Recklinghausen () is a ''Kreis'' (

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 centre 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 inhab ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. It is surrounded by the neighbouring districts of Borken,

Coesfeld Coesfeld (; Westphalian: ''Koosfeld'') is the capital of the district of Coesfeld in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. History Coesfeld received its city rights in 1197, but was first recorded earlier than that in the biography of ...

Unna Unna is a city of around 59,000 people in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the seat of the Unna district. The newly refurbished Unna station has trains to all major cities in North Rhine Westphalia including Dortmund, Cologne, Münster, Hamm, D ...

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; wep, Gelsenkiärken) is the 25th most populous city of Germany and the 11th most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher River (a tributary of the Rhine), it li ...

, Bottrop, and Wesel. The district administration is located in the

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be de ...

of the same name. Apart from the Region Hannover, Kreis Recklinghausen is the largest non-city district in Germany by population.

History

During medieval times, the area surrounding present-day Recklinghausen was known as ''Vest'' Recklinghausen, a territory which belonged to the

Electorate of Cologne The Electorate of Cologne (german: Kurfürstentum Köln), sometimes referred to as Electoral Cologne (german: Kurköln, links=no), was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire that existed from the 10th to the early 19th centur ...

. From 1446 to 1576, this area was leased to the lordship of

Gemen Gemen was an immediate, sovereign lordship of the Holy Roman Empire, in the Lower Rhine region. Since Gemen had a vote in the Imperial Diet it was also an Imperial Estate. It was centered on Gemen, a small town and castle in the present municip ...

(now a part of the city Borken) and

Schaumburg-Lippe Schaumburg-Lippe, also Lippe-Schaumburg, was created as a county in 1647, became a principality in 1807, a free state in 1918, and was until 1946 a small state in Germany, located in the present day state of Lower Saxony, with its capital at Bück ...

. In 1811, the territory was added to the Grand Duchy of Berg, and in 1815 it became part of the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

Province of Westphalia The Province of Westphalia () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946. In turn, Prussia was the largest component state of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918, of the Weimar Republic and from 1 ...

. The district was created in 1816. After several changes it obtained its present borders with the last reorganizations of 1975–76. It is also one of the oldest districts located in Germany.

Geography

The district Recklinghausen is located at the north of the

Ruhr area The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , 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 2,800/k ...

with the urban parts of Ruhr area to the south and the rural ''Münsterland'' to the north. The Lippe River flows through the district.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms show a silver nettle leaf on green ground - the sign of the ''Herrlichkeit Lembeck'', an ''Amt'' (subdivision) in the clerical state of Münster. The black cross is the sign of the Bishops of Cologne who owned a big part of the district's area, the ''Vest'' Recklinghausen. The key inside the cross symbolizes

St. Peter ) (Simeon, Simon) , birth_date = , birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire , death_date = Between AD 64–68 , death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire , parents = John (or Jonah; Jona) , occupation ...

, the patron of

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

Towns and municipalities

Partner districts

* Wodzisław County,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

. * Landstinget Sörmland, Swedenhttp://www.kreis-re.de/Inhalte/Buergerservice/Zahlen_Daten_Fakten/_Partnerkreise.asp

References

External links

:
Official website

Official mapserver

Corpus juris of the county of Recklinghausen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Recklinghausen (District) Districts of North Rhine-Westphalia