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24-472: Witten is situated in the Ruhr valley, in the southern Ruhr area . Witten is divided into eight boroughs and each borough is further divided into two or more city-districts. Every district has its own district-number: Witten was first mentioned in historic sources in 1214, however the borough Herbede (which was incorporated into the city in 1975) dates back to 851. The city was a mining town from 1578. In 1946, it

48-597: A central station , connecting the city to the regional-train-network of Deutsche Bahn with direct connections to Hagen, Bochum, Essen, Siegen, Wuppertal, Düsseldorf, Aachen or Dortmund. Local service is carried out by the BOGESTRA , a joint venture between the cities of Bochum and Gelsenkirchen, to which most of the bus lines in Witten belong. There is a tram line connecting to Bochum . From mid-December on, there will be two tram lines, which will run in Witten (lines 309 and 310). When

72-561: A conservative list) with three, National Democratic Party two, and the PDS /WAL (socialists) and AUF Witten (a left wing list) with one each. From 2004 to 2020, for the first time in its history, the council was led by a female mayor: Sonja Leidemann (SPD). In the election of 2020 she lost her mandate to Lars König (CDU). The current mayor of Witten is Lars König of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The most recent mayoral election

96-654: A part of the Diocese of Paderborn ; however, the borough of Herbede belongs to the Diocese of Essen . In the 19th century the Ruhr area drew up to 500,000 Poles from East Prussia and Silesia , most of whom were Catholic. Hundreds settled in Witten, leading to a growth in the Catholic community. Today, between 30 and 40 per cent of the population is Catholic. In the 16th century Witten was influenced by Martin Luther 's Reformation , and until

120-721: The 2017 state election . Verena Schäffer of the Greens also ran in the constituency and was elected to the Landtag on her party's state list. In the Bundestag , Witten is part of the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis II constituency. Axel Echeverria of the SPD was elected as representative in the 2021 German federal election . Witten is connected to the Autobahn network by the A 43 and A 44 motorways. It has

144-657: The Ottonian emperors. From the mid-13th century, the Electorate of Cologne —not to be confused with the larger Archdiocese of Cologne—was one of the major ecclesiastical principalities of the Holy Roman Empire . The city of Cologne as such became a free city in 1288 and the archbishop eventually moved his residence from Cologne Cathedral to Bonn to avoid conflicts with the Free City, which escaped his jurisdiction. After 1795,

168-546: The Rhine . The source of the Ruhr is near the town of Winterberg in the mountainous Sauerland region, at an elevation of approximately 670 metres (2,200 ft). It flows into the lower Rhine at an elevation of only 17 metres (56 ft) in the municipal area of Duisburg . Its total length is 219 km (136 mi), its average discharge is 79 cubic metres per second (2,800 cu ft/s) at Mülheim near its mouth. Thus, its discharge is, for example, comparable to that of

192-643: The Ruhr are (from source to mouth): Archdiocese of Cologne The Archdiocese of Cologne ( Latin : Archidioecesis Coloniensis ; German : Erzbistum Köln ) is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church in western North Rhine-Westphalia and northern Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany . At an early date Christianity came to Cologne with the Roman soldiers and traders. According to Irenaeus of Lyons , it

216-511: The archbishopric's territories on the left bank of the Rhine were occupied by France , and were formally annexed in 1801. The Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803 secularized the rest of the archbishopric, giving the Duchy of Westphalia to the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt . As an ecclesial government, however, the archdiocese remained (more or less) intact: while she lost the left bank including

240-649: The archdiocese regained Cologne and the right bank of the Rhine (though with a new circumscription reflecting the Prussian subdivisions) and, in 1824, an archbishop was established there again. It remains an archdiocese to the present day, considered the most important one of Germany. Cologne, the largest (in terms of inhabitants non-Catholics included) and reportedly richest diocese in Europe, announced in October 2013 that "in connection with

264-482: The current discussion about Church finances" that its archbishop had reserves amounting to 166.2 million Euro in 2012. It said the 9.6 million Euro earnings from its investments were, as in previous years, added to the diocesan budget of 939 million Euro in 2012, three-quarters of which was financed by the "church tax" levied on churchgoers. In 2015 the archdiocese for the first time published its financial accounts, which show assets worth more than £2bn. Documents posted on

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288-610: The dams on the Ruhr, the Möhne Dam and the Sorpe Dam were targets for Operation Chastise , in which special "bouncing bombs" were developed to take out the dams and flood the valley, with the hope of seriously affecting the German industries there. The story was told in a 1951 book and the popular 1955 film made from it, The Dam Busters . There are five Ruhr reservoirs on the river, often used for leisure activities. The main tributaries of

