Gladbeck, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

🇩🇪 Gladbeck is a town in the district of Recklinghausen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Gladbeck is quite a young town, first recognised 21 July 1919 when it was given town rights. The town established itself around five farming villages, Brauck, Butendorf, Ellinghorst, Rentfort and Zweckel.

Geography Gladbeck is located in the northern part of the Ruhr Area and belongs to the so-called Emscherzone in which mining started late in relation to other towns of this area. Gladbeck is predominantly surrounded by Bottrop, Gelsenkirchen, Dorsten and by Essen in the south.

History Early archeological finds prove a population in the region of Gladbeck already in about 2000 BC. It was first mentioned in 1020 as Gladbeki and was originally a small village of 300 inhabitants. The village with its five peasantries (Butendorf, Brauck, Rentfort, Ellinghorst and Zweckel, now quarters of Gladbeck) was arranged around St. Lamberti cathedral.

From 1180 to 1802 Gladbeck belonged to the Vest Recklinghausen and was thus linked with the Electorate of Cologne. A certificate from 1236 mentions Knight Ludolfus de Wittering who is most likely to have erected Wittringen Castle around that time. Especially during the first years of the Thirty Years' War (1618–48) many cornfields in and around Gladbeck were destroyed by marauding soldiers. Additionally, the Black Death killed many inhabitants of Gladbeck in the Thirty Years' War.

At the 1815 Congress of Vienna the Kingdom of Prussia acquired the area and administered it within the Province of Westphalia. Before the Revolutions of 1848 there were three bad food crises in Gladbeck in 1816/17, 1830/31 and 1846/47. However, the "March Revolution" had no consequences on Gladbeck.

Time of coal mining Coal was found in the 1870s and the first coal was produced in 1878. Depending on additional workers, the coal mines attracted many people. Therefore, Gladbeck rapidly grew by immigration from surrounding Westphalia, the Rhine Province, and from the eastern provinces of Prussia including citizens with Polish as their native language.

The little village quickly turned into an establishment of industry and was given town privilege in July 1919. Also Gladbeck benefited from the general boom in the years 1925 to 1929 when important building projects were realised in spite of all troubles, such as the open-air bath as well as the stadium, in which Adolf Hitler delivered a speech in 1932.

As with all German towns, Gladbeck was brought into line after Adolf Hitler was named Reichskanzler. This took place under the earlier elected conservative mayor Bernhard Hackenberg, immediately joining the Nazi Party. In World War II Gladbeck was heavily damaged and around 43% of the buildings in the centre were destroyed, making it as one of the most destroyed towns in the Ruhr Area. After the war the town became part of the new state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

During the 1960s the coal industry went into a substantial crisis, resulting in widespread unemployment. Apart from this Gladbeck's population reached 85,927 inhabitants in 1969, which is unique in the history of this town. Since the last coal mine was closed in 1971 Gladbeck is fighting against a high rate of unemployment, activating the structural change.

Communal realignment and history since 1975 In the course of the communal realignment in North Rhine-Westphalia (1975) Gladbeck, original a county borough, and the village Kirchhellen were incorporated into the neighbouring town Bottrop. Opponents of the realignment criticized the low population density at the border between Gladbeck and Bottrop and emphasized that Bottrop was not much bigger than Gladbeck. ´GlaBotKi is nich´ (Glabotki is not) was their catchphrase. With the help of a court decision Gladbeck successfully left Bottrop, thereby cancelling the merger. Since July 1976 Gladbeck is part of the district of Recklinghausen.

On 16 August 1988, the town received international attention when two thieves robbed a branch of the Deutsche Bank in Gladbeck. They kidnapped two bank employees and held them hostage, along with 32 people in a transport bus in Bremen and drove through West Germany and the Netherlands. In what was called the Gladbeck hostage crisis, the crisis ended in just over 2 days, with one police officer and two victims dead, and the arrest of the three individuals (Hans-Jürgen Rösner & Dieter Degowski, along with Marion Löblich for her involvement in the crime as an accomplice).

Museum The moated castle Wittringen houses the town's museum. It contains collections and exhibitions on the history of Gladbeck. The museum shows the development of the region from the geological origins of its rich coal supplies to the first inhabitants and the present days. A major exhibit is a skeleton of a bison found in the district of Brauck. Other exhibits are: • A coin collection and an offertory of Roman coins. • A cemetery of the Bronze Age. • Several rooms inform about the time of the coal mining. • Moreover, the museum collects modern art, such as works by Joseph Beuys.

Religious communities According to information of the town council 30,906 of 77,436 inhabitants were Catholics and 22,121 inhabitants were Protestants in December 2006. There are 11 churches, 5 are Protestant and 6 are Catholic.

In school pupils are allowed to choose between Catholic and Protestant lessons. Alternatively, pupils can be taught in Philosophy likewise if they want to. Visits to churches are included to the lessons in basic school. However, there is a Muslim minority in Gladbeck due to the immigration of the 1960s.

Theater and music Several events, for example jazz festivals, take place regularly. There is also one library in Gladbeck and theater courses are normally offered in the three grammar schools. From time to time theater plays can be visited in the municipal hall, even well known plays like Emilia Galotti written by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. There is one school of music where one can participate in different courses.

Transport: Road Gladbeck is connected to the network of trunk roads through the following Autobahn: • A 2: Oberhausen–Dortmund–Hannover–Berlin • A 31: Bottrop–Gronau–Emden • A 52: Marl-North–Gelsenkirchen–Gladbeck • B 224: Raesfeld–Erle–Dorsten–Gladbeck–Essen–Velbert–Wuppertal–Solingen

Transport: Rail Gladbeck has three railway stations: • the centrally located Gladbeck West station on the Oberhausen-Osterfeld Süd–Hamm line, which includes a bike parking facility, • Gladbeck Ost station on the Winterswijk–Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck line, • Gladbeck-Zweckel station on the Winterswijk–Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck line.

The Gladbeck stations are served by the following services: • the Regional-Express 14 "Emscher-Münsterland-Express": Essen – Bottrop – Gladbeck West – Gladbeck-Zweckel – Dorsten – (Coesfeld (Westf)* / Borken (Westf)*) *Flügelzug • the Regionalbahn 43 "Emschertal-Bahn": Dortmund – Herne - Wanne-Eickel – Gladbeck Ost – Gladbeck-Zweckel – Dorsten • and Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn line S 9: Recklinghausen / Haltern am See – Gladbeck West – Bottrop – Essen – Velbert - Wuppertal - Hagen.