Germany · Nordrhein-Westfalen · Recklinghausen
Rentfort, Recklinghausen — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Rentfort covers 9.73 square kilometres of western Gladbeck, split since 1978 into Alt-Rentfort, Rentfort-Nord and Schultendorf. The name probably records a cattle ford. Coal wrote everything after that: the Thyssen 1/2 shafts went into production here in 1901, and the pit colony built for their workforce still stands at Kirchhellener Straße.
About Rentfort
Where to stay in Rentfort
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Rentfort has no hotel row. Beds are found in Gladbeck's Mitte, a couple of kilometres east along Kirchhellener Straße, or further out in Bottrop and Essen. What the district does own is the motorway exit: Anschlussstelle Gladbeck on the A 31 feeds straight onto Kirchhellener Straße, which runs from there into the town centre.
The nearest rail platform is Bahnhof Gladbeck West, which sits just over the district line in Mitte and carries the RE 14 and the S 9 to Essen Hbf. VRR bus lines SB36, 253, 254, 256 and 258 cover Rentfort itself. Book here for the A 31 exit and the quiet of Alt-Rentfort, not for an evening out.
About Rentfort
What are the main landmarks in Rentfort?
Four entries on Gladbeck's monument register stand in Rentfort, and not one of them is a museum. The oldest is the Hofstelle Klaas at Enfieldstraße 82, a farmstead of 1755 and among the oldest buildings in the town; it was listed on 22 August 1994. Two more are colliery housing.
The Arbeitersiedlung Rentfort at Kirchhellener Straße and Lohstraße went up in 1901 to plans by the architect Carl Grupe, and the Berginspektion und Beamtensiedlung Bernskamp followed in 1905, its former mine inspectorate now housing the Städtische Musikschule. The fourth is the Wilhelmschule at Kampstraße 29, on the register since 5 June 2001. Two churches by the Gelsenkirchen architect Josef Franke are the other names worth knowing: Christus König at Schultenstraße 42, built in 1927-1928 and rebuilt by 1950 after the war destroyed it, and St. Josef at Hegestraße 146, built in 1934-1935.
What is the history of Rentfort?
Rentfort began as one of Gladbeck's Bauerschaften, a farming hamlet in the Vest Recklinghausen that passed to the Duchy of Arenberg in 1803, to the Grand Duchy of Berg in 1811 and to Prussia in 1815. Mining ended the farming. The Zeche Vereinigte Gladbeck started sinking the Thyssen 1/2 shafts here in 1895; production began in 1901 and the shafts were renamed after the Prussian trade minister Theodor von Möller.
Gladbeck took town rights on 21 July 1919, which made Rentfort a Stadtteil, and left the Kreis Recklinghausen on 1 January 1921. It was merged into Bottrop in 1975 and separated again on 1 July 1976, this time back inside the Kreis Recklinghausen. Zeche Möller closed in 1967.
On 16 August 1988 an armed robbery at the Deutsche Bank branch at Schwechater Straße 38 in Rentfort-Nord opened the hostage crisis remembered as the Geiselnahme von Gladbeck; three people were killed in the 54 hours that followed.
Where is Rentfort?
Rentfort takes up 9.73 of Gladbeck's 35.97 square kilometres and lies around 60 metres above sea level. The Brabecker Mühlenbach draws the western and northern boundary against Bottrop's Kirchhellen and Grafenwald, while inside the town the district meets Zweckel to the north-east, Mitte to the east and Ellinghorst to the south. Water still shapes the middle: the Quälingsbach is dammed at Berliner Straße into a small lake ringed by a park, and the Alte Haarbach rises in the south to drain into the Boye.
Two roads carry the traffic. Kirchhellener Straße runs from the A 31 exit through to the centre, and Hegestraße cuts from Schultendorf across the south towards Bottrop-Grafenwald. Open ground sits at the Rentforter Stadtpark on Schwechater Straße, with the Park am Quällingsteich adjoining it to the west.
More areas in Recklinghausen
Updated September 2026