Bochum

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coat of arms Germany map
Coat of arms of the city of Bochum
Bochum
Map of Germany, position of the city of Bochum highlighted

Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′  N , 7 ° 13 ′  E

Basic data
State : North Rhine-Westphalia
Administrative region : Arnsberg
Height : 100 m above sea level NHN
Area : 145.66 km 2
Residents: 365,587 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density : 2510 inhabitants per km 2
Postcodes : 44787-44894
Primaries : 0234, 02327
License plate : BO, WAT
Community key : 05 9 11 000
LOCODE : DE BOM
NUTS : DEA51
City structure: 6 boroughs

City administration address : 		Willy-Brandt-Platz 2-6
44787 Bochum
Website : www.bochum.de
Lord Mayor : Thomas Eiskirch ( SPD )
Location of the city of Bochum in North Rhine-Westphalia
Niederlande Belgien Niedersachsen Rheinland-Pfalz Hessen Essen Wuppertal Solingen Remscheid Hagen Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis Bochum Dortmund Herne Gelsenkirchen Bottrop Oberhausen Mülheim an der Ruhr Duisburg Kreis Mettmann Düsseldorf Rhein-Kreis Neuss Kreis Heinsberg Mönchengladbach Krefeld Kreis Viersen Kreis Wesel Kreis Kleve Rhein-Erft-Kreis Kreis Düren Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis Oberbergischer Kreis Kreis Recklinghausen Kreis Borken Kreis Unna Märkischer Kreis Kreis Olpe Hamm Kreis Soest Kreis Coesfeld Kreis Steinfurt Kreis Warendorf Leverkusen Köln Städteregion Aachen Bonn Rhein-Sieg-Kreis Städteregion Aachen Kreis Euskirchen Münster Kreis Siegen-Wittgenstein Hochsauerlandkreis Kreis Paderborn Kreis Gütersloh Kreis Höxter Kreis Lippe Kreis Herford Kreis Minden-Lübbecke Bielefeldmap
About this picture

The city of Bochum [ ˈboːxʊm ] ( Westphalian : Baukem from Old Saxon Boc-hem [ 'bo: khe: m ]) is a large city in the center of the Ruhr area . The name of the city was derived from earlier Low German names such as Bukhem or Bokheim , where boc is the Low German word for beech and hum or hem stands for home. Accordingly, the name referred to a place of residence under Buchen and can now also be translated as "Buchenheim".

The independent city in the administrative district of Arnsberg is, along with Duisburg , Essen , Dortmund and Hagen, one of the five regional centers of the Ruhr area and belongs to the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region . With about 370,000 inhabitants, Bochum is the sixth largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia , the second largest city in Westphalia and one of the 20 largest cities in Germany . Bochum is a member of the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association and the Ruhr Regional Association . The city's population exceeded the 100,000 mark in 1905 and made Bochum a major city . With the incorporation of the previously independent city of Wattenscheid (around 72,000 inhabitants), the city grew significantly in 1975.

There are nine universities or branches of universities in Bochum. Since the formation of the southern district Querenburg located Ruhr University in 1962, the first university start-up in the Federal Republic of Germany after the Second World War and with over 40,000 students one of the largest universities in Germany, Bochum's university town . Are nationally known beyond the German Mining Museum , the Drama Theater , the Planetarium , the Railway Museum , the Bermuda3eck , the Ruhrstadion as a venue of VfL Bochum , Zoo and Fossilium and the longest-running in the same location musical in the world, Starlight Express . The cityscape is characterized, among other things, by a church tower and high-rise skyline as well as various architectural monuments , especially from historicism , expressionism and post-war modernism . The industrial monuments of the city are connected to one another on the route of industrial culture "in the heart of the district" .

There are also various mining institutions in Bochum. The Bochumer Verein wrote industrial history from 1842 when the company succeeded in casting steel into molds. The company's first product was bells made from this material. A bell weighing 15,000  kg in front of the Bochum town hall commemorates this era. After the end of mining, Bochum developed primarily into a technology and service location.

geography

Geographical location

View of the center of Bochum from the Bismarck tower in the city ​​park
Part of the Bochum skyline with the Exzenterhaus , Stadtwerke- Haus, Park-Inn-Hotelhochhaus and Europahaus
Aerial view of the Ruhr University

Bochum lies on the hilly "Bochumer Land Ridge" as part of the Ruhr heights between the rivers Ruhr and Emscher on the border between the southern and northern Ruhr coal zone. The highest point in the urban area is on Kemnader Straße in Stiepel at an altitude of 196  m above sea level. NN , the lowest point at 43  m above sea level. NN is at the Blumenkamp in Hordel .

Flat hilly land ridge means that the shape of the terrain in Bochum is characterized by steady inclines and slopes, which are rarely more than 3%. Individual steeper terrain courses are, for example, on Harpener Hellweg near the NSG Berghofer Holz (3.4%), on Westenfelder Str. In the Wattenscheid district (3.47%) or on Kemnader Str., Which runs from the Ruhr bank in Stiepel ( 71  m above sea level). NN ) up to the center of Stiepel ( 196  m above sea level ; 5.1% gradient). Even stretches that lead from the lower Ruhr valley through the places belonging to the south of Bochum have a steeper gradient (for example Kassenberger Str. And Dr.-C.-Otto-Str. In Dahlhausen , Blankensteiner Str. In Sundern ).

The largest expansion of the urban area in north-south direction is 13.0 km and in west-east direction 17.1 km. The length of the city limits is 67.2 km.

geology

In the southern urban area there are sedimentary rocks of the seam-bearing Upper Carboniferous. These are superimposed in the north by marine deposits of the Upper Cretaceous . The inland ice of the Saale Ice Age left a ground moraine, erratic boulders and meltwater deposits. In the Weichselian was loess deposited. The geological layers can be viewed in the former Klosterbusch colliery quarry and in the Bochum Geological Garden .

Waters

The waters in Bochum drain to the north into the Emscher , to the south into the Ruhr , which is dammed in the south-east of Bochum to the Kemnader See .

vegetation

Bochum has some forests in the south, including the Weitmarer Holz . As a rule, it is a mixed oak-beech forest . The presence of the holly indicates the temperate climate. There are several nature and landscape protection areas in Bochum.

Neighboring communities

Gelsenkirchen ( district ) Herne ( independent ) Castrop-Rauxel ( Recklinghausen district )
Food ( independent ) Neighboring communities Dortmund ( district )
Hattingen ( Ennepe-Ruhr district ) Witten ( Ennepe-Ruhr district )

City structure

The six districts of Bochum

The urban area of ​​Bochum consists of six urban districts ; each has a district council , the chairman of which is the district mayor . The city districts are divided into districts .

Borough Districts
Bochum-center (I) Bochum city center , Altenbochum , Grumme , Hamme , Hofstede , Hordel , Riemke
Bochum-Wattenscheid (II) Eppendorf , Günnigfeld , Höntrop , Leithe , Munscheid , Sevinghausen , Wattenscheid- Mitte, Westenfeld
Bochum-North (III) Bergen , Gerthe , Harpen , Hiltrop , Kornharpen , Voede branch
Bochum East (IV) Laer , Langendreer , Werne
Bochum-South (V) Querenburg , Stiepel , Wiemelhausen
Bochum-Southwest (VI) Dahlhausen , Linden , Sundern , Weitmar ( Bärendorf , Mark and Mitte )

climate

The average annual temperature in Bochum is 10.1 ° C. The coldest month is January with 2.5 ° C, the warmest July with 18.4 ° C. The amount of precipitation is approx. 750 millimeters per year, with most of the precipitation falling 85 millimeters in August.

Bochum
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.
 
 
88
 
6th
1
 
 
84
 
8th
2
 
 
71
 
10
3
 
 
43
 
15th
6th
 
 
51
 
19th
10
 
 
77
 
23
13
 
 
50
 
25th
15th
 
 
88
 
24
14th
 
 
71
 
20th
11
 
 
63
 
15th
8th
 
 
87
 
10
4th
 
 
93
 
8th
4th
Temperature in ° C ,  precipitation in mm
Source: DWD, data: 2015–2020
Monthly average temperatures and precipitation for Bochum
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 5.6 7.5 10.3 14.7 19.0 22.7 24.7 23.6 19.6 14.6 9.5 7.8 O 15th
Min. Temperature (° C) 1.2 1.7 3.3 5.7 9.5 13.3 14.6 14.3 11.3 8.3 4.4 3.7 O 7.6
Precipitation ( mm ) 88 84 71 43 51 77 50 88 71 63 87 93 Σ 866
Hours of sunshine ( h / d ) 1.5 1.6 4.0 5.2 6.0 6.2 7.0 6.2 4.9 3.7 2.1 1.3 O 4.2
Rainy days ( d ) 21st 16 17th 14th 13 15th 13 16 15th 16 19th 20th Σ 195
Humidity ( % ) 85 80 77 72 70 73 73 74 79 81 84 85 O 77.7
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
5.6
1.2
7.5
1.7
10.3
3.3
14.7
5.7
19.0
9.5
22.7
13.3
24.7
14.6
23.6
14.3
19.6
11.3
14.6
8.3
9.5
4.4
7.8
3.7
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
N
i
e
d
e
r
s
c
h
l
a
g 		88
84
71
43
51
77
50
88
71
63
87
93
  Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Source: DWD, data: 2015–2020

Environmental zone

The environmental zone in Bochum was set up on October 1st, 2008 and changed on January 1st, 2012. It currently comprises 3 ⁄ 4 of all households in the city.

history

Bochum 1790
Bochum around 1830
View over Bochum in 1939
Bochum 2010
Bond for 200 marks from the city of Bochum from April 1, 1913
The Bochum Lion Monument

Archaeological finds testify to a settled settlement of today's Bochum city area in the late Neolithic in the area of ​​the Oelbach .

