Oberhausen

For other places with the same name, see Oberhausen (disambiguation).

Oberhausen
City
View over Oberhausen Zauberlehrling Altmarkt Oberhausen Gasometer Schloss Oberhausen
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Oberhausen
Oberhausen Show map of Germany Oberhausen Show map of North Rhine-Westphalia
Coordinates: 51°29′48″N06°52′14″E / 51.49667°N 6.87056°E / 51.49667; 6.87056
Country	Germany
State	North Rhine-Westphalia
Admin. region	Düsseldorf
District	Urban district
Government
•  Lord mayor (2025–30)	Thorsten Berg (SPD)
Area
• Total	77.09 km2 (29.76 sq mi)
Elevation	78 m (256 ft)
Population  (2023-12-31) [1]
• Total	211,099
• Density	2,738/km2 (7,092/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	46001-46149
Dialling codes	0208
Vehicle registration	OB
Website	City of Oberhausen (de)

Oberhausen ( /ˈoʊbərhaʊzən/ , ^{[2] [3] [4]} German: [ˈoːbɐhaʊzn̩] ^ⓘ ) is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen (c.13 km or 8 mi). The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and The Static Roots Festival. Its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage.

Culture: Exhibitions of ice sculptures, Eiswelt Oberhausen, occurred in 2024 [and 2025]. ^[5]

History

Oberhausen was named for its 1847 railway station which had taken its name from the Oberhausen Castle. The new borough was formed in 1862 following inflow of people for the local coal mines and steel mills. Awarded town rights in 1874, Oberhausen absorbed several neighbouring boroughs including Alstaden, parts of Styrum and Dümpten in 1910. Oberhausen became a city in 1901, and they incorporated the towns of Sterkrade and Osterfeld in 1929. The Ruhrchemie AG synthetic oil plant ("Oberhausen-Holten" or "Sterkrade/Holten") ^[6] was a bombing target of the oil campaign of World War II, and the US forces reached the plant by 4 April 1945.

In 1973, Thyssen AG employed 14,000 people in Oberhausen in the steel industry, but ten years later the number had fallen to 6,000. ^[7]

In 1954 the city began hosting the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, and the 1982 Deutscher Filmpreis was awarded to a group that wrote the Oberhausen Manifesto.

Demographics

Population development since 1862:

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1862	5,590	—
1871	12,805	+129.1%
1900	42,148	+229.2%
1910	89,900	+113.3%
1919	98,677	+9.8%
1925	105,121	+6.5%
1933	192,345	+83.0%
1939	191,842	−0.3%
1950	202,808	+5.7%
1961	256,773	+26.6%
1970	246,736	−3.9%
1987	220,286	−10.7%
2001	221,619	+0.6%
2011	210,216	−5.1%
2017	211,422	+0.6%
2020	209,566	−0.9%
Source: [8] [ circular reference ]

The age breakdown of the population (2013) was: ^[9]

<18 years	15.6%
18–64 years	63.3%
>64 years	21.1%

There were 12.5% non-Germans living in Oberhausen, as of 2014. ^[10]

The unemployment rate is 10.4% (Jul 2020). ^[11]

Migrant communities in Oberhausen as of 31 December 2017:

Turkey	8,560
Syria	2,315
Serbia	2,090
Italy	2,005
Poland	1,840
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1,530
Greece	1,346
Croatia	1,209
North Macedonia	865
Sri Lanka	673

Politics

Mayor

The current mayor of Oberhausen is Thorsten Berg of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), elected in 2025.

