OBERHAUSEN  , a

town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province . It is situated 5 m. from the east bank of the Rhine, 20 M . N.E. of Dusseldorf, on the main line of railway to Hanover and Berlin, and at the centre of an important network of lines radiating hence into the extensive Westphalian coal and iron fields . Pop . (1905) 52,096 . The town possesses large iron-works, coal-mines, rolling mills, zinc smelting-works, railway workshops and manufactures of wire-rope, glass, chemicals, porcelain and soap . The first houses of Oberhausen were built in 1845, and it received its municipal character in 1874 .