The first written reference is found in 890 lifting registers of Werden Abbey . It is assumed, however, that Charlemagne had an imperial court built around 800 at the intersection of two trade routes south of today's provost church. In 1041 the place was mentioned in a document from the Archbishops of Cologne under the name "Cofbuokheim". In 1321, Count Engelbert II of the Mark Bochum confirmed existing powers of the mayor in a document . This is often referred to as granting city ​​rights . The von Berswordt family, which has existed in several lines from 1400 until today, is based in Weitmar with the branch line of Berswordt-Wallrabe . Bochum remained (despite a coal mining or open-cast mining documented as early as the 14th century or for 1502) into the 19th century an arable town with several regional authorities, to which a mining authority was added in 1738 . Bochum was also an inland Hanseatic city .

Until 1806 the city belonged to the Prussian county of Mark , then until 1813 to the Ruhr department of the Grand Duchy of Berg , then temporarily to the Prussian civil government between the Weser and the Rhine . In 1815 the city came to Prussia and was assigned to the province of Westphalia . In 1817 the city of Bochum became the seat of the Bochum district , from which it left in 1876 to become an independent city . The Bochum district existed until 1929 and was then dissolved.

Bochum's ascent to a mining town began in 1841 when the first shaft of the Zeche President was sunk behind the city limits of the still independent Hamme . This was the first civil engineering mine in the Westphalian part of the Ruhr area , whereby the marl cover was pierced. In the 1850s and 1860s, civil engineering mines were founded, which at the end of the 19th century shaped the economic structure alongside the steel industry . Technical difficulties in the construction of the mines and the resulting financial bottlenecks meant that the mines developed slowly. Furthermore, the economic crisis after the establishment of the empire caused the sales markets for coal to collapse at times. The decisive rise and further expansion of the mines followed in the 1880s. All mines now had a rail connection. The coal refined as coke was needed for steel production; this led to the establishment of coking plants on the colliery grounds.

Jacob Mayer acquired a site on Essener Chaussee in 1843 on which a factory for the production of cast steel was built. In 1854, after the financial participation of Cologne merchants, the company was renamed the Bochum Association for Mining and Cast Steel Manufacture . Under the technical director Louis Baare , the Bochumer Verein developed into one of the leading companies in the Ruhr area .

In 1843 Max Greve was elected mayor, who significantly supported the development of Bochum into an industrial city. During his tenure, the gas works (1855), the water works (1871) and the Chamber of Commerce (1856) were founded. The economic rise of the mines and the steel industry led to a high demand for labor that could not be met by the population at the time. The population of Bochum grew from 1843 to 1873 from 4282 to 25174 inhabitants. In order to attract workers, apartments were created close to the factory that were away from the traditional living areas. The company apartments of the Bochumer Verein were located in Griesenbruch, separated from the Bochum urban area by the cast steel railway.

In 1860, Bochum was connected to the Witten / Dortmund – Oberhausen / Duisburg railway operated by the Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft ; in 1874, the Osterath – Dortmund Süd railway operated by the Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft , both of which were nationalized in 1880.

Bochum's growth at the end of the 19th century took place without any overarching planning, and so no regular infrastructure could develop for the time being . Industrial settlements and company apartments were built at the colliery sites, while the established farms around the industrial sites continued to farm. The northern and eastern suburbs ( Langendreer , Werne , Riemke , Hofstede ) had the strongest population growth .

The first tram line went into operation in 1894, connecting Bochum and Herne . The route has been operated by Bochum-Gelsenkirchener Straßenbahnen AG (BoGeStra) since 1896 .

At the end of the 19th century, the development of the neighboring suburbs had extended to the Bochum city area, and dependencies in the infrastructure such as the gas and water supply developed. This led to the first wave of incorporation, in which Hamme , Hofstede , Grumme and Wiemelhausen were added to the city of Bochum. In 1905 the population of the city exceeded the limit of 100,000 - Bochum was a big city. Bochum's inner city had a very heterogeneous structure that was still strongly influenced by its time as a small town. A uniform design of the city center and a planned expansion of the Ehrenfeld district took place until the outbreak of the First World War .

The consequences of the war - unemployment, strikes, the French occupation , the devaluation of money - interrupted further growth. An economic upturn followed in the years 1925 to 1929. During this time, further suburbs were added to the Bochum city area (including Riemke , Langendreer , Stiepel , Querenburg ). The urban area now extended to the northern Ruhr valley. However, Bochum's request to establish access to the economically important Rhine-Herne Canal in the city was not granted.

On November 9, 1938, during the so-called Reichspogromnacht , there were also riots against Jewish citizens in Bochum; the synagogue was set on fire. The first Jewish citizens were deported to concentration camps and numerous Jewish facilities and apartments were destroyed. About 500 Jewish citizens are known by name who perished in the Shoah in the following years , including 19 who were younger than 16 years old. In December 1938, the Jewish elementary school teacher Else Hirsch began organizing a total of ten child transports to the Netherlands and Great Britain to save Jewish children and young people. Many Bochum children from other persecuted groups were also taken in by Dutch families and thus saved from being abducted and murdered.

During the Second World War, more than 30,000 people were used as slave labor in Bochum and Wattenscheid as part of the Nazi forced labor .

During the Second World War , 38 percent of the city was destroyed by bombing . From June 20, 1940 to March 22, 1945, 46 different bombings, mainly by the Royal Air Force , dropped a total of around 11,595 tonnes of bombs. An important goal among others was the Bochumer Verein as the third largest company of the United Steelworks AG . Even today, aerial bombs are repeatedly found as bomb duds and have to be defused by the ordnance disposal service.

On April 10, 1945, the US Army finally occupied Bochum. Elsewhere in Germany, the war continued until the beginning of May. The Second World War finally ended on May 8th with the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht .

After the end of the Second World War, Bochum belonged to the British zone of occupation . The British military administration set up two DP camps in Bochum to accommodate so-called displaced persons . The majority of them were former forced laborers from Poland .

In the post-war period, Bochum developed into a cultural center in the Ruhr area . Opened in 1962, including on the former colliery site of the Zeche Dannebaum that Adam Opel AG , a subsidiary of General Motors , in the districts of Laer and Langendreer the three Opel plants ( Plant I , works II / III ), which became a symbol for the structural change in Ruhr area were.

In 1964, the second “ green meadow ” shopping center in the Federal Republic of Germany, the Ruhr Park , was completed in the Harpen district , today the largest of its kind in Germany. In 1973 the last Bochum colliery ( Hannover colliery ) closed. In addition to extensive industrial zones, large green areas, some of which appear almost rural, were created that extend to the Ruhr and the Kemnader reservoir (released in 1980). In 1979 the first light rail line and the Ruhr Stadium were opened.

Bochum has been a theater town since 1919 and a university town since 1965 ( Ruhr University with over 40,000 students), and since 1988 also a town of musicals. The German-language musical production Starlight Express by Andrew Lloyd Webber opened on June 12, 1988 at the Stadionring.

In 1989, the U 35 light rail line from Bochum Hauptbahnhof to Herne- Schloss Strünkede began operations. In 1993 the cities of Bochum, Hattingen , Herne and Witten merged to form the Middle Ruhr Area . In 2003 the RuhrCongress event center was inaugurated. In 2005 the foundation stone was laid for the new synagogue of the Jewish community in Bochum – Herne – Hattingen.

In 2000, the break of day at Höntroper Loch was the dominant theme in the national media for weeks, which literally left several residential buildings on the brink of abyss overnight.

Since the financial crisis in 2008, the Bochum site had to struggle with the closure of the Nokia factory and the imminent closure of Opel vehicle production, which finally took place at the end of 2014. The elimination of vehicle production alone cost around 3,000 employees.

Incorporations

The phases of incorporation into the Bochum urban area

Population development

Population development in Bochum from 1871 to 2017

In 1904, the population of the city of Bochum exceeded the limit of 100,000, making it a major city . By 1926, that number had doubled to 200,000. On January 1, 1975, the population reached its historical high of 417,336 through the incorporation of the city of Wattenscheid (81,469 inhabitants, 1974). On December 31, 2015, the " official number of inhabitants " for Bochum was 364,742 (only main residences and after comparison with the other state offices) according to an update by the State Office for Information and Technology North Rhine-Westphalia in the state database of North Rhine-Westphalia go back.

The unemployment rate in Bochum was 8.9 percent as of June 30, 2018 and thus above the national average in North Rhine-Westphalia (6.7 percent in June 2018).

