Palaeo-heat flows and thicknesses of eroded Carboniferous overburden in the coal-bearing Ruhr basin (western Germany) were estimated using one-dimensional basin modelling techniques. Thermal and burial histories for 11 localities were calibrated by comparing measured and calculated vitrinite reflectance data, based on the assumption of pre-tectonic maturation. In contrast to former studies, the kinetic EASY%R(o) approach was applied for the calculation of vitrinite reflectance. Lopatin＇s TTI algorithm was used in addition for one well in order to demonstrate the impact of the selection of the algorithm for vitrinite reflectance calculation on the simulation results. Simulated palaeo-heat flows for the time of maximum burial (most probably in the Stephanian) range from 64 to 83 mW/m2 and decrease towards the south. These heat flows are lower than values computed during earlier studies, but are still relatively high in comparison to recent foreland basins. The regional distribution of palaeo-heat flows indicates that the crust beneath the Ruhr basin was relatively thin and thickened towards the south at the end of the Carboniferous. After the Stephanian, 2200-3500 m of Carboniferous overburden were eroded. An observed southward increase in eroded thicknesses is caused by an uplift of the area studied, which decreased towards the north, at the end of the Variscan folding. Large thicknesses of deposited (and later eroded) Carboniferous sediments have to be postulated to explain the maturity data even along the present southern margin of the Ruhr basin. This indicates that the late Carboniferous sediments originally extended far to the south. Geological arguments suggest that the deposition of Carboniferous sediments in the entire Ruhr basin continued until the Stephanian.