The State of North Rhine-Westphalia, commonly referred to as “NRW”, is the westernmost Federal State of Germany.  NRW shares international borders with Belgium and the Netherlands to the west, while bordering the inland Federal States of Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hessen.  In terms of population and economic output, it is also the largest in the Federal Republic.  The state has over 18 million inhabitants and contributes about 22% of Germany’s Gross Domestic Product, with an annual State GDP of 489 billion Euro in 2005.  The capital city of NRW is Duesseldorf, while neighboring Cologne is the largest city.  Other major cities include: Essen, Dortmund, and Bonn.

For most, North Rhine-Westphalia is synonymous with industrial areas like the Ruhr region and agglomerating cities such as Cologne.  Once containing the Federal Capital of Bonn, NRW remains an economic power today.  Nowadays, the State is home to many of the giant former federal industrial companies and some of the world’s largest multi-national conglomerates.  Many subsidiaries of these businesses are household names in the USA today.  These include T-Mobile-parent: Deutsche Telekom AG and DHL-parent: Deutsche Post AG.  Also, many famous American brand names are produced by the multi-national companies headquartered in NRW.  These include Aspirin-parent: Bayer AG and Dial-parent: Henkel AG.

The economic and cultural future of North Rhine-Westphalia looks especially bright, as the State Government has initiated an Innovation Strategy Movement in conjunction with the major companies of North Rhine-Westphalia.  These companies include many of those multi-nationals mentioned above.  The effort has been titled Economics in NRW 2007: Prognosis, Situation and Perspectives.  Culturally, the State will have five cities hosting the Women’s World Cup of Soccer in 2011, while the cities of the Ruhr region will be the EU Cultural Capital in 2010! 

To find out more about NRW's major cities, click on their names below:

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