North Rhine-Westphalia

From Free net encyclopedia

State coat of arms (Landeswappen)
Image:Coa de-nordrhein westfalen 300px.png
Civil Flag (Landesflagge)
Image:Flag of North Rhine-Westphalia.svg
State Service Flag (Landesdienstflagge)
Image:Flag of North Rhine-Westphalia (state).svg
Statistics
Capital:	Düsseldorf
Area:	34,084.13 km²<ref>Statistisches Jahrbuch NRW 2005, 47. Jahrgang, Landesamt für Datenverarbeitung und Statistik Nordrhein-Westfalen, p. 22</ref>
Inhabitants:	18,075,400(2004)<ref>Statistisches Jahrbuch NRW 2005, 47. Jahrgang, Landesamt für Datenverarbeitung und Statistik Nordrhein-Westfalen</ref>
pop. density:	530 inh./km²
GDP:	€ 463 billion (2002)
Website:	http://www.nrw.de/
ISO 3166-2:	DE-NW
Politics
Prime Minister:	Jürgen Rüttgers (CDU)
Ruling parties:	CDU/FDP coalition
Map
Image:Germany Laender Nordrhein-Westfalen.png

North Rhine-Westphalia (German: Nordrhein-Westfalen, usually shortened to: NRW) is - in population and economic output - the largest Federal State of Germany. North Rhine-Westphalia has over 18 million inhabitants, contributes about 22 % of Germany's gross domestic product and comprises a land area of 34,083 km² (13,158 square miles). North Rhine-Westphalia is situated in the Western part of Germany and shares borders with Belgium and the Netherlands.

The capital city is Düsseldorf, other major cities are Cologne (Köln), Essen, Dortmund, Duisburg, Bielefeld, Bonn and Münster.

1 Geography
2 History
3 Flag
4 List of Prime Ministers of North Rhine-Westphalia
5 May 22, 2005 state election results
6 Notes and references
7 External links

[edit]

Geography

The state is centred on the sprawling Rhine-Ruhr urbanised region, which contains the cities of Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Bonn, as well as the Ruhr industrial complex. The Ruhr area consists, among others, of the cities of Essen, Dortmund, Duisburg, Bochum and Gelsenkirchen.

The state's area covers a maximum distance of 291 km from north to south, and 266 km from east to west.

The total length of the state's borders is 1,645 km. The following countries and states have a border with North Rhine-Westphalia:<ref>Length of borders taken from Statistisches Jahrbuch NRW 2005, 47. Jahrgang, Landesamt für Datenverarbeitung und Statistik Nordrhein-Westfalen, p. 22</ref>

Belgium (99 km)
The Netherlands (387 km)
Lower Saxony (583 km)
Hesse (269 km)
Rhineland-Palatinate (307 km)

For many people North Rhine-Westphalia is synonymous with industrial areas and agglomerating cities. But the largest part of the state is covered with forests and fields. The southern parts of the Teutoburg Forest are located in the northeast. In the southwest, North Rhine-Westphalia shares in a small part of the Eifel, located on the borders with Belgium and Rhineland-Palatinate. The southeast is occupied by the sparsely populated regions of Sauerland and Siegerland. The northwestern areas of the state are part of the Northern European Lowlands.

The most important rivers that run at least partially through North Rhine-Westphalia include: Rhine, Ruhr, Ems, Lippe and Weser. The Pader, which runs through the city of Paderborn, is considered the shortest river in Germany.

The state consists of 5 administrative regions (Regierungsbezirke), divided into 31 districts (Kreise) and 23 urban districts (kreisfreie Städte). In total, North Rhine-Westphalia has 396 municipalities (1997), including the urban districts, which are municipalities by themselves.

The districts of North Rhine-Westphalia:

Image:North rhine w map.jpg

The independent cities, which do not belong to any district:

Image:Duisburg Masurensee.jpg The five administrative regions, belonging to one of two Landschaftsverbände:

Rheinland (LVR)
- Cologne
- Düsseldorf
Westfalen-Lippe (LWL)

[edit]

History

Image:Augustusburg.jpg

The state of North Rhine-Westphalia was established by the British military administration in 1946. Originally it consisted of Westphalia and the northern parts of the Rhine Province, both formerly belonging to Prussia. In 1947 the former state of Lippe was merged with North Rhine-Westphalia, hence leading to the present borders of the state.

The North Rhine-Westphalia state election on May 22, 2005 granted the CDU a landslide victory. Their top candidate Jürgen Rüttgers built a new coalition government consisting of CDU and FDP that replaced the former government headed by Peer Steinbrück. Rüttgers was elected new Prime Minister (German: Ministerpräsident) of the federal state on June 22, 2005.

[edit]

Flag

The flag of North Rhine-Westphalia is green-white-red with the combined coats of arms of the Prussian Rhine province (white line before green background), Westphalia (the white horse) and Lippe (the red rose).

According to legend the horse in the Westphalian coat of arms is the horse that the Saxon leader Widukind rode after his baptism. Other theories attribute the horse to Henry the Lion.

[edit]

List of Prime Ministers of North Rhine-Westphalia

These are the Prime Ministers (German: Ministerpräsident) of the Federal State (German: Bundesland) of North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW):

1946 - 1947: Rudolf Amelunxen (Centre Party)
1947 - 1956: Karl Arnold (CDU)
1956 - 1958: Fritz Steinhoff (SPD)
1958 - 1966: Franz Meyers (CDU)
1966 - 1978: Heinz Kühn (SPD)
1978 - 1998: Johannes Rau (SPD)
1998 - 2002: Wolfgang Clement (SPD)
2002 - 2005: Peer Steinbrück (SPD)
holding office: Jürgen Rüttgers (CDU)

[edit]

May 22, 2005 state election results

Official results are as follows. Note that overall seat totals have been reduced, lowering the seat counts for all parties.

Voter turnout was at 63%, an increase of 7% over the previous election in 2000. Previous to the election, some analysts had predicted that a CDU victory might result from disenchanted SPD voters staying home, but the turnout figures appear to reject this scenario.

Party	Party List votes	Vote percentage (change)		Total Seats (change)		Seat percentage
Social Democratic Party (SPD)	3,059,074	37.1%	-5.7%	74	-28	39.6%
Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	3,695,806	44.8%	+7.9%	89	+1	47.6%
Free Democratic Party (FDP)	508,354	6.2%	-3.7%	12	-12	6.4%
Alliance '90/The Greens	509,219	6.2%	-0.9%	12	-5	6.4%
Labour and Social Justice Party (WASG)	181,886	2.2%	+2.2%	0	+0	0.0%
National Democratic Party (NPD)	73,959	0.9%	+0.9%	0	+0	0.0%
Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS)	72,982	0.9%	-0.2%	0	+0	0.0%
The Republicans	67,282	0.8%	-0.3%	0	+0	0.0%
All Others	74,810	0.9%	+0.5%	0	+0	0.0%
Totals	8,243,372	100.0%		187	-44	100.0%