Northrhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen – for short NRW) is an artifical state, founded 1946 by the British Government. It consists, as the name indicates, of the province Westphalia in the east and the northern Rhinelands in the west. And the hyphen symbolizes the attempt to bind people whose nature is so very incompatible and stands also for the gap between the ethnic groups. This gap runs from the southeast to the northwest for 283 kilometers across the state. The Westphalien guy is said to be a little bit tight-lipped but verry reliable while the Rhinelanders are full of life and sometimes a little bit noisy. Knowing this makes it easier for a visitor to understand some attitudes, furthermore handle it like the locals - take it in a good spirit.On a geological view the northern part of NRW is flat, farmland since beginning of time with high expertise in horse breeding, while the southern part is mountainous, up to 1000 meters above sea leavel. It's numerous brooks turned the wheels of also numerous handicrafts before the steam engine was invented.In the middle in all aspects - geographic and ethnic - there exists the Ruhr Area (Ruhrgebiet), for short "The Ruhr" which is at least the name of the river at whose banks the region is situated. It arose during the past 150 years by imigrants from all over Europe but has strong roots in Westphalia and the Rhinelands also. The region had been and is still a bit the heard of heavy industry in Germany, based on coal and steel. Althrough mining has come to an end the identification of the people is strongly derivated from heavy industry.NRW has about 18 Million inhabitants which makes it to state with the highst population in GermanyNRW is number four in the largest German states34 of the 100 largest companies in Germany have their heardquarten in NRW, 9 of the 100 largest European companies have their headquarter in NRW.The capital is DüsseldorfThe largest city of the state is CologneThe Ruhr is the third largest urban region in middle Europe, after London and Paris. http://wikitravel.org/en/North Rhine-Westphalia