History of the Ruhr History of the Ruhr The actual boundaries of the Ruhr vary slightly depending on the source, but a good working definition is to define the Lippe and Ruhr as its northern and southern boundaries respectively, the Rhine as its western boundary, and the town of Hamm as the eastern limit. In the Middle Ages, local power was vested primarily in the counts ("Grafen") of Berg, Mark and Cleves. The left bank of the Rhine was held by the Archbishop of Cologne. The Hellweg was an important trade route crossing the region from Duisburg to Dortmund and beyond as far as
Ruhr Question the vision of a "Ruhr basin" ("Ruhrbecken") as free from a future German state or German states. At the conferences of the Allies, the question of the Ruhr came more and more into the agenda, mostly due to French proposals. At the Foreign Minister's Conference, which took place in London from September 11th, 1945 until October 2nd, 1945, French foreign minister Georges Bidault issued a memorandum of 13 September 1945. This memorandum stated that the separation of the Rhineland and Westphalia, including the Ruhr area of the German Reich, as "indispensable for the protection of the frontier and an essential