On the Ruhr between Bochum and Dortmund, Witten is a city with mining in its blood. The collieries came early to Witten and were given a boost when Frederick the Great issued a decree to make the Ruhr navigable in the 1770s. The city broke from Bochum in 1899 and is an assortment of different districts without a defined center.
At Witten, you can immerse yourself in the Ruhr’s mining culture by going down into one of the Ruhr’s first mines, walking a trail littered with disused mining infrastructure from the 1800s, and inspecting the locomotives that used to haul coal and spoil along the valley.