Ruhr (river) Ruhr (river) __notoc__ The Ruhr is a river in western Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia), a right tributary (east-side) of the Rhine. The source of the Ruhr is near the town of Winterberg in the mountainous Sauerland region, at an elevation of approximately 2,200 feet (670 m). It flows into the lower Rhine at an elevation of only 56 feet (17 m) in the municipal area of Duisburg. Its total length is , its average discharge is 79 m³/s (cubic metres per second) at Mülheim near its mouth. Thus, its discharge is, for example, comparable to that of the river Ems in
Ruhr condition for the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany. During the Cold War, the Western allies anticipated that any Red Army thrust into Western Europe would begin in the Fulda Gap and have the Ruhr as a primary target. Increased German control of the area was limited by the pooling of German coal and steel into the multinational European Coal and Steel Community in 1951. The nearby Saar region, containing much of Germany's remaining coal deposits, was handed over to economic administration by France as a protectorate in 1947 and did not politically return to Germany until January 1957,