The previous mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, with a runoff held on 27 September, and the results were as follows:

Candidate		Party	First round		Second round
			Votes	%	Votes	%
	Daniel Schranz	Christian Democratic Union	30,150	45.5	28,456	62.1
	Thorsten Berg	Social Democratic Party	19,699	29.7	17,381	37.9
	Norbert Emil Axt	Alliance 90/The Greens	7,002	10.6
	Wolfgang Kempkes	Alternative for Germany	4,521	6.8
	Jens Carstensen	The Left	3,095	4.7
	Urban Mülhausen	Open for Citizens	1,378	2.1
	Claudia Wädlich	The Violets	468	0.7
Valid votes			66,313	98.7	45,837	99.2
Invalid votes			859	1.3	368	0.8
Total			67,172	100.0	46,205	100.0
Electorate/voter turnout			159,510	42.1	159,458	29.0
Source: State Returning Officer

City council

Results of the 2020 city council election

The Oberhausen city council governs the city alongside the mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows:

Party		Votes	%	+/-	Seats	+/-
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	21,471	32.8	0.2	19	1
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	20,754	31.7	7.2	19	4
	Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)	9,450	14.4	5.9	8	3
	Alternative for Germany (AfD)	4,995	7.6	New	4	New
	The Left (Die Linke)	3,367	5.1	2.8	3	2
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	1,988	3.0	0.2	2	±0
	Alliance of Obenhauser Citizens (BOB)	1,913	2.9	5.7	2	3
	Open for Citizens (OfB)	1,153	1.8	New	1	New
	The Violets (Die Violetten)	445	0.7	0.5	0	±0
Valid votes		65,536	98.1
Invalid votes		1,290	1.9
Total		66,826	100.0		58	2
Electorate/voter turnout		159,510	41.9	0.9
Source: State Returning Officer

Sport

Oberhausen is home to Regionalliga West football team Rot-Weiß Oberhausen, who play at the Niederrheinstadion situated on the banks of the Rhine–Herne Canal.

The city had a professional ice hockey team between 1997 and 2007, the Revierlöwen Oberhausen. ^[12] The team initially played at the Arena Oberhausen when playing in the top-flight Deutsche Eishockey Liga but later moved to the Emscher-Lippe-Halle in Gelsenkirchen following financial woes.

The Rudolf Weber-Arena has hosted many international indoor sporting events including MMA event UFC 122 in 2010 ^[13] and the PDC Unibet European Championship of darts in 2020. ^[14]

The city has established itself as a popular destination for professional wrestling in Germany, with Gelsenkirchen-based promotion Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) regularly running shows in Oberhausen's Turbinenhalle. ^[15] wXw's 16 Carat Gold Tournament is considered one of the most prestigious independent wrestling tournaments in the world ^[16] and is held in March every year in Oberhausen - attracting fans from around the world.

Transport

The nearest airport is Düsseldorf Airport, located 33 km (21 mi) south of Oberhausen (25 minutes drive).

Twin towns – sister cities

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Germany

Oberhausen is twinned with: ^[17]

• Middlesbrough, England, United Kingdom (1974)
• Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine (1986)
• Freital, Germany (1990)
• Carbonia, Italy (2002)
• Iglesias, Italy (2002)
• Mersin, Turkey (2004)
• Tychy, Poland (2020)

Notable people

• Georg Schaltenbrand (1897–1979), author, neurologist and multiple sclerosis specialist
• Martha Schneider-Bürger (1903–2001), civil engineer and author
• Reni Erkens (1909–1987), swimmer
• Wilhelm Brinkmann (1910–1991), field handball player
• Erich Kempka (1910–1975), SS-officer and Adolf Hitler's driver
• Werner Töniges (1910–1995), naval officer
• Willy Jürissen (1912–1990), footballer
• Édouard Wawrzyniak (1912–1991), French footballer
• Will Quadflieg (1914–2003), actor
• Alf Marholm (1918–2006), actor, radio plays, audio books and voice
• Arnulf Zitelmann (1929–2023), writer
• Paul Lange (1931–2016), kayaker, Olympic champion
• Karl-Heinz Feldkamp (born 1934), football player and trainer
• Wilhelm Keim (1934–2018), chemist and professor for technical chemistry
• Theo Vennemann (born 1937), linguist and professor of German and theoretical linguistics
• Siegfried Jerusalem (born 1940), opera singer
• Hans Siemensmeyer (born 1940), football player and coach
• Wolf-Dieter Ahlenfelder (1944–2014), football referee
• Dieter Herzog (1946–2025), footballer
• Tilman Spengler (born 1947), writer and journalist, author and co-editor of the magazine Kursbuch
• Eckhard Stratmann-Mertens (born 1948), teacher and politician (Alliance 90/The Greens), member of Bundestag
• Ditmar Jakobs (born 1953), footballer
• Willi Wülbeck (born 1954), athlete
• Achim Hofer (born 1955), musicologist
• Christoph Klimke (born 1959), writer
• Michael Grosse-Brömer (born 1960), politician (CDU), member of Bundestag
• Christoph Schlingensief (1960–2010), film and theater director, radio play writer and performance artist
• Dirk Balthaus (born 1965), jazz pianist and composer
• Esther Schweins (born 1970), actress and comedian
• Markus Feldhoff (born 1974), footballer
• Mark Kleinschmidt (born 1974), rower
• Marcel Landers (born 1984), footballer
• Frederick Cordes (born 1986), politician (SPD)
• Max Meyer (born 1995), footballer
• Davin Herbrüggen (born 1998), singer

