Bottrop, city (1994 pop. 119,680), North Rhine-Westphalia, W Germany, in the Ruhr district. It was a small town until 1863, when it began to develop as a coal-mining center. In 1975 the annexation of Kirchhellen and Gladbeck practically doubled the population of Bottrop. Today the city is an industrial center. In addition to its coal output, manufactures include chemicals, machinery, and steel. There are large carbonization plants there. Bottrop was known around the 11th cent. as Borgthorpe.

(ˈbɔtʁɔp) is a city in west central Germany, on the Rhine-Herne Canal, in North Rhine-Westphalia. Located in the Ruhr industrial area, Bottrop adjoins Essen, Oberhausen, Gladbeck and Dorsten. The city had been a coal-mining and rail center and contains factories producing coal-tar derivatives, chemicals, textiles, and machinery. Bottrop grew as a mining center beginning in the 1860s and was chartered as a city in 1921. In 1975 it unified with the neighbour communities of Gladbeck and Kirchhellen, but Gladbeck left it in 1976, leading to Kirchhellen becoming a district of Bottrop as Bottrop-Kirchhellen.

Bottrop has the longest stretch of autobahn without junctions which is often used for testing vehicles at high speed, and is home to the famous Mercedes-Benz tuning company Brabus.

Boroughs

The total area of the municipal territory is about 101 square kilometers. The longest north-south distance is 17 kilometers, and from west to east 9 kilometers. The highest peak within the city's territory is 78 m, the lowest one 26 m above NN.

Bottrop is divided into 3 boroughs, they are: Bottrop-Mitte (Bottrop-Center), Bottrop-Süd (Bottrop South) and Bottrop-Kirchhellen, each one having a borough representation and a borough ruler.

These boroughs are further subdivided into city parts, partly named after their traditional name, while the newly built parts are only recently named :

• Bottrop-Mitte: Eigen, Fuhlenbrock, Stadtmitte (City center)
  
• Bottrop-Süd: Batenbrock, Boy, Ebel, Lehmkuhle, Vonderort, Gartenstadt Welheim (Garden city Welheim) and Welheimer Mark (Welheim Market)
  
• Bottrop-Kirchhellen: Ekel, Feldhausen, Grafenwald, Hardinghausen, Holthausen, Im Loh, Kirchhellen, Kuhberg, Overhagen

For statistical reasons, Bottrop is also divided into statistical boroughs, they are (with their official numbering)

• 11 Altstadt
• 12 Nord-Ost (Northeast)
• 13 Süd-West (Southwest)
• 21 Fuhlenbrock-Heide (Fühlenbrock-Heath)
• 22 Fuhlenbrock-Wald (Fühlenbrock-Forest)

31 Stadtwald (City forest) 32 Eigen 41 Batenbrock-Nord (Batenbrock-North) 42 Batenbrock-Süd (Batenbrock-South) 51 Boy 52 Welheim

61 Ebel/Welheimer Mark (Ebel-Welheim Market) 62 Süd (South) 71 Kirchhellen-Mitte (Kirchhellen-Center) 72 Kirchhellen-Süd/Grafenwald (Kirchhellen-South/Grafenwald) 73 Kirchhellen-Süd-West (Kirchhellen-Southwest) 74 Kirchhellen-Nord-Ost (Kirchhellen-Northwest)

Kirchhellen

From 1919 until 1976 Kirchhellen was its own town. From 1976 until 1978 it was a part of "GlaBotKi"(Gladbeck, Bottrop, Kirchhellen). 1978 Kirchhellen would a part of Bottrop. The Kirchhellner were very angry and today they aren't happy about it yet.

Most of Kirchhellner are catholic (ca. 65%) - there are three churches their will be own on first of January in 2007. There is one Lutheran church (ca. 20% of the population is Lutheran and ca. 5% are Muslims). The rest is mostly without a religion.

Religious Demographics & Churches

• Catholic: ~50% (19 churches)
• Protestant (Lutheran): ~20% (8 churches)
• Atheist/Agnostic: ~20%
• Muslim: ~5%

Notable people from Bottrop

• Josef Albers (artist and mathematician)
• August Everding (opera director)
• Theo Jörgensmann (jazz musician and composer)
• Ludger Stratmann
• Ulla Kock am Brink
• Da Hool (DJ and music producer)

Notable Locations

• Alpincenter - Indoor ski slope
• Tetraeder - a 60 m high Tetrahedron, placed on a 90 m slag heap
• Movie Park Germany - theme park (in Bottrop-Kirchhellen)
• Schloss Beck - castle turned into an amusement park (in Bottrop-Kirchhellen)

Twin towns

Bottrop is twinned with:

• Tourcoing, France, since 1967
• Blackpool, England, United Kingdom
• Berlin-Mitte (Germany, since 1983 (first with Berlin-Wedding, which fusioned with Berlin-Tiergarten and Berlin-Mitte)
• Veszprém (Hungary, since 1987
• Merseburg, Saxony-Anhalt,Germany), since 1989
• Gliwice, Poland

Photos of Bottrop

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