Regional Association Ruhr

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Basic data
Country:	Germany
Country :	North Rhine-Westphalia
Administrative headquarters :	eat
Area :	4,435 km²
Structure:	4 districts , 11 independent cities
Administration address:	Kronprinzenstrasse 35 45128 Essen
Employees	460
Regional Director:	Karola Geiß-Netthöfel ( SPD )
Website:	www.rvr.ruhr
population
Residents:	5,111,530 (Dec. 31, 2018)
Population density :	1152 inhabitants / km²
Proportion of foreigners :	16.1% (Dec. 31, 2018)
Unemployment rate :	10.4% (July 30, 2017)
Location of the regional association in North Rhine-Westphalia

The Ruhr Regional Association ( RVR ) in North Rhine-Westphalia , based in Essen, is the amalgamation of 11 independent cities and four districts in the Ruhr Metropolis with around 5.1 million inhabitants. The RVR is the regional bracket for the cities of the Ruhr area and regional planning authority for the "Metropole Ruhr". The association is a public corporation with the right to self-administration through its organs.

Tasks and funding

The tasks and activities of the Ruhr Regional Association are regulated in the RVR Act. The RVR is responsible for state regional planning in the Ruhr Metropolis and is responsible for important infrastructure projects such as the Route of Industrial Culture and the Emscher Landscape Park . One of the oldest core tasks of the RVR is the protection and care of the environment by securing open spaces. The association manages large and small forest recreation areas, flora-fauna habitat and nature reserves, lakes, recultivated mining and dump landscapes. To manage its 16,000 hectares of open space, including 14,500 hectares of forest, the RVR founded the RVR Ruhr Grün facility, which is similar to its own operations. Its legal tasks also include regional economic and tourism promotion as well as public relations for the Ruhr Metropolis. Together with its municipal partners, it supports the seven district and amusement parks. The RVR also collects geo and climate data about the region and provides it to its member municipalities and the like. a. available for planning purposes. The association area includes the eleven independent cities of Bochum, Bottrop, Duisburg, Dortmund, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Hagen, Hamm, Herne, Mülheim an der Ruhr and Oberhausen as well as the four districts of Ennepe-Ruhr, Recklinghausen, Unna and Wesel. The RVR is financed through the allocation of its members and supported in projects by funding from the state, federal government and the EU.

He is also involved in numerous companies; he acts as the sole shareholder in Ruhr Tourismus GmbH (RTG), Business Metropole Ruhr GmbH (BMR) and AGR Abfallentsorgungs-Gesellschaft Ruhrgebiet mbH . The organs of the association are the association assembly, the association committee and the regional director. The association assembly is composed according to the results of the local elections. All lord mayors and district administrators in the region have a seat and vote as compulsory members in the association assembly and in the local council. For the first time, the Ruhr Parliament will be directly elected in 2020.

Member corporations

The administrative organization of the Regionalverband Ruhr

The independent cities and the districts form the Ruhr Regional Association. The municipalities and cities listed in brackets are not independent members of the RVR; However, members are the respective responsible groups .

Bochum
Bottrop
Dortmund
Duisburg
eat
Gelsenkirchen
Hagen
Hamm
Herne
Mülheim an der Ruhr
Oberhausen
Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis (with the cities of Breckerfeld , Ennepetal , Gevelsberg , Hattingen , Herdecke , Schwelm , Sprockhövel , Wetter (Ruhr) and Witten )
Recklinghausen district (with the towns of Castrop-Rauxel , Datteln , Dorsten , Gladbeck , Haltern am See , Herten , Marl , Oer-Erkenschwick , Recklinghausen and Waltrop )
District of Unna (with the municipalities / cities Bergkamen , Bönen , Fröndenberg , Holzwickede , Kamen , Lünen , Schwerte , Selm , Unna and Werne )
District of Wesel (with the municipalities / cities Alpen , Dinslaken , Hamminkeln , Hünxe , Kamp-Lintfort , Moers , Neukirchen-Vluyn , Rheinberg , Schermbeck , Sonsbeck , Voerde (Niederrhein) , Wesel and Xanten )

Association structure

The association assembly of the regional association Ruhr is the "Ruhr parliament", a forum for all cities and districts in the region.

Ruhr Parliament

In the Ruhr Parliament, the representatives of the eleven independent cities and four districts represent the interests of the Ruhr area. They are elected by the respective councils or district assemblies of the member bodies. In addition, the 15 mayors and district administrators are members of the association assembly with voting rights through their office.

