Hamm

Industrial city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on the River Lippe, 85 km/53 mi northeast of Düsseldorf; population (2005 est) 184,200. It lies in the northeast corner of the Ruhr coalfield. Industries include coalmining and the manufacture of iron and steel products, textiles, chemicals, machinery, and leather goods.

Hamm has docks on the Lippe Canal and is the railway communications centre of the Ruhr. Its marshalling yards, the largest in Germany, suffered severely from bombing during World War II. The town has expanded as an industrial and communications centre.

Features Early buildings include three churches dating back to the 13th and 14th centuries, and merchants' houses. Maximilianpark, established on the site of a former coal mine, is a leisure park with a congress and conference centre. The Gustav Lübke Museum contains antiquities, furniture, ceramics, glass, and book illumination; and there is a Railway Museum.