eat

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
coat of arms Germany map
Coat of arms of the city of Essen Map of Germany, position of the city of Essen highlighted

Coordinates: 51 ° 27 '  N , 7 ° 1'  E

Basic data
State : North Rhine-Westphalia
Administrative region : Dusseldorf
Height : 116 m above sea level NHN
Area : 210.34 km 2
Residents: 582,760 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density : 2771 inhabitants per km 2
Postcodes : 45127-45359
Primaries : 0201, 02054 , 0209Template: Infobox municipality in Germany / maintenance / area code contains text
License plate : E.
Community key : 05 1 13 000
City structure: 9 districts with
50 districts

City administration address :
Porscheplatz 1
45121 Essen
Website : www.essen.de
Lord Mayor : Thomas Kufen ( CDU )
Location of Essen in North Rhine-Westphalia and in the administrative district of Düsseldorf
Niederlande Belgien Niedersachsen Rheinland-Pfalz Hessen Essen Wuppertal Solingen Remscheid Hagen Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis Bochum Dortmund Herne Gelsenkirchen Bottrop Oberhausen Mülheim an der Ruhr Duisburg Kreis Mettmann Düsseldorf Rhein-Kreis Neuss Kreis Heinsberg Mönchengladbach Krefeld Kreis Viersen Kreis Wesel Kreis Kleve Rhein-Erft-Kreis Kreis Düren Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis Oberbergischer Kreis Kreis Recklinghausen Kreis Borken Kreis Unna Märkischer Kreis Kreis Olpe Hamm Kreis Soest Kreis Coesfeld Kreis Steinfurt Kreis Warendorf Leverkusen Köln Städteregion Aachen Bonn Rhein-Sieg-Kreis Städteregion Aachen Kreis Euskirchen Münster Kreis Siegen-Wittgenstein Hochsauerlandkreis Kreis Paderborn Kreis Gütersloh Kreis Höxter Kreis Lippe Kreis Herford Kreis Minden-Lübbecke Bielefeldmap
About this picture
Landmark of the city of Essen: Zeche Zollverein
The southern district in Essen's city center, characterized by high - rise buildings
Essen skyline
Villa hill ; Symbol of the Krupp family dynasty and industrialization, as well as a landmark of the city of Essen

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 . Under the project RUHR.2010 - European Capital of Culture food was representative of the entire Ruhr region in 2010 European Capital of Culture . 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 monuments testify to the industrial culture of its heavy industrial past, especially the UNESCO - World Heritage Zollverein coal mine . 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 the European Capital of Culture in 2010, it received the title of European Green Capital for 2017 .

geography

View of Essen from the direction of Mülheim-Heißen

Spatial location

Essen is located in the center of the Ruhr area , for the most part north of the Ruhr , which forms the Baldeneysee between the districts of Kupferdreh , Heisingen , Fischlaken and Werden .

Essen is located in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region , an economic region and an urban conurbation in western Germany. The region is one of the largest agglomerations within the European megalopolis and is therefore the largest metropolitan area in Germany. In the 20 independent cities and ten districts of the region, around eleven million inhabitants live on almost 10,000 km² (as of 2005). Around nine million people live within a 50 kilometer radius of Essen. Essen is one of the four major centers in the Ruhr area, alongside Dortmund , Duisburg and Bochum .

The mean altitude of the city is 116  m above sea level. NN . The highest point in the urban area is in Heidhausen and is 202.5  m above sea level. NN , the deepest point in Karnap measures 26.5  m above sea level. NN . The geographical center of Essen is in Rüttenscheid in the Müller-Breslau-Straße and Wittenbergstraße area. The location of the city on the northern border of the low mountain range determines the geographical building plan of Essen and the entire Ruhr area, which has a clear east-west extension between the Ruhr valley in the south and the Hellwegene to the Emscher valley in the north. The two rivers Ruhr and Emscher , running from east to west, give the landscape their own character. The Ruhr, which comes from the Sauerland , winds around the hills of the southern districts and forms floodplain landscapes as well as the Baldeneysee and Kettwiger See reservoirs . The Emscher in the north and parallel to it the Rhine-Herne Canal run straight through the city and, like the Ruhr, flow into the Rhine near Duisburg .

The largest expansion of the urban area is 21 kilometers in north-south direction and 17 kilometers in west-east direction. The length of the city limits is 87 kilometers.

Waters

There are streams with a length of around 275 kilometers in the entire urban area. The most famous waters include the Emscher and the Rhine-Herne Canal in the north and the Ruhr with the Baldeneysee and Kettwiger See in the south of the city .

In the north of the city are the streams that are characterized by industrialization. Many of the streams are used for sewage disposal, but they are gradually being restored to a natural state in the course of the Emscher renaturation by the Emscher Cooperative . The renaturation will enhance the area around the streams. These Köttel basins include the Borbecker Mühlenbach , the Berne , the Stoppenberger Bach and the Schwarzbach . The Hexbach , Barchembach and Schönebecke are among the streams that have kept their near-natural state .

In the south of the city, the Ruhr and near-natural streams flow, 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 structure

City districts / districts map

The urban area of ​​Essen consists of nine urban districts . In each city district there is a district council with 19 members each. The district mayor is the chairman of the district council . The city districts are marked with Roman numerals and with a special name, which in some cases also consists of several district names.

The nine districts are divided into a total of 50 districts . Most of the city districts were once independent municipalities and lost their independence through incorporation . The districts are marked with a two-digit Arabic number .

