123-611: The Rhine–Herne Canal ( German : Rhein-Herne-Kanal ) is a 45.6-kilometre-long (28.3 mi) transportation canal in the Ruhr area of North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany , with five canal locks . The canal was built over a period of eight years (5 April 1906 – 14 July 1914) and connects the harbour in Duisburg on the Rhine ( 51°26′59″N 6°46′1″E / 51.44972°N 6.76694°E / 51.44972; 6.76694 ) with
246-403: A Pneumatic barrier . Port Luck ( Hafen Luck ) belongs to the construction and building materials company Luck located on the east bank, a little more than 2 kilometres upstream of Rütgers Chemicals. Port Marmorit ( Hafen Marmorit ) is the port of cement and lime mortar manufacturer and distributor Marmorit Knauf GmbH located north of a disused canal side channel and just north of
369-465: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it
492-402: A second language , and 75–100 million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220 million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90 million people, or 16% of
615-553: A synagogue established in 1885. With the growth of the community, a bigger building was built to serve as the community school. The community continued to grow and around 1,100 Jews were living in Gelsenkirchen in 1901, a number that reached its peak of 1,300 individuals in 1933. At the turn of the 20th century the Reform Jewish community was the most dominant among all Jewish communities in town, and after an organ
738-557: A synagogue in Buer and one in downtown Gelsenkirchen. A new downtown Gelsenkirchen synagogue was opened on 1 February 2007. Gelsenkirchen was a target of strategic bombing during World War II , particularly during the 1943 Battle of the Ruhr and the oil campaign . Three quarters of Gelsenkirchen was destroyed and many above-ground air raid shelters such as near the town hall in Buer are in nearly original form. Oberst Werner Mölders ,
861-612: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become
984-517: A coking town for more than 117 years. In the same year, Shell Solar Deutschland AG took over production of photovoltaic equipment. On 28 April 2000, the Ewald-Hugo colliery closed – Gelsenkirchen's last colliery. Three thousand coalminers lost their jobs. In 2003, Buer celebrated its thousandth anniversary of first documentary mention, and FC Schalke 04 celebrated on 4 May 2004 its hundredth anniversary. The Jewish community of Gelsenkirchen
1107-405: A commercial-industrial harbour in Gelsenkirchen. Gelsenkirchen Harbour [ de ] has a yearly turnover of 2 million tonnes and a water surface area of about 1.2 square kilometres (0.5 square miles), one of Germany's biggest and most important canal harbours, and is furthermore connected to Deutsche Bahn 's railway network at Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof. Local transport in Gelsenkirchen
1230-659: A few other stops along the way, and mostly by the Jews of Hanover , 500 in number. The arrival of this transport from Westphalia and Upper Saxony was recorded in his diaries by Adam Czerniakov, the last chairman of the Warsaw Ghetto Judenrat . He stated that those older than 68 were allowed to stay in Germany. The majority of these deportees were killed later on the different death sites around modern-day Poland. In 1946, 69 Jews returned to Gelsenkirchen and in 1958,
1353-706: A grain loading plant installed: new mills and silos have been installed. The Hafen der Zeche Friedrich der Große (Frederick the Great mine port) is directly south of the Port of the King Ludwig mine , as of 2009 the port is the site of an industrial estate named the Industriegebeit Friedrich der Große . The harbour which is cut parallel to the canal is still extant, but without fixed infrastructure, cranes etc. The Hafen der Zeche König Ludwig served
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#17327876899961476-559: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from
1599-511: A lot on Wanner Straße was purchased and served the community as its cemetery until 1936, today containing about 400 graves. In addition, another cemetery was built in 1927 in the suburb of Ückendorf. With the rise of Hitler and National Socialism in 1933, Jewish life in Gelsenkirchen was still relatively unaffected at first. In August 1938, 160 Jewish businesses were still open in town. In October 1938, though, an official ban restricted these businesses and all Jewish doctors became unemployed. In
1722-458: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained
1845-542: A pathway to restructure the local economy from coal- and steel-based industries to solar energy and project management. The current mayor of Gelsenkirchen is Karin Welge of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) since 2020. The most recent mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, with a runoff held on 27 September, and the results were as follows: The Gelsenkirch city council governs the city alongside