Religions

Denomination statistics

Cistercian monastery
Bochum-Stiepel
Propstei St. Peter and Paul
Christ Church

As of December 31, 2018, of the 370,797 inhabitants, 103,228 (27.8%) were Protestant, 108,114 (29.2%) were Catholic and 159,385 (43.0%) belonged to another or no denomination. A year earlier, 28.3% of the 371,582 inhabitants were Protestant, 29.7% Catholic and 42.0% belonged to another or no denomination or religion. In 1990, 42.1% of the population were Protestant and 39.4% Catholic. The long-term development since 1990 shows that the proportion of the population who belongs to another or no denomination or religion is continuously increasing and in 2009, at 33.8%, was for the first time larger than the proportion of the population with an Evangelical or Catholic denomination.

Christianity

Roman Catholic Church

Bochum has belonged to the Archdiocese of Cologne since it was founded and was subordinate to the Archdeaconate of the Cologne Cathedral Provost. The Reformation gained a foothold around 1570 . But it was not until 1613 when the Lutheran congregation separated from the Catholic congregation. From 1634 onwards, a reformed parish was established. The city was then predominantly Protestant, but there were always Catholics who continued to belong to the Archdiocese of Cologne. In 1821 it was assigned to the diocese or archdiocese of Paderborn . Bochum became the seat of a deanery, which was later divided into the deaneries Bochum-Mitte, Bochum-Süd and Bochum-Ost. From August 31 to September 4, 1949, the 73rd German Catholic Day took place in Bochum under the motto “Justice creates peace”. In 1958, Bochum was incorporated into the newly founded diocese of Essen . One of the oldest foundations in the Ruhr area is the parish in the Stiepel district (first mentioned in 885 AD) with its widely known and only Marian pilgrimage site in the diocese of Essen. Stiepel developed into a much-visited place of pilgrimage, which was confirmed in 1294 by a decree of Pope Boniface VIII . Every year around 70,000 pilgrims visit the Stiepel pilgrimage church of St. Mary with the miraculous image of the "Sorrowful Mother", which belongs to the area of ​​the " Stiepel Monastery " built by the Cistercians . Today the parishes of Bochum belong to the city dean of Bochum and Wattenscheid.

Restructuring of the diocese of Essen

On September 1, 2008, according to the plans of the Bishop of Essen, all Bochum parishes including the original parish of St. Peter and Paul were dissolved. There are now four large parishes and one monastery parish in the urban area:

  • St. Peter and Paul (for the city center, Ehrenfeld, Hamme, Hordel, Hofstede, Riemke and Grumme districts)
  • Liebfrauen, Bochum (for the districts of Altenbochum, Langendreer, Laer, Werne, Gerthe, Harpen and Hiltrop)
  • St. Franziskus, Weitmar (for the districts of Weitmar, Linden, Dahlhausen, Wiemelhausen, Querenburg, Hustadt and Steinkuhl)
  • St. Gertrud (for all of Wattenscheid)

For the complete overview of the parish churches, branch churches and other churches:
→ see also Diocese of Essen .

The Cistercian monastery parish of St. Marien in Stiepel will remain as an independent parish and will not be incorporated into the new structure of the Essen diocese .

In 2015, 113,657 Bochumers were registered as Catholics. Around 9800 Catholics (9%) attended the services in one of the 41 Catholic churches in Bochum. In 2018, 108,184 Bochumers were registered as Catholics.

Protestant church

The Protestant communities in Bochum came with the transition of the city to Prussia to the Evangelical Church in Prussia or its Westphalian provincial church . Bochum became the seat of a superintendent , from which today's church district Bochum emerged within the Evangelical Church of Westphalia . This includes a total of 22 Protestant parishes within the city of Bochum. As a result of King Friedrich-Wilhelm III. Union decreed by Prussia between the Lutheran Church and the Reformed tradition to form the United Evangelical Church in Prussia in 1817, the Evangelical Lutheran (Old Lutheran) Church was created in rejection of this union . To this day there are two Evangelical Lutheran parishes in Bochum, the Kreuzkirche parish and the Epiphany parish. Both parishes belonged to the Westphalia church district of the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church . In Bochum and beyond, the Epiphany Church is known as the Ruhr Autobahn Church.

In 2015, 90,795 Bochumers belonged to the Protestant Church. The number had decreased by 1898 compared to 2014.

Free churches and other Christian communities

In addition to the Protestant and Roman Catholic communities in Bochum, there are also various Protestant Free Churches , including the Church in Pott, the Ecclesia Christian Community , the Evangelical Free Church Congregations ( Baptists ), Free Evangelical Churches , the Seventh-day Adventists , the Church of God and the Jesus freaks . The New Apostolic Church and the Christian Community as well as Jehovah's Witnesses are also represented in Bochum.

Judaism

The construction of the Bochum synagogue and the Bochum planetarium
New Synagogue Bochum

Before it was destroyed in 1938, the Bochum synagogue was located near the Bochum town hall. The number of Jewish citizens in Bochum fell from over 1,352 members in 1932 during the Nazi era to 33 after the end of World War II.

On November 14, 2005, in the presence of the chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany , Paul Spiegel , the foundation stone for the New Bochum Synagogue of the Bochum-Herne-Hattingen Jewish Community was laid on Castroper Strasse next to the Zeiss Planetarium in Bochum . In addition to a current daily newspaper , Mayor Ottilie Scholz laid a silver city bar as a reminder of the day in the official cornerstone . The synagogue was inaugurated on December 16, 2007. In 2014, the Bochum- Herne - Hattingen community had 1,065 members. Most of them immigrated from the states of the former Soviet Union.

Islam

Because of the labor migration in the 1960s, many Muslim families settled in Bochum. In 2012, around 30,000 Muslims lived in Bochum.

In 2009, the Bochum Mosques Working Group was founded . This is an amalgamation of all communities in Bochum and pursues the goal of realizing joint projects in order to be of help to the Muslim residents as well as a better mouthpiece in society. 9 mosques are represented in the association. The Alevis are organized in the Alevi Cultural Association.

Buddhism

In 2013 the Thai community in Bochum inaugurated the Buddhist temple "Wat Buddhabharami" on Hannoverstrasse.

Yezidism

In 2016 a community for was Yazidis called "community of Yezidis" established; it is located at Alte Wittener Straße 13.

politics

Bochum town hall

historical development

At first the head of the city was the Count's town councilor of the County of Mark . But there is evidence of a council since 1321, to which two mayors and six councilors ("council friends") belonged. The mayors were elected annually until 1744. From 1731 there was a “word-keeping mayor” who had the overall management of the city and a second mayor who was responsible for police matters and the market. There were also three senators, for construction and housing, for fire and for finance. Between 1714 and 1765 the council was appointed by the Prussian government. Then he was re-elected. In French time was a mayor , from 1815 a mayor at the top of the city. In 1843 the mayor's office in the city was separated and the revised city ​​regulations were introduced.

During the time of the National Socialists , the Lord Mayor (OB) was appointed by the NSDAP . Bochum became the administrative seat of the NS-Gau Westfalen-Süd. After the Second World War , the military government of the British Zone of Occupation installed a new OB and in 1946 it introduced the local constitution based on the British model. Then there was a popularly elected “City Council”, whose members were called “City Councilors”. The council initially elected the mayor from among its members as chairman and representative of the city, who was active on a voluntary basis. Furthermore, from 1946 the council also elected a full-time senior city director as head of the city administration. In 1994 the dual leadership in the city administration was given up. Since then there has only been a full-time mayor. He is chairman of the council, head of the city administration and representative of the city. Together with the city director, the city treasurer and four other department heads, he forms the administrative board of the city of Bochum. He was elected directly by the people for the first time in 1999.

City leaders

mayor

Lord Mayor

Senior City Directors

City council

Election of the Bochum City Council in 2014
in percent
 %
40
30th
20th
10
0
38.7%
25.7%
12.8%
6.3%
3.5%
2.8%
2.5%
2.1%
5.6%
Gains and losses
compared to 2004
 % p
   4th
   2
   0
  -2
  -4
  -6
-0.2  % p
-1.7  % p
+ 0.4  % p
-0.6  % p
+ 3.5  % p
-4.9  % p
-1.0  % p
+ 2.1  % p.p.
+1.7  % p
Allocation of seats in the
Bochum City Council 2014
          
A total of 84 seats

Since 2014 , 9 parties and 4 groups of voters have been represented in Bochum's city council. Five parties initially achieved parliamentary group status, the representatives of the FDP and STADTGESTALTER N merged in August 2015 to form the “FDP & Die STADTGESTALTER” parliamentary group. After the Pirate Council disbanded in April 2015, there is no more council group in the Bochum Council. Both council members elected for the pirates resigned from the party. One member joined the Greens. After a council member of the Left Party had switched to the UWG voter community, the UWG also achieved parliamentary group status. A council member left the SPD and joined the FDP / Stadtgestalter faction. Thus the Council currently has 7 political groups. 6 Council members do not belong to any parliamentary group or group. The city council currently has 84 members.

Allocation of seats in the city council by parliamentary group (as of July 2016)
SPD CDU GREEN THE LEFT FDP / STG UWG AfD Non-attached total
31 22nd 12 4th 4th 3 3 5 84
FDP 3
STG 1		 Non- party 1
Free Citizen Bochum 1
per NRW 1
NPD 1
SOCIAL 1

The SPD and the Greens form a coalition in the 2014–2020 electoral period. They are thus continuing their joint work from the last electoral term.

