With 355,100 inhabitants (December 31, 2019), Wuppertal is the
largest city and the industrial, economic, educational and cultural
center of the Bergisches Land in western Germany. The “big city in
the country” is located south of the Ruhr area in the Düsseldorf
administrative region and, as the seventeenth largest city in
Germany, is one of the regional centers of the state of North
Rhine-Westphalia. The city is part of the metropolitan regions of
Rhine-Ruhr and Rhineland, the Rhineland Regional Association and the
Bergisches Städtedreieck.
The first documented mentions of
settlements come from the middle of the 11th century. For many
centuries, today's urban area was divided by different domains.
Until the 19th century, the region developed into a center of early
German and European industrialization and contributed significantly
to the rise of the Ruhr area; Above all, the textile industry
brought wealth and growth to the region. The city was founded on
August 1, 1929 as an independent city under the name
Barmen-Elberfeld through the merger of the independent cities of
Elberfeld (major city since around 1883) and Barmen (major city
since around 1884) and the cities of Ronsdorf, Cronenberg and
Vohwinkel and in 1930 renamed to Wuppertal after a public survey;
this naming expressed the geographical location of the cities of
Barmen and Elberfeld in the valley of the Wupper.
During
National Socialism, the city was an important center of both the
NSDAP and the resistance, both of the trade unions and political
opposition and of the churches, which was not least expressed in the
Barmer Declaration. The importance of the city decreased due to
extensive destruction in World War II.
The topography is
shaped by the valley of the Wupper, which winds around 20 km through
the urban area and whose steep slopes are often wooded. City
districts located on the northern and southern plateaus merge into
the meadows and forests of the Bergisches Land and make Wuppertal,
together with extensive green and forest areas such as the Barmer
Wald, Scharpenacken or Staatsforst Burgholz, Germany's greenest city
in a ranking from 2013. As the “cradle of industrialization in
Germany”, the city is also rich in large villa districts and
residential buildings from the Wilhelminian era: around 4500
monuments are located in the city area.
In addition to the
suspension railway, which has existed since 1901, the university
town is known for the internationally renowned dance theater Pina
Bausch and the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy,
the Zoological Garden, the Historical City Hall, the Wuppertal
Symphony Orchestra, the Von der Heydt Museum for Fine Arts, the
historical center with the Engels house, the sculpture park
Waldfrieden, extensive parks and forests with Germany's largest
arboretum and the largest variety of denominations in Germany.
Well-known sports clubs are the former first division soccer and
UEFA Cup participant Wuppertaler SV and the Bundesliga handball club
Bergischer HC, as well as Bundesliga clubs in other sports with
numerous national and international titles. In addition, numerous
personalities are connected to the city through birth or work, such
as Pina Bausch, Friedrich Bayer, Gerhard Domagk, Friedrich Engels,
Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Else Lasker-Schüler, Johannes Rau and Hans
Wolfgang Singer.
By plane
The nearest international airports are Düsseldorf
internet airport (IATA: DUS) and Cologne-Bonn internet airport (IATA:
CGN) . Both can easily be reached by public transport, the journey time
is around 60 minutes. Dortmund Airport (IATA: DTM) is another commercial
airport.
By train
Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof (formerly known as
Wuppertal-Elberfeld) is the central stopping point for all national and
international train connections (IC/EC/ICE) including the routes of the
Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn network. There are direct connections to most of the
surrounding cities such as Remscheid, Solingen, Düsseldorf, Neuss,
Mönchengladbach, Cologne, Bonn, Hagen, Dortmund and Essen, but there are
also regular long-distance connections to Hamburg, Berlin, Munich,
Stuttgart and Switzerland.
There are direct connections to
Cologne-Bonn Airport (ICE/IC) and S-Bahn connections to Düsseldorf
Airport (S-Bahn).
In addition to the main train station, there
are other stations with national services in Barmen, Oberbarmen and
Vohwinkel, as well as the stops at Langerfeld, Ronsdorf, Sonnborn,
Steinbeck, Unterbarmen and Zoo/Stadion.
By bus
In addition to
a dense inner-city bus network, some with express buses to the
outskirts, there are city express connections with Velbert, Mettmann,
Schwelm, Wülfrath, Solingen and Remscheid. Information is available at
the central bus station at the main train station, where there are also
free timetables, alternatively on the Internet. Information on bus
connections can be found at vrr.de.
Long-distance buses from
Flixbus have the Wuppertal long-distance bus stop on Berliner Straße
near the Oberbarmen train station.
In the street
In Wuppertal,
environmental zones have been set up 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)
It is possible to arrive with your
own vehicle via the A1 (coming from the Middle Rhine, eastern Ruhr area
and Münsterland), A46 (coming from the Lower Rhine), A43 (coming from
Bochum or Recklinghausen) or A535 (coming from Essen or Velbert)
motorways. In addition, the federal roads B7 from Mettmann or Schwelm,
B51 from Remscheid or Sprockhövel and B224 from Wülfrath or Solingen
lead through the city area.
The inner-city public transport system is very well developed and is
used extensively and willingly by locals and visitors alike. All
destinations within the city can be reached quickly and easily by bus,
express bus, City Express, night express, S-Bahn and, of course, the
suspension railway, often without having to change trains. Since most
visitors will be planning a trip on the Wuppertal Suspension Railway
anyway, we recommend buying a day ticket, which entitles you to as many
trips as you like on all means of transport (except IC/ICE/EC on the
railway lines) and can be used by two adults and two children can. In
the outskirts, so-called call shared taxis (AST), i.e. minibuses, which
only operate on fixed routes if there is a prior telephone notification
of a need, drive to the outskirts at times of low traffic. Information
about the AST can be found on the Wuppertaler Stadtwerke (WSW) website.
Tickets are available from machines and from the bus driver. In the
suspension railway and on the routes of the Deutsche Bahn there are no
ticket sales, here you have to get the tickets in advance from the
machine and validate them on the platform or on the bus! Within
Wuppertal, price level A tickets are sufficient, which allow the
combined use of all the above-mentioned means of transport (but no
return journeys). Price level B must be purchased for journeys to
neighboring cities, and price level C for the rest of the VRR
(Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr) area. There are four-ride tickets for all
price levels. Journeys shorter than 1-2 km can be made with a
short-distance ticket (short-distance destinations are indicated at each
stop).
A number of multi-storey car parks and public car parks in
the two centers of Elberfeld and Barmen are connected to the parking
guidance system, which directs the driver to the next available
multi-storey car park or car park in the city centre. Nevertheless: We
recommend public transport for visiting the city center, especially the
suspension railway.
A commendable facility for exploring nearby
attractions is the Bergischer Ring, which offers organized trips by
public transport from €3 (€14 family). Extra tours of the Bergische
Museumsbahnen and exploration tours along the Wuppertal (WupperTrails)
are also offered there.
Car rentals are available at the main
station in Elberfeld (Europcar - Döppersberg 37, Tel.: 0202/ 2481322 or
Sixt - Döppersberg 50, Tel.: 01805/ 252525) or at various companies in
the districts, e.g. B. Europcar in Barmen (Heckinghauser Str. 133, Tel.:
0202/ 624141) and Elberfeld (Hofkamp 46, Tel.: 0202/ 248130); Budget in
Elberfeld (Friedrich-Engels-Allee 4, Tel.: 0202/ 82488); Hertz in Barmen
(Clausenstrasse 34, Tel.: 0202/ 478670), Avis in Barmen
(Schwesterstrasse 80-88, Tel.: 0202/ 280300) and Dürdoth in Elberfeld
(Viehhofstrasse 154, Tel.: 0202/ 501150).
