Oberhausen (/ˈoʊbərhaʊzən/, German: [ˈoːbɐhaʊzn̩] ^ⓘ) is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen (c. 13 km or 8 mi). The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, The Static Roots Festival and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage.

Oberhausen was named for its 1847 railway station which had taken its name from the Oberhausen Castle. The new borough was formed in 1862 following inflow of people for the local coal mines and steel mills. Awarded town rights in 1874, Oberhausen absorbed several neighbouring boroughs including Alstaden, parts of Styrum and Dümpten in 1910. Oberhausen became a city in 1901, and they incorporated the towns of Sterkrade and Osterfeld in 1929. The Ruhrchemie AG synthetic oil plant ("Oberhausen-Holten" or "Sterkrade/Holten") was a bombing target of the oil campaign of World War II, and the US forces reached the plant by 4 April 1945.

In 1973, Thyssen AG employed 14,000 people in Oberhausen in the steel industry, but ten years later the number had fallen to 6,000.

In 1954 the city began hosting the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, and the 1982 Deutscher Filmpreis was awarded to a group that wrote the Oberhausen Manifesto.

Population development since 1862:

The age breakdown of the population (2013) is:

There were 12.5% non-Germans living in Oberhausen, as of 2014.

The unemployment rate is 10.4% (Jul 2020).