Wuppertal
From Freepedia
Image:Wuppertal ansicht.jpg Image:Wuppertal universitaet.jpg Wuppertal 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. E.g. one of the most famous pain-killers Aspirin was invented in Wuppertal.
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. 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 ("Petroleum Hill") District, one of Germany's largest working class districts, and the so-called Briller Viertel, Germany's largest district of Bourgeois dwellings. In total, Wuppertal possesses over 4.500 buildings classified national monuments, most dating from periods of classicism, Art Nouveau and Bauhaus. One fine masterpiece of turn-of-the-century architecture is Wuppertal's concert-hall (Stadthalle), inaugurated in 1900 by the German emperor William II. and his wife.
The Tanztheater Pina Bausch is world-famous and regularly playing at theatres in New York, Tokyo, Paris, London etc.
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Schwebebahn
Image:Schwebebahn ueber Strasse.jpg
- see main article at 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.
Noted Wuppertal people
- Friedrich Bayer, founder of the Friedrich Bayer paint factory that later became Bayer AG
- Friedrich Engels, historian, co-author of the "communist manifest" (with Karl Marx)
- Else Lasker-Schüler, expressionist poet
- Siegfried Palm, cellist
- Johannes Rau, former Federal President of Germany
- Alice Schwarzer, one of the leaders of the German feminist movement
- Rita Süssmuth, former President of the German Parliament
- Tom Tykwer, movie director ("Run Lola, Run"), co-founder of XFilm syndicate
- Steffen Möller, satirist, soap-opera star and TV celebrity in Poland; the most popular German in Poland
- Reimar Lüst, astrophysicist
Twin Cities
Wuppertal is twinned with:
- South Tyneside, United Kingdom
- Saint-Étienne, France
- Berlin-Tempelhof-Schöneberg, Germany
- Beersheba, Israel
- Košice, Slovakia
- Schwerin, Germany
- Matagalpa, Nicaragua
- Legnica, Poland
External links
| Cities and Districts in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) | ||
|---|---|---|
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Cities |
Aachen | Bielefeld | Bochum | Bonn | Bottrop | Dortmund | Duisburg | Düsseldorf | Essen | Gelsenkirchen | |
|
Districts |
Aachen | Borken | Kleve (Cleves) | Coesfeld | Düren |
Ennepe-Ruhr | Euskirchen | Gütersloh |
Heinsberg | Herford
|
