Bochum Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany

The city of Bochum dates from the ninth century, when Charlemagne set up a royal court at the junction of two important trade routes.

It was first officially mentioned in 1041 as Cofbuokheim in a document of the archbishops of Cologne.

Count Engelbert II von der Marck grants Bochum a town charter in 1321, but the town will remain insignificant until the nineteenth century, when the coal mining and steel industries emerge in the Ruhr area, leading to the growth of the entire region.

With a population of nearly three hundred and sixty-five thousand, it is today the sixteenth most populous city in Germany.

Bochum, an insignificant town surrounded by the cities of Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Herne, Recklinghausen, Dortmund, Witten and Hattingen, passes in 1461 to John I, Duke of Cleves and Count of Mark.