Ennepetal
Town
Ennepetal-Voerde in summer
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Ennepetal within Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis district
Ennepetal Show map of Germany Ennepetal Show map of North Rhine-Westphalia
Coordinates: 51°17′N 7°20′E / 51.283°N 7.333°E / 51.283; 7.333
Country	Germany
State	North Rhine-Westphalia
Admin. region	Arnsberg
District	Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis
Government
• Mayor (2020–25)	Imke Heymann[1]
Area
• Total	57.42 km2 (22.17 sq mi)
Highest elevation	390 m (1,280 ft)
Lowest elevation	170 m (560 ft)
Population  (2021-12-31)[2]
• Total	30,306
• Density	530/km2 (1,400/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	58256
Dialling codes	02333
Vehicle registration	EN
Website	www.ennepetal.de

Ennepetal (German pronunciation: [ˈɛnəpəˌtaːl] ^ⓘ; Westphalian: Iämpedal) 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 (Ortsteile), which resemble former towns and villages. The population is shown as of 10 June 2015:^[3]

• Altenvoerde (3663)
• Bülbringen/Oberbauer (1470)
• Büttenberg (3689)
• Hasperbach (1208)
• Königsfeld (1090)
• Milspe (9776)
• Oelkinghausen (573)
• Rüggeberg (1482)
• Voerde (7438)

Politics

The current mayor of Ennepetal is independent politician Imke Heymann. She was first elected in 2015 with the endorsement of the CDU, The Greens, Free Voters, and 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 (18.2%) and Cornelia Born-Maijer (11.5%), who both ran as independents.^[4]

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:

Party		Votes	%	+/-	Seats	+/-
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	3,792	31.5	7.1	11	5
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	3,556	29.5	3.3	11	±0
	Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)	2,252	18.7	8.9	7	3
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	1,089	9.0	2.9	3	1
	Free Voters Ennepetal (FWE)	780	6.5	2.3	2	2
	The Left (Die Linke)	572	4.8	0.8	2	±0
Valid votes		12,041	98.0
Invalid votes		248	2.0
Total		12,289	100.0		36	6
Electorate/voter turnout		24,726	49.7
Source: City of Ennepetal

Twin towns – sister cities

Ennepetal is twinned with:^[5]

• 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 (screws)
• Dahlhaus Leuchten, GmbH
• Ernst Mager KG (screws)

Notable people

Sons and daughters of the town

• Karl-Heinz Peters (1903–1990), film actor

People who are connected to Ennepetal

• Dirk Rauin (born 1957), handball player and coach
• Ralf Waldmann (born 1966), motorcycle racing driver