Wuppertal

Wuppertal Wuppertal Elberfeld Coat of arms Location
Administration Country Germany State North Rhine-Westphalia Admin. region Düsseldorf District Urban district Lord MayorPeter Jung (CDU) Governing parties CDU/ SPDBasic statistics Area168.41 km² (65 sq mi) Elevation100-350 m Population 356,015 (31/12/2007)[1] - Density2,114 /km² (5,475 /sq mi) Other information Time zone CET/CEST(UTC+1/+2) Licence plateW Postal codes42001-42399 Area code0202 Website wuppertal.de

Coordinates: 51°16′0″N 07°11′0″E / 51.26667, 7.18333

Wuppertal The Schwebebahn in Wuppertal Wuppertal University

Wuppertal (IPA: [ˈvʊpɐtaːl]) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the Wupper river south of the Ruhr area. Population 361,333 (2005).

Two thirds of the total municipal area is green belt: woods, meadows, gardens and fields. From any part of the city it is only a ten-minute walk to one of the public parks or shady woodland path. At the same time it is a major industrial centre including such industries as: textiles, metallurgy, chemicals, medicine (Bayer), electric, rubber, vehicles and printing equipment. One of the most famous pain-killers, Aspirin, was invented in Wuppertal by Bayer.

1 History
2 Main sights
- 2.1 Schwebebahn
3 Wuppertal in the arts
4 Noted Wuppertal people
5 Sister Cities
6 References

History

The city was formed in 1929 by merging Barmen, Elberfeld, Vohwinkel, Ronsdorf, Cronenberg, Langerfeld, and Beyenburg. The name was initially Barmen-Elberfeld, and after 1930 Wuppertal (“Wupper Valley”). The new city was administered within the Prussian Rhine Province.

Uniquely for Germany it is a linear city, owing to the steep hillsides along the river Wupper. The dominating city-centres Elberfeld (historic commercial centre) and Barmen (more industrial) form a united built-up area since 1850. In the following decades, this “Wupper-Town” became the dominating industrial agglomeration of the territories in northwestern Germany. Before the 19th century ended, this conurbation had been surpassed by Cologne, Düsseldorf and the Ruhr area, all with much more favourable topography.

During World War II, it was destroyed to about 40% by the Allies as were many other industrial centres at the time. However, a large quantity of historic sites have been preserved such as the Ölberg (“Oil Hill”) District, one of Germany’s largest working class districts, and the so-called Briller Viertel, Germany’s largest district of Bourgeois dwellings.

After the liberation from the Nazi regime, Wuppertal became a part of the British Occupancy Zone, and subsequently a part of the new state North Rhine-Westphalia in West Germany.

Main sights

In total, Wuppertal possesses over 4,500 buildings classified national monuments, most dating from periods of classicism, Art Nouveau and Bauhaus.

Main sights include:

The Concert-hall, a fine masterpiece of turn-of-the-century architecture (Stadthalle), inaugurated in 1900 by the German emperor, William II, and his wife.
The Tanztheater Wuppertal, headed by Pina Bausch, is world-famous and regularly plays at theatres in New York, Tokyo, Paris, London etc.
Engels’ house (Engelshaus), architecturally typical of the region. It houses a permanent display of materials associated with Friedrich Engels and other famous citizens of Wuppertal.
Wuppertal Zoo, one of the largest, most nicely landscaped zoos in Germany with many rare animals.
the Von der Heydt Museum, one of the most important galleries in Germany, with works by 19th and 20th century artists. The first of Picasso’s works that ever appeared in public was displayed here.

Schwebebahn

Main article: Schwebebahn Wuppertal

One of the city’s greatest attractions is the suspended monorail (“Wuppertaler Schwebebahn”), which was established in 1901. The tracks are 8 m above the streets and 12 m above the Wupper river.

Wuppertal in the arts

The play, Die Wupper, by Else Lasker-Schüler takes places in Elberfeld.
The 2000 movie, The Princess and the Warrior by Tom Tykwer, was filmed in Wuppertal.
In the 1974 Wim Wenders film Alice in the Cities, the main characters visit Wuppertal.

Noted Wuppertal people

Friedrich Bayer, founder of the Friedrich Bayer paint factory that later became Bayer AG
Arno Breker, sculptor
Friedrich Engels, historian, co-author of the Communist Manifesto (with Karl Marx)
Hans Knappertsbusch, orchestra conductor
Else Lasker-Schüler, expressionist poet
Ulrich Leyendecker, composer
Reimar Lüst, astrophysicist
Steffen Möller, satirist, soap-opera star and TV celebrity in Poland; the most popular German in Poland
Simone Osygus, swimmer
Siegfried Palm, cellist
Johannes Rau, former Federal President of Germany
Alice Schwarzer, one of the leaders of the German feminist movement
Sir Hans Wolfgang Singer, economist
Rita Süssmuth, former President of the German Parliament
Helmut Thielicke, theologian
Tom Tykwer, film director (“Run Lola, Run”, “The Princess and the Warrior”), co-founder of X-Filme syndicate
Günter Wand, orchestra conductor
Sulamith Wülfing, artist and illustrator
Peter Brotzmann and Peter Kowald, noted innovators in modern improvised music
Christoph Maria Herbst, actor
Hermann Ebbinghaus, psychologist who studied memory