Ennepetal (; ) is a town in the district of Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was created in 1949 out of the former municipalities Milspe and Voerde. It was named after the river Ennepe, which flows through the municipality. The town was featured in the headlines when on April 12, 2005, a hostage taker snatched several school children from a school bus and took them as hostages, see Ennepetal hostage taking. Division of the town Ennepetal is divided into nine quarters (Ortsteile), which resemble former towns and villages. The population is shown as of 10 June 2015: Altenvoerde (3663) Bülbringen/Oberbauer (1470) Büttenberg (3689) Hasperbach (1208) Königsfeld (1090) Milspe (9776) Oelkinghausen (573) Rüggeberg (1482) Voerde (7438) Politics The current mayor of Ennepetal is independent politician Imke Heymann. She was first elected in 2015 with the endorsement of the CDU, The Greens, Free Voters, and FDP. In the most recent mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, Heymann was re-elected with 70.3% of votes with the backing of the SPD and CDU. She was opposed by Sotirios Kostas (18.2%) and Cornelia Born-Maijer (11.5%), who both ran as independents. Local council The Ennepetal municipal council governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent council election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows: ! colspan=2| Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Social Democratic Party (SPD) | 3,792 | 31.5 | 7.1 | 11 | 5 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | 3,556 | 29.5 | 3.3 | 11 | ±0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) | 2,252 | 18.7 | 8.9 | 7 | 3 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Free Democratic Party (FDP) | 1,089 | 9.0 | 2.9 | 3 | 1 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Free Voters Ennepetal (FWE) | 780 | 6.5 | 2.3 | 2 | 2 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| The Left (Die Linke) | 572 | 4.8 | 0.8 | 2 | ±0 |- ! colspan=2| Valid votes ! 12,041 ! 98.0 ! ! ! |- ! colspan=2| Invalid votes ! 248 ! 2.0 ! ! ! |- ! colspan=2| Total ! 12,289 ! 100.0 ! ! 36 ! 6 |- ! colspan=2| Electorate/voter turnout ! 24,726 ! 49.7 ! ! ! |- | colspan=7| Source: City of Ennepetal