DEUTSCHLAND	GERMANY
Bundesland: Nordrhein-Westfalen	North Rhine-Westphalia
Regierungsbezirk: Arnsberg
Stadt: Bochum

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Bochum goes back to an Imperial seat that was founded by Emperor Charlemagne at the crossroads of two Imperial roads. The first mention of Cofbuokheim is found in a document of the archbishops of Cologne dating from 1043. Bochum came in possession of the Counts von der Mark in 1225. It became a market town in 1298 and received a town charter in 1321. Nevertheless it remained an insignificant place throughout the following centuries, mainly because it was located in an area that was frequently an object of dispute between the Counts von der Mark and the archbishops of Cologne. An increase in prosperity was only brought about when coal was first found in the area around 1700. During the following decades a few dozen coal pits were exploited so that the first mining office was set up in 1738. The County Mark had passed to the Princes of Kleve (Cleves) in 1398/1461 and with Kleve had been obtained by the Electors of Brandenburg in 1666. After the French occupation in 1807 it was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Berg in 1808, but was returned to Prussia in 1815 and became part of the Prussian province of Westfalia. The industrialisation of coal mining with the introduction of the first steam engines in 1801 revolutionized the whole economy of the area. Bochum became one of the centres of coal mining and of iron, steel and chemical industries. After the incorporation of several surrounding municipalities in 1904, 1926 and 1929, the population of Bochum increased from about 28,000 to more than 320,000. The high strategic importance of the heavy industry made Bochum one of the many targets of the Allied bomb raids during World War II. After the war, the town was almost completely destroyed. Nevertheless, coal, iron and steel soon became the basis for the reconstruction and development of Bochum in the post-war period. However, the coal crisis of the 1960s and 1970s hit Bochum hard. All coal mines were closed between 1960 and 1973 causing the loss of some 45,000 jobs. Luckily, most of the laid off workers could find work in new branches of industry. After the incorporation of the city of Wattenscheid into Bochum, the new municipality of Bochum today has a bout 400,000 inhabitants.

The Kriegerdenkmal (soldiers' monument) [top picture] on the Wilhelmsplatz (today Husemannplatz) was erected in 1875 in memory of the soldiers killed in action during the French-German War of 1870/1871. The monument was transferred to the municipal park in 1930 and was melted down during World War II.

The Neue Bergschule (new mining school) [bottom left] was built in 1899. The mining school itself had been founded in 1816. The building is one of the few in Bochum which had not been destroyed in 1945. Today the building serves as the main administration building of the University of Applied Sciences (Technische Fachschule Georg Agricola) which had evolved out of the old mining school.

The hospital Bergmannsheil [bottom right] of the Bergbau-Berufsgenossenschaft (Mining Accident Prevention and Insurance Association) of Bochum was built in 1888–1890. It was the World's first hospital for the treatment of work accidents and also included a department for the treatment of infectious diseases. The building was destroyed in 1945. Since 1977 the hospital Bergmannsheil is one of the clinics of the Ruhr-University Bochum.

The pictures on glass no. 1744 [right] show:

Top: Alleestraße. In the 19th century the street had been called "Essener Chaussee".

Bottom left: Haus Rechen. The domains of Rechen originally had belonged to the Isenburg line of the counts of Altena. In 1226 it came in possession of the Limburg line. The oldest document mentioning the domains of Rechen date from abuot 1350. The lords of Rechen obtained the domains in 1392 and rebuilt the old seat into a moated manor house. During the following centuries the ownership changed several times. The manor was finally sold off in 1904. In place of the former estates a new city district began to develop which was called Ehrenfeld. The old manour house was neglected, the moats were filled in and most of the former farm buildings were demolished. Haus Rechen was eventually destroyed in 1944 during an Allied bomb raid. The ruins were cleared in 1951.

Bottom right: Entrance to the municipal park. The park was laid out already in 1876 and is one of the oldest landscape parks in the Ruhr Area.