North Rhine-Westphalia
In this episode of the I Can't Sleep Podcast, fall asleep learning about North Rhine-Westphalia. Yep, I had no idea that was a place in Germany either. While I think the German landscape must be wonderful, I can't say much for how boring I am while reading this Wikipedia article. Happy sleeping!
Transcript
Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast,
Where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice.
I'm your host,
Benjamin Boster.
Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled North Rhine-Westphalia.
North Rhine-Westphalia,
German Nordrhein-Westfalen,
Is a state land in western Germany.
With more than 18 million inhabitants,
It is the most populous state in Germany.
Apart from the city-states,
It is also the most densely populated state in Germany.
Covering an area of 34,
084 square kilometers,
It is the fourth largest German state by size.
North Rhine-Westphalia features 30 of the 81 German municipalities,
With over 100,
000 inhabitants including Cologne,
Over 1 million,
The state capital Düsseldorf,
Dortmund and Essen,
All about 550,
000 inhabitants,
And other cities predominantly located in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area,
The largest urban area in Germany,
And the fourth largest on the European continent.
The location of the Rhine-Ruhr at the heart of the European Blue Banana makes it well connected to the other major European cities and metropolitan areas like the Rheinstadt,
The Flemish Diamond,
And the Frankfurt-Rhein-Main region.
North Rhine-Westphalia was established in 1946 after World War II from the Prussian provinces of Westphalia and the northern part of Rhine Province,
North Rhine,
And the Free State of Lippe by the British military administration in ally-occupied Germany and became a state of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949.
The city of Bonn served as the federal capital until the reunification of Germany in 1990 and as the seat of government until 1999.
Culturally,
North Rhine-Westphalia is not a uniform area.
There are significant differences,
Especially in traditional customs,
Between the Rhineland region on the one hand and the regions of Westphalia and Lippe on the other.
As of 2019,
The state has the largest economy among German states by GDP but is below the national average in GDP per capita.
The state of North Rhine-Westphalia was established by the British military administration's Operation Marriage on 23 August 1946 by merging the province of Westphalia and the northern parts of the Rhine Province,
Both being political divisions of the former state of Prussia within the German Reich.
On 21 January 1947,
The former state of Lippe was merged with North Rhine-Westphalia.
The constitution of North Rhine-Westphalia was then ratified through a referendum.
The first written account of the area was by its conqueror,
Julius Caesar.
The territories west of the Rhine were occupied by the Eburones,
And east of the Rhine he reported the Ubi across from Cologne and the Sugambri to their north.
The Ubi and some other Germanic tribes such as the Cugerni were later settled on the west side of the Rhine in the Roman province of Germania Inferior.
Julius Caesar conquered the tribes on the left bank,
And Augustus established numerous fortified posts on the Rhine,
But the Romans never succeeded in gaining a firm footing on the right bank,
Where the Sugambri neighboured several other tribes,
Including the Tenteri and Usipetus.
North of the Sugambri and the Rhine region were the Bructeri.
As the power of the Roman Empire declined,
Many of these tribes came to be seen collectively as Ripuarian Franks,
And they pushed forward along both banks of the Rhine,
And by the end of the 5th century had conquered all the lands that had formerly been under Roman influence.
By the 8th century the Frankish Dominion was firmly established in western Germany and northern Gaul,
But at the same time to the north,
Westphalia was being taken over by Saxons pushing south.
The Merovingian and Carolingian Franks eventually built an empire which controlled first their Ripuarian kin and then the Saxons.
On the division of the Carolingian Empire at the Treaty of Verdun,
The part of the province to the east of the river fell to East Francia,
While that to the west remained with the Kingdom of Lotharingia.
By the time of Otto I.
973,
Both banks of the Rhine had become part of the Holy Roman Empire,
And the Rhenish territory was divided between the duchies of Upper Lorraine and the Moselle and Lower Lorraine on the Meuse.
The Ottonian dynasty had both Saxon and Frankish ancestry.
As the central power of the Holy Roman Emperor weakened,
The Rhineland split into numerous small independent separate vicissitudes and special chronicles.
The old Lotharingian divisions became obsolete,
Although the name survives,
For example,
In Lorraine and France,
And throughout the Middle Ages and even into modern times.
The nobility of these areas often sought to preserve the idea of a preeminent duke within Lotharingia,
Something claimed by the dukes of Limburg and the dukes of Brabant.
Such struggles as the War of the Limburg Succession therefore continued to create military and political links between what is now Rhineland-Westphalia and neighboring Belgium and the Netherlands.