1968-696: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In
2091-562: A railway connecting the two. Today the quayside still has coal traffic and associated industries. The docks of the port at Wanner West were filled in to make room for the Güterverkehrszentrum Emscher - a logistics (road, rail and river) centre working in association with other companies. The Wanne-Herner Eisenbahn und Hafen GmbH (WHE) operates both the remaining canal side docks and the associated railway. The Osthafen Wanne (Port Wanne east) are also operated by
2214-483: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it
2337-603: A subsidiary of Stadtwerke Gelsenkirchen . Hafen Grimberg (Port Grimberg) is on the south canal bank in Gelsenkirchen , near the city boundary to Herne . It was named after the nearby Castle Grimberg , of which today only the foundations remain. Built in 1914 by the Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks AG (GBAG) to provide a link to the GBAG mines of Rheinelbe , Alma and Pluto as well as supplying
2460-556: A synagogue and cultural centre were built for the remaining community. In 2005, about 450 Jews were living in town. During the last decade of the 20th century, a noted number of Jews came to the town, after emigrating out of the former USSR. This situation made it necessary to extend the synagogue. Eventually, a new and bigger synagogue was built to serve the increasing Jewish community of Gelsenkirchen. The current community practices Orthodox Judaism, even though no family practices it at home. On 16 May 2014, antisemitic graffiti were painted on
2583-647: A usable length of 190 metres (620 ft) and a breadth of 12 metres (39 ft) were commissioned, so that bigger ships with lighters (barges) as specified in Euro class II can pass through the sluice gates. The canal begins in Duisburg along with the Schifffahrtskanal ; connected to land by three bays of the Kanalhafen , and to the rest of the world via the Rhine. The Rhine–Herne Canal headquarters
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#17327876899962706-506: Is a Volkshochschule for adult education as well as a city library with three branches. The Institute for Underground Infrastructure, founded in 1994 and associated with the Ruhr University Bochum , provides a wide range of research, certification, and consulting services. The science park created in 1995 by Internationale Bauausstellung Emscher Park , Wissenschaftspark Gelsenkirchen [ de ] , provides
2829-717: Is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and
2952-590: Is a zoo founded in 1949 as "Ruhr-Zoo" which is now operated by the city. Gelsenkirchen lies on autobahns A 2 , A 40 , A 42 and A 52 , as well as on Bundesstraßen (Federal Highways) B 224, B 226 and B 227. Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof (central station) lies at the junction of the Duisburg–Dortmund , the Essen–Gelsenkirchen and the Gelsenkirchen–Münster lines. The Rhine–Herne Canal has
3075-601: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as
3198-400: Is also host to four matches during the 2024 European Championships . German football players İlkay Gündoğan , Mesut Özil , Olaf Thon and Manuel Neuer were born in Gelsenkirchen. German football manager Michael Skibbe was also born in Gelsenkirchen. Since 1912, Gelsenkirchen owns the harness racing track Trabrennbahn Gelsenkirchen (also referred as GelsenTrabPark). Gelsenkirchen
3321-612: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German
3444-558: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic
3567-535: Is an important transhipment point. The port of the city of Gelsenkirchen ( Stadthafen Gelsenkirchen ) was opened in July 1914 and is the oldest port on the Rhine–Herne Canal. The port has two docks branched from the canal situated just east of the lock at Gelsenkirchen and has a water surface of 117,800 square metres (1,268,000 sq ft). The industrial port is ~900 by 60 metres (2,950 by 200 ft) and
3690-478: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German
3813-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25 million speak it as
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3936-535: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in
4059-611: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as
4182-586: Is in the Meiderich district of Duisburg , it serves as the water and shipping management canal and its locks from Essen to Herne. From here maintenance and repair work are organised and performed. The Oberhausen marina is a yacht port opened in 2004 in close proximity to the CentrO shopping centre. The port has a water depth of 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) and over 13 bridges. Also at the Oberhausen marina are
4305-565: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are