Cycling: The city is
passed by the Bergisches Panorama-Radweg.
The most important sights at a glance:
The city's main
attraction is the Wuppertal Suspension Railway (completed and
inaugurated in 1901), which begins in Oberbarmen and is built over the
Wupper below. It leaves the river valley at Sonnborn and leads up over
inner-city streets to the end point in Vohwinkel. The Zoological Garden
can officially call itself one of the most beautifully situated in
Europe. Many a culture vulture travels long distances to experience the
internationally renowned Wuppertal dance theater with the ensemble of
the deceased founder Pina Bausch. The Briller Quarter is home to
Germany's largest concentration of mansions and magnificent buildings by
manufacturers from the 19th century. The Elberfelder Nordstadt, the
largest contiguous area of magnificently restored multi-storey workers'
houses in Germany, dates from the same period. The historic town hall on
the Johannisberg, which is used today for concerts, trade fairs and
events and is internationally known for its excellent acoustics, is
considered the town's jewel box. Right next door is the Schwimmoper,
where national and international swimming competitions regularly take
place. Since the renovation in 2009, the opera house in Barmen, built in
1905, with the adjacent Engels-Haus, the birthplace of the German
philosopher Friedrich Engels, is also worth seeing. Since 2008, the
sculpture park Waldfrieden by the famous sculptor Tony Cragg has also
been attracting visitors from far away.
The Müngsten Bridge,
which is the highest railway bridge in Germany with a span height of
107m, is not only exciting for those interested in technology. It is
located exactly on the border of Wuppertal, Remscheid and Solingen and
impressively spans the Wupper valley with its 5000 t weight.
The
largest and most important arboretum in Germany in terms of area is
located in the Burgholz state forest in the Cronenberg district. For
research purposes, trees and plants from three continents were planted
here on around 250 hectares. The Barmer parks with the Vorwerk Park are
also considered to be the largest private park in Germany, are now open
to the public and are located on the southern heights of Barmen.
Information on guided city tours, some of which are themed, can be found
on the city website.
In addition, Wuppertal has a scenic hiking
trail network that is 400 km long in the city alone.
Further
sights and details on the above can be found in the entries in the
chapters of the respective city districts (Elberfeld including
Elberfeld-West and Uellendahl-Katernberg, Vohwinkel, Cronenberg, Barmen,
Oberbarmen, Heckinghausen, Langerfeld-Beyenburg and Ronsdorf).
Activities known beyond the city limits (for more see the chapters on
the city districts)
Cinema, theater and cabaret
The Wuppertal
theaters with the Barmer opera house after the Elberfeld playhouse was
closed.
The world-famous Wuppertal dance theater of the late cult
dancer Pina Bausch
The full playback theater consists of a committed
group of actors who often appear in garish disguises and prefer radio
play cassettes by the "three ???" reenacts The plot is repeatedly
supplemented and interrupted by scenes from film classics, other radio
plays, film sounds and songs. Good mood guaranteed!
The comedy
boulevard theater on Karlsplatz with the motto We make you laugh!.
Müller's marionette theater - a puppet theater with an international
reputation
The T.i.C., well-known beyond the region. (Theatre in
Cronenberg)
The Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra, which has achieved
world fame through numerous tours
The Forum Maximum in the more than
120-year-old Rex Theater, which is currently being renovated
Regular festivals and fairs
Müngsten Bridge Festival at the foot of
the Müngsten Bridge in the Müngsten Bridge Park, several times a year on
different dates.
Club scene
Wuppertal is known far beyond the
region for its diverse and varied club scene. The U-Club is one of the
best-known reggae clubs in Germany, butan is one of the hippest clubs in
North Rhine-Westphalia. the stock exchange is one of the oldest and
largest socio-cultural centers in Germany. The Bloomclub is considered a
typical electro scene club. With the two clubs Apollo 21 and Barmer
Bahnhof, Wuppertal recently also had spacious clubs in the upscale
segment. The website annos.de offers news from the local club scene with
current events and the hottest locations.
City tours
City
walks with the Wuppertal Greeters: Under the motto "Come as a guest,
leave as a friend", the Wuppertal Greeters offer free city tours. The
guests get to know the city off the beaten track from the perspective of
the locals. The greeters are happy to show the guests their city in an
authentic way, with all its rough edges. Personal stories and
experiences or tips for going out and leisure are also discussed. In the
concrete agreement between guest and greeter, thematic wishes are taken
into account, which thus turn these walks into a personal and individual
encounter with the city. In order to preserve individuality, the greets
are only carried out in small groups of up to 6 people. More information
at www.wuppertal-greeter.de The Wuppertal Greeters are members of the
International Greeter Association (formerly Global Greeter Network).
The inner cities of Barmen and Elberfeld are home to almost all shops
and facilities that you would expect from a regional center. The center
of Elberfeld in particular has been significantly upgraded in recent
years with the establishment of the covered all-weather shopping arcades
Rathausgalerie (1994) and the City Arkaden (2001) and invites you to
stroll and shop extensively. The Barmer pedestrian zone Werth is the
oldest pure shopping zone in Germany.
According to its own
advertising, the supermarket chain akzenta, which is only based in
Wuppertal, has the largest and most extensive range of food in North
Rhine-Westphalia and regularly receives local and national prizes and
awards. There are akzenta markets in Vohwinkel, Elberfeld (Steinbeck),
in the City-Arkaden and in Barmen.
Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse west
of the Elberfeld pedestrian zone is popular. Around the Laurentiuskirche
there are unusual gift ideas, creative accessories and trendy shops.
Various cafés loosen up the district around the large Laurentiusplatz
and create an almost Mediterranean atmosphere in summer. In the city,
the area called Luisenviertel is also known as Wuppertal's old town.
At the market stalls on the Elberfeld Neumarkt you can get fresh
fruit and vegetables every day except Sunday from morning to evening.
Outside of the two regional centers, the many district centers also
have variously varied and traditional shopping and supply options.
The Internet portal Bergische Lokale and the range of the RGA
restaurant guide are able to provide an overview, albeit not a complete
one.
Otherwise: see entries in the chapters of the respective
city districts (Elberfeld including Elberfeld-West and
Uellendahl-Katernberg, Vohwinkel, Cronenberg, Barmen, Oberbarmen,
Heckinghausen, Langerfeld-Beyenburg and Ronsdorf)
see entries in the chapters of the respective city districts (Elberfeld including Elberfeld-West and Uellendahl-Katernberg, Vohwinkel, Cronenberg, Barmen, Oberbarmen, Heckinghausen, Langerfeld-Beyenburg and Ronsdorf)
see entries in the chapters of the respective city districts (Elberfeld including Elberfeld-West and Uellendahl-Katernberg, Vohwinkel, Cronenberg, Barmen, Oberbarmen, Heckinghausen, Langerfeld-Beyenburg and Ronsdorf)
The “Bergische Universität”, which was founded in 1972 and is
picturesquely situated on the Grifflenberg above the valley, enjoys an
international reputation. It comprises seven main departments with
almost 17,000 enrolled students and offers rare courses such as security
technology, media design or energy management. The economics chair is
one of the best in Europe, and since the Schumpeter School of Business
and Economics was established, the university has also been considered
the best place to start a business in Germany.
The Wuppertal
Technical Academy in the Sonnborn district trains more than 25,000
specialists and managers every year and, with two external institutes at
the Universities of Aachen and Wuppertal, is one of the oldest and
largest training academies in Germany.