In spite of its dismembered condition and the sufferings it underwent at the hands of its French neighbors in various periods of warfare,
The Rhinish territory prospered greatly and stood in the foremost rank of German culture and progress.
Aachen was the place of coronation of the German emperors,
And the ecclesiastical principalities of the Rhine bulked largely in German history.
Prussia first set foot on the Rhine in 1609 by the occupation of the Duchy of Cleves,
And about a century later Upper Gilders and Moors also became Prussian.
At the Peace of Basel in 1795,
The whole of the left bank of the Rhine was resigned to France,
And in 1806 the Rhinish prince also joined the Confederation of the Rhine.
After the Congress of Vienna,
Prussia was awarded the entire Rhineland,
Which included the Grand Duchy of Burg,
The ecclesiastic electorates of Trier and Cologne,
The free cities of Aachen and Cologne,
And nearly a hundred small lordships and abbeys.
The Prussian Rhine Province was formed in 1822,
And Prussia had the tact to leave the lower Rhinish districts in undisturbed possession of the liberal institutions,
To which they had become accustomed under the republican rule of the French.
In 1920,
The districts of Eupen and Malmedy were transferred to Belgium.
Around AD 1,
Numerous incursions occurred throughout Westphalia,
And perhaps even some permanent Roman or Romanized settlements.
The Battle of Teutoburg Forest took place near Olsenbrook,
And some of the Germanic tribes who fought at this battle came from the area of Westphalia.
Charlemagne is thought to have spent considerable time in Paderborn and nearby parts.
His Saxon Wars also partly took place in what is thought of as Westphalia today.
Popular legends link his adversary Wiedekind to places near Detmold,
Bielefeld,
Lemgo,
Olsenbrook,
And other places in Westphalia.
Wiedekind was buried in Ungern,
Which is also a subject of legend.
Along with Eastphalia and Ungern,
Westphalia was originally a district of the Duchy of Saxony.
In 1180 Westphalia was elevated to the rank of a duchy by Emperor Barbarossa.
The Duchy of Westphalia comprised only a small area south of the Lippe River.
Much of Westphalia came under Brandenburg-Prussian control during the 17th and 18th centuries,
But most of it remained divided duchies and other feudal areas of power.
The Peace of Westphalia of 1648,
Signed in Münster and Olsenbrook,
Ended the Thirty Years' War.
The concept of nation-state sovereignty resulting from the treaty became known as Westphalia Sovereignty.
As a result of the Protestant Reformation,
There is no dominant religion in Westphalia.
Catholicism and Lutheranism are on relatively equal footing.
Lutheranism is strong in the eastern and northern parts with numerous free churches.
Münster and especially Paderborn are thought of as Catholic.
Olsenbrook is divided almost equally between Catholicism and Protestantism.
After the defeat of the Prussian army at the Battle of Jena-Arstead,
The Treaty of Tilsit in 1807 made the Westphalia territories part of the Kingdom of Westphalia from 1807 to 1813.
It was founded by Napoleon and was a French vassal state.
This state only shared the name with the historical region.
It contained only a relatively small part of Westphalia,
Consisting instead mostly of Hessian and Eastphalian regions.
After the Congress of Vienna,
The Kingdom of Prussia received a large amount of territory in the Westphalian region and created the province of Westphalia in 1815.
The northernmost portions of the former kingdom,
Including the town of Olsenbrook,
Have become part of the states of Hanover and Oldenburg.
The flag of North Rhine-Westphalia is green-white-red with the combined codes of arms of the Rhineland – white line before a green background symbolizing the Rhine River – Westphalen,
The white horse,
And Lippe,
The red horse.
After the establishment of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1946,
The tricolor was first introduced in 1948,
But was not formally adopted until 1953.
The plain variant of the tricolor is considered the civil flag and state enzyme,
While government authorities use the state flag,
London Decentflaga,
Which is defaced with the state's code of arms.
The state enzyme can easily be mistaken for a distressed flag of Hungary,
As well as the formal national flag of Iran,
1964-1980.
The same flag was used by the Rhinish Republic 1923-1924 as a symbol of independence and freedom.
According to legend,
The horse in the Westphalian code of arms is the horse that the Saxon leader Wütekind rode after his baptism.
Other theories attribute the horse to Henry the Lion.
Some connect it with the Germanic rulers Henkist and Horsa.
North Rhine-Westphalia encompasses the plains of the Lower Rhine region and parts of the central uplands up to the gorge of Porta Westfalica.
The state covers an area of 34,
083 km2 and shares borders with Belgium,
Wallonia,
In the southwest,
And the Netherlands,
Limburg,
Gilderland,
And Oversil in the west and northwest.