In the past election periods, the seats in the city council were distributed as follows:

Bochum City Council: Voter share and city councils since 1994
Electoral term CDU SPD Alliance 90 / The Greens FDP UWG The left Social List Bochum NPD AfD Pirates Free citizens Pro NRW STG advice
XII: 1994-1999 29.4% 22nd 50.5% 38 12.6% 9 1.7% - 69
XIII: 1999-2004 40.5% 27 41.3% 27 10.6% 7th 2.9% 2 4.5% 3 66
XIV: 2004-2009 32.3% 25th 40.9% 31 12.0% 9 4.3% 3 4.2% 3 3.4% 3 2.8% 2 76
XV: 2009-2014 27.4% 22nd 38.9% 32 12.4% 10 7.7% 6th 3.5% 3 6.9% 6th 2.1% 2 1.0% 1 82
XVI: 2014-2019 25.7% 22nd 38.7% 32 12.8% 11 2.8% 2 2.5% 2 6.3% 5 0.9% 1 0.9% 1 3.5% 3 2.1% 2 1.6% 1 1.3% 1 1.1% 1 84

MPs

Carina Gödecke ( SPD ), Karsten Rudolph (SPD) and Serdar Yüksel (SPD) sit for Bochum in the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia , in the German Bundestag the Bundestag constituency Bochum I is represented by Axel Schäfer (SPD) and the Bundestag constituency Herne - Bochum II by Michelle Müntefering (SPD) represented.

Indebtedness

The total debt of the City of Bochum at the end of 2012 was 2.341 billion euros. Every inhabitant was arithmetically in debt with 6471 euros. In 2017, the total loans amounting to 1.79 billion euros resulted in a per capita debt of almost 5,000 euros.

coat of arms

Flag of Bochum
Official coat of arms of the city of Bochum since 1975
Coat of arms of the city of Bochum until 1975

The coat of arms of the city of Bochum is one in three rows white-red in blue geschachten beams, Brandenburg chess bar , topped with a standing black book with golden section, silver embossed cover and ornate silver two black Close. The city colors are blue and white. Today's coat of arms was adopted after the city was recently enlarged in 1975, with the red and white bar coming from the old Wattenscheid coat of arms .

The previously used coat of arms only showed the book without the white and red bar. It was crowned by a city ​​wall . This coat of arms was officially established in 1913 and confirmed by the main statute of the city in 1953 , whereby it can already be seen in the seal impressions from the 14th century. The origin of the book as a coat of arms symbol is not known. It was sometimes referred to as the “talking coat of arms” because it was assumed that the city name Bochum came from the word book. However, this could not be confirmed. In fact, it was probably the beech forests surrounding Bochum that gave the city its name.

City partnerships and city sponsorships

Bochum has twinning partnerships with the following cities :

United KingdomUnited Kingdom Sheffield ( United Kingdom ), since 1950
SpainSpain Oviedo ( Spain ), since 1980
UkraineUkraine Donetsk ( Ukraine ), since 1987
GermanyGermany Nordhausen ( Germany ), since 1990
JapanJapan Tsukuba (Ibaraki) ( Japan ), since November 2019
China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Xuzhou ( People's Republic of China ), since 1994 (business-related city partnership)
ItalyItaly Lecco ( Italy ), since 2009 (cooperation agreement)

Bochum is also the sponsor city of the former Neidenburg district in former East Prussia and the city of Neidenburg in Poland .

From 1990 to 2013, Lufthansa’s Boeing 747-400 with the registration D-ABVD carried the baptismal name Bochum all over the world. A Lufthansa Airbus A350 -941 with the registration D-AIXF has been baptized in the name of the city since the end of 2017 . Since 2003, carries the ICE railcar of Deutsche Bahn the name of Bochum .

Culture and sights

Bochum and the Ruhr area were successful under the title RUHR.2010 in 2010 as European Capital of Culture.

In the run-up to the event , the 22nd award ceremony of the European Film Prize - the so-called "European Oscars" - took place on December 12, 2009 in Bochum's Jahrhunderthalle , framed by a European film festival .

theatre

Schauspielhaus Bochum
The Starlight Express Theater

Bochum has more than 20 drama centers ( comedy Bochum , Constantin Music Theater, The Magic Box, German Forum for Figure Theater and Puppetry , Puppetry College , Freilichtbühne Wattenscheid, Centennial Hall , Arts Center of the Ruhr-University Bochum , Prinzregententheater , Rottstraße 5 Theater , neighborhood store Rainbow , RuhrCongress Bochum , Schauspielhaus Bochum , Stadthalle Wattenscheid, Starlight Express , Kulturhaus Thealozzi , Theater der Gezeiten, Theater Thespis, Theater Total , Varieté Et cetera, Volksbühne im Saalbau Spitz, Waldbühne Höntrop, Zeitmaultheater ).

  • The Schauspielhaus Bochum is one of the most renowned theaters for spoken theater in Germany. The municipal theater opened in 1915 in a former variety theater built in 1908. During the First World War , the city stage from Düsseldorf made a guest appearance there . With its own ensemble since 1919, the theater made a name for itself as a Shakespeare stage. In World War II almost completely destroyed, was built on the old foundations to 1954 today's Playhouse, which is also notable architectural (Architect: Gerhard Graubner ). The Schauspielhaus Bochum is famous not least because of its directors:
  1. Saladin Schmitt (1919–1949)
  2. Hans Schalla (1949–1972)
  3. Peter Zadek (1972–1979)
  4. Claus Peymann (1979–1986)
  5. Frank-Patrick Steckel (1986–1995)
  6. Leander Haussmann (1995-2000)
  7. Matthias Hartmann (2000-2005)
  8. Elmar Goerden (2005-2010)
  9. Anselm Weber (2010-2017)
  10. Olaf Kröck (2017-2018, interim director)
  11. Johan Simons (from mid-2018)

Museums and collections

German Mining Museum
Bochum Art Museum

The city of Bochum is home to over twelve museums: the farmhouse museum at Haus Kemnade , the German Mining Museum , the Bochum-Dahlhausen Railway Museum , the Helfs Hof local history museum , art collections and antiquities museum of the Ruhr University , the medical history collection of the Ruhr University Bochum , the Bochum Museum - art collection , school museum , situation art (Museum underground), telephone Museum , Hannover colliery (coal mine with tots), brewery Museum Fiege , museum Eppendorf .

Museum Bochum - Art Collection : The museum was opened in 1960 in the Villa Marckhoff. In 1983, a new building by the Danish architects Bo and Wohlert was expanded. The collection includes German art after 1945 and international art from the 20th century. The museum is located opposite the main southern entrance to Bochum City Park .

German Mining Museum : The Mining Museum was founded in 1930 by the Westfälische Berggewerkschaftskasse and the city of Bochum. It is also the center of mining history research in Germany . The headframe above the museum, which was moved from Dortmund's “Germania” colliery to this location in 1974, has become a landmark of the city that can be seen from afar . Visitors have the opportunity to take a look over the city from two viewing platforms (50 m and 62 m high). Numerous objects from mining history are exhibited in 20 halls. Under the museum there is an exhibition mine at a depth between 17 and 22 m. The technology of hard coal and iron ore mining up to the most recent times is presented over a distance of 2.5 km.

Langendreer Heimatstube : This collection on the history of the aforementioned eastern Bochum district is located in the basement of the administrative building in Langendreer . The collection founders Friedhelm Vielstich and Heinz-Richard Gräfe provide an overview of the historical development of “their” district with a large number of photos, documents, flags, uniforms and other exhibits from different eras.

Railway Museum Bochum : The Railway Museum Bochum in Dahlhausen is one of the largest museums of its kind in Germany. The vehicle collection includes more than 120 rail vehicles from the period from 1853 to the present. These exhibits give visitors a comprehensive overview of the development of locomotives and wagons on German railways. In addition to important and trend-setting types of locomotives, striking passenger and freight cars are also preserved for posterity. Many of the exhibits are considered to be rarities, as they were rarely saved from scrapping or as the only surviving specimen.

Artist documentation center

The Schlieker House pays tribute to the life and work of the Informel artist Hans-Jürgen Schlieker (1924–2004).

music

Founded in 1919 Orchestra of the city of Bochum, the Bochum Symphony Orchestra , have developed throughout its history as one of the most important concert orchestras in western Germany. The Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr has been a permanent venue since October 28, 2016. Steven Sloane has been the orchestra's general music director since 1994 . The Bochum Philharmonic Choir gives around four to five concerts a year and usually performs together with the Bochum Symphony Orchestra. In one of the venues, the Audimax of the Ruhr University Bochum , there is also one of the most modern organs from the Klais organ manufacture with 82 registers.

The free rock festival Bochum Total has been taking place in downtown Bochum since 1986 . It is now one of the largest music events in Europe with 900,000 spectators.