The adult education center
(Auer Schulstr. 20 and other places in the city) has functioned as a
Bergische adult education center in cooperation with the adult education
center in Solingen since 2006. The Cologne University of Music and Dance
runs a department in Wuppertal, where the chair for mandolin, which is
unique in Europe, is represented. Protestant theology is taught at the
Church University in Wuppertal/Bethel, and it is particularly popular
because of the teaching of ancient languages.
Furthermore,
Wuppertal has 61 elementary schools, twelve secondary schools, five
comprehensive schools, eight junior high schools and eleven high
schools.
job offers
at the Wuppertal Employment Agency, Hünefeldstr. 3-17,
42285 Wuppertal, Tel.: 0202/ 2828-0, Fax: 0202/ 2828-446, Mail:
wuppertal@arbeitsagentur.de
by posting it in the university
(Wuppertal campus, central building)
Wuppertal is the safest city in Germany with a consistently low crime rate for years.
Information center Döppersberg. Tel.: (0)202 563-2270, e-mail:
infozentrum@stadt.wuppertal.de. (is currently being built). Alternative:
Wuppertal Touristik, Kirchstr. 16, 42103 Wuppertal. Open: Mon-Sat 10
a.m.-6 p.m
Press: The only daily newspaper with a regional section
for Wuppertal is the Westdeutsche Zeitung, which therefore has a
monopoly position in the city. The Wuppertaler Rundschau, which appears
on Wednesdays and Saturdays and is also available in many shops, is
distributed free of charge to households. The regional top magazine with
local and regional tabloid topics is published four times a year.
Radio: Event information and interesting facts are available on the
local station Radio Wuppertal (UKW 107.4 MHz) and in the regional
windows of WDR 2 Radio Bergisch Land (Mon-Sat every hour at xx:31 on UKW
91.8, 95.7 and 99.8 MHz). There is no local city television.
Position
Wuppertal lies in an arc of the Wupper along the border
with the Niederberg area in the north and the Oberberg area in the
south. The south-eastern part of the urban area belongs to the
Bergisches Plateau with heights of up to around 350 m, which are cut
through by deep notched valleys of watercourses. The northern part of
the urban area is part of the Niederbergisch-Märkisches Hügelland, which
has terrain heights of up to around 322 m. The valley of the Wupper
itself is called the Wuppertal Depression.
The city is part of
the Rhine-Ruhr and Rhineland metropolitan regions, the Rhineland
Regional Council and the Bergisch City Triangle.
Due to the
significant height differences, there are numerous stairs and steep
streets. Wuppertal is considered the city with the most public stairs in
Germany and is the “San Francisco of Germany” for film director Tom
Tykwer, who was born in Wuppertal.
Wuppertal lies on the edge of the Rhenish Slate Mountains, a German
low mountain range whose rocks mainly date from the Devonian (approx.
416-360 million years ago) and the Carboniferous (approx. 360-300
million years ago) periods. In the south-eastern parts of the city one
finds the oldest rocks in geological history with clay slate, greywacke
and conglomerates of the Lower Devonian. Northwest of this are
alternating sequences of Middle Devonian slate clay soils, silt and
greywacke.
Subsidence of the earth's surface and seabed in the
late Middle to Upper Devonian period led to the formation of reef
complexes whose mass limestone stretches in a northeast-southwest
direction across the city of Wuppertal. It is part of the
Rhenish-Westphalian Limestone Range, which runs from the northern edge
of the Sauerland and the Bergisches Land from Düsseldorf via Wuppertal
and Iserlohn to Brilon.
Lime was mined as early as the 9th
century, and in the district of Dornap and the neighboring towns of
Mettmann and Wülfrath there has been opencast lime mining since
industrialization to this day. A lime funnel kiln from the 19th century
has been preserved as an industrial monument in the district of
Elberfeld-West. In the district of Wichlinghausen there are smaller
occurrences of the volcanic rock diabase (greenstone) that was formed on
the seabed in the Upper Devonian. In the north, the most recent strata
are slate, quartzite and greywacke from the Carboniferous period.
The deposited rocks were folded and shifted against each other in
the course of the earth's history, sometimes under increased pressure
and high temperature. Folded and steep rock layers can therefore often
be observed, particularly well in Barmer Nordpark.
In the
Tertiary (approx. 65-2.6 million years ago) sand and gravel were
deposited in some valleys. During the Ice Age, very fertile,
yellow-brown loess was blown across the entire area. The
9.5-kilometre-long geology trail "Geopfad" leads from the Sedanstraße
high school via the Barmer Nordpark to the nature reserve of the doline
area in Hölken.
expansion of the urban area
The city limits
are 94.5 kilometers long. With a length of 33.9 kilometers, the Wupper
valley stretches mainly from east to west and has widening areas up to
two kilometers wide, in which the city centers of Barmen and Elberfeld
are located.
The highest point is the Lichtscheid elevation at
350 meters above sea level, the lowest point at 101 meters above sea
level is at Müngsten, where the Morsbach flows into the Wupper.
The urban structure is a special typology. The elongated east-west
valley location results in an agglomeration band that has no urban
parallels in Germany. All the important functions of the city are lined
up along an axis consisting of the main road (Bundesstraße 7), the main
railway line and the river with the suspension railway over a length of
around 15 kilometers.
Today's entire city has emerged from
several individual towns and villages, but at the same time is organized
in a decentralized manner. There is no clear formation of centres; With
Elberfeld and Barmen, Wuppertal has two larger urban centers and five
other districts (Beyenburg, Cronenberg, Langerfeld, Ronsdorf and
Vohwinkel) with predominantly small-town elements and their own centers.
The topographical situation requires cohesion as an urban unit with a
common industrial history and similar growth conditions. The large
differences in height allow a wide view over the city in many places.
The Gründerzeit villa districts of Brill, Zoo and Toelleturm are located
on the hillside and are close to the centres.
The topography only
allowed a limited expansion of commercial and industrial areas in the
valley. The Bayer group that was formed here had to move out of the way
at the end of the 19th century and expanded in Leverkusen. Since then,
commercial areas have mainly been built in the outskirts of the city.
The structural change that started at the end of the 20th century
due to increasing de-industrialization caused a defunctionalization with
derelict and empty areas in the city and a strong population decline
that lasted until 2012. The medium-sized industrial structure led to
modernization effects such as the "Ideon Park" on the former Quante site
and the "Engineering Park" on the site of the former Wuppertal barracks.
Citizens' initiatives such as the Waldfrieden Sculpture Park, the "Pina
Bausch Foundation", the Junior Uni and the Nordbahntrasse enrich the
city. Here, companies and institutions, foundations and associations,
citizens have made donations and made extensive contributions in kind.
Typical of Wuppertal are the green areas and hillside forests, which
in many places in the inner-city area reach within a few hundred meters
of the valley axis. In a ranking from 2013, Wuppertal was voted
Germany's greenest city out of a total of 25 cities. Based on all 79
cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, Wuppertal came in 25th place
according to a satellite image analysis in 2016 with 77.5% green space.
In terms of urban planning, since the 2010s there has been talk of a
densification of the green residential areas on the Wuppertal Heights,
such as Scharpenacken, Nextbreck and the Kleine Höhe. Green areas are
being built on with houses or large shopping markets, old trees, local
recreation areas and fresh air zones are being reduced, and biotopes are
being destroyed.
The Düsseldorf district government is planning
further development of green spaces. The land use planning of the city
of Wuppertal weighs the effects as follows: "Due to the high demand for
residential building space, the expected significant environmental
effects are accepted in the planning process."