It has borders with the German states of Lower Saxony to the north and northeast,
Rhineland-Palatinate to the south,
And Hesse to the southeast.
Approximately half of the state is located in the relative low-lying terrain of the Westphalian lowland and the Rhineland,
Both extending broadly into the North German plain.
A few isolated hill ranges are located within these lowlands,
Among them the Hohe Mark,
The Beckum Hills,
The Baumberg,
And the Stemmerberg.
The terrain rises towards the south and in the east of the state into parts of Germany's central uplands.
These hill ranges are the Wieser Uplands,
Including the Eger Hills,
The Wien Hills,
The Wessergeberg,
And the Todeberg Forest in the east,
The Sauerland,
The Bergische Land,
And the Siegerland and the Siebengeberge in the south,
As well as the left Rhenish Eifel in the southwest of the state.
The Rothergeberge and the border region with Hesse rises to the height of about 800 m above sea level.
The highest of these mountains are the Longenberg at 843.
2 m above sea level,
The Kaller-Osten and the Clemensberg.
The Kaller-Osten 840.
7 m and the Clemensberg 839.
2 m.
The planimetrically determined center of North Rhine-Westphalia is located in the south of Dortmund-Applebeck in the Appelbeckmark.
Its westernmost point is situated near Selfkant close to the Dutch border,
The easternmost near Huxter on the Wieser.
The southernmost point lies near Hellenthal in the Eifel region.
The northernmost part is the NRW Nordpunkt near Raden in the northeast of the state.
The Nordpunkt is located the only 100 km to the south of the North Sea coast.
The deepest natural dip is arranged in the district Zifflich in the city of Kronenberg with 9.
2 m above sea level in the northwest of the state.
The deepest point over ground results from mining.
The open pit Hambach reaches at Niederzehr a deep of 293 m below sea level.
At the same time,
This is the deepest man-made dip in Germany.
The most important rivers flowing at least partially through NRW include the Rhine,
The Rühr,
The Ems,
The Lippe,
And the Wieser.
The Rhine is by far the most important river in NRW.
It enters the state as Middle Rhine near Bad Hannoff while still being part of the Mittelhain wine region.
It changes into the Lower Rhine near Bad Kotesberg and leaves the North Rhine Westphalia near Emmerich at a width of 730 m.
Almost immediately after entering the Netherlands,
The Rhine splits into many branches.
The Pader,
Which flows entirely within the city of Paderborn,
Is considered Germany's shortest river.
For many,
NRW is synonymous with industrial areas and urban agglomerations.
However,
The largest part of the state is used for agriculture,
Almost 52%,
And forests,
25%.
The state consists of five government regions divided into 31 districts and 23 urban districts.
In total,
NRW has 396 municipalities in 1997,
Including the urban districts which are municipalities by themselves.
The government regions have an assembly elected by the districts and municipalities,
While the Landschaftsverband has a directly elected assembly.
The five government regions of NRW each belong to one of the two Landschaftsverbande.
Landschaftsverband Rheinland,
Government Districts,
Dusseldorf,
Köln,
Historical Regions,
Rheinland,
Bergisches Land,
Eifel,
Eichen,
Lower Rhine,
Rheinscheine,
Kolonia,
Bonn.
Landschaftsverband Westfalia-Lippe,
Government Districts,
Arnsburg,
Detmold,
Münster.
Historical Regions,
Westfalia,
Münsterland,
Minden-Ravensberg,
Prinz-Bischof-Prick-Paderborn,
Sauerland,
Siegerland,
Tecklenbergerland,
Lipperland,
The region of the ancient Free State.
Rural Districts,
Kreise,
1.
Aachen-Stadt region,
2.
Borken,
3.
Kursfeld,
4.
Düren,
5.
Inepperöhr-Kreis,
6.
Rhein-Erft-Kreis,
7.
Uskirchen,
8.
Gürtersloh,
9.
Heinsberg,
10.
Herford,
11.
Hochsauer-Landkreis,
12.
Oexte,
13.
Kleve,
14.
Lippe,
15.
Merkirsche-Kreis,
16.
Mettmann,
17.
Minden-Lübecker,
18.
Rheinkreis-Nus,
19.
Ober-Bergische-Kreis,
20.
Olpe,
21.
Paderborn,
22.
Recklinghausen,
23.
Rheinisch-Bergische-Kreis,
24.
Rhein-Sieg-Kreis,
25.
Siegen-Wittgenstein,
26.
Solst,
27.
Steinfurt,
28.
Unna,
29.
Wiersen,
30.
Warndorf,
31.
Wiesel.
Urban districts.
Kreisfreie Städte.
1.
Aachen.
