page_title: Dortmund
section_title: Boroughs
hierarchical_section_title: Dortmund / Geography / Boroughs
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Kreuzviertel (vorn), Althoffblock (Zentrum oben) und Bezirk Dorstfelder Brücke mit Ex-Hoeschzentrale und Kirche St. Anna (oben Bildrand); von Florianturm; Oktober 2015
context_page_description: Dortmund is with a population of 603,609 inhabitants as of 2020, the third-largest city of Germany's most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia and Germany's eighth-largest city. It is the largest city of the Ruhr, Germany's largest urban area with some 5.1 million inhabitants, as well as the largest city of Westphalia. On the Emscher and Ruhr rivers, it lies in the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region and is considered the administrative, commercial, and cultural centre of the eastern Ruhr. Dortmund is the second largest city in the Low German dialect area after Hamburg.
  Founded around 882, Dortmund became an Imperial Free City. Throughout the 13th to 14th centuries, it was the "chief city" of the Rhine, Westphalia, and the Netherlands Circle of the Hanseatic League. During the Thirty Years' War, the city was destroyed and decreased in significance until the onset of industrialization. The city then became one of Germany's most important coal, steel and beer centres. Dortmund consequently was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II. The devastating bombing raids of 12 March 1945 destroyed 98% of buildings in the inner city center.
context_section_description: Dortmund comprises 62 neighbourhoods which in turn are grouped into twelve boroughs (called Stadtbezirke), often named after the most important neighbourhood. Three boroughs cover the area of the inner city (Innenstadt-West (City centre West), Innenstadt-Nord (City centre North), Innenstadt-Ost (City centre East)) and the remaining nine boroughs make up the surrounding area (Eving, Scharnhorst, Brackel, Aplerbeck, Hörde, Hombruch, Lütgendortmund, Huckarde, Mengede). Each  Stadtbezirk is assigned a Roman numeral and has a local governing body of nineteen members with limited authority. Most of the boroughs were originally independent municipalities but were gradually annexed from 1905 to 1975. This long-lasting process of annexation has led to a strong identification of the population with "their" boroughs or districts and to a rare peculiarity: The borough of Hörde, located in the south of Dortmund and independent until 1928, has its own coat of arms.
  The centre can be subdivided into historically evolved city districts whose borders are not always strictly defined, such as
  Stadtzentrum (City centre)
  Hafenviertel (Harbour Quarter)
  Nordmarkt
  Borsigplatz
  Kaiserviertel
  Kronenviertel
  Kreuzviertel
  Klinikviertel (Clinical Quarter)
  Saarlandstraßenviertel
  Unionviertel
  Gartenstadt
caption: Aerial view of urban Kreuzviertel
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