Pre-industrial society Early archeological finds prove that the region of Gladbeck was already populated as early as 2000 BC. It was first mentioned in 1020 as Gladbeki and was originally a small village of 300 inhabitants. The village with its five peasantries (Butendorf, Brauck, Rentfort, Ellinghorst and Zweckel, now
quarters of Gladbeck) was arranged around St. Lamberti cathedral. From 1180 to 1802 Gladbeck belonged to the
Vest Recklinghausen and was thus linked with the
Electorate of Cologne. A certificate from 1236 mentions
Knight Ludolfus de Wittering who is most likely to have erected
Wittringen Castle around that time. Especially during the first years of the
Thirty Years' War (1618–48) many cornfields in and around Gladbeck were destroyed by marauding soldiers. Additionally, the
Black Death killed many inhabitants of Gladbeck during the Thirty Years' War. At the 1815
Congress of Vienna the
Kingdom of Prussia acquired the area and administered it within the
Province of Westphalia. Before the
Revolutions of 1848 there were three bad food crises in Gladbeck in 1816/17, 1830/31 and 1846/47. However, the "March Revolution" had no consequences on Gladbeck.
Time of coal mining Coal was found in the 1870s and the first coal was produced in 1878. Depending on additional workers, the coal mines attracted many people. Therefore, Gladbeck rapidly grew by immigration from surrounding Westphalia, the
Rhine Province, and from the eastern provinces of Prussia including citizens with
Polish as their native language. The little village quickly turned into an establishment of industry and was given town privilege in July 1919. Also Gladbeck benefited from the general boom in the years 1925 to 1929 when important building projects were realised in spite of all troubles, such as the open-air bath as well as the stadium, in which
Adolf Hitler delivered a speech in 1932. As with all German towns, Gladbeck was
brought into line after Adolf Hitler was named
Reichskanzler. This took place under the earlier elected conservative mayor Bernhard Hackenberg, immediately joining the
Nazi Party. In
World War II Gladbeck was heavily damaged and around 43% of the buildings in the center were destroyed, making it as one of the most destroyed towns in the
Ruhr Area. After the war the town became part of the new state of
North Rhine-Westphalia. During the 1960s the coal industry went into a substantial crisis, resulting in widespread unemployment. Apart from this Gladbeck's population reached 85,927 inhabitants in 1969, which is unique in the history of this town. Since the last coal mine was closed in 1971 Gladbeck is fighting against a high rate of unemployment, activating the structural change.
Communal realignment and history since 1975 In the course of the communal realignment in North Rhine-Westphalia (1975) Gladbeck, original a county borough, and the village
Kirchhellen were incorporated into the neighbouring town
Bottrop. Opponents of the realignment criticized the low population density at the border between Gladbeck and
Bottrop and emphasized that
Bottrop was not much bigger than Gladbeck. "GlaBotKi is nich" (Glabotki is not) was their catchphrase. With the help of a court decision Gladbeck successfully left
Bottrop, thereby cancelling the merger. Since July 1976 Gladbeck is part of the district of
Recklinghausen. On 16 August 1988, the town received international attention when two thieves robbed a branch of the
Deutsche Bank in Gladbeck. They kidnapped two bank employees and held them hostage, along with 32 people in a transport bus in
Bremen and drove through
West Germany and the
Netherlands. In what was called the
Gladbeck hostage crisis, the crisis ended in just over 2 days, with one police officer and two victims dead, and the arrest of the three individuals (Hans-Jürgen Rösner & Dieter Degowski, along with Marion Löblich for her involvement in the crime as an accomplice). ==Politics==