Essen is a large city in the center of the Ruhr area and the
Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region. After Cologne, Düsseldorf and
Dortmund, Essen is the fourth largest city in the state of North
Rhine-Westphalia and one of the regional centers. The independent
city in the administrative district of Düsseldorf is one of the ten
largest cities in Germany with 582,760 inhabitants (as of December
31, 2019). As an important industrial and business location, Essen
is the seat of well-known large companies and, with the University
of Duisburg-Essen, also a university location. In 1958 the city
became the seat of the newly founded diocese of Essen.
The
city on the Ruhr, which dates back to the Frauenstift Essen founded
before 850, is a member of the Rhineland Regional Association and
the headquarters of the Ruhr Regional Association. As part of the
project RUHR.2010 - European Capital of Culture, Essen was European
Capital of Culture in 2010 on behalf of the entire Ruhr area. Due to
its central location in the Ruhr area, Essen is also seen as the
"secret capital of the Ruhr area".
In addition to the Essen
monastery, the Werden monastery founded by Liudger around 800 was a
center of the late antique-early Christian text tradition. Elevated
to a free imperial city by Emperor Karl IV in the 14th century,
Essen had been an armory since the late Middle Ages and with
industrialization rose to become one of the most important centers
of the coal and steel industry in Germany (with its own Kuxbörse).
After a massive decline in heavy industry from the mid-1960s, Essen
developed a strong service sector in the course of structural
change. Today the Essen Minster and the oldest extant sculptural
statue of the Virgin Mary in the Christian West (Golden Madonna)
remind us of the city's medieval history. At the same time,
monuments of industrial culture bear witness to its heavy industrial
past, especially the UNESCO World Heritage Site Zeche Zollverein.
The cityscape is also characterized by striking high-rise buildings.
With the Folkwang Museum, Essen has a renowned collection of
modern paintings, sculptures, graphics and photographs. The opera
house, which was built according to plans by Alvar Aalto, the
Folkwang University of the Arts, the Grillo Theater and the German
Poster Museum are renowned art and cultural institutions.
After Essen was European Capital of Culture in 2010, it received the
title of European Green Capital for 2017.
By plane
Essen does not have its own commercial airport. Nearby
airports are Düsseldorf Airport internet (IATA: DUS), Dortmund Airport
internet (IATA: DTM), 45 km, and Niederrhein Weeze Airport internet
(IATA: NRN), 75 km, all easily accessible by car as well as -except
Weeze- reachable by train.
By train
Essen is well connected to
the rail network, the main train station in the city center, which was
renovated and reopened in 2009, is an ICE stop. Trains in all directions
stop at Essen Central Station, including direct connections to Vienna
(ICE), Zurich (EC), Berlin (ICE), Munich (ICE), Hamburg (IC), Aachen via
Cologne, Hamm, Münster, Siegen (DB regions). With local and
long-distance trains you can reach all important cities in the Ruhr area
as well as Düsseldorf in a short time.
For several years, the
Thalys has also been running from Essen via Cologne and Liège to
Brussels, Amsterdam and Paris. The journey time to Brussels is a good
2.5 hours, to Paris 4 hours (3 trains per day). In addition, the
Flixtrain runs 1 to 2 times a day from Thursday to Monday (sometimes
also on Tuesdays and Wednesdays) to Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Cologne,
Gelsenkirchen, Münster and Hamburg.
Other regional trains on the
Düsseldorf - Oberhausen - Gelsenkirchen - Hamm line stop at
Essen-Altenessen station (approx. 10 minutes by underground from the
city centre).
By bus
Essen Central Station is also the bus
station for long-distance buses. approached by Eurolines and Flixbus.
In the street
Environmental zones have been set up in Essen in
accordance with the Fine Dust Ordinance. If you don't have the
appropriate badge, you risk a fine of €100 when entering an
environmental zone. This also applies to foreign road users.
Entry
ban for vehicles of pollutant groups 1+2+3 (Info Federal Environment
Agency)
Essen is divided by four autobahns (A40, A42, A44 and
A52). The A2 motorway has an Essen/Gladbeck junction, but this is about
2 km north of the city limits of Essen. The junction is connected to the
city of Essen via the B224 federal road.
By boat
In summer,
Essen can also be reached regularly by boat from Mülheim an der Ruhr. In
addition to a regular service, excursions along the Ruhr with coffee and
cake are also offered. There is also a regular service on the
Rhine-Herne Canal, but only on Wednesdays and Saturdays and only from
June to October. The line connects the Nordsternpark in Gelsenkirchen
with the Kaisergarten in Oberhausen.
Buses, trams, S-Bahn and U-Bahn trains and taxis operate within the
city. Local public transport stops from around 1:30 a.m. until the next
morning, but on weekends and public holidays so-called "Night Express"
buses also run later at night at hourly intervals.
An interesting
means of transport in Essen is tram line 107, also known as culture line
107. The tram runs from Gelsenkirchen Hbf via Zollverein and Essen Hbf
to Essen-Bredeney. On the train and at the stops there is information
about the sights at the respective stop. On the website you will find
detailed information about the 45-minute route, the 57 sights affected,
the possible tickets (at the normal EVAG/VRR tariff), the timetable and,
as a special highlight, the HörTour 107. The free audio book (60 MB, MP3
files) has an audio clip of one to two minutes for each station. From A
for Aaltotheater to Z for Zeche Zollverein, many points of the route of
industrial culture are also explained. There is also a paperback for the
route (see literature below).
By bicycle
Essen is part of the
metropolradruhr bicycle rental system. At numerous automatic stations in
ten cities in the Ruhr area, simple three-speed bikes can be borrowed
and returned somewhere else after prior notification. The system is
operated by the company Nextbike.
In Essen there are several bike
stations of the RevierRad rental system, which is active in the Ruhr
area and the surrounding area. Here you can rent bikes and cycle
tourists can store their own bikes and have them serviced if necessary.
