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

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.

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:

Aachen ;Borken ;Coesfeld ;Düren ;Ennepe-Ruhr ;Rhein-Erft-Kreis ;Euskirchen ;Gütersloh ;

Heinsberg ;Herford ;Hochsauerland ; Höxter ;Cleves (Kleve) ;Lippe ;Märkischer Kreis ;

Mettmann ;Minden-Lübbecke ;Rhein-Kreis Neuss; Oberbergischer Kreis ;Olpe ;

Paderborn ; Recklinghausen ;Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis ;Rhein-Sieg ;Siegen-Wittgenstein ;

Soest ;Steinfurt ;Unna ;Viersen ;Warendorf ;Wesel .

The independent cities, which do not belong to any district:Aachen ;Bielefeld ;Bochum ;

Bonn ;Bottrop ;Cologne (Köln) ;Dortmund ;Duisburg ; Düsseldorf ;Essen ;Gelsenkirchen ;

Hagen ;Hamm ;Herne ;Krefeld ;Leverkusen ; Mönchengladbach ;Mülheim ;Münster ;

Oberhausen ;Remscheid ;Solingen ;Wuppertal .

The five administrative regions, belonging to one of two Landschaftsverbände:

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

Münster ;Detmold .

History

Augustusburg Palace in North Rhine-Westphalia.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.