The cities of Bochum, Castrop-Rauxel, Dortmund, Duisburg, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Herne, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Oberhausen, Recklinghausen and Wattenscheid founded the Stadtbahngesellschaft Ruhr in 1969 for coordinating the plans to transform tram routes into Stadtbahn routes.
On 18 December 1843, the Prussian government granted a concession to the CME for the line from Deutz (now a suburb of Cologne) through Mülheim am Rhein, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Oberhausen, Altenessen, Gelsenkirchen, Wanne, Herne and Castrop-Rauxel to Dortmund and on to Hamm, Oelde, Rheda, Bielefeld and Herford to Minden.
The count wanted to surround Dortmund by separate towns (including the towns of Herdecke, Witten, Bochum, Castrop, Lünen, Unna und Schwerte).
From 1945-1947 he was chairman of the regional Socialist Youth for Dortmund, Lünen and Castrop-Rauxel.