In contrast to metropolradruhr, this system is designed for longer
rentals over several hours or days. You can also choose from different
types of bikes.
Essen is located on the planned and completed section
of the Ruhr cycle expressway from the university to Mülheim.
1 Zollverein colliery and coking plant, Arendahls Wiese. Tel.: +49
231 9311220, email: info@zollverein.de . Since 2002 it has been a World
Heritage Site and a symbol of former mining in Essen. The colliery and
the coking plant are two separate areas that can each be visited as part
of a guided tour. The tour of the coking plant, which was only closed in
1993, lasts two hours, during which almost all areas of the coking plant
can be visited, including the view from below through a 98m high
chimney. Inside today's entrance building there is a café (with outdoor
seating in summer). An additional attraction is a Ferris wheel built
between the former coke ovens and a so-called factory swimming pool,
which is open to the public in summer. Open: Wed-Sun 12:00-20:00.
2
Villa Hügel, Hügelweg 1 . Former seat of the Krupp dynasty with 269
rooms. The building is used for concerts and exhibitions, the villa and
park can be visited for an entrance fee. Open: Villa: Tue-Sun 10am-6pm,
Park: daily 8am-8pm.
3 Unperfekthaus, Friedrich-Ebert-Straße 18.
Tel.: +49 201 847350, e-mail: info@unperfekthaus.de The Unperfekthaus is
an unusual social experiment: a 4000 square meter "artists' village" in
the rooms of a former monastery in the middle of the Essen City, in
which artists and founders are provided with rooms, technology, stages,
etc. free of charge. In return, the workshops and studios can be visited
by all visitors according to the open door principle. The price of €9
per head and day includes internet and co-working options as well as any
number of non-alcoholic drinks from the machines. Similar price concepts
apply to the adjoining, excellent gastronomy (buffet), from one-off
plates (€6.50) to the all-you-can-eat buffet (€12.50). Open: Mon-Thu
7am-11pm, Fri-Sat 7am-12am, Sun 8am-11pm. Price: Admission €6.90 /
€11.90 for multiple visits on the same day.
4 Old Synagogue,
Steeler Strasse 29. Tel.: +49 201 88 45218, e-mail:
alte-synagoge@essen.de. One of the most important exhibition and
memorial sites about Jewish life in Germany. Open: Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00.
Price: 0€
High Cathedral of Münster, Burgplatz 2. Cathedral of the
diocese of Essen from the late 13th century, originally built as a
collegiate church of the women's convent of Essen, which was directly
under the Reich. In a side chapel, the oldest fully sculpted image of
the Virgin Mary in the West is exhibited in the form of the Golden
Madonna (time of origin around 980). Open: Mon-Fri 6:30am-6:30pm,
Sat-Sun 9:00am-7:30pm
5 Cathedral Treasury, Burgplatz 2. Tel.:
+49 201 2204206. The treasury attached to the cathedral church exhibits
important and valuable pieces from the Ottonian period in particular.
Open: Tue-Sat 10:00-17:00, Sun 12:30-17:00.
6 Ur-Aldi, Huestrasse
89, Essen-Schonnebeck. Tel.: +49 800 7234870. In 1913, Karl Albrecht
Senior founded the general store here, which became the nucleus of the
Aldi empire. A branch of Aldi Nord was located here until December 2020.
Open: Mon-Sat 8:00-20:00.
Workers' settlement Margarethenhöhe,
one of the most famous and beautiful workers' settlements in the Ruhr
area
Industrial Heritage Route
The Route of Industrial Culture
not only has its visitor center in the foyer of the Ruhr Museum on the
Zollverein site, it also offers two themed routes specifically for
Essen. Both routes head for a large number of points of industrial
history and socio-cultural interest, also away from the well-known
sights such as Zollverein and Villa Hügel.
Route No. 2:
Industrial Cultural Landscape Zollverein
Route No. 5: Krupp and the
city of Essen
Ruhr.Visitorcenter / Ruhr Visitor Center, coal washing,
shaft XII [A14], Gelsenkirchener Straße 181, 45309 Essen (in the foyer
of the Ruhr Museum). Tel.: +49 (0)201.2468-10, fax: +49 (0)201.2468-242,
e-mail: ruhr.visitorcenter@zollverein.de. Open: daily 10:00-18:00, in
the summer months also until 20:00.
Parks, gardens and lakes
1
Gruga Park Essen . 70-hectare park south of the city center with a small
park railway (Grugabahn).
2 Lake Baldeney. The reservoir on the Ruhr
is in the south of the city. The lake is a popular local recreation
area. The Villa Hügel (Krupp Villa) is also located here.
Museums
German Poster Museum in Museum Folkwang, Museumsplatz 1. Tel.: +49
(0)201 8845108, Fax: (0)201 885439. The German Poster Museum owns around
300,000 posters from the period from the late 19th century to the
present day. It has been part of the Museum Folkwang since 2008. Open:
Tue-Wed, Sat-Sun 10:00-18:00, Thu-Fri 10:00-20:00.
7 Museum
Folkwang, Museumsplatz 1. Tel.: +49(0)201 8845 000
wikipediacommonsfacebookinstagramtwitteryoutube. The most important art
museum in the Ruhr area and one of the most important in Germany.
Painting and sculpture from the 19th and 20th centuries, mostly from the
classicism, impressionism, expressionism, surrealism and modern eras.
There are also collections of photography, drawings and graphics, poster
art and antique handicrafts from all over the world. In addition to the
permanent exhibition, there are temporary exhibitions for which
admission has to be paid. Admission to the permanent collection is free.
