10 largest cities in Germany
Berlin
Hamburg
Munich
Cologne
Frankfurt am Main
Hanover
Dusseldorf
Leipzig
Bremen
Dresden
Düsseldorf is the state capital of North Rhine-Westphalia and the
official seat of the administrative district of Düsseldorf. The
independent city on the Rhine is the second largest city in the
state after Cologne with 621,877 inhabitants on December 31, 2019.
In Germany, Düsseldorf is the seventh largest city by population.
Düsseldorf is part of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region with around
ten million inhabitants and the Rhineland metropolitan region with
8.6 million inhabitants. The city at the heart of the central
European economic area has long been in 6th place in Mercer studies
on the cities with the highest quality of life worldwide.
In
1288 the place at the confluence of the river Düssel in the Rhine
received the city charter. From the end of the 14th century to the
beginning of the 19th century, the city was the seat of government
of the countries of the Holy Roman Empire and the Confederation of
the Rhine: the Duchy of Berg, the Duchy of Jülich-Berg and
Jülich-Kleve-Berg and the Grand Duchy of Berg, from 1690 to 1716
also residence of the Count Palatine and Elector Johann Wilhelm von
der Pfalz. From the 19th century onwards it was the seat of the
administrative district of Düsseldorf and was the parliamentary seat
of the Rhine Province in Prussia until the 20th century. During the
German Empire, Dusseldorf developed into the “desk of the Ruhr area”
in the course of high industrialization in Germany and became a
major city in 1882 when it exceeded the 100,000 mark.
The
metropolis on the Rhine is one of the five most important,
internationally strongly intertwined economic centers in Germany.
Düsseldorf is a trade fair city and the seat of many listed
companies, including the DAX-listed Henkel group. It is also the
German location with the highest turnover for auditing, corporate
and legal advice, advertising and clothing fashion, as well as an
important financial and stock market. It is also a leader in the art
trade in Germany.
Düsseldorf has several Rhine ports. Its
airport is the intercontinental hub of North Rhine-Westphalia. The
city is also home to 22 universities, including the renowned
Düsseldorf Art Academy and Heinrich Heine University. Düsseldorf is
also well-known beyond the region for its old town (“longest bar in
the world”), its Königsallee shopping boulevard (“Kö”), its
Düsseldorf carnival, the Fortuna Düsseldorf football club and the
Düsseldorf EG ice hockey club. Other attractions are numerous
museums and galleries as well as the Rhine promenade and the modern
media harbor. The cityscape is also characterized by numerous
skyscrapers and church towers, the 240 meter high Rhine tower, many
monuments and seven bridges over the Rhine. The large number of East
Asian residents is remarkable, including the Japanese community,
which is the largest Japanese community and the only Japantown in
Germany. The center of this Japanese community is Immermannstrasse,
which attracts tourists and locals alike with its various Japanese
restaurants, shops and supermarkets.