History of the Ruhr and steel industries have declined drastically 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
University Hospitals of the Ruhr-University of Bochum area were appointed as teaching hospitals. This appointment was first intended to be a temporary solution to financial shortages and political problems in the development of the medical faculty in Bochum in the 1970s, especially after the Universitätsklinikum Essen was spun off from the Ruhr University in 1972 and integrated into the newly formed Universität-Gesamthochschule Essen. In 1998 the cooperation between appointed hospitals and Ruhr University was permanently established. This was in September 2008 the basis for the foundation of the "Verband Klinikum der Ruhr-Universität Bochum" with coordinating tasks in clinical, scientific and didactical fields. University Hospitals of the Ruhr-University