Many works by well-known artists can be seen, especially in
Impressionism (Renoir, van Gogh, Gauguin, Liebermann, Manet, Monet) and
Expressionism (Chagall, Kirchner, Schmidt-Rottluff, Marc, Kandinsky,
Munch). There are also paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, Picasso,
Miró, Dalí, Pollock, Richter and Baselitz, as well as several sculptures
by Rodin. The main works of the collection are more likely to be seen in
the rear part of the museum, in the front area there are extensive areas
for temporary exhibitions. The museum has a free app with detailed
information on selected works of art. The gastronomy is relatively
expensive, drinks cost 3-4 euros. Open: Tue-Wed, Sat-Sun 10:00-18:00,
Thu-Fri 10:00-20:00. Price: Admission to the collection is free. Prices
for special exhibitions vary.
8 Ruhr Museum, Gelsenkirchener Strasse
181, Zollverein A 14 (Shaft XII, coal washing). Tel.: +49(0)201
24681444, fax: (0)201 24681-460, e-mail: info@ruhrmuseum.de. The
regional museum has numerous collections on geology and archaeology,
history and photography, which it shows in its permanent exhibition
(entire natural and cultural history of the Ruhr area) and in special
exhibitions (also topics outside the Ruhr area). Open: Mon-Sun
10:00-18:00. Price: permanent exhibition: adults €8, concessions €5,
combined and annual tickets available.
Red Dot Design Museum Essen,
Gelsenkirchener Straße 181. Open: Tue-Sun 11:00-18:00.
Messe Essen, Norbertstraße 2. Tel.: +49 201 724400. Essen has the
eighth largest trade fair in Germany. With the "Motor Show" or the horse
fair "Equitana" some of the largest fairs in the world take place there.
Within the Gruga is also the CCE Congress Center Essen for
conferences and congresses as well as the Grugahalle, in which sporting
events and concerts by national and international stars take place.
Theatre/concerts
1 Colosseum Theater, Altendorfer Strasse 1.
Tel.: +49 (0)180 5114113 .
2 Aalto Theater ; Opernplatz 10; Phone +49
201 8122200; RE1/ 2/ 6/ 11/ 14/ 16, RB40/ 42, S1-3/ 6, U11/ 17/ 18,
SB15/ 16/ 19, STR 101/ 105-107, Bus 145/ 146/ 154/ 155/ 193/ 196/ NE6/
8/ 9, museum bus: Aalto-Theater, Bismarckplatz, Hauptbahnhof,
Helbingstr, Hohenzollernstr, Kronprinzenstr, car park Philharmonie or
Philhar./Saalbau. Info: Aalto Theater
3 Grugahalle Sports events and
concerts by national and international stars.
4 Philharmonic hall
Classical concerts by the Essen Philharmonic and guest orchestras in the
hall.
5 Carl colliery Former colliery, now used as a cultural center
and event hall. Cabaret, rock, gothic, cabaret and much more takes place
here.
Art
Selective, but vital: The art scene in Essen. The
galleries are spread all over the city, with a concentration around the
Museum Folkwang.
Galerie Frank Schlag & Cie., Meisenburgstraße
173. Tel.: +49 201 180 77 72. Current and contemporary art.
Galerie
Heimeshoff, Brigittastraße 7. Tel.: +49 201 230 490. Focus: German art
after 1945.
Galerie Klaus Kiefer, Rüttenscheider Straße 56. Tel.: +49
201 788 266. Figurative painting.
Kunsthaus Essen, Rübezahlstraße 33.
Tel.: +49 201 443 313. Current art and artists.
Kunstverein Ruhr,
Kopstadtplatz 12. Tel.: +49 201 226 538. Current and contemporary art.
Art room, Rüttenscheider Straße 56. Tel.: +49 201 799 890 35. Current
and contemporary art.
Galerie Neher, Kaninenberghöhe 8. Tel.: +49 201
266 990. Mainly classical modern and art after 1945.
Galerie Obrist,
Kahrstraße 59. Tel.: +49 201 72 66 203. Current and contemporary art.
Gallery Schütte, Hauptstrasse 4 (Kettwig). Tel.: +49 2054 871 753.
Abstract, concrete, minimalist.
town Gallery in Borbeck Castle,
Schlossstraße 101. Tel.: +49 88 44 219.
Movie theater
Behind
the Limbecker Platz shopping center is a Cinemaxx cinema, with 5,370
seats in 16 halls it is the largest multiplex cinema in Germany.
Lichtburg, Kettwiger Str. 36, 45127 Essen. Tel.: +49 (0)201 231023. The
Lichtburg with the largest cinema hall in Germany is the jewel in the
crown of German cinema culture and tradition. It has been offering
fabulous cinema experiences since 1928. In 2002, the cinema was restored
in the style of the 1950s and reopened in March 2003 with 1250 seats and
a 150m² large screen with the German premiere of the film "The Miracle
of Bern". World premieres of German films still take place here today.
In addition, the second hall "Sabu" with 150 seats is located in the
basement of the Lichtburg.
Under Essener Filmkunsttheater you will
find the program of various small program cinemas: filmstudio,
Eulenspiegel, Astra-Theater, Galerie Cinema.
Miscellaneous
The
artistic Literatürk Festival, end of October (since 2004), which gives
public space to authors from Turkey and Germany.
Boat trip with the
Weisse Flotte Essen on the Baldeneysee, the Ruhr and the Rhine-Herne
Canal
Hespertalbahn An association of railway enthusiasts operates a
short route along the Ruhr between Kupferdreh and Baldeneysee with
historic trains. For a few euros you can sit in old wagons or even ride
on the locomotive on a few days of the year.
You can hike e.g. on the
Zollvereinsteig, which will be newly opened in 2022, which begins at the
eponymous Zeche Zollverein and leads in a 26.3 km long circular route
through the north of Essen. With a medium level of difficulty, it goes
through green belts, parks, industrial wasteland, allotment gardens, to
the Rhine-Herne Canal and to elevations (heaps). A division into several
stages is possible.
