Herne is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Ruhr area directly between the cities of Bochum, and Gelsenkirchen. …Herne is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Ruhr area directly between the cities of Bochum, and Gelsenkirchen. Herne was a tiny village until the 19th century. When the mining of coal and the production of coke and steel began, the villages of the Ruhr area had an influx of people, mostly from the east of Germany.