Oberhausen (IPA: [ˈoːbɐhaʊzən]) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Ruhr area, 35 km to the north of Düsseldorf. Population: 218,898 (31.12.2005). The city is a result of economic growth in the 19th century. It was but a rural area until about 1860, when coal mines were opened and the production of steel began to turn large areas of today's city into a huge industrial complex. Several villages merged in 1862 to make up a new town. In 1929 the nearby towns of Sterkrade and Osterfeld were incorporated. Oberhausen is a typical city of the Ruhr area, which had been growing around industries. Today the city is trying to revive itself. In the 1990s a huge shopping mall, CentrO was built on an abandoned steel works site. The "Gasometer" (an Anchor Point of ERIH, The European Route of Industrial Heritage) is reused as an exhibition hall. The former zink metallurgy company Altenberg is reused as the Rheinische Industrie Museum (Industrial Museum of the Rhineland) showing the history of the metallurgy. There are also an international award festival for short films and since the early 1920th a theatre. Many of the main buildings, as e.g. the main station and the city hall are typical for the style of the 1920th.