Werl is easily accessible because it is located between the Sauerland, Münsterland, and the Ruhr Area. The Hellweg road runs through the city, as Werl is a part of the fertile Bördelandschaft of the Werl–Unnaer Börde.
Werl was a member of the Hanseatic League in the Middle Ages and since 1661 has had a statue of the Virgin Mary, making it a place of pilgrimage. Today this relic is in the Wallfahrtsbasilika and is looked after by the Franciscan religious order. Werl Prison is the third largest in North Rhine-Westphalia, Werl Prison.
1958–1965: Ferdinand Pöppinghaus (1923–1965) (CDU)
1965–1981: Amalie Rohrer (1922-2014) (CDU)
1981–1985: Heinz Sasse (CDU)
1986–1994: Elisabeth Böhmer (CDU)
1994–1996: Kunibert Becker (1934-2001) (CDU)
1996–1999: Friedrich Leopold Graf von Brühl, (born 1944) (CDU)
1999–2020: Michael Grossmann, (born 1948) (CDU)
since 2020: Torben Höbrink (CDU)
Notable people
Philipp Rosenthal (1855–1937), businessman and founder of Rosenthal AG at Schloss Erkersreuth in Selb
Franz von Papen (1879–1969), Conservative politician, diplomat, nobleman and General Staff officer; served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-Chancellor under Adolf Hitler from 1933 to 1934