North Rhine-Westphalia
| State coat of arms (Landeswappen) | | |
| Civil Flag (Landesflagge) |
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State Service Flag
(Landesdienstflagge) |
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| Statistics |
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| Capital: | Düsseldorf |
| Area: | 34,084.13 km²[Statistisches Jahrbuch NRW 2005, 47. Jahrgang, Landesamt für Datenverarbeitung und Statistik Nordrhein-Westfalen, p. 22] |
| Inhabitants: | 18,075,400(2004)[Statistisches Jahrbuch NRW 2005, 47. Jahrgang, Landesamt für Datenverarbeitung und Statistik Nordrhein-Westfalen] |
| pop. density: | 530 inh./km² |
| GDP: | € 463 billion (2002) |
| Website: | http://www.nrw.de/ |
| ISO 3166-2: | DE-NW |
| Politics |
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| Prime Minister: | Jürgen Rüttgers (CDU) |
| Ruling parties: | CDU/FDP coalition |
| Map |
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North Rhine-Westphalia (
German:
Nordrhein-Westfalen, usually shortened to:
NRW) is - in population and economic output - the largest
Federal State of
Germany. North Rhine-Westphalia has over 18 million inhabitants, contributes about 22% of Germany's
gross domestic product and comprises a land area of 34,083 km² (13,158 square miles). North Rhine-Westphalia is situated in the Western part of Germany and shares borders with
Belgium and the
Netherlands.
The capital city is
Düsseldorf, other major cities are
Cologne (Köln),
Essen,
Dortmund,
Duisburg,
Bielefeld,
Bonn and
Münster.
The state is centred on the sprawling
Rhine-Ruhr urbanised region, which contains the cities of
Cologne,
Düsseldorf, and
Bonn, as well as the
Ruhr industrial complex. The Ruhr area consists, among others, of the cities of
Essen,
Dortmund,
Duisburg,
Bochum and
Gelsenkirchen.
The state's area covers a maximum distance of 291 km from north to south, and 266 km from east to west.
The total length of the state's borders is 1,645 km. The following countries and states have a border with North Rhine-Westphalia:
[Length of borders taken from Statistisches Jahrbuch NRW 2005, 47. Jahrgang, Landesamt für Datenverarbeitung und Statistik Nordrhein-Westfalen, p. 22]*
Belgium (99 km)
*
The Netherlands (387 km)
*
Lower Saxony (583 km)
*
Hesse (269 km)
*
Rhineland-Palatinate (307 km)
For many people North Rhine-Westphalia is synonymous with industrial areas and agglomerating cities. But the largest part of the state is covered with forests and fields. The southern parts of the
Teutoburg Forest are located in the northeast. In the southwest, North Rhine-Westphalia shares in a small part of the
Eifel, located on the borders with Belgium and Rhineland-Palatinate. The southeast is occupied by the sparsely populated regions of
Sauerland and
Siegerland. The northwestern areas of the state are part of the
Northern European Lowlands.
The most important rivers that run at least partially through North Rhine-Westphalia include:
Rhine,
Ruhr,
Ems,
Lippe and
Weser. The
Pader, which runs through the city of
Paderborn, is considered the shortest
river in Germany.
See also
List of places in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The state consists of 5
administrative regions (
Regierungsbezirke), divided into 31 districts (
Kreise) and 23
urban districts (
kreisfreie Städte). In total, North Rhine-Westphalia has 396 municipalities (1997), including the urban districts, which are municipalities by themselves.
The districts of North Rhine-Westphalia:
The independent cities, which do not belong to any district:
 |
Duisburg Lake Masuren in the industrial region of the Ruhr |
The five administrative regions, belonging to one of two
Landschaftsverbände:
*Rheinland (LVR)
**
Cologne**
Düsseldorf*Westfalen-Lippe (LWL)
**
Arnsberg**
Münster**
DetmoldThe state of North Rhine-Westphalia was established by the British military administration in
1946. Originally it consisted of
Westphalia and the northern parts of the
Rhine Province, both formerly belonging to
Prussia. In
1947 the former state of
Lippe was merged with North Rhine-Westphalia, hence leading to the present borders of the state.
The
North Rhine-Westphalia state election on
May 22,
2005 granted the
CDU a landslide victory. Their top candidate
Jürgen Rüttgers built a new coalition government consisting of
CDU and
FDP that replaced the former government headed by
Peer Steinbrück. Rüttgers was elected new Prime Minister (German:
Ministerpräsident) of the federal state on
June 22,
2005.
The flag of North Rhine-Westphalia is green-white-red with the combined coats of arms of the Prussian Rhine province (white line before green background), Westphalia (the white horse) and Lippe (the red rose).
According to legend the horse in the Westphalian coat of arms is the horse that the Saxon leader
Widukind rode after his baptism. Other theories attribute the horse to
Henry the Lion.
These are the
Prime Ministers (German:
Ministerpräsident) of the
Federal State (German:
Bundesland) of North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW):
#
1946 -
1947:
Rudolf Amelunxen (
Centre Party)#
1947 -
1956:
Karl Arnold (
CDU)#
1956 -
1958:
Fritz Steinhoff (
SPD)#
1958 -
1966:
Franz Meyers (
CDU)#
1966 -
1978:
Heinz Kühn (
SPD)#
1978 -
1998:
Johannes Rau (
SPD)#
1998 -
2002:
Wolfgang Clement (
SPD)#
2002 -
2005:
Peer Steinbrück (
SPD)# holding office:
Jürgen Rüttgers (
CDU)
See also: North Rhine-Westphalia state election, 2005Official results are as follows. Note that overall seat totals have been reduced, lowering the seat counts for all parties.
Voter turnout was at 63%, an increase of 7% over the previous election in 2000. Previous to the election, some analysts had predicted that a CDU victory might result from disenchanted SPD voters staying home, but the turnout figures appear to reject this scenario.
| Party | Party List votes | Vote percentage (change) | Total Seats (change) | Seat percentage |
|---|
| Social Democratic Party (SPD) | 3,059,074 | 37.1% | -5.7% | 74 | -28 | 39.6% |
| Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | 3,695,806 | 44.8% | +7.9% | 89 | +1 | 47.6% |
| Free Democratic Party (FDP) | 508,354 | 6.2% | -3.7% | 12 | -12 | 6.4% |
| Alliance '90/The Greens | 509,219 | 6.2% | -0.9% | 12 | -5 | 6.4% |
| Labour and Social Justice Party (WASG) | 181,886 | 2.2% | +2.2% | 0 | +0 | 0.0% |
| National Democratic Party (NPD) | 73,959 | 0.9% | +0.9% | 0 | +0 | 0.0% |
| Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) | 72,982 | 0.9% | -0.2% | 0 | +0 | 0.0% |
| The Republicans | 67,282 | 0.8% | -0.3% | 0 | +0 | 0.0% |
| All Others | 74,810 | 0.9% | +0.5% | 0 | +0 | 0.0% |
| - bgcolor=lightgrey | Totals | 8,243,372 | 100.0% | | 187 | -44 | 100.0% |
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|
2005 results; SPD in red, CDU in black, FDP in yellow, Greens in green. |
*
Official Government Portal*
Tourism*
Information and resources on the history of Westphalia on the Web portal "Westphalian History"*
Guidelines for the integration of the Land Lippe within the territory of the federal state North-Rhine-Westphalia of 17th January 1947
