Ratingen
Encyclopedia
Ratingen is a town in the district of Mettmann
Mettmann (district)
Mettmann is a Kreis in the middle of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring are the Ennepe-Ruhr and thedistrict-free cities Wuppertal, Solingen, Düsseldorf,Duisburg, Mülheim, Essen...

, in North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, in the northwestern part of Berg - about 12 km northeast of Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

. It is twinned with Cramlington
Cramlington
Cramlington is a town and civil parish in the county of Northumberland, North East England, situated north of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. The town's name suggests a probable founding by the Danes or an Anglo-Saxon origin, the word "ton" meaning town. The population was estimated as 39,000 in...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, with Gagarin, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 and Vermillion, South Dakota
Vermillion, South Dakota
Vermillion is a city in and the county seat of Clay County, in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of South Dakota, and the tenth largest city in the state. According to the 2010 Census, the population was 10,571. Vermillion lies atop a bluff near the Missouri River.The area has been home to...

 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Administration

With a communal reform of 1975 the independent municipalities of Breitscheid, Eggerscheidt, Hösel, Lintorf
Ratingen-Lintorf
Lintorf is a quarter in the northern part of the city Ratingen at the transition of the foreland of the Berg region into the lower Rhine plain. The elevation is 35 m above sea level. Population: 3,671 , 14,954 . Area: 16.85 km² ....

 (seat Angerland) as well as the local part of Homberg
Ratingen-Homberg
The part of Ratingen city that formerly was the independent village of Homberg -at that time being in the district Homberg-Meiersberg, with its scenic view of the both churches, one Protestant and one catholic - the latter devoted to James, son of Zebedee...

 and the municipality of Homberg-Meiersberg (seat Hubbelrath) were added into the city of Ratingen.

History

Ratingen was settled before 849. Since the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, the Ratingen area belonged to the count and later dukes of Berg. On December 11, 1276 the settlement received city rights. Ratingen was one of the four places of Berg which experienced an economic boom in the end of the Middle Ages, but slowed down during the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....

. At the beginning of the Industrial Age, the first manufacturing plants opened in 1783. In Cromford the first mechanical spinnery of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 opened, which grew into the Textilfabrik Cromford, now part of the Rheinisches Industriemuseum
Rheinisches Industriemuseum
The Rheinisches Industriemuseum is a decentralized museum with six locations in Rhineland, western Germany...

(Rhine Industry Museum). In the Napoleonic times, it became part of the city of Berg and in 1815, into the Kingdom of Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...

.

In the communal re-organization of 1929, Ratingen maintained its independence. After relatively small war damage, Ratingen in the 1960s and the 1970s experienced years the growth and development (West Ratingen with 20,000 inhabitants, developed in the late 1960s-1980s). Several important international enterprises (particularly from the IT industry) as Vodafone
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...

, Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...

, Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...

, SAP
SAP AG
SAP AG is a German software corporation that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. Headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software...

, CEMEX
Cemex
CEMEX is the world's largest building materials supplier and third largest cement producer. Founded in Mexico in 1906, the company is based in Monterrey, Mexico...

, Tiptel and Esprit maintain branches and/or main centers in Ratingen. In 1970, before further incorporations the number of inhabitants surpassed 50,000.

People

  • Dieter Nuhr
    Dieter Nuhr
    Dieter Nuhr is a German comedian. From 1981 to 1989, Nuhr studied art and history at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen. From 1982 to 1987 he attended the University of Duisburg-Essen, where he studied to become a teacher...

    , comedian
  • Marius Müller-Westernhagen
    Marius Müller-Westernhagen
    Marius Müller-Westernhagen is a German actor and musician.Possibly best known for the maudlin hit "Johnny Walker", Marius Müller Westernhagen has been a feature in German rock music since the mid seventies...

    , rock musician and actor
  • Claudia Jung
    Claudia Jung
    Claudia Jung , is a German Schlager singer and politician.-Biography:...

    , folk singer
  • Sönke Wortmann
    Sönke Wortmann
    Sönke Wortmann is a German film director and producer.- Biography :Wortmann’s father was a miner. After Wortmann’s A-Levels he wanted to become a professional football player and started playing with Westfalia Herne at the third best category and with SP Vgg Erkenschwick...

    , director

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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