Gelsenkirchen - Germany

Gelsenkirchen is one of the many cities in the German Ruhr, the largest urban area of Germany. The city is located in the centre of the Ruhr and is the 25th largest city in Germany with an population of around 262 thousand. But it is the 11th largest city of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. At last Gelsenkirchen is the 5th city of the Rhur behind Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg and Bochum. In 1840 Gelsenkirchen has an small population of 6000 and after the Industrial Revolution hits the Rhur with mining of coal,  the population skyrocketed in Gelsenkirchen and the rest of the Rhur. After 1900 Gelsenkirchen became the important coal mining city in Europe, the nickname of the city is "city of thousand fires". The then night sky was flared by the flames of the mines gases. Those coal days are over and after an long decline of the city and today it is the centre of solar technology. The most famous thing of Gelsenkirchen is an football/soccer club, Schalke'04 which plays in the Veltins-Arena with an capacity of 62,271. Not so successful lately but the club have 7 championships and was 10 time runners-up. 5 time winners of the German cup and 7 times finalist. In the season 1996-1997 they won the UEFA cup against Internazionale Milan. So let's take an look at the flag.

The flag has three horizontal stripes in the colours black, white and green. Like many German city flags they derived from the cosy of arms. Let continue with that,  it's quartered. The upper left there is an church on am black bsckground,  with open door which mean that everybody is welcome. The church represented Gelsenkirchen. The upper right an linden tree which represented the district of Buer. Buer was once an independent city before it was merged with Gelsenkirchen. The loser left is the arms of the noble family Von der Horst, they use an red lion and once owned Gelsenkirchen. Finally in the lower right part there is the hammer and pick, the heraldic symbol of mining. Places with an mining history use this symbol often in their coat of arms, Gelsenkirchen does the same. Typical German city flag with an coat of arms, it is okay for me.