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A major transportation and industrial center of the Ruhr region, the city of Dortmund is in North Rhine-Westphalia state. Although there is much industry, Dortmund remains green with about half of its area covered by farms, parks, and forests. There are extensive port facilities at the head of the Dortmund-Ems Canal. Dortmund is one of Europe's largest producers of beer. Steel and coal are also major products. There is a large wholesale fruit and vegetable market. Several bridge-building firms that operate worldwide are headquartered in the city, and there are also machinery factories. Dortmund has many educational institutions, including the Max Planck Institute for Industrial Physiology and for the Physiology of Nutrition, the Institute for Spectrochemistry and Spectroanalysis, and Munster University's Social Research Institute. The University of Dortmund was founded in 1966. There are also schools for social studies, journalistic research, mountaineering, mining, teacher training, and adult education. The Museum of the History of Culture and Art is housed in a building that was once a monastery. It houses the "Dortmund treasure," a collection of more than 400 gold coins. Westfalenhalle, or Westphalia Hall, which was built in 1952, is one of Europe's largest facilities, and it is used for conventions, exhibitions, and sporting events. The Municipal Theater has three main houses for concerts, plays, and operas. In addition to Westfalenhalle, a synagogue built in 1956 is another notable example of modern architecture in Dortmund. In contrast there are three churches that date from the 12th to the 14th century. Dortmund was known as Throtmanni when a name was first recorded in 885. It became a free imperial city in 1220 and later joined the Hanseatic League, medieval northern European cities that joined to promote commerce. By the 14th century it had become extremely prosperous through trading. Its prosperity declined after the Thirty Years' War, which ended in 1648, and it lost its imperial rights in 1803. Its population was then only about 4,000. With the development of coal mining and iron-ore mining in the 19th century, and the completion of the Dortmund-Ems canal in 1899, Dortmund grew rapidly. Population (1983 estimate), 599,521.
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