4428-562: Is located in Gelsenkirchen-Erle [ de ] . Gelsenkirchen was first documented in 1150, but it remained a tiny village until the 19th century, when the Industrial Revolution led to the economic and population growth of the region. In 1840, when the mining of coal began, 6,000 inhabitants lived in Gelsenkirchen; by 1900 the population had increased to 138,000. In the early 20th century, Gelsenkirchen
4551-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and
4674-597: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as
4797-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German
4920-567: Is provided by the Bochum/Gelsenkirchen tramway network and buses run by the Bochum-Gelsenkirchener Straßenbahn AG (BOGESTRA), as well as by buses operated by Vestische Straßenbahnen GmbH in the city's north (despite its name, it nowadays runs only buses). Some Stadtbahn and tram lines are operated by Ruhrbahn [ de ] . All these services have an integrated fare structure within
5043-525: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c. 1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period
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5166-547: Is the 25th-most populous city of Germany and the 11th-most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher River (a tributary of the Rhine ), it lies at the centre of the Ruhr area , the largest urban area of Germany, of which it is the fifth-largest city after Dortmund , Essen , Duisburg and Bochum . The Ruhr is located in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region,
5289-578: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish
5412-485: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers
5535-689: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to
5658-605: The Amt of Horst together became a new kreisfreie Stadt called Gelsenkirchen-Buer, effective on 1 April that year. From that time, the whole city area belonged to the governmental district of Münster. In 1930, on the city's advice, the city's name was changed to 'Gelsenkirchen', effective 21 May. By this time, the city was home to about 340,000 people. In 1931, the Gelsenkirchen Mining Corporation ( Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-Aktien-Gesellschaft ) founded
5781-856: The Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung is the only local newspaper in Gelsenkirchen. The local station Radio Emscher-Lippe [ de ] also reports the local news. There is also a free weekly newspaper, the Stadtspiegel Gelsenkirchen , along with monthly, or irregular, local publications called the Familienpost and the Beckhausener Kurier . Gelsenkirchen has 51 elementary schools (36 public schools, 12 Catholic schools, 3 Protestant schools), 8 Hauptschulen , 6 Realschulen , 7 Gymnasien , and 5 Gesamtschulen , among which
5904-639: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as
6027-623: The Dortmund-Ems Canal near Henrichenburg ( 51°37′1″N 7°19′19″E / 51.61694°N 7.32194°E / 51.61694; 7.32194 ), following the valley of the Emscher . It was widened in the 1980s. The Rhein-Herne canal ship was designed specifically for this canal; normally of about 1300–1350 ton capacity, it has a maximum draft of 2.50 metres (8.2 ft), a length of approximately 80 metres (260 ft), and maximum beam of 9.50 metres (31.2 ft). Originally
6150-537: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share
6273-417: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language
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#17327876899966396-522: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout
6519-739: The Gesamtschule Bismarck , as the only comprehensive school run by the Westphalian branch of the Evangelical ( Lutheran ) Church, warrants special mention. The Fachhochschule Gelsenkirchen , founded in 1992, also has campuses in Bocholt and Recklinghausen. It offers courses in Economics , Computer Science , Engineering Physics, Electrical Engineering , Mechanical Engineering , and Supply and Disposal Engineering. There
6642-746: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in
6765-406: The Nazi era , so was often a target of Allied bombing raids during World War II : nevertheless, over a third of the city's buildings date from before World War II. There are no longer coalmines in and around Gelsenkirchen; the city is searching for a new economic basis, having been afflicted for decades with one of the country's highest unemployment rates. Although the part of town now called Buer
6888-439: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c. 765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in
7011-427: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung
7134-422: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit. ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this
