Wuppertal was founded in 1929 out of the merger between the independent cities Barmen and Elberfeld.
Albeit the young age of the city, the origin of the settlement along the river Wupper goes back to 1161. Elberfeld was first mentioned in official documents as an estate of the archbishop of Cologne and received its town charter in 1610. Barmen was charted in 1808.
Get in
As there is no airport in Wuppertal, travelers coming from abroad should land either in the Düsseldorf or Köln-Bonn airports.
See
The Schwebebahn, or inverted monorail, is visible in a number of scenes in the movie Der Krieger und die Kaiserin (The Princess and the Warrior), which is set in and around Wuppertal. It is built over the river running through the town. The municipal train system is notable not only for its inverted track, but also for its age; it was opened in 1901.
Do
Drink
Like most German cities, Wuppertal brews a local beer exclusive to the city. The Wupper Hell and the Wupper Dunkel can only be enjoyed in the Wuppertaler Brauhaus, a former swimming pool converted into a modern brewry in Barmen, close to the city center.
Wuppertal is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the Wupper river south of the Ruhr area. Population 361,333 (2005).
It is a major industrial centre including such industries as: textiles, metallurgy, chemicals, medicine (Bayer), electric, rubber, vehicles and printing equipment. One of the most famous pain-killers, Aspirin, was invented in Wuppertal by Bayer.
History
The city was formed in 1929 by merging Barmen, Elberfeld, Vohwinkel, Ronsdorf, Cronenberg, Langerfeld, and Beyenburg. The name was initially Barmen-Elberfeld, and after 1930 Wuppertal ("Wupper-valley").
The city has, unique in Germany, a ribbon-like structure due to the steep hillsides along the river Wupper. The dominating city-centres Elberfeld (historic commercial centre) and Barmen (more industrial) form a united built-up area since 1850. In the following decades this "Wupper-Town" became the dominating industrial agglomeration of the territories in northwestern Germany. Before the 19th century ended this conurbation had been surpassed by Cologne, Düsseldorf and the Ruhr area, all with much more favourable topography.
During World War II it was destroyed to about 40% by the Allies as were many other industrial centres at the time. However, a large quantity of historic sites have been preserved such as the :Image:Oelberg_wuppertal.jpg|Ölberg ("Mount Petrol") District, one of Germany's largest working class districts, and the so-called Briller Viertel, Germany's largest district of Bourgeois dwellings.
After the liberation from the Nazi Regime Wuppertal became a part of the British Occupancy Zone, and subsequently a part of North Rhine-Westphalia state of West Germany.
Main sights
In total, Wuppertal possesses over 4,500 buildings classified national monuments, most dating from periods of classicism, Art Nouveau and Bauhaus.
Main sights include:
