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Recklinghausen has 123.000 inhabitants and is situated on the northern edge of the Ruhrgebiet, at the gateway to the leafy rural area of Münsterland. In 1236 it was granted full town status and can be traced back to one of the royal courts of the Emperor Charlemagne.

Until 1856 most of its inhabitants were farmers and traders. Then coal arrived. The population grew with every new pit and many of the new miners came from Poland and East Prussia. The number of inhabitants rose from 1.800 in 1800 to 53.000 in 1908, 100.000 in 1949 to over 130.000.

The crisis in the coal industry caused a huge number of shut-downs and the last pit in Recklinghausen was closed in 2001. The former coal town has now become a town of banks, schools and service industries.

Recklinghausen was always a little different from other towns in the Ruhrgebiet: it has an historic town centre, a lot of history, a lot of green spaces, a lot of artistic activity, and a lot of flair and atmosphere.

The oldest church is St. Peter's at the heart of the town which dates back 700 years. The Icon Museum can be found at Kirchplatz. It is the best-known museum of its kind outside the orthodox countries.

The "Kunsthalle" next to the railway station is devoted to post-war art, the Vestisches Museum possesses a good collection of naive art, and the "Umspannwerk" electricity museum in the south of Recklinghausen will provide you with everything you need to know about the history of electricity.

Recklinghausen is known all over Europe for its European theatre festival, the "Ruhrfestspiele/ Europäisches Festival". The theatre in the town park has just been awarded the top German architecture prize.

It is also worth taking a look at our colleges of higher education, the justice academy, the old farm houses in the suburb of Hochlar, the church square in Suderwich and the miners' housing settlement in Hochlarmark.