Germany · Nordrhein-Westfalen · Essen
Leithe, Essen — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Leithe is an eastern Stadtteil of Essen on the boundary with Bochum, a commune of its own until it joined Kray in 1920 and Essen with it in 1929.
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Where to stay in Leithe
Where the beds are, and what that means for the visit.
It sits on the city line. Leithe borders Essen-Kray to the northwest, Bochum-Wattenscheid to the east, Essen-Freisenbruch to the southeast and Essen-Steele to the southwest, which puts it at the seam between two Ruhr cities. One half of the old place is in Bochum.
What used to be called Westfälisch Leithe belongs to Bochum now, so the name is split across the boundary. Steele and Kray hold what a visitor would want.
About Leithe
What are the main landmarks in Leithe?
The oldest thing here is a tribe. After the Sugambri were driven out, the Marser lived in the Leithe area and worshipped the goddess Tanfana, whose sanctuary is thought to have stood on the Stoppenberg. Rome destroyed them in the year 14.
Germanicus led the punitive campaign after they took part in the Varus battle, and Tacitus records them being wiped out while honouring Tanfana drunk, though the report was written for Germanicus's glory and some of them probably stayed. Their name travelled. Marsberg, Obermarsberg, Volkmarsen and Marsdorf on Cologne ground lie outside the old settlement area between the Ruhr and the Lippe, and they are what remembers the Marser now.
What is the history of Leithe?
Leithe probably belonged to the Brukterergau. Like neighbouring Bochum it fell under that gau until the Carolingian conquest, and the law that ran in the Brukterergau governed it. Then it was a Bauerschaft in a parish.
Leithe belonged to the Kirchspiel Steele through the medieval and early modern centuries, which is the administrative shape most of these Ruhr villages kept until industry arrived. Prussia reordered it in 1815. The commune of Leythe belonged to the Bürgermeisterei Altenessen from that year, and in 1906 the communes of Kray and Leythe formed a Bürgermeisterei of their own.
Two mayors ran it. Ludwig Kohlen held the office from 1 October 1906 to 1 September 1924 and Jacob Weber from 3 March 1926 to 30 September 1929. The end came in two steps.
Kray and Leythe were merged into an enlarged commune of Kray in 1920, and as part of Kray, Leithe became part of the city of Essen in 1929, the spelling changing with it.
Where is Leithe?
Leithe lies at the eastern edge of Essen bordering Essen-Kray to the northwest, Bochum-Wattenscheid to the east, Essen-Freisenbruch to the southeast and Essen-Steele to the southwest, with Westfälisch Leithe lying over the line in Bochum.
More areas in Essen
Updated September 2026