Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia

Template:More citations needed Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox German location Herne (Template:IPA) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Ruhr area directly between the cities of Bochum, and Gelsenkirchen.

History

Herne (ancient Haranni)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> was a tiny village until the 19th century. When the mining of coal (and possibly ore) and the production of coke (the fuel processed from the harvested coal) and steel began, the villages of the Ruhr area had an influx of people, mostly from the east of Germany.

Herne is located on the direct axis between Bochum to the south and Recklinghausen to the north, with Münster in the north, Gelsenkirchen to the west, and Castrop-Rauxel and Dortmund to the east. The physical border between Herne and Recklinghausen is the bridge at the Bochumer Strasse across the Rhine–Herne Canal. A little further north of the canal flows the Emscher river, with the former abundance of wild horses that were caught in the Emscher Valley (Emschertal), then sold and/or traded at the yearly horse market at Crange, which later developed into the "Cranger Kirmes".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After World War II, Herne was known as "Die Goldene Stadt" ("The Golden City") because of the comparatively limited damage suffered during World War II.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

World War II

Herne was targeted by the Royal Air Force in June 1940, early in World War II, two residents died and there was minor property damage.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> The Krupp Treibstoffwerke oil refinery near the local Shamrock, ¾ of the coal mine, was bombed during the oil campaign of World War II.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On 31 March 1945, the Wehrmacht destroyed the bridges over the Rhine–Herne Canal and the Emscher and fighting occurred in the area. On April 9, 1945, American troops entered and occupied Herne. German forces had already been evacuated from the city the previous day.<ref name=":0" />

Present day

Present-day Herne includes the former settlements of Haranni, originating at the south end of the Bahnhofstrasse and just across the Evangelische Hauptkirche Herne (main Lutheran Church—seems to be called "Kreuzkirche" now) and the crossing of Sodingerstrasse, running to the east at that point, then turning into Wiescherstrasse; formerly independent settlements or villages like Baukau, Börnig, Crange, Horsthausen, Pöppinghausen, Sodingen, and others became the present Herne. These farms bearing these names were probably or possibly found in the 11th and 12th centuries. In 1860, the first of a number of coal mines started operating. In the following thirty years, the population increased twenty-fold. In 1975, Wanne-Eickel, by then a city with over 70,000 inhabitants, was incorporated into Herne, which had a population larger than "Wanne-Eickel" at that point in time.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Politics

Mayor

The current mayor of Herne is Frank Dudda of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2020. The most recent mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows:

Template:Election table ! colspan=2| Candidate ! Party ! Votes ! % |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Frank Dudda | align=left| Social Democratic Party | 30,758 | 63.4 |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Timon Radicke | align=left| Christian Democratic Union | 8,685 | 17.9 |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Pascal Krüger | align=left| Alliance 90/The Greens | 5,014 | 10.3 |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Daniel Kleibömer | align=left| The Left | 2,026 | 4.2 |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Thomas Bloch | align=left| Free Democratic Party | 2,025 | 4.2 |- ! colspan=3| Valid votes ! 48,508 ! 98.0 |- ! colspan=3| Invalid votes ! 980 ! 2.0 |- ! colspan=3| Total ! 49,488 ! 100.0 |- ! colspan=3| Electorate/voter turnout ! 119,462 ! 41.4 |- | colspan=5| Source: State Returning Officer |}

City council

Results of the 2020 city council election

The Herne 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:

