Bottrop (bôt'rôp) [key], city (1994 pop. 119,680), North Rhine–Westphalia, W Germany, in the Ruhr district. It was a small town until 1863, when it began to develop as a coal-mining center. In 1975 the annexation of Kirchhellen and Gladbeck practically doubled the population of Bottrop. Today the city is an industrial center. In addition to its coal output, manufactures include chemicals, machinery, and steel. There are large carbonization plants there. Bottrop was known around the 11th cent. as Borgthorpe.
