Ennepetal

Ennepetal is a town in the district of Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was created in 1949 out of the former municipalities Milspe and Voerde. It was named after the river Ennepe, which flows through the municipality.
The town was featured in the headlines when on April 12, 2005, a hostage taker snatched several school children from a school bus, and took them as hostages, see Ennepetal hostage taking.

Division of the town

Ennepetal is divided into nine quarters, which resemble former towns and villages. The population is shown as of 10 June 2015:

Altenvoerde
Bülbringen/Oberbauer
Büttenberg
Hasperbach
Königsfeld
Milspe
Oelkinghausen
Rüggeberg
Voerde

Politics

The current mayor of Ennepetal is independent politician Imke Heymann. She was first elected in 2015 with the endorsement of the Christian [Democratic Union of Germany|CDU], The Greens, Free Voters, and Free [Democratic Party (Germany)|FDP]. In the most recent mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, Heymann was re-elected with 70.3% of votes with the backing of the SPD and CDU. She was opposed by Sotirios Kostas and Cornelia Born-Maijer, who both ran as independents.

Local council

The Ennepetal municipal council governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent council election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows:
! colspan=2| Party
! Votes
! %
! +/-
! Seats
! +/-
! colspan=2| Valid votes
! 12,041
! 98.0
!
!
!
! colspan=2| Invalid votes
! 248
! 2.0
!
!
!
! colspan=2| Total
! 12,289
! 100.0
!
! 36
! 6
! colspan=2| Electorate/voter turnout
! 24,726
! 49.7
!
!
!

Twin towns – sister cities

Ennepetal is twinned with:

Vilvoorde, Belgium

Transport

The Ennepetal (Gevelsberg) station on the Wuppertal–Dortmund railway is served by regional trains.
The town also had a station named "Voerde" on the Kleinbahn Haspe-Voerde-Breckerfeld, which in former times was the longest streetcar in Germany. Today, the former track is being used as a walk and bicycle way, connecting the Ruhr area to the nearby Sauerland.

Notable places

The Klutert Cave is one of the largest natural caves of Germany with a length of over 5 km.

Economy

dormakaba
febi - Ferdinand Bilstein
ABC - Altenloh Brinck & Co
Dahlhaus Leuchten, GmbH
Ernst Mager KG