Wuppertal

Basic data:

Geography:

Wuppertal is located in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, around 30 km east of Düsseldorf, around 40 km north-east of Cologne and around 23 km south-east of Essen. It is located in the Bergisches Land in an arc of the Wupper, which flows 33.9 kilometers through the city area.

The city lies along the border of the Niederbergische in the north and the Oberbergische plateaus in the south, resulting in considerable differences in elevation within the urban area. The highest point in the city is Lichtscheid at 350 meters above sea level, the lowest point in the city is on the Wupper near Müngsten at 100 meters above sea level.

Climate:

The climate in the Bergisches Land is cold and temperate, as it represents a border zone between a maritime winter climate and a low mountain range climate. January is the coldest month with 1.9 °C, the warmest month is July with 17.5 °C. There is a distinctly high rainfall of 1500 mm per year all year round and very heavy snowfall almost every year.

City structure:

10 boroughs:

Elberfeld
Elberfeld-West
Uellendahl-Katernberg
Vohwinkel
Cronenberg
Barmen
Oberbarmen
Langerfeld-Beyenburg
Ronsdorf

history:

Today's entire city of Wuppertal arose from the genesis of several individual towns and individual villages.

The oldest district in this group is Cronenberg as "cronenberga" first mentioned in 1040, then Barmen as "barmon" first mentioned in 1070, Elberfeld as "elverfelde" first mentioned in 1161, Schöller as "schoulare" first mentioned in 1182, Ronsdorf as "rumsdorp" in 1246 first mentioned, Beyenburg first mentioned as "byenberg" in 1302, Vohwinkel first mentioned as "vouinkel" in 1312.

In 1430, Elberfeld became the property of the Counts of Berg. In 1527 Barmen and Elberfeld received the privilege of so-called "Garnnahrung". This entitles the two cities in the entire Duchy of Kleve, Jülich and Berg to pursue yarn bleaching alone. In 1610 Elberfeld was granted city privileges and expanded in 1623. After the town fire in 1687, the town hall was not rebuilt until 1707.

Ronsdorf was granted city rights in 1745. In 1815 the entire Grand Duchy of Berg became Prussian. Eight years before the outbreak of the revolution in Elberfeld, the railway line from Düsseldorf to Elberfeld was inaugurated. In 1901, Kaiser Wilhelm II approved the suspension railway, which is still used today as a local transport system in the city area. In 1922, Langerfeld and Nextbreck were incorporated into Barmen.

Barmen-Elberfeld was one of the largest economic centers in the German Empire from the first third of the 19th century. Numerous historical transport routes led to the city districts, such as the Bergische Eisenstraße or several coal routes from the Ruhr area. Today's Bundesstraße 7 to Hagen was one of the very first paved roads in Prussia.

Around the turn of the century in 1900, small ironwork and the textile industry with flourishing production and considerable trade brought both cities a strong growth spurt, which ultimately also suggested the unification. This took place on August 1, 1929.

With the municipal reorganization of the Rhenish-Westphalian industrial area in 1929, the city of Wuppertal was created through the merger of the cities of Barmen, Beyenburg, Cronenberg, Elberfeld, Ronsdorf and Vohwinkel.

With a few exceptions, the historic building fabric in the main urban centers was destroyed during the Second World War.Culturally and historically significant buildings such as the Barmer Stadthalle and the world's second planetarium fell victim, as did hundreds of old town houses.

The central areas of Elberfeld and Barmen owe their current appearance to the rapid reconstruction with the erection of functional and straightforward buildings and the creation of wide aisles for the growing individual traffic.

Considerations to demolish the badly damaged suspension railway scaffolding were quickly discarded.

Overall, the city was able to make a good new start. The textile industry, which was the city's economic factor up until the 1970s, lost importance due to the globalization of the textile market.

Wuppertal is now the world leader in tool manufacture. Chemical, electrical engineering, paper, printing and precision engineering industries are also located here.

Sights: