Mülheim an der Ruhr

Mülheim an der Ruhr is in the Ruhr area. With more than 50% covered by greenery and forest, the city is an attractive place between Düsseldorf and the rest of the Ruhr.

Understand
Mülheim is between Duisburg, Essen, Oberhausen and Ratingen. It is home to many companies, especially the food industry, such as the Aldi Süd Company, the Harke Group and the Tengelmann Group. In 2020, it had approximately 170,000 residents.

Mülheim was the first city in the Ruhr Area to become completely free of coal mines, when its last coal mine "Rosenblumendelle" was closed. The former leather and coal city had made a complete transformation to a diversified economic centre. It is the home of two Max Planck Institutes and the Ruhr West technical college.

By local public transport
Due to the Ruhr area being one sprawling, urbanised cluster of cities, the local public transport of buses, trams and light rail overlap seamlessly into other cities.

From Oberhausen, take Tram 112 which runs from Oberhausen-Sterkrade, past Centro shopping centre and Oberhausen station to and through the city centre of Mülheim and south to the central cemetery of Hauptfriedhof, near the airfield. From Duisburg, take Tram 901 which starts in the blue collar and immigrant district of Duisburg-Marxloh, past steel plants and the port, crossing Duisburg city centre and their Zoo, before entering the city tunnel and terminating at Mülheim Hauptbahnhof. As of 2024, there's only limited disabled-friendly space onboard, but new trams are being put to service. From Essen, take Stadtbahn (light rail) service U18 starting at the Limbecker Platz centre in central Essen, stopping at Essen station, before continuing west in the middle of Autobahn A40, passing Rhein-Ruhr-Zentrum shopping centre and diving into a set of bridges and tunnels before also terminating under Mülheim Hauptbahnhof. From Essen-Kettwig you can also hop onto Bus 151 Kettwig - Mülheim - Heißen - Rhein-Ruhr-Zentrum. From Ratingen, take Bus 752 to Saarn and change to Bus 135, or take O16 to Lintorf and transfer to Bus 752 (which runs from Düsseldorf city) and take it to Mülheim.

By car
Mülheim is situated in the north of the triangle formed by Autobahn A40 Venlo (NL) - Duisburg - Essen - Bochum - Dortmund, A52 Essen - Düsseldorf - (going through Düsseldorf on wide city avenues and crossing the Rhine) - Roermond (NL) and A3 Arnhem - Duisburg - Cologne - Frankfurt - Nuremberg - Austria. A52 brushes the far south of Mülheim and meets A40 at a 45° angle in Essen city centre to the east. A40 and A3 meet at nearby Duisburg interchange. A3 and A52 meet north of Ratingen centre.

By plane
The nearest international airport is Düsseldorf Airport, which sees flights across Europe and overseas.

Mülheim and Essen share a local airfield in the south of the city, If you're rich enough and own a private plane you could land here, but probably wouldn't stay in Mülheim. Less fortunate people can book a blimp or hot-air balloon ride here though.

Get around
Local public transport is operated by the Ruhrbahn, the joint public transport agency for Essen and Mülheim and fares are according to VRR tariffs. Mülheim is served by buses and a shrinking tram network. The tram network lost several kilometres of service in the the early 2020s, the latest being tram 104 losing the Kahlenberg branch line and being cut back to the city centre in August 2023. The local buses are also under threat of cuts. Despite this neglect by the city, you should be able to get most places in the city by public transport with reasonable ease. A single adult ticket across the city will set you back €3.30 in 2024.

Buy
All the usual stores can be found either in the city centre or to the east at

Go next

 * Essen, shopping capital of the Ruhr Area, industrial heritage
 * Duesseldorf, capital of NRW and Germany's fashion capital, large Japanese community and international airport.