Wuppertal is located in the north-west German climate area, with the
maritime, sub-Atlantic cool-temperate climate leading to generally cool
summers and relatively mild winters. Influences of the relief (valley
situation) and land use lead to locally different characteristics of the
climate parameters. At the heights of the Bergisches Land, humid
Atlantic air masses with the prevailing westerly air currents meet an
obstacle for the first time and are dammed up. As a result, the clouds
rise to higher layers of air, which are usually colder, condense and
rain down as gradient rain. In Elberfeld about 1100 mm of precipitation
is recorded, this value increases to 1200 mm in Barmen/Oberbarmen.
The rainiest months are September and July, while December has the
most rainy days. The average annual rainfall of 1116 mm in the valley
and 1183 mm on the heights is one of the highest in a German city. This
fact is reflected in the popular saying “In Wuppertal, children are born
with umbrellas”.
The annual average temperature is around 11 °C.
During the growing season, when the temperature is above 10 °C for 150
to 180 days, the average temperature is 13 to 16 °C. With average
temperatures of 19.4 °C, July is the warmest month, while January is the
coldest at 3.4 °C. On average there are 26 summer days with maximum
temperatures above 25 °C and 62 frost days.
The mean annual
sunshine duration of 1300 to 1400 hours is slightly below the German
average of 1550 hours. Mean annual wind speeds vary from about 2.9 m/s
in the valley to about 3.8 m/s at higher altitudes. With these climatic
features, the natural vegetation has very favorable growth conditions,
but due to the risk of heavy rainfall and late frosts, the conditions
for agriculture are rather difficult.
Air quality and
environmental protection
Preserving clean air or restoring it is the
goal of a systematic clean air policy that has been pursued since 1956.
The clean air plan for Wuppertal drawn up by the district government of
Düsseldorf dates back to 2008 and is currently valid in the first update
from 2013. Despite considerable efforts, the air quality in Wuppertal is
still heavily polluted by nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The immission
measurements continue to show that the NO2 limit value (annual mean
value) of 40 µg/m³ is clearly exceeded, as stipulated in the regulation
on air quality standards and maximum emissions. The readings at the
“Gathe” station, for example, were 55 µg/m³ on an annual average for
2011, and 64 µg/m³ for 2016 at the “Briller Strasse” station. In
Wuppertal, around 194,000 people - equivalent to 54% of the population -
live in an NO2-polluted area. In this respect, there is an urgent need
for action to further reduce NO2 pollution in the planning area.
29% (corresponds to 4858 hectares) of the urban area are forest and
open spaces, 7.8% (corresponds to 1318 hectares) parks and green areas,
21% (about 3500 hectares) are used for agriculture. There are also about
8,000 allotments on 380 hectares and 46 cemeteries on an area of 160
hectares. In Wuppertal there are 20 nature reserves and natural
monuments managed by the State Office for Nature, Environment and
Consumer Protection of North Rhine-Westphalia (LANUV).
Some
inner-city areas were not developed because of the steep terrain. Some
rock formations reach as far as the Wupper and are still covered with
trees today. Some of these areas have been designed into parks or
landscaped gardens. Elsewhere, such as in Sonnborn at the level of the
stadium or on the southern slope of the Hardtberg between Barmen and
Elberfeld, the rocks along the main streets of the valley axis were
slightly removed in favor of the extraction of building material and
easier building.
See also: List of mountains and elevations in
Wuppertal and List of fauna-flora habitats in Wuppertal.
There are numerous forest areas in the urban area as well as in the
neighboring towns and communities, which make Wuppertal a city in the
countryside. The Burgholz State Forest in Cronenberg is the largest
forestry arboretum in Germany, with a collection of various trees, some
of them exotic, that is unique in Germany and covers an area of almost
250 hectares. Visitors can explore the stock on educational forest
trails.
The Gelpetal nature reserve, together with the
Saalbachtal, forms a wooded local recreation area in the south of the
city, where iron and steel have been processed proto-industrially since
the 14th century. Along an industrial history trail you can see the
remains of early hammer mills and grinding kilns.
The
Scharpenacken recreation area bordering the Barmer Forest is
characterized by extensive forest and open spaces with unobstructed
views. It is under landscape protection and is home to some valuable
biotopes, such as the Schmalenhofer Bach, the largest poor meadows in
the Niederbergisches Land and some small, species-rich wet biotopes near
Erbschlö.
Other forests below the southern heights are the
Christbusch and the Kothener Busch. In the south-east, near the village
of Linde, lies the state forest Marscheider Wald, an extensive forest
area, which is adjoined to the east by the Herbringhauser Wald and the
Sondernbusch.
Adjacent to the north, the nature reserve
Deilbachtal and the Felderbachtal form the connection to the southern
part of Essen. There is also a game reserve on the Ehrenberg between
Langerfeld and Schwelm, and another in the Nordpark in Barmen.
The high leisure value of Wuppertal's forests is made clear by the
establishment of 650 kilometers of hiking trails, 50 kilometers of
bridle paths, 18 weather shelters and 14 parking spaces for hikers.
The more than 500 watercourses (streams and rivers) with an average watercourse density of around 1.9 km of water length per square kilometer are particularly formative elements of the landscape. There are also three larger bodies of water: the Herbringhauser dam, the Ronsdorf dam and the Beyenburg reservoir. Many of the watercourses in the urban area flow into the Wupper or one of its tributaries, which is why they only run above ground outside the outskirts of the city.
The city of Wuppertal did not come into being until 1929, when, apart
from a minor municipal reform in 1975, it took on its current form. The
cities and communities that formed Wuppertal back then have a long
history of their own, which is detailed in the respective articles on
the predecessor communities.
Early History and the Middle Ages
The first traces of human settlements and stays in the Wupper valley go
back to the year 1000 BC. back. A Bronze Age site of around six square
meters with fragments of pottery was discovered in 2003 during
earthworks under the Deweerth Garden in Elberfeld.
From the 7th
century, the Wupper area was settled relatively late and sparsely by
Germanic tribes. Individual farms in Barmen (Westkotten, Wichlinghausen)
are dated to settlement by the Borchters, who were under Saxon rule, in
the 8th to 9th centuries on the basis of place name research, even
without documentary evidence. For a long time, the region was the border
area between the Frankish and Saxon dominions, which prevented larger
settlement structures.
Charlemagne had Frankish manor houses
built to secure the Wupper area, including probably Elberfeld. The
construction of a church in Sonnborn, on the site of which the main
church stands today, is documented around 874. A church in Elberfeld can
be proven to exist before 931. The historian Widukind, who worked in
Corvey, reported towards the end of the 10th century about the first
lords of a refuge castle in Elberfeld. This refuge was owned by the
Archbishop of Cologne from 955 and probably served as a supply station
on the army road to Soest.
Most of the original predecessor
settlements of today's city of Wuppertal are documented around the turn
of the first millennium. They were first documented as follows:
Cronenberg 1050, Barmen 1070, Elberfeld 1161, Schöller 1182, Ronsdorf
1246, Beyenburg 1298 (individual locations as early as 1189), Langerfeld
1304, Dönberg 1355 and Vohwinkel 1356.
After the founding of the
German Empire in the 10th century, the great clearing period in the
Wupper area began, which lasted until the 16th century. Associated with
this were many new settlements and an expansion of the manors into
castles. In 1101, Adolf von Berg was first mentioned as a count. The
Counts and later Dukes of Berg acquired most of today's Wuppertal urban
area through purchase, marriage, inheritance and pledging over the
course of the next few centuries and managed it through Elberfeld Castle
and Beyenburg Castle.