Essen describes itself as "The shopping city" and has one of the
first and largest German pedestrian zones, which is made up of Kettwiger
Strasse, Viehofer Strasse and Limbecker Strasse and the small streets in
between. The Essen Christmas market and the Essen Light Weeks, which
attract numerous visitors from Germany and abroad every year, begin in
November.
At the Porscheplatz in the city center is the Rathaus
Galerie Essen, a shopping center with small and medium-sized shops.
The newly opened Limbecker Platz shopping center is much larger with
branches from Saturn, C&A, Karstadt and numerous other chains.
Rüttenscheider Straße runs south of the main station. It is about two
kilometers long a shopping and promenade with numerous cafes,
restaurants and (mostly smaller) shops of all kinds. You can also find
something in neighboring streets. If you want to shop during the day or
go out in the evening, this is the place for you, for example after a
visit to the nearby Philharmonie, Messe, Gruga or the Folkwang Museum.
In the northern district of Altenessen is the Allee-Center, a
medium-sized shopping center.
In some parts of the city there are
traditional weekly markets on individual days of the week and especially
on Saturdays. The Rüttenscheider Markt on Klarastraße, the Altenessener
Markt or the Katernberger Markt are particularly worth mentioning. This
is where Essen's gourmets buy fresh groceries and the neighbors from the
area get everyday necessities. The markets are operated by the recycling
and operations GmbH (EVB), which also offers a list of all weekly
markets (with dates, directions). Right in the city center there is a
weekly market on Tuesdays and Fridays at the market church/flax market
(only fresh food and flowers).
Middle
Mongo's, Altendorfer Strasse 3A, 45127 Essen. Tel:
(0)201-1095986. Headquarters of the restaurant chain, which now has
branches throughout Germany. Asian cuisine that became popular under the
term "Mongolian Buffet". Raw ingredients are put together individually
by the guest, combined with a sauce and prepared by a chef.
Upscale
Schlosshotel Hugenpoet, August-Thyssen-Strasse 51, 45219
Essen-Kettwig. Phone: (0)2054-1204-0. The hotel has already hosted
political summit meetings. It features the Nesselrode restaurant (one
Michelin star) and the slightly cheaper Hugenpöttchen. In Nesselrode you
have to budget €20 to €40 for a dish, in Hugenpöttchen around €10 to
€25. Feature: Michelin 1*.
Restaurant Finster, Steinhausenstrasse 26,
45147 Essen. Tel: (0)201-4519567. Dark restaurant where you dine in
complete darkness. Prices for 3-course menus from €40.
Hotel Jägerhof, Hauptstrasse 23, 45219 Essen. Tel.: (0)2054 84011,
fax: (0)2054 80984, e-mail: info@jaegerhof-kettwig.de.
Sengelmannshof, Sengelmannsweg 35, 45219 Essen OT Kettwig. Tel.: (0)2054
95970, fax: (0)2054 83200, e-mail: info@sengelmannshof.de. Feature: ★★★.
Open: Hotel: Mon – Sat 6 a.m. – 11 p.m., Sun 6 a.m. – 3 p.m.;
Restaurant: Mon – Sat 4.30 p.m. – 11 p.m., Sun + public holidays 11 a.m.
– 11 p.m.; Beet cellar: Wed – Sat 6 p.m. – midnight. Price: single room
from €79, double room from €103.
Old wage hall, Rotthauser Str. 40,
45309 Essen. Tel.: (0)201 - 857 657 70, e-mail:
Willkommen@Alte-Lohnhalle.de
Essen is a university town within the framework of the joint
University of Duisburg-Essen.
House of Technology, external
institute of the RWTH Aachen University
Cooperation partners of
the universities of Duisburg-Essen-Münster-Bonn-Braunschweig, further
education, seminars, conferences, courses, extra-occupational,
university courses
The Folkwang University is one of the most
important training centers for dance, theater and music in Germany.
As a city in the southern Ruhr area, Essen has unemployment well
above the national average. Many large companies have their headquarters
in Essen, for example RWE, Thyssen-Krupp, Evonik, Karstadt, Aldi-Nord,
Deichmann, Medion or the WAZ media group.
Security
At the
Essen-West S-Bahn station and in its immediate vicinity, you should not
be out and about alone after dark. Alternative: to the S-Bahn station
Frohnhausen and either walk from there or take a taxi for the short
distance.
Medical and dental emergency services in Essen
Church services
Holy Masses in Catholic inner-city churches:
Hohe Domkirche, Münster, An St. Quintin 3 (5-10 min north of the main
train station). Sat: 6:30 p.m.; Sun: 7:30 am*, 10 am, 4 pm*, 7 pm; *in
the Adoration Church: Mon-Fri: 7:00 am, 10:00 am, 5:30 pm (except Sat)
St. Engelbert, Fischerstraße 12 (10 minutes south of the main station).
Sat: 6:15 p.m.; Sun: 09:45, 14:00 (Eng.); Mon: 7:30 p.m.; Tue: 09:00
a.m.; Wed: 09:15 am; Fri: 6:00 p.m
St. Ignatius, An Sankt Ignatius 8
(10 min southwest of the main station). Sat: 09:00, 17:00; Sun: 11:15am,
6:00pm; Tue, Thu, Fri: 7 p.m
Spatial location
Essen is located in the center of the Ruhr area,
for the most part north of the Ruhr, which is dammed up between the
districts of Kupferdreh, Heisingen, Fischlaken and Werden, forming the
Baldeneysee.
Essen is located in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan
region, an economic region and urban agglomeration in western Germany.
The region is one of the largest conurbations within the European
megalopolis and is therefore the largest conurbation in Germany. Around
14 million people live in the 20 urban districts and ten districts of
the region on almost 10,000 km² (as of 2021). Around nine million people
live within a 50 kilometer radius of Essen. Essen is one of the four
major centers in the Ruhr area, along with Dortmund, Duisburg and
Bochum.