Groupings

Solo artist

movie theater

Capitol cinema

There are ten cinemas in Bochum, including:

Buildings and sights

The 15,000 kg cast steel bell in front of Bochum's town hall
  • Bochum Town Hall - Construction of the town hall began in 1926. The foundation stone was laid in 1927 and the opening on May 20, 1931. The building has a largely symmetrical floor plan. The hall building with side courtyards on both sides lies in the symmetry axis of the council courtyard. The outside is kept simple and the entrance portal and the two-story porch on the right front are the only decorative elements of the facade. The base of the building is made of hard granite stone , shell limestone was used for the facade and slate for the roof . Marble , bronze and dark wood paneling were used in the corridors and state rooms. The construction of the town hall cost the then large sum of 9.25 million Reichsmarks . Other elements of the courtyard are the bell tower and the travertine and bronze fountains. One is dedicated to Fortuna and is decorated with symbolic putti: wedding ring and slipper stand for marital happiness, the apple symbolizes fertility, the empty wallet optimism and soap bubbles the illusion. The carillon consists of 28 cast steel bells with a total weight of 2300 kilograms, each between 375 and 4 kilograms. It is the first carillon in the world made from cast steel. The bell in front of the town hall was the largest of four bells and was an attraction at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1867. It was cast by the Bochumer Verein für Bergbau und Gussstahlfabrikation AG. It stood as a memorial on the factory premises until 1979. The Krupp company transferred them to the city in 1979. With a diameter of 3.13 meters, it weighs 15,000 kilograms. Since it was damaged in World War II, it can no longer be rung.
Terminal - sculpture by Richard Serra at the main train station
  • Propsteikirche St. Peter and Paul - The Propsteikirche is the oldest church in Bochum. Between 785 and 800, an imperial court was laid out on the site by Emperor Charlemagne and has since been rebuilt several times. Inside the provost church, numerous works of art from different eras can be seen. The Romanesque baptismal font from around 1175, the reliquary of Saint Perpetua and her slave Felicitas and the high altar with its figure of Christ from 1352 should be emphasized.
  • Pauluskirche - After the Reformation, Protestants and Catholics initially shared the only church in Bochum, today's Catholic Provost Church, for a long time and not always by mutual agreement. In 1655 the Lutheran congregation began building its own house of worship. The simple Renaissance building was built until 1659 with donations from Holland , Sweden , Courland and Denmark . The Pauluskirche got its name only after 1874, when the Christ Church at the town hall was built. The Pauluskirche burned down to the outer walls as a result of a bomb attack on June 12, 1943, but was rebuilt in a simplified form after the war, giving it its present-day appearance, more like a medieval village church. In order to make the Pauluskirche more effective in the cityscape, its tower was raised in 1949, a small square was created and the buildings in the immediate vicinity were kept low. The modern windows in the chancel, created around 1960 by the Bochum artist K. Willy Heyer, show the three stages of Saul's transformation into Paul, the church's namesake. In 1974 the interior was redesigned again according to plans by Kurt Peter Kremer .
  • The memorial of peace next to the church, the so-called »Mourning Old Woman«, was made by the Cologne sculptor Gerhard Marcks . It is intended to commemorate the horrors of World War II and the bombing raid on Bochum on November 4, 1944. The monument was unveiled in 1955 and is carved from basalt lava. It depicts an old woman who - probably in vain - is looking for someone.
Ezenterhaus and Universitätsstrasse
  • Christ Church Bochum - The Christ Church (built 1877–1878) was destroyed in the Second World War except for the tower. The architect Dieter Oesterlen added a modern new church building in the 1950s. Since the tower was rededicated as a war hero's memorial hall after the First World War , it remained closed for decades. With the redesign of the forecourt to the »Place of the European Promise«, a conceptual work of art by Jochen Gerz , opened in December 2015 , the tower was reopened to the public as a memorial.
  • Marienkirche - With its approximately 70 meter high neo-Gothic pointed helmet, the church, built from 1868 to 1872, dominates the city expansion to the west, which is immediately adjacent to the city center. By October 28, 2016, it wasconverted and integrated intothe Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr for the Bochum Symphony Orchestra.
Zeiss planetarium
  • Zeiss Planetarium Bochum - The planetarium, which was built from 1962 to 1964 according to plans by Karl-Heinz Schwarze as head of the building construction department at the time, is located on Castroper Straße in Bochum. The building has a diameter of around 20 meters and a projection area of ​​around 600 m². The heart of the system is the planetary . The first device of this type in Europe went into service in April 2000 in Bochum. The planetarium offers several different programs, also especially for school classes.
Observatory, the "Cape Kaminski"
  • Bochum Observatory - The observatory in the Sundern district , popularly known as "Kap Kaminski" in reference to the founding professor Heinz Kaminski, offers the opportunity to observe the stars on Fridays between 7:30 pm and 9:30 pm. Numerous telescopes are available for this. Inside the radome is the 20 m parabolic antenna and changing exhibitions.
  • Centennial Hall - The “Centennial Hall” was built as an exhibition hall for the Bochum Association for the Düsseldorf trade exhibition in 1902 and then reused as a blower machine hall for the Bochum Association's blast furnaces. It has been expanded several times, the name Jahrhunderthalle today describes the entire building, which extends over an area of ​​8900 m². Since its renovation, the hall has been used for events such as the Ruhrtriennale or for symphonic concerts. It is now the center of the newly created Westpark . The Westpark was opened in the first construction phase in 1999. The parliamentary groups represented in the council discussed for a long time whether the city of Bochum could financially afford the construction of a concert hall for the Bochum Symphony Orchestra based on a design by Thomas van den Valentyn in the immediate vicinity of the Jahrhunderthalle. On October 28, 2008, the Bochum City Council decided in a special meeting to build a new concert hall: Construction work on the “Bochum Symphony” on Marienplatz in the immediate vicinity of the inner-city Marienkirche will start in May 2009 at the latest and will take place in the Capital of Culture year 2010 its completion. Even Herbert Grönemeyer organized specially for donations akquise a live charity concert with the Bochum Symphony Orchestra in Bochum's Ruhrstadion .
Cowherd memorial on Bongardstrasse
  • Cowherd memorial - The memorial between the Propsteikirche St. Peter and Paul and Pauluskirche shows Fritz Kortebusch with his dog, the last cowherd of Bochum, who drove the cattle of the citizens to the Vöde (urban pastureland). The original figure from 1908 was melted down during World War II. In 1962 a new version was made. →  see also Fritz Kortebusch.
Wasserburg Haus Kemnade on Lake Kemnader
  • Kemnader See - This reservoir on the Ruhr is mainly used for water management and local recreation. There are numerous leisure facilities and attractions around the lake. The leisure pool Heveney, the StrandDeck Kemnade, a beach volleyball hall, a golf course and a sailing harbor are at the beginning of the lake. A 12 km long skater circuit around the lake was officially opened in 2014. Clubs use the lake for fishing, they also issue guest cards. The fish population ranges from eel to bream, carp, roach and pikeperch. The passenger ships MS Kemnade and MS Schwalbe II operate on the lake and the Ruhr. Also worth seeing near the weir is the Haus Kemnade moated castle in Renaissance and Baroque styles, which houses two museums .
  • Stiepeler Dorfkirche - A small hall church was built around 1008. The construction was arranged by Countess Imma von Stiepel, a relative of Emperor Heinrich II and Empress Kunigunde . Between 1130 and 1170 the old church was replaced by a Romanesque basilica . The tower and the central and transepts of this church are still preserved today. From 1150 to 1200, numerous Romanesque wall and ceiling paintings were made in the interior of the church.
  • Cistercian monastery and pilgrimage church of St. Marien - One of the oldest foundations in the Ruhr area is the parish in the Stiepel district (first mentioned in 885 AD) with its widely known and only Marien pilgrimage site in the diocese of Essen. Stiepel developed into a much-visited place of pilgrimage, which was confirmed in 1294 by a decree of Pope Boniface VIII. On the route from Weitmar towards Hattingen, the Cistercian monastery is visible to the eye at the entrance to Stiepel on the right. In its center rises the parish and pilgrimage church of St. Marien with the miraculous image of the "Sorrowful Mother of Stiepel". The church is framed by the monastery buildings, a pilgrimage center, the “monastery courtyard”, a restaurant set up for pilgrimages and the towering trees in the outdoor area. Every year around 40,000 pilgrims visit the pilgrimage church belonging to the area of ​​the Cistercian monastery.
  • Ruhr-Park - The Ruhr-Park in the district of Harpen was opened in November 1964 and expanded in several construction phases to currently around 126,000 m². It was the first shopping center of its kind in Germany.
  • Ruhrstadion - The Ruhrstadion is the home of VfL Bochum , which was built between March 1976 and July 1979 and inaugurated with a game against SG Wattenscheid 09. The stadium has 27,599 spectators, of which 15,574 seats.
  • Bochum Railway Museum - The Railway Museum is located on the site of the former Bochum-Dahlhausen railway depot. The facility was built in 1916–1918. At the end of the 1960s, coal mining in the southern Ruhr area became unprofitable and the mines closed, thus reducing rail operations in this area, so the depot became superfluous. It was closed on August 1, 1969 as an independent office and partially dismantled. The freight car repairs were stopped in 1982. The German Society for Railway History e. V. was able to gradually restore the facilities to their operational state from 1968 onwards and build the museum in its current form.
The main entrance to the cemetery
  • Main cemetery Freigrafendamm - The in the district Altenbochum lying cemetery is the largest in the city. It was horticultural planned in the 1920s , the buildings in the entrance area were not erected until between 1935 and 1939. The entrance gate, the large and the small mourning hall and the crematorium most clearly reflect the architectural style of National Socialism . During the Second World War , the regime used the building as a backdrop for the central funeral services for the Bochum residents who perished in the bombing war . In addition to the civilian population and a number of German soldiers , a total of 1720 forced laborers from the former Soviet Union , who were primarily employed in the armaments industry during the war , were buried in the cemetery . Today a memorial in Latin and Cyrillic script commemorates them .
  • Rudolf Steiner School Bochum , 1965. The building in Langendreer is the first school building in Europe to be built in the style of organic architecture . It was designed in the early 1960s by the architect Werner Seyfert and the artist Wilfried Ogilvie. On the basis of this experience, the architect developed further Waldorf schools with differently shaped classrooms, depending on the age of the students. An approach that to this day is only used in this pedagogy.
  • Of the originally six most important public buildings in the eastern city center, which were planned during the reconstruction after the Second World War, only the main train station (1955 to 1957, architect Heinz Ruhl) and the Stadtwerkehochhaus (1952 to 1955, architect Ferdinand Keilmann) remain ), the vocational school for boys (1953 to 1954) and the administration and business academy (1952 to 1955, also by F. Keilmann). In contrast, the Stadtbad Bochum, contrary to the previously existing monument protection, was demolished in 1998; A few years earlier, the employment office, which was part of the overall urban planning , had already been removed in favor of a new hotel.