2.
Bielefeld.
3.
Bochum.
4.
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5.
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6.
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8.
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The law that is passed by the Landtag is delivered to the Minister-President,
Who together with the ministers involved is required to sign it and announce it in the Law and Ordinance Gazette.
Architecture and Building Monuments.
The state is known for the most castles and fortresses in Germany.
North Rhine-Westphalia has a high concentration of museums,
Cultural centers,
Concert halls and theaters.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
The state is also known for its large number of public buildings.
Bread is one of the most famous German breads.
It is made from a dark rye and has a unique and subtly sweet flavor.
It has been baked for centuries and has acquired its popular name from the war era when bread was being rationed.
It means flatulence and bad spirits.
Drinks Kosh is a local beer specialty brewed in Cologne.
Halt is a local beer specialty brewed in Dusseldorf in the Lower Rhine region.
Dortmunder Export is a local pale lager beer specialty brewed in Dortmund.
Festivals North Rhine-Westphalia hosts film festivals in Cologne,
Bonn,
Dortmund,
Duisburg,
Münster,
Oberhausen and Lünen.
Other large festivals include Rhenish Carnivals,
Ritornala.
Every year Gamescom is hosted in Cologne.
It is the largest video game convention in Europe.
Music The composer Ludwig von Beethoven was born in Bonn in 1770.
A regional anthem is the Lied für NRW,
Song for NRW.
North Rhine-Westphalia is home to many of Germany's best-known heavy metal,
Speed metal and thrash metal bands.
Except Angel Dust,
Blind Guardian,
Doro,
Formerly of Warlock,
Gravedigger,
Holy Moses,
Creator,
Rage,
Scanner and Sodom.
Also North Rhine-Westphalia is home to Kraftwerk,
Originally a krautrock band for four years,
Then later a synthpop band.
Economy North Rhine-Westphalia has always been Germany's powerhouse with the largest economy among the German states by GDP figures.
In the 1950s and 1960s,
Westphalia was known as Land von Kohle und Stahl,
Land of Coal and Steel.
In the post-World War II recovery,
The Ruhr was one of the most important industrial regions in Europe and contributed to German Wirtschaftswende.
As of the late 1960s,
Repeated crises led to contractions of these individual branches.
On the other hand,
Producing sectors,
Particularly in mechanical engineering and metal and ironwork industry,
Experienced substantial growth.
Despite this structural change and an economic growth which was under national average,
A 2018 GDP of 705 billion Euro,
A quarter of the total German GDP,
Made NRW the economically strongest state of Germany by GRP figures,
As well as one of the most important economical areas in the world.
Of Germany's top 100 corporations,
30 are based in North Rhine-Westphalia.
On a per capita base,
However,
North Rhine-Westphalia remains one of the weaker among the Western German states.
North Rhine-Westphalia attracts companies from both Germany and abroad.
In 2009,
The state had the most foreign direct investments,
FDI,
Anywhere in Germany.
Around 13,
100 foreign companies from the most important investment countries control their German or European operations from bases in North Rhine-Westphalia.
There have been many changes in the state's economy in recent times.
Among the many changes in the economy,
Employment in the creative industries is up while the mining sector is employing fewer people.
Industrial heritage sites are now workplaces for designers,
Artists,
And the advertising industry.
The Ruhr region has since the 1960s undergone a significant structural change away from coal mining and steel industry.
Many rural parts of Eastern Westphalia,
Bergisches Land,
And the Lower Rhine ground their economy on hidden champions in various sectors.
As of June 2014,
The unemployment rate is 8.
2%,
Second highest among all Western German states.
In October 2018,
The unemployment rate stood at 6.
4% and was higher than the national average.
Transport.
With its central location in the most important European economic era,
High population density,
Strong urbanization,
And numerous business locations,
North Rhine-Westphalia has one of the densest transport networks in the world.
The regional rail network is organized around the main and towns in Rhine-Ruhr,
Bonn,
Cologne,
Wuppertal,
Dusseldorf,
Essen,
And Dortmund.
Some public transport companies in this region are run under the umbrella of Verkehrsverbund Rhine-Ruhr,
Which provides a uniform ticket system valid for the entire area.
The Ruhr region is well integrated into the national rail system,
The Deutsche Bahn,
For both passenger and goods services.
Each city in the region has at least one or more train stations.
The bigger central stations have hourly direct connections to the bigger European cities,
As Amsterdam,
Brussels,
Paris,
Vienna,
And Zurich.
The Rhine-Ruhr area also contains some of the longest tram system in the world,
With tram and Stadtbahn services from Witten to Krefeld in the VRR zone,
And Cologne to Bad Hanau and Ziegberg via Bonn within the VRS zone.