The average altitude of the city is 116 m above sea
level. NN. The highest elevation in the urban area is in Heidhausen and
is 202.5 m above sea level. NN, the lowest point in Karnap measures 26.5
m above sea level. NN. The geographic center of Essen is in Rüttenscheid
in the area of Müller-Breslau-Strasse and Wittenbergstrasse. The
location of the city on the northern border of the low mountain range
determines the geographic plan of Essen and the entire Ruhr area, which
has a clear east-west extension between the Ruhr valley in the south
over the Hellweg plain to the Emscher valley in the north. The two
rivers Ruhr and Emscher, which run from east to west, give the landscape
its own character. Coming from the Sauerland, the Ruhr winds around the
hills of the southern parts of the city and forms meadow landscapes as
well as the Baldeneysee and Kettwiger See reservoirs. The Emscher in the
north and parallel to it the Rhine-Herne Canal run dead straight through
the city area and, like the Ruhr, flow into the Rhine near Duisburg.
The largest extension of the urban area is 21 kilometers north-south
and 17 kilometers west-east. The length of the city limits is 87
kilometers.
bodies of water
There are streams with a length of
around 275 kilometers throughout the city. The most well-known bodies of
water include the Emscher and the Rhine-Herne Canal in the north and the
Ruhr with the Baldeneysee and the Kettwiger See in the south of the
city.
To the north of the city are the creeks, which are
characterized by industrialization. Many of the streams are used for
waste water disposal, but these are gradually being restored to a
near-natural state by the Emschergenossenschaft as part of the Emscher
renaturation process. The environment around the streams will be
upgraded as a result of the renaturation. These Köttel basins include
the Borbecker Mühlenbach, the Berne, the Stoppenberger Bach and the
Schwarzbach. The creeks that have retained their near-natural state
include the Hexbach, the Barchembach and the Schönebecke.
The
Ruhr and near-natural streams flow in the south of the city, most of
which are integrated into landscape protection areas. The larger ones
include the Hesperbach and the Deilbach, while the smaller ones are the
Oefter Bach, the Schuirbach and the Wolfsbach.
city outline
The urban area of Essen consists of nine districts. In each city
district there is a district council with 19 members. The chairman of
the district council is the district mayor. The city districts are
marked with Roman numerals and a special name, which sometimes consists
of several district names.
The nine districts are divided into a
total of 50 districts. Most of the districts used to be independent
communities and lost their independence through incorporations. The
districts are marked with a two-digit Arabic number.
Due to the
natural spatial structure, Essen's cityscape is clearly divided into
two: the densely populated northern parts of the city and the areas
around the city center on the one hand, and the southern part, which is
characterized by extensive green spaces and rather small-scale
buildings, on the other.
Climate
The average annual
temperature in Essen is 11.3 °C. The coldest month is January at 3.4 °C,
the warmest is July at 19.7 °C. Annual rainfall is 866 millimeters, with
most of the rainfall falling in December at 93 millimeters.
prehistory
The oldest evidence of human activity in the area of
today's urban area was found in 1926 during the construction of the
Rhine-Herne Canal in Essen-Vogelheim: a flint blade, the Vogelheim
blade, and the bone of a cave lion from the Saale Ice Age, between
280,000 and 280,000 AD 250,000 years old. Further finds from the Middle
Paleolithic could also be made in other parts of the city until very
recently (Werden, around 200,000 B.P.; Dellwig, around 160,000 B.P.). A
significant find in 1998 was a resting place from the younger
Paleolithic on the Ruhr heights near Fischlaken, which is estimated to
be between 31,000 and 38,000 years old.
There are hardly any
finds from the Middle Stone Age apart from a few microliths. Due to the
intensive use of the soil in the urban area, such is no longer to be
expected. Likewise, finds from most of the Neolithic period are missing,
only for the period from 3000 BC. There is evidence again, mostly graves
or chance finds such as flint axes. The most important testimony of this
era is the so-called Steinkiste von Essen-Kupferdreh, discovered in
1937, a small megalithic tomb from the last phase of the Neolithic Age,
which is considered to be "Essen's oldest surviving structure".
Essen was in the settlement area of several Germanic tribes
(Chattuarians, Brukterer, Marser), whose precise demarcation is
difficult.
At the beginning of our era, the Alteburg was built in
the south of Essen, which was largely excavated in the 1920s and 1930s.
The refuge castle was probably used until the 8th century. To the east
is the Herrenburg, which probably dates from the 8th century.
foundation
Around 845 an aristocratic family around the later bishop
of Hildesheim, Altfrid, founded Essen Abbey for the daughters of the
Saxon nobility. It was probably founded on its own land, called Astnidhi
or coenobium Astnide. The first two abbesses, both named Gersuith,
belonged to this noble group. The convent, in which canons stayed to
celebrate Mass, was not a monastery, but a kind of residential and
educational center for unmarried daughters and widows of the high
nobility. It was headed by an abbess who was the only one who was
obliged to take a vow of chastity. In the area where the convent was
established, there were already some farmsteads. The collegiate church
was expanded considerably after a major fire in 946; Today the Essen
Minster stands on its foundations in the center of the city. The first
verifiable documented date for Essen is 898: At this time, possessions
on the left bank of the Rhine were bequeathed to the monastery by King
Zwentibold of Lorraine. A document that appears to date from 870 AD and
describes the founding of the monastery is now generally considered to
be an 11th-century forgery; whether this is based on older documents is
disputed.
Since about 800 there was a little further south, in
today's Werden district, the Werden monastery, a Benedictine monastery
founded by Saint Liudger, which was intended to promote missionary work
among the Saxons in the Harz region (Helmstedt/halberstadt). Both the
convent and the monastery were already in a completely Christianized
environment.
One of Essen's most notable abbesses was Mathilde.