Sports

Driver field of the Sparkassen Giro Bochum at the main station

Bochum has supra-regional importance in sport, among other things through the soccer teams of VfL Bochum and SG Wattenscheid 09 . While VfL has played consistently in the first or second Bundesliga since 1971 , the first men's team in the sports community, which had been relegated from the top division in the 2006/07 season, while the women had been promoted to the first division in the same season , will stop playing on October 23, 2019. In the meantime, the SG Wattenscheid 09 women's team has been incorporated into VfL Bochum for financial reasons. In addition to football, VfL Bochum operates the following sports: badminton , basketball , fencing ( Fecht- und Sportgemeinschaft Ruhr Wattenscheid ), handball , hockey , athletics , swimming , dance , tennis , table tennis , gymnastics and volleyball .

In addition, Bochum is thanks to the German master in Steeldart, DSC Bochum , the multiple German master in billiards, DBC Bochum , the handball players from Teutonia Riemke , the basketball players from VfL AstroStars Bochum and TV Gerthe, the twelve-time German champions and multiple German cup winners in Women's water polo from Blau-Weiß Bochum , the athletes and gymnasts from TV Wattenscheid 01 as well as the Bochum Cadets (men), Bochum Rebels (men & youth) and Bochum Miners (women) who are successful in American football . In addition, Bochum has a German champion in 2007 and two European champions in 2008 (Kickerliga Bochum) in table football (P4P Rookie). Bochum is home to the Linden-Dahlhauser swimming club in 1921 . The dance sports clubs Ruhr-Casino Bochum and Dance-TournamentClub Rot-Weiß-Silber Bochum are also located here. The biannual tournament with combat robots of the German-Roboteers-Association eV in the Bochum Lakers' skater hall attracts nationwide attention.

Since July 2019 there has been a disc golf course in the Volkspark Langendreer in Bochum , which is carried out by LFC Laer.

Gastronomy / going out

Konrad-Adenauer-Platz (KAP) at the Handelshof in the inner-city gastronomy district Bermuda3eck

The Bermuda3eck is the most important pub center in the Ruhr area with 60 restaurants. Over three million guests visit the pub mile in downtown Bochum every year, up to 30,000 guests per day in summer. Big events like the Bochum Total Festival , which takes place on the first weekend of the North Rhine-Westphalian summer holidays, attract up to 400,000 visitors every day. Furthermore, every district has its old-established restaurants, pubs and cafes.

Bochum is the location of numerous clubs, discos and cultural institutions, for example the Zeche Bochum and the Matrix Bochum , the Prater , the SAMS, the cultural center Bahnhof-Langendreer or one of the largest discos in the Ruhr area for gay men, the Stargate.

The city's red light district is located on the western edge of the city center near the production facilities of the Bochumer Verein . The facilities bear popularly more or less crude terms such as "cucumber" , "egg mountain" or "belt rolling mill" .

Regular events

Bochum culinary
Pedestrian zone in the city center with a replica of the " turntable "
  • March / April: Bochum Organ Days (start: Easter Monday)
  • April: May evening party
  • May: Puppet Theater of Nations
  • May: Steam Festival at the Zeche Hannover (every two years)
  • June: RUBissimo - summer festival of the Ruhr University (the day before Corpus Christi)
  • June: Ruhr area amateur theater meeting
  • June: Kemnade international
  • June: ExtraSchicht - the night of industrial culture (throughout the Ruhr area)
  • June / July: From anne Castroper (VfL Bochum summer party)
  • July: Bochum Total (from 2015 on the first weekend in July)
  • July / August: Stadtparkfest (family festival on the last weekend of the summer holidays in North Rhine-Westphalia )
  • July / August: Sparkassen Giro Bochum (two weeks after completing the Tour de France )
  • July / August: Bochum culinary (often on the last weekend of the summer holidays in North Rhine-Westphalia)
  • August: Bochum Music Summer
  • September: Open Flair (international cabaret and street theater)
  • October: October market
  • October / November: Bochum Bach Days
  • October / November: Ruhr area second-hand bookshop day
  • November: Children's and Youth Theater Days
  • December: Christmas market

Economy and Infrastructure

In 2016, Bochum achieved, within the city limits, a gross domestic product of € 11.892 billion, placing it 30th in the ranking of German cities by economic output . In the same year, GDP per capita was € 32,596 (North Rhine-Westphalia: € 37,416 / Germany € 38,180). In 2016 there were around 184,000 gainfully employed people in the city. The unemployment rate in December 2018 was 8.1% and thus well above the average for North Rhine-Westphalia of 6.4%.

traffic

Rail / public transport

Route network of the tram Bochum / Gelsenkirchen
The listed Bochum main station

The city is connected to the surrounding cities via numerous railway connections and has a total of ten train stations or stops. Six regional train and regional express lines (RE1, RE6, RE11, RE16, RB40, RB46) and two S-Bahn lines (S1, S3) operate . The main train station is the only regular Bochum train station ICE - and IC -Stop the on the railway line Dortmund-Duisburg traffic lines. There is also local public transport. In the city there is a mostly underground tram line ( U35 from Bochum-Hustadt to Herne Schloss Strünkede) as well as seven tram lines , which also run underground in the city center. Numerous bus routes are operated by Bochum-Gelsenkirchener Straßenbahnen AG (BOGESTRA) as part of the Rhine-Ruhr Transport Association (VRR) .

Street

The three federal motorways A 40 ( Dortmund - Venlo ), A 43 ( Münster - Wuppertal ), and the A 448 , as well as a motorway-like expressway, the Bochumer Ring or the former NS 7 run through the city of Bochum . In addition, three federal highways cross the city : the B 51 ( Osnabrück - Bochum - Trier ), the B 226 ( Hagen - Bochum - Gelsenkirchen ) and the B 235 ( Datteln - Bochum - Witten ).

A connection between the A 44 and A 40 via the former NS 7, the so-called Opel-Spange, is to follow. According to current planning, the corresponding section of the Bochumer Ring will be upgraded to the 448 federal motorway . In addition, the A 40 to Essen is to be expanded to six lanes. These plans have been decided since the 1990s, originally to ensure a better connection of the Opel plant 1 in the Laer district to the transport network. Today, the focus is on improving the east-west transit through the Ruhr area.

The Ruhr cycle route also leads through Bochum.

City without a port

As one of the few cities in the Ruhr area , Bochum is not on a federal waterway ; the closest access is on the Rhine-Herne Canal in Herne to the north . In the south, the Ruhr forms the Bochum city limits. Until the middle of the 19th century, it was one of the busiest rivers in Europe and was mainly used to remove coal. Apart from the excursion traffic with the Schwalbe II and other day excursion ships, shipping has long been discontinued.

air traffic

The nearest airports are in Dortmund (31 km) and Düsseldorf (47 km). There are direct connections to Düsseldorf Airport via ICE , IC , RE and S-Bahn lines. Other airports in the area are the Cologne / Bonn airport , the Niederrhein Airport , the Münster / Osnabrück airport and the Paderborn / Lippstadt Airport .

Moritz Fiege private brewery
Vonovia headquarters

Established businesses

GLS Bank, head office

media

Newspapers

The Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) appears with its own local edition. The Ruhr Nachrichten (RN) closed its Bochum local section on October 31, 2014. Since then, the Dortmund edition has been published in Bochum. In addition, the free advertising paper “ Stadtspiegel ” appears on Wednesdays and Saturdays . In addition, there are various free district magazines, for example “VorOrt” (for Weitmar / Eppendorf, Linden / Dahlhausen, Altenbochum / Wiemelhausen), the “Stiepeler Boten” and the “Ehrenfelder”. The free “ Langendreerer Dorfpostille ”, which was launched in 1981 in the course of socio-cultural magazine founding (1976 “Peephole” later renamed “ Prinz ”, 1978 “ Marabo ”, 1982 “Terminal”, 1983 “ coolibri ”), has a unique position . It still realizes its original concept of a political counter-public in relation to a limited local area. The oldest, continuously appearing student newspaper in the German-speaking region, the Bochumer Stadt- & Studentenzeitung (: bsz) , is published at the Ruhr University Bochum .