312-420: The episcopal city itself, Cologne, to the new Diocese of Aachen established under Napoleon's auspices, there still remained a substantial amount of territory on the right bank of the Rhine. After the death of the last Elector-Archbishop in 1801, the see was vacant for 23 years, being governed by vicar capitular Johann Herrmann Joseph v. Caspars zu Weiss and, after his death, by Johann Wilhelm Schmitz. In 1821,

336-621: The founders of the town of Witten. Their slogan was: "Sigillum Hermanni de Wittene" . Because of its long history this coat of arms was the only one in the Ruhr area, that was not forbidden by the Allies in May 1945, after the end of the Second World War . Witten is twinned with: When Witten was first mentioned in historical documents, it was part of the Archdiocese of Cologne . Since 1821 it has been

360-431: The late 19th century, Witten was a predominantly Protestant town with just a few Catholic inhabitants. Between 30 and 40 per cent of the population is Protestant today. There are four mosques in Witten, Annen and Herbede today, founded by immigrants from Turkey who arrived in the 1970s and 1980s. Between five and eight per cent of the population is Muslim. In 1815 the first Jewish community was mentioned in Witten. In 1938

384-568: The new track to Langendreer is completed (September 2020), the tram lines will ride to the station of Bochum-Langendreer (309) or to Wattenscheid-Höntrop via Bochum main station (310). Public transport in the city is carried out according to the fare system of the VRR transport association. The coat of arms of Witten with its two lions once belong to the Everhards von Witten-Steinhausen and was first mentioned in 1283. The family of Witten-Steinhausen belongs to

408-578: The river Ems in Northern Germany or the River Thames in the United Kingdom . The Ruhr first passes the towns of Meschede , Arnsberg , Wickede , Fröndenberg , Holzwickede , Iserlohn , and Schwerte . Then the river marks the southern limit of the Ruhr area , passing Hagen , Dortmund , Herdecke , Wetter , Witten , Bochum , Hattingen , Essen , Mülheim , and Duisburg . The Ruhr area

432-458: The services of the bishops to the Merovingian kings, the city was to have been the metropolitan see of Saint Boniface , but Mainz was chosen, for unknown reasons, and Cologne did not become an archbishopric until the time of Charlemagne . The city suffered heavily from Viking invasions , especially in the autumn of 881, but recovered quickly from these calamities, especially during the reign of

456-529: The synagogue was destroyed during the so-called " Reichspogromnacht " (also known as Kristallnacht ) of 9–10 November 1938. Today, only about a dozen Jews live in Witten. They belong to the Jewish community in Dortmund . Since 1994 the place of the former synagogue is marked with a memorial. Ruhr (river) The Ruhr is a river in western Germany ( North Rhine-Westphalia ), a right tributary (east-side) of

480-506: Was Germany's primary industrial area during the early- to mid-20th century. Most factories were located there. The occupation of the Ruhr from 1923 to 1924 by French forces, due to the Weimar Republic 's failure to continue paying reparations from World War I , provoked passive resistance , which saw production in the factories grind to a halt. As a result, the German hyperinflation crisis grew even worse. During World War II , two of

504-514: Was a bishop's see as early as the second century. However, Saint Maternus , a contemporary of Constantine I , is the first historically certain bishop of Cologne. As a result of its favourable situation, the city survived the stormy period around the fall of the Western Roman Empire . When the Franks took possession of the country in the fifth century, it became a royal residence. On account of

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528-587: Was held on 13 September 2020, with a runoff held on 27 September, and the results were as follows: The Witten 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: In the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia , Witten is part of the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis II constituency. Nadja Büteführ of the SPD was elected as representative in

552-578: Was included in North Rhine-Westphalia on its establishment. In 1975 Witten was included in the administrative district Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis and it is now its biggest city. 1975 was also the year Witten was first counted to have more than 100,000 inhabitants, the threshold to be considered a large city ("Großstadt") in Germany. In the late 19th century Witten was known for the Roburit dynamite. This dynamite

576-647: Was once used by coal mines around the world. In 1906 an explosion occurred, resulting in the deaths of 41 people. In the local elections of 2004 the Social Democratic Party (SPD) was the largest party on the council with 24 seats. It was followed by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) with 18 and the Alliance 90/The Greens with 7, the WBG (a conservative lis) and Free Democrats with four each, FLW (also

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