Epoch of early industrialization
In the
middle of the 19th century, the Wuppertal region, with Barmen and
Elberfeld as centers, was one of the largest economic centers on the
European continent and one of the first industrial regions in Germany.
The manufacture of textiles and their bleaching has been documented in
the Wupper valley since 1450. The bleaching of the yarns with
Wupperwasser on the valley meadows and the subsequent dyeing established
the development of a diverse textile industry. In 1549, in a contract
between Schwelm and Elberfeld, the "Lindt effect" (weaving of ribbons)
was mentioned. In 1527 Duke Johann III. from Jülich-Cleve-Berg the
Elberfelders and Barmers the privilege of Garnnahrung, i.e. the
exclusive right to dye, weave and knit yarns and cloths in the
Herzogturm Berg. At the beginning of the 18th century lace, lingettes
and laces were made for this purpose. Mechanization followed around 1750
with the first hand-powered braiding machines, the so-called belt gears,
which were water-powered from 1780 onwards.
Early
industrialization was based on the four industrial factors found in the
area: iron ore, coal, timber and water. After the rights of use had been
acquired, water power was used as a drive for textile mills, bellows for
kilns and forges, hammer mills, bobbin lace machines, ribbon and weaving
looms or other machines. Ruhr coal mining began in the Middle Ages not
far north of today's city limits in the Sprockhövel area, where the coal
seams came to the surface, making mining easy.
The denominational
character of the region should not be underestimated: the denominational
politics of the sovereigns of the Duchy of Berg were relatively liberal.
The Reformed denomination was able to establish itself in Elberfeld and
Barmen, and Calvinist families made up a large part of the business
community in the 18th century. Distinguished by a strong entrepreneurial
spirit, entrepreneurial families from Elberfeld and Barmen searched all
over Europe for new manufacturing techniques, secured the sale of their
goods with a network of trading branches, while their investments were
financed by a developing domestic banking sector (e.g. through the bank
of Heydt-Kersten & Sons). This willingness to innovate on the part of
Wuppertal's entrepreneurs gave the region a head start in Germany well
into the 19th century - long before new (heavy) industrial centers
developed in the Ruhr area, Saxony, Berlin, Upper Silesia or the Rhine
region by the turn of the century.
The Ruhr area owes a large
part of its upswing to its function as a supplier of raw materials to
the Wuppertal region and only developed later. Until the beginning of
the 20th century, the cities of Barmen and Elberfeld were more important
than Dortmund, Duisburg or Düsseldorf.
The mainstay of the Wupper
valley was the textile industry, weaving mills and production halls were
lined up here. In the center of Elberfeld there was a permanent world
textile fair for many decades, where locally produced fabrics of all
kinds were presented and traded. During this time, Wuppertal was one of
the most important textile locations in the world. In the side valleys
and on the heights there were hundreds of handicraft businesses of all
kinds, which, in addition to the tape weaving, were mainly concerned
with the manufacture of tools and the manufacture and processing of
their preliminary products.
The textile industry, which was
mechanized throughout from the beginning of the 19th century, was
followed by supporting branches such as the chemical industry, which was
initially devoted to the development of textile dyes, mechanical
engineering (textile machines) and electrical engineering. The tool
industry, whose tradition goes back to the late Middle Ages, established
itself primarily in what is now the district of Cronenberg and is still
the world market leader in its field today. In addition, Elberfeld
developed into a high-turnover trading center that primarily marketed
local products (Barmer items) worldwide. The Bayer company was founded
on August 1, 1863 in Barmen by Friedrich Bayer and Johann Friedrich
Weskott and is still producing in the main plant in Elberfeld. The
history of the Vorwerk company began in Barmen as “Barmer Carpet Factory
Vorwerk & Co”. The Ibach piano factory was also internationally
important.
The growth of the economy was followed by a
significant increase in the population, the growth of which consisted
primarily of immigrant workers. Between 1830 and 1885 the population
quadrupled and Barmen and Elberfeld each grew into large cities. Due to
rapid industrialization, the social problems of pauperism first appeared
in “German Manchester”, as Barmen and Elberfeld were also called in
reference to the British industrial city. Slums developed, such as in
Elberfeld An der Fuhr. The resulting civic commitment against these
social upheavals came from the son of the Barmer textile manufacturer,
Friedrich Engels, who, knowing the problems first-hand, developed the
social and economic theory known as Marxism with his companion Karl
Marx.
Numerous transport routes led to the city districts, such
as the Bergische Eisenstraße or several coal routes from the Ruhr area.
In the Hardenstein district, for example, a horse and coal railway was
built in 1829 from the pits in Muttental to the Herbederholz area. It
was about 6 km long and led from Witten to the main road to Elberfeld.
Here the required transport capacity for raw materials and the worldwide
shipping of the products were in the foreground, so that traffic and
transport flourished. Today's Bundesstraße 7 (B 7), coming from Hagen,
was one of the first paved roads in Prussia.
The railway
construction to Barmen-Elberfeld was pushed early on by Düsseldorf
(Düsseldorf-Elberfelder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) with the first
steam-powered railway line in western Germany and by Essen with the
Prince Wilhelm Railway Company founded in 1831. The line construction to
Cologne and Hagen (Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) followed
in the middle of the 19th century. Several companies developed their own
routes through the urban area.
When it was fully developed, the
rail network allowed direct connections from Cronenberg (Burgholzbahn),
Solingen (Corkscrew Railway and Ronsdorf-Müngsten Railway), Remscheid
(Wuppertal-Oberbarmen-Opladen railway and Ronsdorf-Müngsten Railway),
Essen (Wuppertal-Vohwinkel-Essen-Überruhr railway). ), Witten
(Elbschetalbahn), Hattingen (Railway
Wuppertal-Wichlinghausen-Hattingen), Gevelsberg-Silschede (Railway
Schee-Silschede), Mettmann (Railway Düsseldorf-Derendorf-Dortmund Süd),
Velbert (Niederbergbahn), Ratingen (Angertalbahn), the Oberbergisches
Land (Wippertalbahn) and the Mark Sauerland (Wuppertalbahn) each with
its own route.
The Barmen-Elberfeld tram network was one of the
four largest in the German Reich and stretched from today's Ennepetal in
the east to Düsseldorf-Benrath in the west and from Essen in the north
to Remscheid and Solingen in the south. A corporation founded by Adolf
Vorwerk built the world's first electrically operated cog railway in
1894. The Barmer Bergbahn ran from the bottom of the valley to the
Toelleturm. A power generation center was built specifically for the
mountain railway.
Around the turn of the century in 1900, small
ironwork and the textile industry with flourishing production and
considerable trade gave the towns another strong growth spurt. It made
the construction of the suspension railway possible, but did not survive
the First World War.
First World War, Kapp Putsch and growing
together
In 1861 Elberfeld and Barmen left the district of Elberfeld
and became independent towns. The remainder of the district of Elberfeld
was renamed the district of Mettmann and from 1929 it was called the
district of Düsseldorf-Mettmann. It was not until 1975 that the present
name Kreis Mettmann came about.
From 1885 there were only seven
residential areas in the Barmen district: Stadt Barmen, Hatzfeld,
Lichtenplatz, Westen, Heckinghausen, Heidt, Carnap. In 1922 the
communities of Langerfeld and Nextbreck were incorporated. In 1885 a
total of 20 residential areas were distinguished in Elberfeld: the town
of Elberfeld, the hamlets of Arrenberg, Hahnerberg, Hipkenberg,
Rutenbeck, Steinbeck, Stockmannsmühle, Theishahn, Uellendahl, Weinberg,
Wolfshahn and Wüstenhof, as well as individual houses such as radio dead
zones. Other estates were acquired later, such as Buchenhofen,
Evertsaue, Kirberg and Lüntenbeck Castle.