Radio

" Radio Bochum ", formerly "Ruhrwelle Bochum", has been broadcasting a local radio program in cooperation with Radio NRW from Oberhausen since 1990 . The editor-in-chief is Andrea Donat. Michael Ragsch is responsible for sports. The moderators of the morning show are Anuschka Fritzsche and Ansgar Borgmann. Football reporter Günther Pohl (“Tooor im Ruhrstadion”) has achieved cult status. The station started under the name Ruhrwelle, later it was renamed Radio 98.5. It has been called 98.5 Radio Bochum since February 24, 2006.

Since 1997, " CT das radio " has been broadcasting a local radio program on the frequency of 90 MHz. It is the radio of the Bochum universities and was the first campus radio on its own frequency in NRW. Before that, "Radio ct" was a program element in the Ruhrwelle community radio .

Online newspapers and blogs

My Bochum deals almost exclusively with local politics, while Bo-Alternativ also takes up cultural issues. Bochumschau.de publishes weekly films about current events and stories from Bochum. There is also another “city portal” with ja-zu-bochum.de , which is mainly aimed at a student audience. The non-commercial project bo-alternativ has been providing information on cultural, social and political life in Bochum since October 1999. Ruhrbarone has been reporting from the area since 2007 and has had a print edition since 2010. The sports editorial office of westline.de also offers extensive and daily reporting on VfL Bochum.

Bochum in film and television

Bochum offers very different motifs for filming throughout the city, which is why countless productions have been shot in Bochum so far, both television series, series and feature films, as well as feature films.

Films include Sönke Wortmann's multi-award-winning production Das Wunder von Bern with Peter Lohmeyer (filmed in the Railway Museum Bochum , among others ), A Poet in the Family with Tana Schanzara and Ernst Stötzner , Das Blaue vom Himmel with Hannelore Elsner , Juliane Köhler and David Kross , Berlin 36 with Karoline Herfurth and Thomas Thieme (including the Bochum town hall served as the “House of Sports” in the film), Renn, if you can with Robert Gwisdek and Everyone dies for himself alone with Emma Thompson , Brendan Gleeson and Daniel Brühl (including filming in the courtyards of the town hall ). In the film Arbeitsfalle (filmed in Westpark and in workers' estates, among other places ), the plot also takes place in an imaginary washing machine factory in Bochum.

One of the motivators for television films is Dieter Wedel's four-parter The Great Bellheim with Mario Adorf , Will Quadflieg and Leslie Malton , for which the Kortum department store in downtown FuZo Kortumstraße was used as the location .

“Tatort Bochum”: currently two crime series flicker across the television screen with the setting Bochum and the surrounding area: Einstein for Sat.1 and Heldt for ZDF . In 2014 Haferkamp and Koslowski also worked for Das Erste . Two real police officers should also be mentioned: the nationwide known police officers Toto & Harry are present as a documentary series on Sat.1.

The UCI cinema chain, which has its headquarters in Bochum , likes to use its multiplex cinema in Bochum's Ruhrpark shopping center as a premiere cinema . The movie Not My Day with Moritz Bleibtreu , Anna Mühe and Ralf Richter had its world premiere here. The Ruhr area comedy Bang Boom Bang has been shown permanently as a cult film in the cinema mentioned since it was released in 1999.

In December 2009, the international film world looked to Bochum when the European Film Prize was awarded in the Jahrhunderthalle to the greatest public and international star cast .

Something is also being done locally for the next generation: the drama school Bochum , formerly attached to the still very renowned Schauspielhaus Bochum , now a degree course at the Folkwang University, has had well-known graduates since it was founded, who play in theaters across Germany and are prominent in Film and television are busy. New rooms are currently being built for the drama school in the former Thürmer Hall near the main train station. Since 2011 Bochum has also been the only location of a training facility of the SAE Institute in the Ruhr area.

The Bochum Office for Economic Development works as a location scout and helps film productions quickly and easily with filming permits and infrastructure.

With the " look -filmfestival of the Ruhr" also one of the renowned German are Film Festival in Bochum home.

The nationwide TV learning channel nrwision bundles TV programs about Bochum or from TV makers from Bochum in its media library.

Public facilities

District Directorate Bochum
BG RCI
Ruhr Area Library Foundation

Healthcare

Several hospitals are in the city center, while others are in the former parishes and current neighborhoods. Some of them belong to the University Clinic of the Ruhr University Bochum, which emerged in 2008 from the former Bochum model .

The city of Bochum has been strongly committed to the development of the healthcare industry for several years . An essential aspect here is the development of the Bochum health campus, which is divided into the health campus NRW with various facilities of the state of NRW and the health campus Bochum as a business park. The GesundheitsCampus Bochum agency aims to strengthen the Bochum health sector and offer companies the best possible framework for developing and implementing innovative care solutions.

Main building of the THGA Bochum

Colleges

View of the Ruhr-University of the southern district Stiepel from
Bochum University

The following nine universities are located in Bochum:

schools

In Bochum there are 42 primary schools , 7 special schools , various secondary schools and 6 vocational schools ( vocational colleges ). Around 7,000 students are currently being taught at the Bochum Music School .

Personalities

The list of personalities of the city of Bochum contains the names of the sons and daughters of the city as well as other people who are connected with Bochum.

The list of honorary citizens of Bochum describes the 13 people who have been made honorary citizens since 1846 .

See also

literature

  • Steffen Pätzold: Bochum. Small town history , Pustet, Regensburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-7917-2929-9 .
  • Uli Auffermann : Bochum city walking guide: 20 tours. Wartberg Verlag, April 2013, ISBN 978-3-8313-2334-0
  • Uli Auffermann: Our childhood in Bochum. Grew up in the 60s & 70s. Wartberg Verlag, March 2008, ISBN 978-3-8313-1846-9
  • Axel Schäfer, Norbert Konegen, Hans H. Hanke (eds.): Discovering Bochum. 20 city tours through history and the present . Klartext, Essen 2010, ISBN 978-3-89861-735-2
  • Ludger Tewes : Middle Ages in the Ruhr area settlement on the Westphalian Hellweg between Essen and Dortmund , Verlag Schöningh, Paderborn 1997, ISBN 3-506-79152-4
  • Westphalian city book. Volume III / 2 (= partial volume from "German City Book. Handbook of Urban History - On behalf of the Working Group of the Historical Commissions and with the support of the German Association of Cities, the German Association of Cities and the German Association of Municipalities", edited by Erich Keyser). Stuttgart 1954
  • Outline of the German administrative history 1815-1945 , ed. by Walther Hubatsch, Volume 8: Westphalia. Marburg an der Lahn, 1980.
  • Tobias Haucke, Timo Rieg (eds.): Bochum local round - know, guess, won: 1080 quiz questions . Bochum 2002, ISBN 3-928781-99-5
  • Thorsten Klagges: Bochum: Despite cholera, war and crises. A little illustrated city history . 2000, ISBN 3-89570-696-5
  • Johannes V. Wagner, Monika Wiborni (ed.): Bochum . 2003, ISBN 3-8313-1036-X
  • Th. Sprenger, H. Schmitz (Ed.): Bochum, star of the Ruhr area . ISBN 3-922785-79-4
  • Tobias Haucke, Robert Gorny: Bochum scene change - pictures and memories from 5 decades of city history . 2003, ISBN 3-928781-90-1
  • Irmtraud-Dietlinde Wolcke: The development of the Bochum city center (= publications of the Geographical Institute of the University of Kiel; Vol. 28, H. 1, 1968 see also http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/volltexte/2009/5568/ .)
  • Westphalian city atlas ; Volume: VIII; 1 part volume. On behalf of the Historical Commission for Westphalia and with the support of the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe, ed. by Heinz Stoob † and Wilfried Ehbrecht.
  • Heinrich Schoppmeyer: City folder Bochum . Dortmund-Altenbecken 2004, ISBN 3-89115-168-3
  • Bochum acquaintances - portraits: Volume 1 (2002, with Dariusz Wosz , Frank Goosen , Christof Wackernagel , Dietrich Grönemeyer ) ISBN 3-928781-81-2 , Volume 2 (2003, with Armin Rohde , Hennes Bender ) ISBN 3-928781- 82-0 , Volume 3 (2004, with Hugo Ernst Buyer , Chris Hopkins ) ISBN 3-928781-83-9
  • Norbert Kozicki: Departure in the area. 1968 and the aftermath . Essen 1993, ISBN 3-88474-063-6
  • The architectural and art monuments of Westphalia. Volume 17: Bochum City . Schoeningh, Münster 1906 online in the Internet Archive .
  • Bochum - data and facts for the economy 2010 , city of Bochum / economic development, PDF on the website of the city of Bochum .
  • Irmtraud Dietlinde Wolcke-Renk: The development of the Bochum city center. Kiel: self-rel. d. Geographer. Inst., 1968; Writings of the Geographical Institute of the University of Kiel; Vol. 28, H. 1; Zugl. Kiel, Univ., Diss., 1966 University Library Frankfurt / M