She was the granddaughter of Emperor Otto I and took over the management
of the monastery around 973. She controlled the fortunes of the
monastery and the associated estates for almost 40 years. Mathilde
increased the church treasury with its most valuable pieces, including
the Golden Madonna, the oldest fully sculpted Madonna figure in the
world. After Mathilde, Sophia took over the management of the monastery,
also granddaughter of Otto I and daughter of Emperor Otto II.
In
1041, under the leadership of the third lady of the royal family in a
row, Theophanu, a granddaughter of Otto II, Essen, which had already
been mentioned in 1003 as a city (civitas), received market rights. Ten
years later, in 1051, the minster was changed and expanded again: this
extension was the eastern part with the crypt, in which St. Altfrid,
Mathilde and Theophanu are buried.
The convent, which until then
had only been an influential landowner, had its position as a princely
seat officially confirmed in 1216: King Friedrich II called the then
abbess Imperial Princess in a letter - which put her on an equal footing
with the abbot of the nearby Werden monastery.
The becoming of
the city and the conflict with the pen
In 1244 the Essen city wall
was erected by the community of ministerials of the monastery and the
citizens of the city. The document on this is the first to contain
Essen's city seal. The citizens of Essen developed a sense of
citizenship.
In 1290, King Rudolf reconfirmed the sovereignty of
the abbess over the city, but was unable to completely restore it: the
citizenry was in conflict with the monastery, the growing city demanded
self-government: in 1336 there was the first attempt to obtain imperial
immediacy But it lasted another 40 years, until 1377, when Emperor
Charles IV granted the city the coveted title of free imperial city -
five years after he had confirmed the exact opposite to the abbess
Elisabeth von Nassau, who was in office at the time.
The first
evidence of mining activities in Essen also comes from the 14th century:
in 1349 the prince-abbess received the right to exploit the mineral
resources, and in 1354 silver was demonstrably mined. Coal was first
mentioned in Essen in 1371, but the first coal mine is only recorded for
1450.
The disputes between the city and the monastery for
supremacy in the region continued until the monastery was dissolved in
1803. There were always legal disputes. One of the processes lasted 200
years until the Imperial Court of Appeal ruled in 1670 that the city had
to obey the abbess in what was and was forbidden, but was still allowed
to keep all the old customary rights. Thus, the situation between the
city and the monastery remained unclear and full of competition until
secularization. In 1563 the city joined the Reformation (20 years before
it had imperial immediacy and thus the right to do so) and became
Protestant. The market church, which dates from the 11th century
(originally St. Gertrudis), served as the church. After the reformer of
Essen, Heinrich Barenbroch, had held his first sermon in the
Heilig-Geist-Kapelle on April 28, 1563, he distributed communion under
both kinds for the first time on May 2 in the Gertrudiskirche. On May
17, Barenbroch had to leave the city because the abbess had appealed to
the Duke of Cleves for protection against the ecclesiastical innovators.
Otherwise, the Catholic monastery, which had no troops with which to
enforce anything, had no choice but to watch.
At the end of the
16th and beginning of the 17th century, Essen became a weapon forge.
Around 1570 the gunsmith trade was prospering. In 1620 the Essen
blacksmiths produced 14,000 rifles and pistols; the city became
strategically interesting.
Thirty Years' War
to take
counter-reformation action against the evangelical city. In 1624, a
re-catholicization law was enacted, which controlled the church
attendance of the citizens. The city, not the monastery, was responsible
for board and lodging for the occupation troops. In 1628, however, the
people of Essen complained to the Imperial Chamber Court.
In 1629
the Dutch stormed the city. The abbess fled to Catholic Cologne on
November 4 of this year, taking the church treasury with her. In the
summer of 1631 they returned to Pappenheim in the wake of a Bavarian
garrison under Gottfried Heinrich, but had to withdraw in September.
Maria Clara died in Cologne in 1644.
Overall, the people of Essen
were badly hit by the war, there were repeated arrests, people were
abducted and people were forced into military service.
The troops
stayed for a while after the Peace of Westphalia, and the last troops
left Essen on September 9, 1650.
Essen Abbey dissolved and
annexed to Prussia
In 1802, the territory of the Essen Abbey was
occupied by Prussian troops because it was to serve as compensation for
losses on the left bank of the Rhine in the course of secularization,
which was also confirmed under constitutional law in the
Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803. Essen and Werden were
incorporated into the County of Mark. In 1806 it was occupied by French
troops. Essen and Werden were actually annexed by the Grand Duchy of
Berg on November 3, 1806. This was only confirmed in 1808 in a treaty
between Berg and France, to which all Prussian provinces west of the
Elbe were ceded in the Peace of Tilsit in 1807. Essen and Werden
belonged to the Grand Duchy of Berg until the end of 1813, since then to
Prussia again and since 1822 to the Prussian Rhine Province. The city
became part of the district of Duisburg. In 1859, the district of Essen
was re-established from the eastern district area, from which the city
of Essen left as a separate city district with effect from March 8,
1873.
Industrialization
Essen and the Krupp industry have
influenced each other for many years. The Krupp family had been there
since the 16th century and held high offices. Friedrich Krupp founded
the Krupp cast steel factory in 1811, which brought bread and money to
the townspeople for many years, although business was not particularly
good at first. The need for workers led to a significant increase in
Essen's population. The unique company expansion began in 1846 when
Alfred Krupp succeeded in manufacturing the seamless tire. The expansion
meant that the factory facilities to the west of the old city area had
already grown to more than 300 hectares in 1873 and had reached ten
times the area of the old town. The Krupp family era only ended in 1967
with the resignation of Arndt von Bohlen und Halbach.
In 1892,
the industrialist Friedrich Grillo donated a theater and opera house to
the up-and-coming city. The building, which still functions as a
municipal theater under the name Grillo-Theater, was built in the city
center in a neoclassical style and was inaugurated on September 16, 1892
with a performance of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm.
