Glocke des Bochumer Vereins vor dem Rathaus, Cast steel bell at Willy-Brandt-Platz, Bochum, Germany

The Glocke des Bochumer Vereins is a cast-steel bell standing on Willy-Brandt-Platz in front of Bochum's Rathaus. It measures 3.13 metres across, weighs 15,000 kg and sounds the note d0, making it Germany's second-heaviest bell and the largest the Bochumer Verein ever cast. Its clapper has been missing since it was placed here in 1979.

Cast in 1867 by the Bochumer Verein, the 15,000 kg bell with a 3.13 m diameter and pitch d0 was shown at the Paris World Exposition that year, where the company again received the Gold Medal and the bell is said to have rung in the exhibition. In 1902 it stood in the company's exhibition hall in Düsseldorf, later the Jahrhunderthalle. From June 1937 it stood before the Bochumer Verein administration building at the Höntrop rolling mill on Essener Straße and was damaged in World War II. In the 1970s it had to give way to a road widening; Krupp Stahl AG, which had taken over the Bochumer Verein in the 1960s, gave it to the city, and in 1979 it was placed in front of the Rathaus, its clapper lost since then.

The bell sits at the heart of Bochum's identity as a steel-working city and is seen by locals as a symbol of the craftsmanship that once shaped the region. People come here to remember the time when factory work defined life and the city grew around it.

The bell stands on Willy-Brandt-Platz directly in front of the Rathaus, an open-air object visible at any hour; there is no entrance and no viewing inside. Its clapper has been missing since it was set up in 1979, so it is never rung. Look for it on foot while crossing the square between the main station and the city centre.

The bell's clapper has been missing since it was placed in front of the Rathaus in 1979, so it can no longer ring. Before that it stood at the Höntrop rolling mill on Essener Straße from June 1937 and was damaged in the Second World War. It had to make way for a road widening in the 1970s, and Krupp Stahl AG, which had taken over Bochumer Verein in the 1960s, gave it to the city.