Web links

 Wikinews: Bochum  - in the news
Wiktionary: Bochum  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Bochum  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Bochum  - sources and full texts
Wikiquote: Bochum  - Quotes
Wikivoyage: Bochum  - travel guide

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Population of the municipalities of North Rhine-Westphalia on December 31, 2019 - update of the population based on the census of May 9, 2011. State Office for Information and Technology North Rhine-Westphalia (IT.NRW), accessed on June 17, 2020 .  ( Help on this )
  2. ↑ 1000Answers »Where does the name" Bochum "come from? ( Memento from July 27, 2015 in the web archive archive.today )
  3. ↑ Why is Bochum actually called Bochum? And what does the name have to do with the coat of arms? DerWesten , accessed February 22, 2019.
  4. ↑ Press office of the city of Bochum: The most important figures on Bochum's population. Retrieved February 17, 2020 .
  5. ^ Benedikt Müller: Bochum: Where the sun no longer collects dust , Süddeutsche Zeitung , December 14, 2017
  6. ↑ Till Kasielke: Geology and relief development in the Bochum area. Publications of the Bochum Botanical Association. Vol. 7 (3), 2015, pp. 15–36 ( PDF 6.1 MB)
  7. ↑ History, election and tasks
  8. ^ Climate Bochum - Wetterdienst.de , German Weather Service, wetterdienst.de
  9. ↑ General questions about the environmental zone , bochum.de, accessed on August 11, 2017
  10. ^ Bochum environmental zone in OSM
  11. ↑ WAZ Nothing remains of the old Bochum
  12. ^ Bochum street names, interpretation and origin, p. 205, according to information from the Bochum city archive
  13. ↑ Heinrich Gottfried Gengler: Regesta and documents on the constitutional and legal history of German cities in the Middle Ages , Erlangen 1863, p. 243 .
  14. ↑ USSBS report E76 (Plant Report No. 9 "Bochumer Verein für Gusstahlfabrikation AG"), 2nd Edition January 1947, p. 2f
  15. ↑ End of the war in 1945. Hard-won peace in the West , dated: May 5, 2015, accessed on: May 19, 2018
  16. ↑ Factory closure: Opel ends car production in Bochum . In: Spiegel Online . December 5, 2014 ( spiegel.de [accessed March 10, 2018]).
  17. ^ A b c Stephanie Reekers: The regional development of the districts and municipalities of Westphalia 1817-1967 . Aschendorff, Münster Westfalen 1977, ISBN 3-402-05875-8 , p. 217 .
  18. ↑ Stephanie Reekers: The regional development of the districts and communities of Westphalia 1817-1967 . Aschendorff, Münster Westfalen 1977, ISBN 3-402-05875-8 , p. 291 .
  19. ^ Federal Statistical Office (ed.): Historical municipality directory for the Federal Republic of Germany. Name, border and key number changes in municipalities, counties and administrative districts from May 27, 1970 to December 31, 1982 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 329 .
  20. ^ Sabine Mecking: Citizens will and territorial reform. Democracy development and reorganization of state and society in North Rhine-Westphalia 1965–2000 (= Studies on Contemporary History Vol. 85), Oldenbourg: Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-486-70314-6
  21. ↑ State database NRW: structural data for Bochum, Krfr. City. (No longer available online.) May 31, 2017, archived from the original on June 30, 2018 ; accessed on June 30, 2018 .
  22. ↑ Federal Employment Agency : An overview of the labor market - reporting month June 2018 - Bochum, city. In: Statistics by region. Retrieved June 30, 2018 .
  23. ↑ Federal Employment Agency : An overview of the job market - reporting month June 2018 - North Rhine-Westphalia, federal state. In: Statistics by region. Retrieved June 30, 2018 .
  24. ↑ a b c Department for Political Committees, Citizen Participation and Communication: Demography Report 2019 - Demographic Development and Population Structure in Bochum 2018 (PDF; 1.89 MB) City of Bochum, October 29, 2019, p. 33 , accessed on January 20, 2020 .
  25. ↑ a b Churches are calm despite the decline in membership numbers . Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, July 23, 2016
  26. ↑ Website Autobahnkirche Ruhr ( Memento from December 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  27. ↑ a b Gift for the anniversary . Jewish General, January 4, 2018
  28. ↑ WAZ Bochum from September 17, 2012
  29. ↑ http://www.bochumer-moscheen.de/
  30. ↑ Lord Mayor and Administrative Director , bochum.de , accessed on February 28, 2020
  31. ↑ FDP and STADTGESTALTER in Bochum found a new parliamentary group. WAZ Bochum, July 29, 2015, accessed on December 4, 2016 .
  32. ↑ Stefan Laurin: Bochum: Pirate group in the council has disbanded. Ruhrbarone, April 24, 2015, accessed April 26, 2015 .
  33. ↑ André Kasper leaves the pirate party. Pirate Party Bochum, October 22, 2015, accessed on March 5, 2016 .
  34. ^ UWG council group. City of Bochum, July 29, 2015, accessed December 4, 2016 .
  35. ↑ Westdeutsche Verlags- und Werbegesellschaft mbH & Co. KG: Susanne Mantesberg-Wieschemann resigns from the SPD parliamentary group in the Bochum City Council, press release of July 1, 2016. Accessed July 1, 2016 .
  36. ^ The coalition agreement between the Greens and the SPD has been signed . ( gruene-bochum.de [accessed on March 10, 2018]).
  37. ↑ Debt ranking of the 103 independent cities in Germany . Household Control.de. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
  38. ↑ Andreas Rorowski: Bochum is planning new debts for 2017 with 85 million euros . ( waz.de [accessed on March 10, 2018]).
  39. ↑ cf. www.ngw.nl page about Bochum heraldry (English)
  40. ↑ Why is Bochum actually called Bochum? And what does the name have to do with the coat of arms? DerWesten , accessed February 22, 2019.
  41. ↑ Sister cities / sponsorships. City of Bochum, accessed on November 26, 2019 .
  42. ↑ New twin city - Bochum has a new twin city in Japan. Radio Bochum, November 26, 2019, accessed on November 26, 2019 .
  43. ↑ Jürgen von Polier: Airplane with Ruhrpott charm: Lufthansa's new Airbus A350 bears the name of the city of Bochum. In: derwesten.de. November 13, 2017, accessed April 20, 2020 .
  44. ↑ cf. RuhrNachrichten (RN): European Film Award at RuhrNachrichten.de, March 14, 2009 (accessed on March 14, 2009)
  45. ↑ cf. Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ): Film Oscar in Bochum ( Memento from December 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) at derwesten.de, March 13, 2009 (accessed on December 4, 2016)
  46. ↑ Wolfgang Jansen: Cats & Co. History of the musical in German-speaking theater . 1st edition. Henschel Verlag, Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-89487-584-8 , pp. 159 .
  47. ↑ The Theater - STARLIGHT EXPRESS - Live in Bochum. Retrieved July 30, 2018 .
  48. ↑ [1] Giving importance to public space, christuskirche-bochum.de
  49. ↑ [2] europeanpromise.eu, Place of the European Promise on the Internet
  50. ↑ [3] Platz mit Geschichte, HEiNZ-Magazin, November 2015
  51. ↑ http://www.bochumer-symphonie.de/
  52. ↑ http://www.kloster-stiepel.org/
  53. ↑ New name in the area: Vonovia Ruhrstadion ( Memento from July 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). Accessed: August 7, 2016
  54. ↑ Peter Mohr: Regionalliga: Wattenscheid 09 is at the end - the game is stopped. Lokalkompass.de of October 23, 2019. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  55. ↑ Disc golf - at LFC Laer 06. Accessed November 25, 2019 .
  56. ↑ Current results - VGR dL. Retrieved January 7, 2019 .
  57. ^ Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Federal Employment Agency, accessed on January 7, 2019 .
  58. ↑ Imprint. Retrieved January 13, 2019 .
  59. ↑ The alternative alternative. Retrieved March 10, 2018 .
  60. ↑ WAZ: Bochum town hall offers a backdrop for a movie , derwesten.de (accessed on April 15, 2019)
  61. ↑ WAZ: Movie about the plant closure in Bochum , derwesten.de (accessed on December 4, 2016)
  62. ↑ WAZ: The movie "Not My Day" celebrates its premiere in Bochum , (accessed on December 4, 2016)
  63. ^ TV from Bochum at nrwision. nrwision , accessed March 9, 2015 .
  64. ^ Health Campus Bochum | The health location Bochum. Retrieved November 15, 2018 .
  65. ↑ TFH Bochum: Technical University Georg Agricola celebrates anniversary: ​​200 years of teaching and research in Bochum - TH Georg Agricola in Bochum. In: www.thga.de. Retrieved April 17, 2016 .
  66. ↑ property magazine: EBZ Business School - University of Applied Sciences starts studying. November 3, 2008, accessed February 24, 2019 .
  67. ↑ A university in the service of the people
  68. ↑ School directory of the city of Bochum 2018/2019 School directory - overview 2018/2019. (PDF; 1.32 MB) City of Bochum, February 1, 2019, accessed on February 25, 2019 .
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on January 3, 2006 .