By the end of the 19th century, the densest railway network in the
Ruhr area developed in the area of the city of Essen. The
Bergisch-Märkische Bahn passed the city center in 1862 and the
Rheinische Bahn in 1866. These two railway lines formed the basic
framework for the countless sidings to the colliery sites and industrial
plants.
Several collieries were built near the old town, such as
the Victoria Mathias colliery in the northern quarter on Altenessener
Straße, the Hercules colliery in the eastern quarter and the Zur
Hoffnung colliery west of downtown.
In 1865, the city of Essen
took over the gasworks on Auf der Union (Thurmfeld).
In 1898, the
joint-stock company Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk was
founded. The plant was built on Altenessener Straße in the immediate
vicinity of the Victoria Mathias colliery.
First World War
Like the whole of the German Reich, Essen was gripped by war euphoria in
August 1914. The First World War turned into a material battle with an
enormous need for weapons and ammunition. The "cannon city" of Essen
played a special role in this. Huge artillery pieces like the Fat Bertha
were built in the Krupp cast steel factory. During the war, Krupp
manufactured 22.5 million grenades and 25 million cartridges. As the war
dragged on, everyday life became more and more difficult: food prices
rose, wages remained low. In August 1916 there was the first anti-war
demonstration. There was a famine in the turnip winter of 1916/1917,
during which large parts of the Essen population suffered. Working-class
families became impoverished. In February 1917, Krupp employees went on
protest strikes against the food situation, in which at least 20,000
workers took part. At the end of the lost war in 1918, around 15,000
Essen soldiers had died and around 5,000 were missing.
After the
Kapp Putsch, there was a general strike in March 1920 and this led to
intensive fighting between the workers and units of the police,
volunteer corps and military.
Ruhr occupation
On January 11,
1923, the Ruhr was occupied by French and Belgian troops invading the
Ruhr area. French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré was convinced that
Germany was deliberately failing to meet the reparations payments
stipulated in the Versailles Peace Treaty. Above all, they criticized
the non-delivery of non-cash supplies such as coal, steel and wood,
because the Allies went over to demanding non-cash benefits due to the
insufficient financial reparations paid by Germany. The Holy Saturday
tragedy on the morning of March 31, 1923 was the sad climax of this
Franco-German confrontation. A small French military commando had
occupied what was then Krupp's depot on Altendorfer Strasse in order to
confiscate several vehicles there. When management called for a walkout,
riots broke out and the French felt themselves in a bind. They fled,
shooting each other. This event resulted in 13 fatalities and 28
injuries. There was great outrage over the bloodbath. The funeral
procession to the Südwestfriedhof on April 10, 1923 was one of the
largest in the history of the city of Essen. The occupiers sentenced
Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach and some of his directors to long
prison terms. The occupation of the Ruhr ended in the summer of 1925.
Phase of the Nazi seizure of power in 1933/34
Heinrich Maria
Martin Schäfer was appointed Mayor of Essen on December 21, 1932. After
the National Socialists had initially taken over the post with Theodor
Reismann-Grone on an acting basis, he was put on leave on April 5, 1933
and later retired.
Essen was divided into 27 local groups of the
NSDAP, whose offices are listed in the 1939 address book of the city of
Essen.
November pogrom 1938
On the night of November 10, 1938,
the synagogue was burned, but the exterior remained almost intact
throughout the war (despite bombing of the inner city). The Steel
synagogue was completely destroyed. A Jewish youth home built in 1932
was also destroyed, on the site of which the New Synagogue was built in
1959.
These November pogroms of 1938, related to the night, are
also called (Reichs) Kristallnacht or Reich pogrom night and were
violent measures against Jews throughout the German Reich co-organized
and controlled by the National Socialist regime.
Throughout the
Reich, these attacks marked the transition from discrimination against
German Jews since 1933 to systematic persecution.
Forced labor
camps and subcamps
Tens of thousands of forced laborers came to 350
camps in Essen during the Nazi era, forced to do forced service at
companies such as Krupp, Siemens and underground. In Essen there were
several concentration camp subcamps during the Second World War, such as
the concentration camp subcamp Humboldtstraße (official name SS work
commando Fried. Krupp, Essen), the Gelsenberg camp and the concentration
camp subcamp Schwarze Poth.
Second World War
The industrial
areas in Essen were an important military target due to their armament
economic importance (above all the Krupp cast steel factory). As a
deception, the Krupp night light system was erected as a dummy on
Rottberg, 10 km away. The attack on Essen marked the beginning of a
five-month British air offensive that lasted until mid-July 1943 and
became known as the Battle of the Ruhr. The 26 air raids in 1942 caused
relatively little destruction; In 1943 heavy bombardments followed. On
March 5, 1943, over 442 aircraft took off from airfields in East and
Central England. Around 9 p.m., the Krupp works and downtown Essen were
marked as destinations with colored Christmas trees. The attacks on the
inner city and densely populated working-class areas are part of the
UK's area bombing directive. Then around 360 bombers dropped around
1,100 tons of high-explosive and incendiary bombs on the city in three
waves within an hour. At least 457 people died and over 3,000 buildings
were completely destroyed, leaving tens of thousands homeless. The Krupp
works suffered major damage for the first time. On March 11, 1945, Essen
experienced the last major attack, which turned the city's rubble over
again. The roads were impassable because of the many bomb holes and the
mountains of rubble; the supply of gas, water and light collapsed; the
Krupp factories were a gigantic field of rubble. The city center was
more than 90 percent destroyed. In Essen, which had been under artillery
fire for some time, the deputy Gauleiter Fritz Schleßmann issued an
appeal on March 27, 1945, announcing that the enemy would be “hewn out
again with brutal severity”. Before that, however, Essen had to be
cleared. The call went unheeded. Schlessmann did not fight for the
propagated final victory, but went into hiding with his mistress.
