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Gladbeck () is a town in the district of Recklinghausen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Gladbeck is quite a young town, first recognised 21 July 1919 when it was given town rights. The town established itself around five farming villages, Brauck, Butendorf, Ellinghorst, Rentfort and Zweckel.
From 1180 to 1802 Gladbeck belonged to the Vest Recklinghausen and was thus linked with the Electorate of Cologne. A certificate from 1236 mentions Knight Ludolfus de Wittering who is most likely to have erected Wittringen Castle around that time. Especially during the first years of the Thirty Years' War (1618–48) many cornfields in and around Gladbeck were destroyed by marauding soldiers. Additionally, the Black Death killed many inhabitants of Gladbeck during the Thirty Years' War.
At the 1815 Congress of Vienna the Kingdom of Prussia acquired the area and administered it within the Province of Westphalia. Before the Revolutions of 1848 there were three bad food crises in Gladbeck in 1816/17, 1830/31 and 1846/47. However, the "March Revolution" had no consequences on Gladbeck.
The little village quickly turned into an establishment of industry and was given town privilege in July 1919. Also Gladbeck benefited from the general boom in the years 1925 to 1929 when important building projects were realised in spite of all troubles, such as the open-air bath as well as the stadium, in which Adolf Hitler delivered a speech in 1932.
As with all German towns, Gladbeck was Gleichschaltung after Adolf Hitler was named Reichskanzler. This took place under the earlier elected conservative mayor Bernhard Hackenberg, immediately joining the Nazi Party. In World War II Gladbeck was heavily damaged and around 43% of the buildings in the center were destroyed, making it as one of the most destroyed towns in the Ruhr Area. After the war the town became part of the new state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
During the 1960s the coal industry went into a substantial crisis, resulting in widespread unemployment. Apart from this Gladbeck's population reached 85,927 inhabitants in 1969, which is unique in the history of this town. Since the last coal mine was closed in 1971 Gladbeck is fighting against a high rate of unemployment, activating the structural change.
On 16 August 1988, the town received international attention when two thieves robbed a branch of the Deutsche Bank in Gladbeck. They kidnapped two bank employees and held them hostage, along with 32 people in a transport bus in Bremen and drove through West Germany and the Netherlands. In what was called the Gladbeck hostage crisis, the crisis ended in just over 2 days, with one police officer and two victims dead, and the arrest of the three individuals (Hans-Jürgen Rösner & Dieter Degowski, along with Marion Löblich for her involvement in the crime as an accomplice).
! rowspan=2 colspan=2| Candidate ! rowspan=2| Party ! colspan=2| First round ! colspan=2| Second round |- ! Votes ! % ! Votes ! % |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Bettina Weist | align=left| Social Democratic Party | 11,452 | 42.6 | 10,728 | 62.8 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Dietmar Drosdzol | align=left| Christian Democratic Union | 6,308 | 23.4 | 6,357 | 37.2 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Simone Steffens | align=left| Alliance 90/The Greens | 2,423 | 9.0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Marco Gräber | align=left| Alternative for Germany | 2,110 | 7.8 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Markus Kellermann | align=left| Independent | 1,460 | 5.4 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Olaf Jung | align=left| The Left | 771 | 2.9 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Michael Tack | align=left| Free Democratic Party | 686 | 2.6 |- | | align=left| Habib Ay | align=left| Alternative Citizens' Initiative | 608 | 2.3 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Ulas Polat | align=left| Independent | 379 | 1.4 |- | | align=left| Udo Flach | align=left| Citizens in Gladbeck | 365 | 1.4 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Gerhard Dorka | align=left| German Communist Party | 355 | 1.3 |- ! colspan=3| Valid votes ! 26,917 ! 99.3 ! 17,085 ! 99.0 |- ! colspan=3| Invalid votes ! 204 ! 0.7 ! 172 ! 1.0 |- ! colspan=3| Total ! 27,121 ! 100.0 ! 17,257 ! 100.0 |- ! colspan=3| Electorate/voter turnout ! 56,978 ! 47.6 ! 56,947 ! 30.3 |- | colspan=7| Source: City of Gladbeck ( 1st round, 2nd round) |}
The mayor is the chairman of the town council and employer of administration. Gladbeck has had the following mayors:
In 1994 Eckhard Schwerhoff was elected mayor by the town council after the SPD had governed Gladbeck for 48 years. The SPD failed the absolute majority only barely and because the mayor has one voice too it would have led to a stalemate.
