Bottrop

Bottrop is a city in west central Germany, on the Rhine-Herne Canal, in North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen). Located in the Ruhr industrial area, Bottrop adjoins Essen, Oberhausen, Gladbeck and Dorsten. The city had been a coal-mining and rail center and contains factories producing coal-tar derivatives, chemicals, textiles, and machinery. Bottrop grew as a mining center beginning in the 1860s and was chartered as a city in 1921. In 1975 it was put together with the unification with the neighbour communities of Gladbeck and Kirchhellen, but Gladbeck left it in 1976. Population (1997) 119,669.