In 1920, resistance to
the Kapp Putsch emanated from Elberfeld, where representatives of the
KPD, USPD and SPD met, called for resistance against the putschists by
striking and gaining political power in a joint call, thus starting the
Ruhr uprising. The uprising in the Ruhr also led to heavy and casualty
fighting in Wuppertal between the Freikorps and the police on the one
hand and armed workers of the Red Ruhr Army on the other.
The
unification of Barmen and Elberfeld with Cronenberg, Ronsdorf and
Vohwinkel took place with the law on the municipal reorganization of the
Rhenish-Westphalian industrial area on August 1, 1929. However,
Wuppertal has only had its current name since January 25, 1930, because
in the meantime with the great participation of the population of the
towns and communities of that time, several proposals were made and
discussed for a long time. The name "Wuppertal" proposed by Oskar
Hoffmann was chosen in front of names such as Barmen-Elberfeld,
Elberfeld-Barmen, Barmen-Elberfeld-Vohwinkel, Barmenelb, Elbbarmen,
Wupperstadt, Wupperberg, Wupperhausen, Bergmark, Bergstadt, Talberg,
Großwupp, Wupperalis, Bergland, Hungerstadt, Barmerfeld or Baelvort. The
first combination of names was particularly popular in the two cities of
Elberfeld and Barmen, although there was no agreement on the first city
name. The Hungerstadt proposal came from the ranks of the KPD and was
quickly rejected. Baelvort in turn should stand for Barmen-Elberfeld
united place. These numerous proposals were discussed above all against
the background of maintaining respect for the history of the two
industrial cities of the time, which is why the unification of the two
cities met with great criticism.
National Socialism, Resistance
and World War II
During the National Socialist period (1933-1945),
Wuppertal was on the one hand a West German center of the up-and-coming
NSDAP and on the other hand an important city of political, trade union
and church resistance. On July 24, 1932, Adolf Hitler spoke at an NSDAP
campaign rally in Wuppertal. According to the "Wuppertaler Zeitung",
120,000 listeners came to this rally, 50,000 more than to Hitler's
political opponent Thälmann from the KPD. Already in 1922 and 1926
Hitler held his first speeches in (Wuppertal-)Elberfeld. From 1924
Joseph Goebbels, who later became Minister of Propaganda, worked (and
lived from 1925) as a party functionary and agitator in Elberfeld.
Through intrigues against regional NSDAP functionaries and supported by
donations from industrial circles (among other things, the director of
Henrichshütte in Hattingen financed the publication of a book for him),
Goebbels smoothed his way to Hitler. In the years from 1924 to 1926,
Joseph Paul Goebbels, starting from Elberfeld, traveled to various
cities as part of several propaganda events, not only in large cities on
the Ruhr and Rhine, but also in the neighboring communities such as
(today's Velbert-) Neviges and Langenberg.
By the summer of 1933,
18 residents of the city had been killed by SA murder squads. The city
councilor and particularly brutal SA leader Willi Veller was elected a
member of the Reichstag in 1930 and appointed acting chief of police for
the city in July 1933. In the same month he had the Kemna concentration
camp set up. This existed until early 1934 and is one of the notorious
early concentration camps. As early as December 1933, however, Veller
had been dismissed from office due to corruption, his severe alcoholism
and embezzlement, and was expelled from the SA and NSDAP, but later
rehabilitated due to good connections to the Düsseldorf Gauleiter.
As early as April 1, 1933, in an action carried out by schools,
works by the Jewish writer Else Lasker-Schüler, who was born in
Wuppertal, were publicly burned alongside many other books, which was
followed by a wave of further book burnings in more than 50 German
cities.
On April 11, 1933, the pacifist writer Armin T. Wegner,
whose works were also burned, protested against the persecution of the
Jews in an open letter to Adolf Hitler. Wegner was arrested by the
Gestapo, tortured and imprisoned in prisons and concentration camps for
several months. He then emigrated to Italy.
In the Bergisches
Land, which was one of the nuclei of the socialist workers' movement in
Germany, the strong Nazi movement and the self-confident workers'
movement met particularly brutally. When the Gestapo finally succeeded
in smashing the party and trade union organizations of the labor
movements in the Rhineland and Bergisches Land in 1935, an unprecedented
series of mass trials against more than 650 accused began, which also
became known abroad as the Wuppertal trade union trials.
In 1934
protestant resistance against Hitler formed in the Barmen Confessional
Synod. Under the leadership of Karl Barth, the Confessing Church, made
up of Reformed, Lutheran and Uniates, passed the Barmen Declaration. It
is considered nationwide to be the most important document of Protestant
rejection of Nazi rule.
The Aryanization and so-called
"dejudaization" of retail stores run by Jewish owners was organized by
the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) as in other cities and
implemented 1:1 according to the specifications from Berlin. Active in
ethnic groups from the mid-1920s and a member of the NSDAP since 1930,
Dr. -Ing. Friedrich Wachs became IHK President in 1933. Interned after
1945, he was classified as a follower in the denazification process in
1948. Other protagonists of the Aryanization remained with the Chamber
of Industry and Commerce years later as senior employees.
The
rearmament of the Wehrmacht by the Nazi regime was also noticeable in
the cityscape. Wuppertal, which had previously had no garrison, received
four new barracks. They continued to be used by the Bundeswehr after the
Second World War and were all abandoned between 1993 and 2004.
During the Second World War, the inner city was largely destroyed by
heavy Allied attacks (twice with several thousand dead). With a few
exceptions, the historic building fabric in the main urban centers was
either destroyed or so badly damaged that numerous prominent buildings
from the Wilhelminian period had to be demolished. Culturally and
historically important buildings such as the Barmer town hall and the
world's second planetarium as well as hundreds of old town houses fell
victim.
A total of around 38 percent of the built-up area of
Wuppertal was destroyed in the war. The bottom of the valley with its
industry and the Bergisch-Märkische railway line in the south was hit
hardest, with Südstadt, which is close to the railway line, suffering
particularly badly. The banks of the Wupper, which were very densely
populated with half-timbered houses, were largely destroyed, and in the
years that followed mostly wide streets were built there. On the other
hand, the extensive Gründerzeit districts along the Rhenish railway line
in the north, which now became the main route of communication, were
hardly affected. Significant buildings such as the entrance building of
the main station, the Elberfeld town hall, the historic town hall or the
reformed cemetery church were only slightly damaged and could be
preserved.
During the morning of April 15, 1945, a Sunday, the
then NSDAP district leader Alfred Straßweg fled to his hometown of
Wermelskirchen (on May 24 he was arrested there by American soldiers in
his father's apartment). On April 16, 1945, the US Army's 78th Infantry
Division captured the city, which put up little resistance when it was
taken. Three days earlier, anti-fascist workers and soldiers had
arrested leading Nazis in bloody street battles and taken control of the
city. In the course of the division of Germany into occupation zones,
Wuppertal became part of the British occupation zone on June 16, 1945.
Post war history
The central areas of Elberfeld and Barmen owe
their appearance to this destruction and the modern building plans of
the 1950s, which primarily focused on the rapid construction of
functional and unadorned buildings and the creation of wide street lanes
for the growing individual traffic. Considerations of demolishing the
badly damaged suspension railway scaffolding as well were quickly
discarded.
The city was able to make a good new start overall.
