Oude IJsselstreek

Oude IJsselstreek is a municipality in the eastern Netherlands. It was established on 1 January 2005 through a merger of the former municipalities Gendringen and Wisch.

Geography and population centres
The municipality belongs to the transition area between the rivers in the south, coming from Germany (Rhine and Issel), and the sandy soils of the Eastern Netherlands.

It has 15 population centres. Formerly from Gendringen Formerly from Wisch (Gelderland)
 * Breedenbroek, Etten, Gendringen, Megchelen, Netterden, Ulft, Varsselder, and Voorst (not to be confused with the municipality of Voorst, also in Gelderland).
 * Bontebrug, Heelweg-Oost and Heelweg-West, Silvolde, Sinderen, Terborg, Varsseveld, and Westendorp.

Terborg is the only population centre with city rights, but the largest one is Ulft with 10,000 inhabitants. The municipality of Oude IJsselstreek is considered to be divided into three units. The centres along the river Oude IJssel (Ulft, Gendringen, Etten on the left border, Silvolde and Terborg on the right) constitute the urban belt, Varsseveld in the east of the municipality is a rural village and the other centres are the external territories. The municipality plans to make Ulft the local centre.

Topography


Dutch Topographic map of the municipality of Oude IJsselstreek, 2013.

Culture
In this essentially rural municipality, there have been some places where iron ore was mined and processed. From the several enterprises the DRU (Diepenbrock en Reigers te Ulft) was the largest, it closed in Ulft in 2003. Since 2009 the DRUfabriek is a cultural centre that gives home to the local library of Ulft, a theater, a Turkish cultural centre, a regional centre for vocational education and other facilities. In its conference room the meetings of the municipal council take place.

International affairs
Oude IJsselstreek is a member of the Ring of the European Cities of Iron Works and hosted the annual convention of 2010.