History of Herne

Strictly speaking, the history of every town begins with the granting of its charter. In Herne this event took place on April 1, 1897 – the township of Herne became the city of Herne. It was very much thanks to the efforts of Bailiff Hermann Schaefers, who later became the city’s mayor. Herne’s recognition came as a result of rapid growth: the town’s population increased from just 1,000 in 1847 to some 20,000 in 1890.

Of course, the history of a town starts long before it is granted its charter. The name Herne first appears in its early form “Haranni” in about 880 in the register of the abbey of Werden (easily a thousand years before the charter was granted). Also, Herne’s history is inextricably linked to the ancient family of the knights of Strünkede. The city’s famous moated castle (Schloss Strünkede) carries the ancient name, and the Strünkede family, who settled here in the 12th century, had a huge influence on life in the region for many hundreds of years.
In 1815 Herne reverted to Prussia, after being held by Brandenburg from 1614 to 1806, and from 1815 to 1844 it was part of the district of Bochum. The foundation stone for Herne as it is today was laid in March 1857: It was in that month that the first shaft of Shamrock colliery was sunk on the land of farmer Sengenhoff. This heralded Herne’s evolvement into a mining town.

Herne’s history, especially its transformation into a city, is closely linked with the mining industry. It is only on account of the coal-mines, which held out the promise of work and wages, that people came to the Emscher from the middle of the 19th century onwards. Today, many buildings, miners’ societies, street names, and even Herne’s coat of arms testify to the city’s long mining tradition.

Shamrock colliery was the first mine to go into operation in 1860. Königsgrube colliery was the second to start up, followed by a dozen or so more. The earliest mining activities were firmly in the hands of the Irish, Belgian and French. In 1874, the first German-only pit went into operation. It was named after the Prussian king Frederick the Great and epitomized the industry’s rapid development.

It all began at breakneck speed and ended sadly, especially for thousands of miners. A good 100 years after the blossoming of deep-shaft coal mining all Herne’s collieries were closed down, some of the shafts filled in, buildings dismantled. 1978 saw the closure of the city’s last two mines: Von der Heydt and Friedrich der Große.

In the city today the only evidence of the once dominant mining industry are those places of cultural significance considered worthy of conservation. Vestiges of steel and stone, for example. Or attractive miners’ housing estates designed on the lines of a garden city for a people-friendly environment. There are magnificent villas from the era of the coal barons and rows of elegant houses in the Wilhelminian style in both Herne and Wanne-Eickel. But mining and other industries have left less attractive marks on cities like Herne. In the early 1990s, therefore, the city took part in the North Rhine Westphalian Government Program “Ökologische Stadt der Zukunft” (eco-town of the future). Over a ten-year period the environmental damage left behind by the unthinking founders of modern industry was cleaned up and contaminated sites were reclaimed with imagination and at a cost of millions of Deutschmarks. Since then species-rich nature reserves and landscape conservation areas, extensive green spaces, and inner-city parks have been created. Revierpark Gysenberg was the first of five extensive recreation parks to be opened in the Ruhr area in 1970. It had cost 18.4 million marks to build.

1975 had a special significance for Herne. It was the year when the two towns Herne and Wanne-Eickel amalgamated to form a single city. On the third reading of the urban reorganization act on May 8, 1974, the wedding bells rang. But not all residents of Wanne-Eickel were happy about the marriage. 32 different models had been discussed and turned down.