The textile industry was an essential economic factor in the city well
into the 1970s, until it lost its importance due to the globalization of
the textile market. The decline of the textile industry began after the
First World War, a small upswing followed in the Second World War due to
the production of uniforms. However, the large textile companies such as
Baumsche Fabrik or Frowein no longer existed in the 1970s. The
Glanzstoff-Enka-Bemberg Group has been exclusively producing special
fabrics since the 1920s, production is now greatly reduced. Today,
Wuppertal is still a world leader in the manufacture of hand tools.
The structural change made things difficult for Wuppertal as an
industrial city, similar to the cities in the Ruhr area. While the Ruhr
area has received public funds since the 1980s, the Bergisch city
triangle with the cities of Wuppertal, Solingen and Remscheid was not
considered in need of funding by the state for a long time. Only since
the beginning of the 21st century has there been a rethink through the
commitment of citizens, entrepreneurs and politicians in the form of
political work and media-effective protest actions, and Wuppertal is now
treated the same in structural change funding.
In 2008, the city
was awarded the title of “Place of Diversity” by the federal government.
In 2015, the Community of Evangelical Churches in Europe awarded
Wuppertal the title of “European City of Reformation” as the 15th city.
Incorporations
The town of Sonnborn was incorporated into
Elberfeld as early as 1807, but was later spun off and incorporated
again in 1888. In 1922 Langerfeld and Nextbreck came to Barmen. On
August 1, 1929, Barmen, Elberfeld, Cronenberg, Vohwinkel, Ronsdorf and
the Beyenburg district of what was then the city of Lüttringhausen and
parts of Haan, Wülfrath, Hardenberg-Neviges, Schöller and Gruiten merged
due to the law on the municipal reorganization of the
Rhenish-Westphalian industrial area and Gennebreck to the town of
Barmen-Elberfeld.
On January 25, 1930, the new independent city
was renamed Wuppertal, reflecting the city's geographical location on
the river valley. In the course of further regional reforms, parts of
the towns of Haßlinghausen and Schwelm were added to the urban area in
1970. Finally, on January 1, 1975, as part of the North
Rhine-Westphalian regional reform, the districts of Dönberg (previously
the town of Neviges) and Dornap (previously the town of Wülfrath) and
the municipality of Schöller (previously the Gruiten district) were
incorporated, all of which had previously belonged to the district of
Mettmann. This is how the urban area reached its current size.
History of Elberfeld
There is no closer documentary evidence for the
origin of Elberfeld, but there is an archaeological find that proves
that there was a settlement before 931, as well as a building that
preceded the old reformed church and a fortified manor.[33] Widukind's
chronicles speak of a Saxon lord of the castle named Droste Brüning,
liege man of King Konrad I. According to Widukind, Eberhard von Franken
claimed the castle after his death. Despite the siege, he was unable to
enforce his claims. In 1161 a Schulte (Villicus/estate manager) from the
Elverfeldt table farm was first mentioned. In 1176 the Archbishop of
Cologne pledged Elberfeld to Count Engelbert von Berg. After changing
rulers, Elberfeld remained a permanent Bergian possession from 1428.
Elberfeld was referred to as "freedom" from 1444 (as a city in 1530) and
thus had a municipal council constitution.
However, the city
privilege was only granted in 1610 and extended in 1623. On May 22,
1687, a town fire destroyed 350 houses and thus the entire town center.
The town hall was not rebuilt until 1707. After the transition to
Prussia in 1815, Elberfeld became the seat of a district that was formed
from the mayors of Elberfeld and Barmen. In 1820, the municipalities of
the district of Mettmann were affiliated to it.
The Elberfeld
uprising of May 1849 was part of the imperial constitution campaign and
broke out against the background of the non-recognition of the Frankfurt
imperial constitution by the Prussian state leadership and the final
rejection of the German imperial title by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. A
security committee exercised control of the city for several days before
the uprising collapsed.
History of Barmen
The name Barmen was
first mentioned in a document in 1070 as Barmon in a tax list of the
Werden monastery. In 1244 the goods in Barmen ("Bona de Barme") were
transferred from the possessions of Count Ludwig von Ravensberg to those
of Count von Berg. The associated contract document is the second
documentary mention of Barmen. Barmen was initially the collective name
for an area that consisted of a loose association of individual farms
and settlements. Finally, in 1399, Barmen's administrative affiliation
with the newly founded Bergische Amt of Beyenburg became clear for the
first time. The main town was Gemarke. In 1808 Barmen was elevated to
the status of a town and from 1815 it belonged to the district of
Elberfeld. The mayor's office of Barmen consisted of the town of
Gemarke, the town of Wupperfeld (created from 1780), the villages of
Heckinghausen, Rittershausen and Wichlinghausen, the hamlet of Carnap
and 58 smaller towns and farmsteads.
History of Vohwinkel
After Elberfeld and Barmen, Vohwinkel is the third largest district in
Wuppertal and was even an independent city until 1929. Vohwinkel
previously belonged to the district of Mettmann and was the
administrative seat of the district from 1877 to 1929. In 1356, Knight
Heinrich von Schönrode sold Vowynkele to the Graefrath Monastery (near
Solingen). The document of this purchase process is today the first
documented mention of Vohwinkel. With the expansion of road construction
and an ever-growing good railway connection, today's district of
Wuppertal underwent a functional change. Vohwinkel increasingly became a
business and carter hostel. With the construction of the railway line to
Düsseldorf in 1841 and the railway line to Essen in 1847, Vohwinkel grew
into an even larger settlement. After originally belonging to the
community of Sonnborn, Vohwinkel only became an independent rural
community in 1888 after Sonnborn an Elberfeld was dissolved. In 1921,
Vohwinkel finally received city rights.
Population development
With more than 12,000 inhabitants each, Barmen and Elberfeld belonged to
the larger towns of the Prussian Rhine Province in 1800 along with six
other towns. In 1884, the populations of the two cities crossed the
100,000 mark each, making them both major cities. In 1929 the following
communities merged to form the town of "Barmen-Elberfeld" with 415,000
inhabitants (in brackets the population according to the census of June
16, 1925): Barmen (187,239), Elberfeld (167,025), Vohwinkel (16,105),
Cronenberg (14,039) and Ronsdorf (12,526). In 1963, the population
reached an all-time high of 423,453. On June 30, 2012, the population
was 349,514 according to the State Office for Information and Technology
North Rhine-Westphalia. According to the results of the 2011 census, the
number of inhabitants on May 9, 2011 was 342,661, which is around 7,000
fewer than reported by the state IT department.
Denomination statistics
At the end of 2020, the proportion of
Protestants in Wuppertal was 24% and that of Catholics 18.1%. 57.9% had
another denomination or religion or were non-denominational. In
Wuppertal, the number of Protestant church members fell to 90,373 in
2019. At the end of 2018, of the 354,382 inhabitants, 92,704 (26.2%)
belonged to the Evangelical Church and 73,400 (20.7%) to the Roman
Catholic Church. At the end of 2016, 28.5% (2012: 29.6%) of the
population belonged to the Protestant Church and 21.3% (2012: 23.7%) to
the Roman Catholic Church. 50.1% (2012: 46.7%) belonged to another
denomination or religion or were non-denominational. Wuppertal is
considered to be the city in Germany with the most diverse religions,
sects and communities. The later town of Ronsdorf was founded by the
Christian sect of the Zionites under Elias Eller, which no longer exists
today. According to various sources, there are around 80 to 90 different
faith communities in the city.
Christianity
The Elberfeld
Bible (abbr. EB), named after the Wuppertal district, is an important
German Bible translation that was first published in 1855 (New
Testament) and 1871 (Old Testament). The literalness of the translation
takes precedence over linguistic beauty. This made it the model for many
other translations.
