Wuppertal

 

(vʊp'ərtäl) , city (1994 pop. 386,625), North Rhine–Westphalia, W Germany, on the Wupper River. It is an industrial center, formed in 1929 by the merger of Barmen, Elberfeld, Vohwinkel, and several smaller towns. Manufactures include textiles, machinery, tools, chemicals, rubber, vehicles, printing equipment, and beer. Barmen was first mentioned in the 11th cent. and Elberfeld in the 12th cent. Elberfeld pioneered in legislation for poor relief with a system that it adopted in the mid-19th cent. and that was widely imitated (see poor law). As a major production center of ball bearings and chemicals in World War II, the city was heavily damaged by Allied bombing raids. Noteworthy buildings include the city hall (1912–22) and the opera house (1956). There is a museum of the history of clocks and watches.

Wuppertal
Wuppertal Elberfeld
Coat of arms	Location
Administration
Country	Germany
State	North Rhine-Westphalia
Admin. region	Düsseldorf
District	Urban district
Lord Mayor	Peter Jung (CDU)
Governing parties	CDU / SPD
Basic statistics
Area	km² ( sq mi)
Elevation	m
Population	Please give "Stand or population_as_of" in YYYY-MM-DD format , e. g. 2005-12-31 [1]
- Density	/km² ( /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone	CET/CEST ([[UTC+1]]/[[UTC+2|+2]])
Licence plate	W
Postal codes	42001-42399
Area code	0202
Website	wuppertal.de Coordinates: 51°16′″N 07°11′″E / Expression error: unexpected / operator, Expression error: unexpected / operator

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).

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.

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 city has, unique in Germany, a ribbon-like structure due 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 (“Mount Petrol”) 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 North Rhine-Westphalia state of 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

• Accept, popular heavy metal band was formed in Wuppertal in the early 1970s
• 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

Sister Cities

Wuppertal is twinned with:

• Beersheba, Israel
• Berlin-Tempelhof-Schöneberg, Germany
• Košice, Slovakia
• Legnica, Poland
• Matagalpa, Nicaragua
• Saint-Étienne, France
• Schwerin, Germany
• South Tyneside, United Kingdom

Urban and rural districts in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany
Urban districts	Aachen · Bielefeld · Bochum · Bonn · Bottrop · Dortmund · Duisburg · Düsseldorf · Essen · Gelsenkirchen · Hagen · Hamm · Herne · Köln (Cologne) · Krefeld · Leverkusen · Mönchengladbach · Mülheim · Münster · Oberhausen · Remscheid · Solingen · Wuppertal
Rural Districts	Aachen · Borken · Kleve (Cleves) · Coesfeld · Düren · Ennepe-Ruhr · Euskirchen · Gütersloh · Heinsberg · Herford · Hochsauerland · Höxter · Lippe · Märkischer Kreis · Mettmann · Minden-Lübbecke · Oberbergischer Kreis · Olpe · Paderborn · Recklinghausen · Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis · Rhein-Erft-Kreis · Rhein-Kreis Neuss · Rhein-Sieg-Kreis · Siegen-Wittgenstein · Soest · Steinfurt · Unna · Viersen · Warendorf · Wesel

References

ksh:Wuppertal

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