7257-413: The Theresienstadt concentration camp . On 31 March 1942, a Nazi deportation train set out from Gelsenkirchen and, carrying 48 Jews from the town area, made its way to the Warsaw Ghetto . The train was the first to deport Jews to Warsaw and not to Trawniki concentration camp in southern Poland, as used before. After it left Gelsenkirchen, the train was boarded by other Jews from Münster , Dortmund and
7380-400: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German
7503-495: The VRR . There are three tram lines, one light rail line, and about 50 bus routes in Gelsenkirchen. Gelsenkirchen is the headquarters of the Verband Lokaler Rundfunk in Nordrhein-Westfalen e.V. (VLR) (Network of Local Radio in North Rhine-Westphalia Registered Association). REL ( Radio Emscher-Lippe ) is also headquartered in Gelsenkirchen. Among newspapers, the Buersche Zeitung was a daily till 2006. The Ruhr Nachrichten ceased publication in Gelsenkirchen in April 2006. Now,
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#17327876899967626-426: The Waltrop lock park . Fish that inhabit the canal include European eel , European carp , zander , carp bream , common roach and common rudd , as well as the less common pike and rainbow trout . 51°31′52″N 7°3′25″E / 51.53111°N 7.05694°E / 51.53111; 7.05694 German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] )
7749-408: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from
7872-405: The second-biggest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union. Gelsenkirchen is the fifth-largest city of Westphalia after Dortmund, Bochum, Bielefeld and Münster , and it is one of the southernmost cities in the Low German dialect area. The city is home to the football club Schalke 04 , which is named after Gelsenkirchen-Schalke . The club's current stadium Veltins-Arena , however,
7995-430: The 19th century, the area in and around Gelsenkirchen was only thinly settled and almost exclusively agrarian. In 1815, after temporarily belonging to the Grand Duchy of Berg , the land now comprising the city of Gelsenkirchen passed to the Kingdom of Prussia , which assigned it to the province of Westphalia . Whereas the Gelsenkirchen of that time – not including today's north-end communities, such as Buer –
8118-504: The Bochum district was split up, Gelsenkirchen became the seat of its own district ( Kreis ), which would last until 1926. The cities of Gelsenkirchen and Wattenscheid, as well as the Ämter of Braubauerschaft (in 1900, Bismarck), Schalke, Ückendorf [ de ] , Wanne and Wattenscheid all belonged to the Gelsenkirchen district. A few years later, in 1896, Gelsenkirchen split off from Gelsenkirchen district to become an independent city ( kreisfreie Stadt ). In 1891, Horst
8241-614: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In
8364-414: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of
8487-534: The Gelsenberg Petrol Corporation ( Gelsenberg-Benzin-AG ). In 1935, the Hibernia Mining Company founded the Hydrierwerk Scholven AG GE-Buer coal liquefaction plant. Scholven/Buer began operation in 1936 and achieved a capacity of 200,000 tons/year of finished product, mainly aviation base gasoline. After 1937, Gelsenberg-Benzin-AG opened the Nordstern plant for converting bituminous coal to synthetic oil. The 9 November 1938 Kristallnacht antisemitic riots destroyed Jewish businesses, dwellings and cemeteries, and
8610-417: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of
8733-399: The German states; the invention of the printing press c. 1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of
8856-681: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by
8979-631: The Grevel family (later Schalker Eisenhütte Maschinenfabrik ), and also the Schalke Mining and Ironworks Association ( Schalker Gruben- und Hüttenverein ). A year later, and once again in Schalke, he founded the Glass and Mirror Factory Incorporated ( Glas- und Spiegel-Manufaktur AG ). After Gelsenkirchen had become an important heavy-industry hub, it was raised to city in 1875. In 1885, after
9102-655: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are
9225-865: The Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ), the Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German
9348-574: The Jewish inhabitants, were installed outside the house. Gelsenkirchen presents itself as a centre of solar technology. Shell Solar Deutschland GmbH produces solar cells in Rotthausen. Scheuten Solar Technology has taken over its solar panel production. There are other large businesses in town: THS Wohnen [ de ] , Gelsenwasser , e.on , BP Gelsenkirchen GmbH, Shell Solar Deutschland GmbH and Pilkington . ZOOM Erlebniswelt Gelsenkirchen
9471-518: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c. thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c. 1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy
9594-523: The Rhine into the canal at each stage. As well as this, water from the Lippe river to the east is brought in through the Datteln-Hamm Canal . In 1980 the current sluicegate was completed, including a 24-metre-high (79 ft) under-gate and control platform, which has now become a visible yellow landmark in the Ruhr landscape. The intended harbour of the old lock is today underwater and part of
9717-1048: The Rhine-Herne canal ended in Herne , where it met a branch of the Dortmund-Ems-Kanal running from Henrichenburg to Herne, the intersection situated just above the East Herne lock. After the closure of the last part of the Henrichenburg to Herne canal, the Henrichenburg-Herne section of the Dortmund-Ems was added to the Rhein-Herne Canal. The distribution of water in the canal is realised through five pump stations. Located at Duisburg - Meiderich , Oberhausen , Gelsenkirchen , Wanne-Eickel and East Herne, they pump water from
9840-469: The WHE; the ports and rail link serves a major scrap metal works. Originally the city of Recklinghausen had no access to the canal; through an exchange of land with the city of Herne the city gained access to the canal. In recent decades, the port was abandoned. However through the actions of the company 'United Mills' grain shipments were made using a mobile crane. Since late 2007, the port has expanded and
9963-692: The attractions Sealife Oberhausen and Oberhausen Modellbahn World . The Stadthafen Essen (City port of Essen ) is the youngest port on the Rhine–Herne Canal opened in 1934 by the city of Essen, and operated since 1987 by Stadtwerke Essen . The port consists of a doubled sided canal side quay together with a harbour port at right angles onto the canal, which together form a water area of 63,000 square metres (680,000 sq ft) with associated dock-land of 300,000 square metres (3,200,000 sq ft) The dock handles bulk goods such as solid mineral fuels, petroleum and chemical products, stone, earth and iron and steel as well as recyclable materials, and
10086-441: The bridge carrying Wartburgstraße (Wartburgstreet). The actual facility consists of little more than a pier. Here after 45.6 kilometres (28.3 mi) ends (or begins) the Rhine–Herne Canal, which meets the Dortmund-Ems canal (at the 14.7-kilometre mark) near the old Henrichenburg boat lift (replaced in 1962 by a newer lock, and in 1989 by a new larger lock). The terminal is used as a mooring for pleasure craft. It forms part of
10209-553: The city. From 1933 to 1945, the city's mayor was the appointed Nazi Carl Engelbert Böhmer. In 1994, the Institute for City History opened the documentation centre "Gelsenkirchen under National Socialism" ( Dokumentationsstätte "Gelsenkirchen im Nationalsozialismus" ). On 17 December 1953, the Kokerei Hassel went into operation, billed as Germany's "first new coking plant " since the war. The Scholven Power Station
10332-529: The coal transported from, and deliveries to the former King Ludwig mine. It is located at kilometer 38 of the canal, just upstream of the Herne Ost lock, on the north bank opposite the Hafen der Zeche Friedrich der Große (Frederick the Great mine port). The 6,900-square-metre (1.7-acre) harbor basin was built from 1897 to 1898 when the section of the canal (the then branch channel of the Dortmund-Ems Canal ),
10455-535: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with
10578-456: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in
10701-627: The disused Nordstern [ de ] coalmine in Horst. In 1999, the last phase of the Internationale Bauausstellung Emscher Park , an undertaking that brought together many cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, was held. Coke was produced at the old Hassel coking works for the last time on 29 September 1999. This marked the shutdown of the last coking plant in Gelsenkirchen, after being
10824-406: The early Middle Ages , some examples being: Raedese (nowadays Resse ), Middelvic ( Middelich , today part of Resse), Sutheim ( Sutum ; today part of Beckhausen) and Sculven (nowadays Scholven ). Many nearby farming communities were later identified as iuxta Bure ("near Buer"). It was about 1150 when the name Gelstenkerken or Geilistirinkirkin appeared up for the first time. At about
10947-519: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of
11070-401: The foundations of the canal walls. This harbour was meant to be a possible spot for the eventual significant reconstruction of the lock, but it was never used for this purpose. A possible reconstruction of the sluice gate was commissioned in 1914 with the canal opening. Instead of the old sluice of 165 metres (541 ft) in length and 10 metres (33 ft) in breadth a new sluice chamber with
11193-408: The harbour is now a walking and biking trail. The Victor Harbor ( Hafen Victor ) was created to serve the former colliery 'Victor' which finished all operations in 1973. The port is in the city of Castrop-Rauxel in the vicinity of Schloss Bladenhorst (Castle 'Blade Horst'), about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) upstream from the Hafen der Zeche Friedrich der Große also on the south bank. Today
11316-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,
11439-481: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of
11562-517: The ironworks of ' Schalker group ' with imported ore. Around the same time, and up to 1929 the industrial railway of Erzbahn was built, serving the Schalker and Bochum group iron and steelworks. Between 1937 and 1968 Grimberg harbour was one of the major ports on the canal. In 1968 steel production at the southern end of the Erzbahn at Bochum ended, in 1982 the Schalker works closed - with this
11685-414: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen ( UK : / ˈ ɡ ɛ l z ən k ɪər x ən / , US : / ˌ ɡ ɛ l z ən ˈ k ɪər x ən / , German: [ˌɡɛlzn̩ˈkɪʁçn̩] ; Westphalian : Gelsenkiärken )
11808-497: The legendary Luftwaffe fighter pilot, was born here. The Gelsenberg Lager subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp was established in 1944 to provide forced labour of about 2000 Hungarian women and girls for Gelsenberg-Benzin-AG. About 150 died during September 1944 bombing raids (shelters and protection ditches were forbidden to them). There was also a camp for Sinti and Romani people (see Romani Holocaust ) in
11931-557: The mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows: Gelsenkirchen is home of the football club FC Schalke 04 , currently in the 2. Bundesliga , the second tier of German football. The club has won 7 Bundesliga titles. Schalke's home ground is Arena AufSchalke . It was one of 12 German cities to host matches during the 2006 FIFA World Cup , hosting matches between Poland and Ecuador , Argentina and Serbia and Montenegro , Portugal and Mexico , and USA and Czech Republic . It
12054-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted
12177-653: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from
12300-481: The port still handles coal with the help of two gantry cranes. Port Rütgers ( Hafen Rütgers ) is the port of Rütgers Chemicals (founded by Julius Rütgers) and is about 500 metres (1,600 ft) upstream of the Port Victor on the east side of the canal after the canal makes a slight bend to the north. The main product dealt with here is pitch obtained from coal tar from the refining of coal. The port has
12423-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation
12546-495: The same month, the Jewish community of the town was expelled. Between 1937 and 1939, the Jewish population of Gelsenkirchen dropped from 1,600 to 1,000. During Kristallnacht , the town's synagogue was destroyed, after two thirds of the town's Jewish population had already left. On 27 January 1942, 350 among the 500 remaining Jews in town were deported to the Riga Ghetto ; later, the last remaining Jews were deported to Warsaw and
12669-573: The same time, the first church in town was built in what is now Buer. This ecclesia Buron ("church at Buer") was listed in a directory of parish churches by the sexton from Deutz , Theodericus. This settlement belonged to the Mark . However, in ancient times and even in the Middle Ages, only a few dozen people actually lived in the settlements around the Emscher basin. Up until the middle of
12792-546: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,
12915-807: The subsequent industrialisation , the Cologne – Minden Railway and the Gelsenkirchen Main Railway Station were opened. In 1868, Gelsenkirchen became the seat of an Amt within the Bochum district which encompassed the communities of Gelsenkirchen, Braubauerschaft (since 1900, Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck [ de ] ), Schalke, Heßler, Bulmke and Hüllen. Friedrich Grillo founded the Corporation for Chemical Industry ( Aktiengesellschaft für Chemische Industrie ) in Schalke in 1872, as well as founding Vogelsang & Co. with
13038-500: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in
13161-533: The town synagogue. The building at Husemannstraße 75 belonged to Dr. Max Meyer, who built it between 1920 and 1921. A mezuzah sign can still be seen on the top right side of the door. On Florastraße, near Kennedyplatz, (formerly Schalker Straße 45), stands the house of the Tepper family, a Jewish family that vanished during the Holocaust . As part of the national Stolperstein project, five bricks, commemorating
13284-733: The trading port ~500 by 75 metres (1,640 by 246 ft). A private railway of length 18.4 kilometres (11.4 mi) is operated which is linked to the tracks of the Deutsche Bahn Formerly the port dealt mainly with coal and mining products, now the port is a major hub for petroleum products and second-largest inland port for cereals in North Rhine-Westphalia . It is operated by the Gelsenkirchener Logistik-, Hafen- und Servicegesellschaft (Gelsenkirchener logistics, harbour and service company.)