Template:Election table ! colspan=2| Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Social Democratic Party (SPD) | 21,560 | 44.1 | Template:Decrease 0.6 | 28 | Template:Decrease 1 |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | 9,775 | 20.0 | Template:Decrease 5.9 | 12 | Template:Decrease 3 |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) | 7,723 | 15.8 | Template:Increase 6.5 | 10 | Template:Increase 4 |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Alternative for Germany (AfD) | 4,127 | 8.4 | Template:Increase 4.3 | 5 | Template:Increase 3 |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| The Left (Die Linke) | 1,980 | 4.1 | Template:Decrease 2.2 | 3 | Template:Decrease 1 |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Free Democratic Party (FDP) | 1,615 | 3.3 | Template:Increase 0.5 | 2 | ±0 |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Pirate Party Germany (Piraten) | 767 | 1.6 | Template:Decrease 1.1 | 1 | Template:Decrease 1 |- | | align=left| Independent Citizens Herne (UB Herne) | 804 | 1.6 | Template:Steady 0.0 | 1 | ±0 |- | colspan=7 bgcolor=lightgrey| |- | | align=left| Voters' Association Wanne-Herne (WWH) | 443 | 0.9 | New | 0 | New |- | bgcolor=Template:Party color| | align=left| Independents | 49 | 0.1 | – | 0 | – |- ! colspan=2| Valid votes ! 48,843 ! 98.6 ! ! ! |- ! colspan=2| Invalid votes ! 694 ! 1.4 ! ! ! |- ! colspan=2| Total ! 49, 537 ! 100.0 ! ! 62 ! Template:Increase 2 |- ! colspan=2| Electorate/voter turnout ! 119,462 ! 41.5 ! Template:Decrease 0.7 ! ! |- | colspan=7| Source: State Returning Officer |}

Gallery

• 
  Herne, church
• 
  Baukau, castle: Schloss Strünkede
• 
  Baukau, chapel: Schlosskapelle Strünkede

The largest communities of migrants:

Template:Flag	10,130
Template:Flag	2,139
Template:Flag	1,865
Template:Flag	1,140
Template:Flag	1,066
Template:Flag	792

Notable places

A fair called Cranger Kirmes is held in the city's Crange district every first week of August. This is the second largest-carnival in Germany, with an average of around 4.5 million visitors. Its origins can be traced back to the 15th century, when farmers started trading horses on Saint Lawrence's Day. The horse show and horse equipment sales were arranged at the same place where horses were traded years ago for tradition.

Notable people

Famous Hernians or Wanne-Eickelians include:

• Cigdem Akyol
• Yıldıray Baştürk
• Kurt Edelhagen
• Gudrun Heute-Bluhm
• Andrea Jürgens
• Jürgen von Manger, known as "Mr. Tegtmeier", Tegtmeiers Reisen
• Jürgen Marcus
• Bernd Storck
• Peavy Wagner
• Leonie Saint
• Bärbel Beuermann
• Gregor Willmes, musicologist
• Rudolf Witzig
• Jan Zweyer

Notable business

Template:Expand section Major industrial employers in Herne are Schwing (manufacturer of concrete pumps), Vulkan (couplings and connections for refrigeration and air conditioning) and the construction company Heitkamp.

Herne is the location of two renowned hospitals of supraregional importance, the Rheumazentrum Ruhrgebiet (rheumatology specialist clinic) with a center for rare diseases,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the Urology Clinic<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> at the Marien-Hospital, one of the leading clinics for tumor therapy, neuro-urology, uro-gynecology, andrology and incontinence therapy. Both clinics are affiliated with the Ruhr University Bochum.

Sports

Herne is home to several football clubs, including SC Westfalia Herne, DSC Wanne-Eickel and SV Sodingen. The city's soccer tradition is closely linked to the mining industry. The clubs celebrated their greatest successes in the 1950s.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Sister cities

Template:See also Herne is twinned with:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Div col

• Template:Flagicon Hénin-Beaumont, France (1954)
• Template:Flagicon Castleford, England, United Kingdom (1956)
• Template:Flagicon Altagracia, Nicaragua (1988)
• Template:Flagicon Moyogalpa, Nicaragua (1988)
• Template:Flagicon Belgorod, Russia (1990)
• Template:Flagicon Eisleben, Germany (1990)
• Template:Flagicon Konin, Poland (1991)
• Template:Flagicon Beşiktaş, Turkey (2016)
• Template:Flagicon Luzhou, China (2018)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

• Herne Notgeld (emergency banknotes) depicting the legend of "Der tolle Jost von Strünkede" webgerman.com/Notgeld/Directory/H/Herne.htm