As a result, the Alliance '90/The Greens and a new founded local party (BIG) made the decision to support Eckhard Schwerhoff, a CDU party member but not involved in the politics of Gladbeck until then. In 1999 Eckhard Schwerhoff was re-elected after a reform according to which mayors should be elected directly.
In the ballot on 10 October 2004 he no longer stood for the mayor and thereupon Ulrich Roland (SPD) was elected mayor.
! colspan=2| Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Social Democratic Party (SPD) | 9,783 | 36.5 | 10.8 | 19 | 3 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | 7,044 | 26.3 | 1.1 | 14 | 3 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) | 3,285 | 12.3 | 6.5 | 7 | 4 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Alternative for Germany (AfD) | 2,595 | 9.7 | New | 5 | New |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| The Left (Die Linke) | 1,121 | 4.2 | 1.8 | 2 | 1 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Free Democratic Party (FDP) | 899 | 3.4 | 0.7 | 2 | 1 |- | | align=left| Alternative Citizens' Initiative (ABI) | 663 | 2.5 | 0.9 | 1 | ±0 |- | | align=left| Citizens in Gladbeck | 617 | 2.3 | 0.3 | 1 | ±0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| German Communist Party (DKP) | 385 | 1.4 | 0.1 | 1 | ±0 |- | colspan=7 bgcolor=lightgrey| |- | | align=left| Gladbeck Citizens' List | 267 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0 | 1 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Independent Markus Kellermann | 144 | 0.5 | New | 0 | New |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Independent Nilüfer Akcay | 12 | 0.0 | New | 0 | New |- ! colspan=2| Valid votes ! 26,815 ! 98.9 ! ! ! |- ! colspan=2| Invalid votes ! 301 ! 1.1 ! ! ! |- ! colspan=2| Total ! 27,116 ! 100.0 ! ! 52 ! 6 |- ! colspan=2| Electorate/voter turnout ! 56,978 ! 47.6 ! 0.5 ! ! |- | colspan=7| Source: City of Gladbeck |}
The listcatalogues of the results of the council elections of North Rhine-Westphalia (LDS NRW) from 1976 to 2009 below gives an overview about the results of the last eight council elections:
| 1976 | 56.9 | 32.9 | 5.6 | 4.7 | |||
| 1979 | 52.9 | 33.8 | 8.7 | 4.6 | |||
| 1984 | 55.2 | 29.6 | 6.7 | 6.8 | |||
| 1989 | 54.2 | 27.7 | 8.0 | 3.1 | 7.1 | ||
| 1994 | 44.3 | 34.8 | 4.7 | 9.4 | 5.1 | ||
| 1999 | 39.7 | 46.4 | 4.3 | 5.1 | |||
| 2004 | 40.6 | 37.1 | 4.5 | 3.6 | 5.9 | 6.2 | |
| 2009 | 46.1 | 27.1 | 1.8 | 4.3 | 5.8 | 4.7 | 6.5 |
| 2014 | 47.3 | 25.2 | 1.4 | 2.7 | 5.8 | 2.6 | 6.0 |
In school pupils are allowed to choose between Catholic and Protestant lessons. Alternatively, pupils can be taught in Philosophy likewise if they want to. Visits to churches are included to the lessons in basic school. However, there is a Muslim minority in Gladbeck due to the immigration of the 1960s.
The Gladbeck stations are served by the following services:
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