 , 37.0 , 0.6 , 21 , 2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Social Democratic Party (SPD) , 10,924 , 25.2 , 12.8 , 14 , 6 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) , 7,757 , 17.9 , 8.3 , 10 , 5 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

(AfD) , 2,861 , 6.6 , New , 4 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Left (Die Linke) , 1,867 , 4.3 , 1.7 , 2 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Free Democratic Party (FDP) , 1,561 , 3.6 , 0.4 , 2 , ±0 , - , , align=left, Independent Citizens' Party (UBP) , 1,477 , 3.4 , 3.4 , 2 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

, 614 , 1.4 , New , 1 , New , - , colspan=7 bgcolor=lightgrey, , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP) , 199 , 0.5 , New , 0 , New , - , , align=left, Party of Holistic Democracy (PHD) , 103 , 0.2 , New , 0 , New , - ! colspan=2, Valid votes ! 43,441 ! 98.4 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Invalid votes ! 687 ! 1.6 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Total ! 44,128 ! 100.0 ! ! 56 ! 4 , - ! colspan=2, Electorate/voter turnout ! 92,107 ! 47.9 ! 0.4 ! ! , - , colspan=7, Source
City of Recklinghausen

Twin towns – sister cities

Recklinghausen is twinned with: *

Acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

, Israel * Bytom, Poland *

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Western Netherlands, lo ...

, Netherlands *

Douai Douai ( , , ; ; ; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord (French department), Nord département in northern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe (rive ...

, France * Preston, England, United Kingdom * Schmalkalden, Germany

Notable people

* Louis Engelbert, 6th Duke of Arenberg (1750–1820), prince of Recklinghausen * Prosper Louis, 7th Duke of Arenberg (1785–1861), 2nd prince of Recklinghausen * Fritz Emil Irrgang (1890–1951), Nazi politician and storm trooper * Erich Bödeker (1904–1971), artist * Walter Giller (1927–2011), actor * Karl Ridderbusch (1932–1997), opera singer * Ursula Dirichs (born 1935), actress * Rosemarie Koczy (1939–2007), artist and teacher, concentration camp survivor * Klaus Schulten (1947–2016), biophysicist * Renate Künast (born 1955), politician ( Alliance 90/The Greens) * Ralf Möller (born 1959), actor * Ludger Pistor (born 1959), actor * Hape Kerkeling (born 1964), comedian and author * Steffen Brand (born 1965), runner * Martin Max (born 1968), footballer * Mark Dragunski (born 1970), handball player * Moguai (born 1973), DJ and producer * Frank Busemann (born 1975), decathlete * Thomas Godoj (born 1978), Polish-German singer, '' Deutschland sucht den Superstar'' winner * Nina Jazy (born 2005), swimmer * Ayliva (born 1998), singer

Mayors since 1809

;Bürgermeister * 1809–1833: Alois Joseph Wulff * 1833–1839: Peter Banniza * 1840–1842: Karl Boelmann * 1843–1850: Franz Bracht * 1854–1890: Friedrich Hagemann * 1890–1899: Alexander Rensing ;Oberbürgermeister * 1899–1904: Albert von Bruchhausen * 1904–1919: Peter Heuser * 1919–1931: Sulpiz Hamm * 1932–1939: Fritz Niemeyer * 1939–1945: Fritz Emil Irrgang, NSDAP * 1945–1946: Josef Hellermann, CDU * 1946–1948: Wilhelm Bitter, CDU * 1948–1952: Joseph Dünnebacke, CDU * 1952–1972: Heinrich Auge, SPD * 1972–1984: Erich Wolfram, SPD ;Bürgermeister * 1984–1987: Erich Wolfram, SPD * 1987–1998: Jochen Welt, SPD ;Hauptamtliche Bürgermeister * 1998–1999: Peter Borggraefe, SPD * 1999–2014: Wolfgang Pantförder, CDU * 2014–: Christoph Tesche, CDU

Gallery

Markt Recklinghausen.jpg, Central market Lohtor RE NOR.jpg, Lohtor Square with Saint Peter's Church and sculpture of Per Kirkeby AOK Recklinghausen.jpg, Former hospital in ''Westviertel'' Kunibertistraße Nr. 16 (ältestes Haus der Stadt).JPG, Half-timber houses in the city Palais Vest.JPG, The "Palais Vest" shopping mall Stadtmauer RE NOR.jpg, City wall from the Middle Ages

References

External links

Museums of Recklinghausen

''Corpus juris'' of the county of Recklinghausen
{{Authority control Cities in North Rhine-Westphalia Oil campaign of World War II