13407-399: The use of the port for transport of iron ore ended. Such was the emphasis on iron ore that much of the port now stands empty, part of it nowadays is used for the processing of recycled materials for the building industry, as well as a storage facility. Like many other the port of Westhafen Wanne ( Wanne west harbour) was originally built for the mutual benefit of the mines and canal, with
13530-555: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during
13653-600: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching
13776-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of
13899-501: Was already flooded. In 1912, at the colliery port handled 360,096 tonnes of goods. In 1913 the docks expanded. Because of mining subsidence by 1954 the quaywall had to be increased by 2.50 metres (8.2 ft). In the 1980s, it was leased to Automobil- und Motorbootsport-Club Castrop-Rauxel e. V (The car and motorboat club of Castrop-Rauxel ) and is used from recreational boating, being no longer used by Ruhrkohle AG , and contains many small boats. The former mine railway, which starts at
14022-547: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially
14145-510: Was built in the late 1960s with further development until 1985, one of the largest in Europe at the time. Its 302 metres (991 ft) chimneys are among the tallest in Germany. When postal codes were introduced in 1961, Gelsenkirchen was one of the few cities in West Germany to be given two codes: Buer was given 466, while Gelsenkirchen got 465. These were in use until 1 July 1993. The first comprehensive school in North Rhine-Westphalia
14268-492: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which
14391-640: Was first mentioned by Heribert I in a document as Puira in 1003, there were hunting people on a hill north of the Emscher as early as the Bronze Age – earlier than 1000 BC. They did not live in houses as such, but in small yards gathered together near each other. Later, the Romans pushed into the area. In about 700, the region was settled by the Saxons . A few other parts of town which today lie in Gelsenkirchen's north end were mentioned in documents from
14514-417: Was installed inside the synagogue, and most prayers performed mostly in German instead of traditional Hebrew, the town's orthodox community decided to stop attending the synagogue and tried to establish a new orthodox community, led by Dr. Max Meyer, Dr. Rubens and Abraham Fröhlich, most of them living on Florastraße. In addition, another Jewish orthodox congregation of Polish Jews was found in town. In 1908,
14637-613: Was officially established in 1874, relatively late compared to the Jewish Ashkenazi communities in Germany. In a list of 1829 to determine the salary for the Chief Rabbi of Westphalia , Abraham Sutro [ de ] , three families were named: the families of Ruben Levi, Reuben Simon, and Herz Heimann families. With the growth of the town during the second half of the 19th century, its Jewish population also grew bigger, with about 120 Jews living in town in 1880, and
14760-475: Was opened in 1969. Scholven-Chemie AG (the old hydrogenation plant) merged with Gelsenberg-Benzin-AG to form the new corporation VEBA-Oel AG. In 1987, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass before 85,000 people at Gelsenkirchen's Parkstadion . The Pope also became an honorary member of FC Schalke 04 . In 1997, the Federal Garden Show ( Bundesgartenschau or BUGA ) was held on the grounds of
14883-511: Was put in the Amt of Wattenscheid in the Bochum district, in the governmental region of Arnsberg , Buer, which was an Amt in its own right, was along with nearby Horst joined to Recklinghausen district in the governmental region of Münster . This arrangement came to an end in 1928. After the discovery of coal – lovingly known as "Black Gold" – in the Ruhr area in 1840, and
15006-548: Was split off from the Amt of Buer, which itself was raised to city status in 1911, and to an independent city status the next year. Meanwhile, Horst became the seat of its own Amt . In 1924, the rural community of Rotthausen , which until then had belonged to the Essen district, was made part of the Gelsenkirchen district. In 1928, under the Prussian local government reforms, the cities of Gelsenkirchen and Buer along with
15129-413: Was the most important coalmining town in Europe. It was called the "city of a thousand fires" for the flames of mine gases flaring at night. In 1928, Gelsenkirchen was merged with the adjoining cities of Buer and Gelsenkirchen-Horst [ de ] . The city bore the name Gelsenkirchen-Buer, until it was renamed Gelsenkirchen in 1930. The city remained a center of coal mining and oil refining during
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