Wuppertal Wuppertal Regensburg Category="Cities in Germany"Category="Cities in North Rhine-Westphalia"[image] [image]

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.

Schwebebahn

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: 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:

External links

Official city website
more in-depth information about Wuppertal and its sights

[image]	Cities and Districts in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)	[image]
Cities	Aachen \| Bergisch Gladbach \| Bielefeld \| Bochum \| Bonn \| Bottrop \| Dortmund \| Duisburg \| Düsseldorf \| Essen \| Gelsenkirchen \| Hagen \| Hamm \| Herne \| Köln (Cologne) \| Iserlohn \| Krefeld \| Leverkusen \| Mönchengladbach \| Mülheim \| Münster \| Oberhausen \| Remscheid \| Solingen \| Wuppertal
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