Local election result in the RVR 2014

in percent

%

40

30th

20th

10

0

39.0%

30.2%

10.4%

5.5%

4.2%

3.3%

2.6%

2.1%

2.7%

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 2009

% p

4th

2

0

-2

-4

+ 0.4 % p

-1.3 % p

-0.4 % p

-0.6 % p

-3.7 % p

+ 2.6 % p

+ 2.1 % p.p.

+1.3 % p

Otherwise.

Allocation of seats in the
association assembly of the RVR 2014

A total of 138 seats

Left : 9
Pirates : 4
Greens : 17
SPD : 42
FW NRW : 3
FDP : 6
CDU : 51
AfD : 3
Otherwise: 3

The political representatives in the association assembly, the Ruhr Parliament, will be elected for the first time directly by the more than two million citizens in the Ruhr Metropolis who are eligible to vote.

The association assembly (Ruhr parliament) consists of representatives of the city councils or district councils elected for a period of six years and, since the last amendment to the association law, also the mayors and district administrators . Currently there is the following distribution of seats in the association assembly according to parliamentary groups (as of September 2014):

CDU	SPD	GREEN	THE LEFT	FDP	PIRATES	FW NRW	AfD	Non-attached	total
51	42	17th	9	6th	4th	3	3	3	138
								UBP 1 GFL 1 Independent 1

Due to an inaccuracy in the regulation of compensation mandates, the current association assembly increased from actually 71 to 163 seats. However, since the SPD had drawn up a reserve list that was too short, 25 SPD seats remained vacant. Thus the current association assembly has 138 members.

The SPD and the Greens formed a coalition until 2014. However, due to the enlargement of the association assembly and the vacant SPD seats, this coalition has lost its majority. After talks with the CDU and FDP, a CDU-SPD-Greens-FDP coalition should be formed. However, the FDP withdrew from the talks. Thus, the CDU, SPD and the Greens are now forming a so-called " Kenya coalition ".

There are also ten advisory members representing trade unions, employers' associations, chambers of industry and commerce, nature conservation associations and the like.

organs

The organs of the association are the association assembly (VV, "Ruhrparlament"), the association committee (VA) and the regional director (RD). The association committee consists of the chairman of the association assembly and sixteen other members. The members and deputy members of the Association Committee are elected by the Association Assembly from among their number for the duration of the VV's election period. The regional director and the councilors are elected for a term of eight years. The RD has to prepare and execute the resolutions of the VV, the VA and the committees, carry out the administrative tasks assigned by the VA, manage the day-to-day administration and represent the association in legal and administrative matters.

The association assembly unanimously re-elected the incumbent regional director Karola Geiß-Netthöfel at the meeting on February 10, 2017. The lawyer has been running the association since August 1st, 2011. Martin Tönnes was also unanimously re-elected as Head of Planning. After he had been responsible for the regional planning of the association, the route of industrial culture, the regional development as well as the area of geoinformation and spatial observation since May 2011 and had shown that the regional plan to be drawn up by him could not be completed by mid-2020, he was on 13. December 2019 voted out by a two-thirds majority in the association assembly. The post was advertised again. On June 15, 2020, Stefan Kuczera was elected as the new planning councilor. Previously, he headed the property and building construction department. Markus Schlüter was elected as the new deputy of the business management department and started his new position on June 1, 2017 at RVR. Markus Schlüter was also elected general representative of the regional director by the association assembly. Nina Frense was elected as the new alderman for the Environment Department and started working for RVR on July 1, 2017.

Regional Directors

since 2011: Karola Geiß-Netthöfel ( SPD ), since August 1, 2011
2005–2011: Heinz-Dieter Klink (SPD), March 1, 2005 - July 31, 2011
2004–2005: Christa Thoben ( CDU ), October 1, 2004 to February 28, 2005
1995–2004: Gerd Willamowski (SPD), until September 2004
1978–1994: Jürgen Gramke (SPD)
1967–1978: Heinz Neufang (SPD), November 16, 1967 to August 31, 1978 (retired)
1965–1966: Friedrich Halstenberg (SPD)
1959–1965: Josef Umlauf , April 1, 1959 to July 31, 1965
1951–1957: Sturm Kegel (CDU), until December 31, 1957 (retired)
1945–1951: Philipp Rappaport
1937–1945: Albert Lange
1920–1932: Robert Schmidt , October 1, 1920 to September 30, 1932 (retired)

Subsidiaries

Logo of the Business Metropole Ruhr GmbH

Business Metropole Ruhr GmbH (BMR)

BMR develops and markets the Ruhr Metropolis as a business location. It bundles the economic interests of the 53 cities in the region. The aim of the work of the BMR is to increase the competitiveness of the Ruhr area. This includes implementing and continuously developing an overall economic strategy for the Ruhr Metropolis, as well as promoting the image of the business location as a high-performance and innovative region nationally and internationally.

Ruhr Tourismus GmbH (RTG)

RTG was founded with the aim of bundling product development, marketing and sales and developing an independent regional tourism profile for the Ruhr Metropolis. RTG's task is to profile the Ruhr Metropolis as a new travel destination and to network the region’s tourist partners with the aim of more efficient marketing.

Freizeitgesellschaft Metropole Ruhr mbH (FMR)

One of the tasks of FMR is to better coordinate the offers of the individual institutions and to actively market them. In the GmbH, which started its work in 2017, the district parks Mattlerbusch (Duisburg), Vonderort (Oberhausen / Bottrop) and Nienhausen (Essen / Gelsenkirchen) as well as the Freizeitzentrum Kemnade GmbH (Bochum / Witten / Ennepe-Ruhr district) are brought together.

Waste disposal company Ruhrgebiet mbH (AGR)

The AGR Group sees itself as a comprehensive provider in the waste management and recycling industry. It is part of the industrial infrastructure in the region. In addition to the main tasks - the recovery and disposal of municipal municipal, commercial and hazardous waste - AGR develops concepts for its customers for proper and professional disposal.

history

Administration building of the regional association Ruhr in Essen

The association was founded as Siedlungsverband Ruhrkohlen District (SVR) in 1920 as an amalgamation of the municipalities and districts of the Ruhr area in order to be able to meet the reparation claims from the Versailles Treaty . Around 150,000 miners and around 600,000 other people should also be settled in the Ruhr area to support the Ruhr mining industry. The association should steer the planning centrally.

The Essen alderman Robert Schmidt (1869-1934) was the spiritual father and until 1932 the first association director of the SVR. On behalf of the Düsseldorf government president and the district municipalities, he drafted a general settlement plan for the region between Emscher and Ruhr in 1912. The plan did not have a political majority, but it formed the spiritual basis of the first regional Ruhr area organization. On May 5, 1920, the Reich government, the Prussian state assembly and the participating Ruhr area cities gave the green light for the establishment of the Ruhr Coal District Settlement Association.

The former Berlin suburbs were the model for the SVR. In 1911/12 these had merged with the city of Berlin to form a special purpose association that formed the nucleus of Greater Berlin . The SVR was the first settlement association in Germany with a legal basis that assigned it far-reaching planning tasks.

One goal of the SVR was to prevent urban sprawl so that indispensable green and open spaces could be preserved. For this purpose, several regional green corridors were defined, the north-south course of which has been preserved between the cities in the metropolitan area of the Ruhr area to this day. Already in the founding phase of the SVR, projects such as the Ruhrschnellweg , a regional express railway and the district parks were considered. Through the construction of association roads and the uniform place-name signs introduced in 1925, the Ruhr area was also to grow together in terms of traffic.

In 1933, during the Nazi period, the organization has been brought into line . In the 1950s, the SVR developed urban development projects such as the New City of Wulfen . The SVR had a lasting influence especially in the 1960s. One of the biggest projects at that time was the planning and organization of the urban waste disposal. The association's tasks in regional planning and urban development were laid down in the state planning law of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1962 , but restricted in 1975 and regulated in 1979 with the law on the Ruhr Area Municipal Association (KVR) for a further 25 years. On October 1, 2004, the municipal association of the Ruhr area was renamed the Regional Association of Ruhr with the amendment of the association law by the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia. He was given extended responsibilities in regional self-administration. With the transfer of the state regional planning in 2009 to the regional association Ruhr there is again a uniform regional planning for the Ruhr area after 34 years.

Web links

Commons : Regionalverband Ruhr - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Commons : Association building of the Regionalverband Ruhr - collection of images, videos and audio files

Regional Association Ruhr

Geodata server Ruhr area ( Memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )

Kultur-im-ruhrgebiet.de

Description of all locations on this themed route as part of the Route of Industrial Culture
Early newspaper articles on the Ruhr Regional Association in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .