The Ruhr

The Ruhr is a polycentric urban and industrial region in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, bounded by the Ruhr River to the south, the Rhine to the west, and the Lippe to the north. With a population of more than five million spread across cities including Duisburg, Essen, Bochum, and Dortmund, it ranks as Germany's largest urban area and the European Union's third largest. Coal mining and steel production drove the region's transformation into Germany's industrial powerhouse from the late nineteenth century, when its population passed three million by 1870, through the twentieth century. Since the decline of heavy industry the Ruhr has reinvented itself around culture, education, and environmental restoration, a shift marked by its turn as European Capital of Culture in 2010.