Protestant
In the 16th century, the
Reformation according to the Reformed Confession was introduced in
Elberfeld (1566 by Peter Loh), Barmen and most of the other districts of
Wuppertal today. During the Spanish occupation, evangelical worship was
banned between 1625 and 1627. From 1690 there were also Lutheran
congregations in Elberfeld, as later also in other places. In Barmen,
the Reformed community of Gemarke separated from the parish of Schwelm
in 1702. The Lutheran congregation in Wichlinghausen also separated in
1744, and the Wupperfeld congregation separated from it in 1778. In some
smaller towns, Reformed or Lutheran congregations emerged much later,
for example in Beyenburg in 1854 and in Vohwinkel in 1886.
After
the city of Elberfeld passed to Prussia, the Reformed and Lutheran
congregations were initially subordinate to the consistory in Düsseldorf
(1814-1816, 1934-1947), Cologne (1816-1826; at times synchronous) and
Koblenz (1822-1934), which in 1826 was the sole seat the entire Rhenish
Provincial Church (today the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland) became
part of the Evangelical Church in Prussia.
Elberfeld and Barmen
became the seat of a district synod (today's church district), to which
the evangelical congregations of Sonnborn, Vohwinkel, Cronenberg and
Ronsdorf still belong to this day, provided they are not free churches.
On January 1, 2005, the previously separate church districts of
Elberfeld and Barmen merged to form the church district of Wuppertal.
Although the union between Reformed and Lutheran congregations was
introduced in Prussia in 1817, the perception of the respective
congregations remained true to their previous traditions. In Wuppertal,
for example, a distinction is still made between Reformed and Lutheran
congregations within the United State Church. Some congregations were
founded from the outset as “united” congregations, for example
Unterbarmen and Küllenhahn, whereas in Ronsdorf the Reformed and
Evangelical-Lutheran congregations still exist separately today, which
is unique for a district congregation today in the Rhenish state church.
As a reaction to the Rhenish-Westphalian church ordinance of 1835, which
prescribed a unified liturgy for the Prussian Protestant churches, an
Old Lutheran congregation and the Dutch Reformed congregation separated
from the United Prussian Church for reasons of confession. There are
still two Lutheran parishes today: in Barmen and Elberfeld, which belong
to the Rhineland parish of the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church,
and the Dutch Reformed parish, which has joined the Evangelical Old
Reformed Church in Lower Saxony.
Catholics
The area of today's
city belonged to the Archdiocese of Cologne, Elberfeld and Unterbarmen
to the Archdean's Office of the Cathedral Dean in the Dean's Office in
Neuss, Oberbarmen to the Archdean's Office of St. George in the Dean's
Office in Lüdenscheid. Around 1300 Elberfeld became its own
municipality, having previously belonged to Richrath (now Langenfeld
(Rhineland)). The few Catholics, six families in Elberfeld in 1658,
three in Barmen in 1708, also belonged to the Archdiocese of Cologne
after the Reformation. A new Catholic church was built in Barmen between
1708 and 1721, which was pastored by Franciscans from the monastery in
Wipperfürth. Around 1800 there were 2000 Catholics there, and in the
19th century the proportion increased sharply throughout Wuppertal. In
1830 almost 5,800 Catholics were counted in Elberfeld. Several parishes
were established in the cities. Both Elberfeld and Barmen became the
seat of a deanery within the Archdiocese of Cologne. Both deaneries
together form the "City Deanery Wuppertal". The parishes of Cronenberg,
Ronsdorf (formerly Barmen) and Vohwinkel also belong to the Deanery of
Elberfeld, while the parishes of Langerfeld and Beyenburg belong to the
Deanery of Barmen. The main church of the Wuppertal Catholics is the
classical St. Laurentius Church in Elberfeld, which has held the title
of a papal basilica minor since 2014.
free churches
One of the
early free church foundations was that of the first Baptist congregation
by Julius Köbner. In 1854, the businessman Hermann Heinrich Grafe and
five other men founded the first free evangelical community in what was
then the German-speaking area in Elberfeld. This laid the foundation for
the founding of the Federation of Free Evangelical Churches in Germany
20 years later. Around the same time, in 1875, the first German group of
Seventh-day Adventists was formed in Vohwinkel.
Jehovah's
Witnesses
The "special Christian communities" include Jehovah's
Witnesses (until 1931 Bible researchers), whose first German branch was
in Elberfeld in 1902. For the time being, an office of the "Watch Tower
Society" was opened here. A year later it was expanded to become the
branch office ("Bethel") of the Watchtower Society. In addition, the
first German general meeting of the Bible Students was held in Elberfeld
in 1905. The branch office moved to Barmen in 1908, where it remained
until 1923. They too were subjected to severe persecution during
National Socialism. Today, Jehovah's Witnesses are represented in
Wuppertal with four German and more than ten foreign-language assemblies
(congregations) and groups. They hold their meetings (services) in two
Kingdom Halls (meeting places) in Wuppertal.
More Churches
The
New Apostolic Church is represented in Wuppertal with six congregations
and a total of 1383 congregation members (December 2017).
Islam
The number of Muslims is officially estimated at around 28,000. An
estimated 60% of these are of Turkish origin, and around a quarter are
likely to be immigrants from Morocco. They are predominantly Sunni and
organize themselves in various communities that roughly represent the
various groups of Turkish religious associations (DİTİB, VIKZ, Milli
Görüş) in Germany. There are also two Alevi community centers, a Bosnian
community center and a number of Arabic-speaking communities. Since
2015, the construction of the first Muslim cemetery in Germany with
burials according to Islamic usage has been planned on Krummacherstraße
in Varresbeck.
Judaism
Jewish community members did not exist
in Elberfeld until 1694, after they had been expelled in 1595 on the
orders of the Duke of Berg. In 1802 two families were counted in Barmen.
In 1861, the Jews of both cities were able to found a joint Israelite
community, which, however, perished during the Nazi era. Since 1994, the
Old Synagogue Wuppertal meeting place at the former site of the
Elberfeld Synagogue has commemorated the Jewish community, whose members
were almost completely expelled and murdered during the Nazi regime. Due
to the influx of Jews from the states of the former Soviet Union, the
number of community members rose from 65 to over 2,000 people in the
1990s, which corresponds to 0.6 percent of the population. On December
8, 2002, a new synagogue was inaugurated with the Bergische Synagogue in
Barmen. Mosche Katzav was the first Israeli President to attend the
opening of a synagogue in Germany. The construction was also supported
by the cities of Remscheid, Solingen and Velbert.
Other religious
communities
The Diamond Way Buddhism of the Karma Kagyu lineage is
taught in the Wuppertal Buddhist Center, and there are also two groups
of Mahayana Zen Buddhism. Especially Tamils from Sri Lanka pray in the
Hindu temple in Unterbarmen.
Interreligious Dialogue
The
Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation in Wuppertal is dedicated to
Jewish-Christian dialogue.
In the interreligious working group
Runder Tisch Wuppertal, in which the Jewish religious community, the
Protestant and Catholic Churches and the local Islamic community
participate, a Jewish-Christian-Muslim calendar is drawn up and
published every year.
Confessional Synod
During the National
Socialist period, Wuppertal became known for the Confessional Synod that
took place from May 29th to 31st, 1934 in the Gemark Church. It was
convened by the Confessing Church and attended by Lutheran, Reformed and
United delegates. This is where the so-called Barmen Theological
Declaration was created, which is considered to be one of the
confessional foundations of the Protestant Church and theological
foundation during the National Socialist period.