Editing Gelsenkirchen (section)

===Independent city===
[[File:Gelsenkirchen nordstern.jpg|thumb|left|Former Nordstern Colliery]]
[[File:Gelsenkirchen altstadt.jpg|thumb|left|Contrasts in the inner-city]]
In 1885, after the Bochum district was split up, Gelsenkirchen became the seat of its own district (''Kreis''), which would last until 1926. The cities of Gelsenkirchen and Wattenscheid, as well as the {{lang|de|[[Amt (administrative division)|Ämter]]}} of Braubauerschaft (in 1900, Bismarck), Schalke, {{ill|Ückendorf|de}}, [[Wanne-Eickel|Wanne]] and [[Wattenscheid]] all belonged to the Gelsenkirchen district. A few years later, in 1896, Gelsenkirchen split off from Gelsenkirchen district to become an [[independent city]] ({{lang|de|kreisfreie Stadt}}). In 1891, Horst was split off from the {{lang|de|Amt}} of Buer, which itself was raised to city status in 1911, and to an independent city status the next year. Meanwhile, Horst became the seat of its own {{lang|de|Amt}}. In 1924, the rural community of [[Flugwerk Deutschland GmbH|Rotthausen]], which until then had belonged to the [[Essen]] district, was made part of the Gelsenkirchen district.

In 1928, under the Prussian local government reforms, the cities of Gelsenkirchen and Buer along with the {{lang|de|Amt}} of Horst together became a new {{lang|de|kreisfreie Stadt}} called Gelsenkirchen-Buer, effective on 1 April that year. From that time, the whole city area belonged to the governmental district of Münster. In 1930, on the city's advice, the city's name was changed to 'Gelsenkirchen', effective 21 May. By this time, the city was home to about 340,000 people.

In 1931, the Gelsenkirchen Mining Corporation ({{lang|de|Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-Aktien-Gesellschaft|italic=no}}) founded the Gelsenberg Petrol Corporation ({{lang|de|Gelsenberg-Benzin-AG|italic=no}}). In 1935, the Hibernia Mining Company founded the {{lang|de|Hydrierwerk Scholven AG GE-Buer|italic=no}} [[coal liquefaction]] plant. Scholven/Buer began operation in 1936 and achieved a capacity of 200,000 tons/year of finished product, mainly aviation base gasoline.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fischer-tropsch.org/Bureau_of_Mines/info_circ/ic_7375/ic_7375.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071108041008/http://www.fischer-tropsch.org/Bureau_of_Mines/info_circ/ic_7375/ic_7375.htm |archive-date=8 November 2007 |title=Untitled Document}}</ref> After 1937, Gelsenberg-Benzin-AG opened the Nordstern plant for converting bituminous coal to synthetic oil.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Becker |first=Peter W. |year=1981 |title=The Role of Synthetic Fuel in World War II Germany: implications for today? |url=http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1981/jul-aug/becker.htm |journal=Air University Review |location=[[Maxwell Air Force Base]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130222003452/http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1981/jul-aug/becker.htm |archive-date=22 February 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>