Selm is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia and belongs historically and geographically to both the southern Münsterland and the northern Ruhr area. With the suburbs of Selm, Bork and Cappenberg, the town lies in the extreme north-west of the Unna district and was granted municipal rights in 1975.
Historically, Selm looks back to the Middle Stone Age through archaeological finds. The first traces of settlement date back to the Neolithic period (excavations in the Ternsche farming community).
The town of "Seliheim" was first mentioned in a document in 858, as an interest-paying town towards the Benedictine monastery of Herford. This developped to the present name "Selm".
With the northward migration of coal mining, the Ruhr area expanded into the Selm area and so, around 1900, industrialisation began in Selm with the Hermann colliery. Within a few years the small rural community became an industrial town with many new citizens from Europe, especially Poland and Italy. In 1926 the mine was closed down, and from 1934 to 1956 Selm was an emergency municipality.
Today Selm is a modern and young town. In recent years, the centre of the town has been redesigned as part of the Ruhr Area competition "Regionale 2016", and the Campus and the Auenpark have been developed as interesting areas in terms of urban development and landscape planning. The new "Selmer Mitte" connects the agricultural old town (the village) with the district of "Beifang", which grew at the turn of the century due to coal mining. After the territorial reform in 1975, Selm was granted town rights. Since then the three districts of Selm, Bork and Cappenberg have formed the town of Selm.
Selm has about 26,000 inhabitants.
After the twinning with Walincourt-Selvigny had been officially decided by the town in 1992 and with Workington in 1994, the Verein zur Förderung der Städtepartnerschaften der Stadt Selm e.V. was founded on 22 February 1995. It continued the committed work of the twinning group. The leading figures in the beginning were Margret Göhler (chairman), Hans Hoppe (vice chairman), Birgitt Kranz (sekretary), Brigitte Lorscheider (treasurer). The other members in 1995 were: Doris Cymontkowski, Henri de Jongste, Anne Körwien, Mechthild Nolden, Herbert Schröder.
2016 the official twinning with the third city, Iwkowa in Poland, has been confirmed. At the moment there are over 100 members joining the club.
Over more than 25 years several exchanges took place and the people in all four town became dear friends. Schools were and are exchanging, as there are choirs, music groups, sport clubs, artists, scouts, members of the youth parliament of Selm.
