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
Occupation of the Ruhr Occupation of the Ruhr The Occupation of the Ruhr () was a period of military occupation of the German Ruhr valley by France and Belgium between 1923 and 1925. The occupation was a response to the Weimar Republic widely and regularly defaulting on reparation payments in the early 1920s. The total reparation sum of £6.6 billion had been dictated by the Triple Entente in 1921 in the Treaty of Versailles, and the reparation payments were due to last several decades. The Ruhr region had been occupied by Allied troops in the immediate aftermath of the First World War, during the