Gallery

• 
  Oberhausen Hauptbahnhof
• 
  Gasometer
• 
  Oberhausen Castle as seen from the Gasometer
• 
  Industrial Museum
• 
  Courthouse
• 
  Baumeister-Mill
• 
  Vondern Castle
• 
  Kastell Holten
• 
  Ruhr meadows in Oberhausen-Alstaden
• 
  CentrO shopping mall
• 
  Oberhausen Castle, inner courtyard with the Little castle
• 
  AQUApark near CentrO in 2012
• 
  'Shellakabookie' on Schwartzstraße
• 
  Turbinenhalle Oberhausen
• 
  Waste processing company GMVA in Oberhausen

References

1. "Alle politisch selbständigen Gemeinden mit ausgewählten Merkmalen am 31.12.2023" (in German). Federal Statistical Office of Germany. 28 October 2024. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
2. "Oberhausen". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). HarperCollins. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
3. "Oberhausen" (US) and "Oberhausen". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 2020-03-22.
4. "Oberhausen". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary . Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
5. https://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/ruhrgebiet/kuenstler-schaffen-eisskulpturen-fuer-eiswelt-oberhausen-100.html. Wdr.de. Retrieved 2025-12-31
6. Powell, A.R. (9–10 January 1945). "Detailed Summary of meeting of Oil Mission Held in New Interior Building" (PDF). Enemy Oil Intelligence Committee. p. 17 (p61 of pdf). Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 August 2008. Retrieved 25 March 2009.
7. John Tagliabue (27 November 1983). "The Twilight of the Industrial Ruhr". New York Times . Retrieved 16 November 2015.
8. Link
9. "Demografiebericht AG Ruhr" (PDF). Arbeitsgemeinschaft der kommunalen Statistikstellen der Metropole Ruhr. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-05-25. Retrieved 2016-01-29.
10. "2.02 Fläche und Bevölkerung nach Statistischen Bezirken 2014" (PDF). Statistisches Jahrbuch 2015 der Stadt Oberhausen (in German). Stadt Oberhausen. January 2015. p. 31. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
11. "Oberhausen – statistik.arbeitsagentur.de". statistik.arbeitsagentur.de. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
12. "RODI-DB - die deutsche Eishockey-Datenbank".
13. "UFC 122: Marquardt vs. Okami". ufc.com. September 20, 2010.
14. Allen, Dave. "2020 European Championship moves to Oberhausen". Professional Darts Corporation . Retrieved 2 October 2020.
15. Cagematch, Westside Xtreme Wrestling
16. "WXW 16 Carat Gold 2022 Weekend Preview". March 2022.
17. "Städtepartnerschaften der Stadt Oberhausen". oberhausen.de (in German). Oberhausen. Retrieved 2021-03-03.

External links

• "Oberhausen"  . Encyclopedia Americana . 1920.
• "Oberhausen"  . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.