The Ruhr area was encircled ("Ruhrkessel"), Karnap had been taken on
March 31, and the end of the war was imminent. On the night of April
5th, 1945, US soldiers crossed the Rhine-Herne Canal; later, soldiers of
the 79th US Infantry Division and the 17th US Airborne Division occupied
Katernberg, Altenessen and Dellwig. In the days that followed, they
tightened the ring around the city center. On April 11, 1945, the city
was officially handed over to US troops. Werden and Kettwig followed on
April 15. The commander-in-chief of the west pocket, Field Marshal
Walter Model, followed Adolf Hitler's orders to the end and shot himself
on April 21, 1945.
Reconstruction
After the end of the war,
the remains of the largely destroyed Krupp works, whose main task was
the manufacture of armaments, were dismantled for reparation purposes.
Some workshops have now switched to peace goods. Production was focused,
among other things, on trucks and locomotives in the Krupp locomotive
and wagon construction factory. Nevertheless, large areas of the former
Krupp cast steel factory remained fallow. They only became accessible
again in 2008 with the urban development project Krupp-Gürtel and were
put to new use.
After the Second World War, the reconstruction
was the most urgent task of the city politicians. Between 1950 and 1961
more than 100,000 new apartments were built in Essen. The focal points
of residential construction were in Altendorf and Holsterhausen, where
large-scale projects could be realized by merging several plots of land.
Furthermore, the city center should be expanded to be car-friendly.
Traffic was routed in a ring around the city center on wide streets, so
that the city center remained largely within walking distance. Another
goal of urban planning was the construction of administration buildings,
which were mostly built as high-rise buildings.
coal crisis
In
the years 1957/1958 the coal crisis also hit Essen. Crude oil and
imported coal put domestic hard coal under pressure and the miners had
to work overtime. The situation on the energy market showed its first
consequences in Essen, formerly the largest mining town on the
continent, just a year after the beginning of the coal crisis. The small
Jungmann colliery in Rellinghausen and the Friedrich-Ernestine coking
plant belonging to the Victoria Mathias mine ceased operations in 1959.
In the same year, the number of employees in Essen's mining industry
fell to less than 50,000. However, the situation worsened enormously in
the 1960s with a second coal crisis. 25 collieries in the Ruhr area
announced their closure, including five in Essen, such as the Amalie
colliery in Altendorf, the Helene colliery in Altenessen, the Queen
Elisabeth colliery in Frillendorf, the Victoria Mathias colliery in the
northern district and the Langenbrahm colliery in Rellinghausen. More
than 13,000 workers were employed at these plants. The crisis therefore
resulted in a reorganization of German hard coal mining. On November 27,
1968, Ruhrkohle AG was founded in Essen, which was to coordinate the
reduction in workforce and production capacities.[26] With the decline
of mining, the number of people employed in Essen fell by 12.6% between
1960 and 1970. In the 1970s, the Katharina colliery in Frillendorf, the
Mathias Stinnes colliery in Karnap, the Emil-Fritz colliery in
Altenessen and the Carl Funke colliery in Heisingen were shut down. The
Zollverein colliery remained the last producing colliery for a little
over a decade. With the closure of the Zollverein colliery on December
23, 1986, Essen's tradition as a mining town finally came to an end.
New Developments
On July 26, 1956, the 700,000. born in Essen. On
June 30, 1963, the Ruhr metropolis of Essen reached its peak of 731,994
inhabitants. After that, the population steadily decreased. On January
1, 1958, Essen became the bishopric. The Ruhr diocese consists of the
cities of Bochum, Bottrop, Duisburg, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Mülheim an
der Ruhr, Oberhausen as well as the Ennepe-Ruhr district and the
Sauerland district of Altena. The diocese had 1.3 million Catholics in
the year it was founded. The first bishop of the Ruhr Diocese was Franz
Hengsbach. The 1965 Federal Horticultural Show took place in the Gruga.
On March 5, 1969, the former mayor of the city of Essen, Gustav
Heinemann, was elected President of the Federal Republic of Germany.
After 1970, heavy industry increasingly dwindled, so that the city
turned more to the service sector as part of the structural change. In
September 1970, the Ruhrschnellweg tunnel was completed for what was
then called Bundesstraße 1 and was inaugurated on September 25 by the
then Federal President Gustav Heinemann. The
Universität-Gesamthochschule Essen was founded in 1972 as the
comprehensive university of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It was
deliberately created - as were other new companies at the same time - as
a measure in the course of the structural change in the Ruhr region from
a coal and steel location to a service center. On February 15, 1974, the
first university building was handed over to the then rector, Walter
Kröll. On October 5, 1967, the first subway in the Ruhr area was opened
with the Essen subway line. The length of the first subway line was 600
meters. Essen's town hall was opened on November 7, 1979 with a height
of 106 meters and 22 floors. One day after the opening of the town hall,
City Center Essen opened with 26,000 square meters of floor space. Pope
John Paul II visited Essen on May 2, 1987. The Pope spent the night in
the Werden seminary and said goodbye on May 3rd at Essen-Mülheim
Airport. The largest rally in the history of the city of Essen took
place on January 1, 1993. More than 300,000 people followed the call
from various organizations to demonstrate against xenophobia in Germany
and to ignite the lights of humanity and friendship. In 2006, Essen,
together with the Ruhr area, won the competition for the European
Capital of Culture for 2010 (cf. RUHR.2010 – European Capital of
Culture).
On April 16, 2016, a bomb attack was carried out on the
prayer house of the Sikh community Gurdwara Nanaksar in Essen.
In
2017, Essen was the green capital of Europe. Among other things, the
explanatory statement emphasized the role model role for many cities
undergoing structural change and the importance of Essen within the Ruhr
Metropolis. The holistic approach of the application impressed the jury.
The solution ideas for the future of a "city worth living in" taking
into account the effects of the structural change from a coal and steel
city "to the greenest city" in North Rhine-Westphalia were highlighted.