Besides the local public transportation,
There is an interconnected commuter rail network,
With the Rhine-Ruhr-Essbonn network serving the Ruhr area,
As well as Dusseldorf and the Essbonn-Cologne serving the area around Cologne.
As of 2012,
The VRR network alone consists of 978 lines,
Of which there are,
In regional rail transit,
11 Essbonn lines,
15 regional express lines,
24 regional Bonn lines.
In local rail transit,
19 Stadtbahn light rail lines,
45 tram lines,
1 Schwebebahn line,
2 H-Bonn people mover systems made up of 3 lines.
In bus transit,
906 bus lines,
Including 33 express bus lines,
18 semi-fast bus lines,
6 trolleybus lines,
15,
300 km of route network,
Bus,
Light rail,
And train,
11,
500 transit stops.
In 2022,
The VRS and AVV area contains,
In regional rail transit,
7 Essbonn lines,
11 regional express lines,
18 regional Bonn services.
In local rail transit,
16 Stadtbahn lines,
3 streetcar lines within the city of Bonn.
North Rhine-Westphalia has the densest network of autobahns in Germany and similar Schnellstrasse expressways.
The autobahn network is built in a grid network with 5 east-west A2,
A4,
A40,
A42,
A44,
And 8 north-south A1,
A3,
A43,
A45,
A52,
A57,
A59,
A61 routes.
The A1,
A2,
A3,
A4,
And A61 are mostly used by through traffic,
While the other autobahns have a more regional function.
Both the A44 and the A52 have several missing links in various stages of planning.
Some missing sections are currently in construction or plan to be constructed in the near future.
Additional expressways serve as bypasses in local routes,
Especially around Dortmund and Bochum.
Due to the density of the autobahns and expressways,
Bundesstraßen are less important for inner city traffic.
The first autobahns in the region opened during the mid-1930s.
Due to the density of the network and the number of alternative routes,
Traffic volumes are generally lower than other major metropolitan areas in Europe.
Traffic congestion is an everyday occurrence,
But far less so than in Randstadt in the Netherlands,
Another polycentric urban area.
The most important autobahns have six lanes.
The region benefits from the presence of several airport infrastructure.
The main airport is Dusseldorf Airport World Class,
Which hosts 24.
5 million passengers per year and offers flights to many destinations.
Dusseldorf is the third largest airport in Germany after Frankfurt and Munich.
It is a hub for Eurowings and a focus city for several more airlines.
The airport has three passenger terminals and two runways and can handle wide-body aircraft up to the Airbus A380.
The second airport is the international airport of Germany's fourth largest city,
Cologne,
And also serves Bonn,
Former capital of West Germany.
With around 12.
4 million passengers passing through it in 2017,
It is the seventh largest passenger airport in Germany and the third largest in terms of cargo operations.
By traffic units,
Which combines cargo and passengers,
The airport is in fifth position in Germany.
As of March 2015,
Cologne-Bonn airport had service to 150 passenger destinations in 35 countries.
It is named after Konrad Adenauer,
A Cologne native and the first post-war chancellor of West Germany.
Third airport in the region,
Dortmund Airport,
Is a minor international airport located 10 kilometers east of Dortmund.
It serves the Eastern Rhine-Ruhr area,
The largest urban agglomeration in Germany,
And is mainly used for low-cost and leisure charter flights.
In 2019,
The airport served 2,
719,
563 passengers.
Then the airport of Münsterland-Münster-Ostnabruch Airport,
Hosting nearly 986,
260 passengers per year,
And Airport Wies with 693,
404 passengers.
The Rhine flows through North Rhine-Westphalia.
Its banks are usually heavily populated and industrialized,
In particular the agglomerations Cologne,
Düsseldorf,
And Ruhr area.
Here the Rhine flows through the largest conurbation in Germany,
The Rhine-Ruhr region.
Duisburg Inner Harbor,
Duisburg,
And Dortmundport are large industrial inland ports and serve as hubs along the Rhine and the German inland water transport system.
The country is crossed by many canals,
Like Rhine-Erna Canal RHK,
Der Wessel-Dattel Canal WDK,
Der Datteln-Helm Canal DHK,
And Dortmund-Ems Canal DEK,
An important role for inland navigation.
4.8 (108)
Recent Reviews
DarkSparkle
August 26, 2023
Grüße aus NRW / Greetings from North Rhine Westphalia! 🇩🇪 Hats off to ya for trying to tackle those German place names 😅
Beth
July 18, 2023
I love when you bore me right to sleep with your stories! 😂😂🥰💖