Due to the natural structure, Essen's cityscape is clearly divided into two parts: the densely populated northern districts and the areas around the city center on the one hand, and the southern part, which is characterized by extensive green areas and rather small-scale development, on the other.

Neighboring cities

The following cities border Essen (clockwise from the east):

climate

The average annual temperature in Essen is 11.3 ° C. The coldest month is January with 3.4 ° C, the warmest July with 19.7 ° C. Rainfall is 866 millimeters per year, with most of the rainfall, 93 millimeters, falling in December.

eat
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.
 
 
88
 
6th
1
 
 
84
 
8th
2
 
 
71
 
10
3
 
 
43
 
15th
6th
 
 
51
 
19th
10
 
 
77
 
23
13
 
 
50
 
25th
15th
 
 
88
 
24
14th
 
 
71
 
20th
11
 
 
63
 
15th
8th
 
 
87
 
10
4th
 
 
93
 
8th
4th
Temperature in ° Cprecipitation in mm
Source: DWD, data: 2015–2020 wetterkontor.de,
Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Essen
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 5.6 7.5 10.3 14.7 19.0 22.7 24.7 23.6 19.6 14.6 9.5 7.8 O 15th
Min. Temperature (° C) 1.2 1.7 3.3 5.7 9.5 13.3 14.6 14.3 11.3 8.3 4.4 3.7 O 7.6
Temperature (° C) 3.4 4.5 6.7 10.3 14.3 17.9 19.7 18.9 15.2 11.3 6.9 5.8 O 11.3
Precipitation ( mm ) 88 84 71 43 51 77 50 88 71 63 87 93 Σ 866
Hours of sunshine ( h / d ) 1.6 3.1 4.3 5.8 7.1 7.4 7.3 6.4 5.4 3.4 2.1 1.5 O 4.6
Rainy days ( d ) 21st 16 17th 14th 13 15th 13 16 15th 16 19th 20th Σ 195
Humidity ( % ) 85 80 77 72 70 73 73 74 79 81 84 85 O 77.7
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
5.6
1.2
7.5
1.7
10.3
3.3
14.7
5.7
19.0
9.5
22.7
13.3
24.7
14.6
23.6
14.3
19.6
11.3
14.6
8.3
9.5
4.4
7.8
3.7
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
N
i
e
d
e
r
s
c
h
l
a
g
88
84
71
43
51
77
50
88
71
63
87
93
  Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Source: DWD, data: 2015–2020 wetterkontor.de,

history

See also: List of ground monuments in Essen

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 blade made of flint , the Vogelheimer blade , and the bone of a cave lion from the Saale Glaciation , between 280,000 and 250,000 years old. Further finds from the Middle Paleolithic could also be made in other parts of the city until recently (Werden, approx. 200,000 BP ; Dellwig, approx. 160,000 BP). An important 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.

Apart from a few microliths , there are hardly any finds from the Middle Stone Age . Due to the intensive use of the soils in the urban area, these are no longer to be expected. There are also no finds from most of the Neolithic, only from 3000 BC. There is evidence again, mostly graves or chance finds such as hatchets made of flint. The most important testimony to this era is the so-called stone box by Essen-Kupferdreh , a small megalithic grave from the last section of the Neolithic period, which was discovered in 1937 and is considered to be "the oldest preserved building in Essen".

Essen was in the settlement area of ​​several Germanic tribes ( Chatten , Brukterer , Marser ), the exact delimitation of which is difficult, however.

At the beginning of our era, the Alteburg was built in the south of Essen, large parts of which were excavated in the 1920s and 1930s. The Fliehburg was probably used until the 8th century. To the east is the Herrenburg , which probably dates from the 8th century.

Founding of the monastery

Modern statue of St. Altfrid in front of the Essen Cathedral Treasury. In his hand, Altfrid holds a model of the first Essen minster based on medieval donor pictures

Around 845 a noble family around the later Bishop of Hildesheim , Altfrid , founded the Essen monastery for the daughters of the Saxon nobility. The foundation probably happened on its own ground, called Astnidhi or coenobium Astnide . The first two abbesses, both named Gersuith, belonged to this noble group. The women's monastery, in which canons stayed to celebrate Mass , was not a monastery, but a kind of residential and educational facility for unmarried daughters and widows of the high nobility. It was directed by an abbess who was the only one who was obliged to take a vow of chastity. There were already some homesteads in the area where the women's monastery was established. 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, which apparently dates back to 870 and describes the foundation of the monastery, is now generally regarded as a forgery from the 11th century; whether this is based on older documents is disputed.

Since around 800 there was a little further south, in today's Werden district, the Werden monastery , a Benedictine monastery founded by Saint Liudger , which was supposed to promote missionary work among the Saxons in the Harz region (Helmstedt / Halberstadt). Both the women's monastery and the monastery were already in a completely Christianized environment.

Mathilde was one of the most notable abbesses of Essen . She was the granddaughter of Emperor Otto I and took over the management of the monastery around 973. She directed the fortunes of the monastery and the associated lands for almost 40 years. Mathilde added his most valuable pieces to the church treasure, including the Golden Madonna , the oldest fully plastic Madonna figure in the world. After Mathilde, Sophia took over the management of the monastery, also a granddaughter of Otto I and daughter of Emperor Otto II.

In 1041, under the leadership of the third lady of the royal blood in a row, Theophanu , a granddaughter of Otto II , Essen, already mentioned as a city (civitas) in 1003, received market rights . Ten years later, in 1051, the minster was changed and expanded once more: This extension was the eastern part with the crypt in which St. Altfrid, Mathilde and Theophanu are buried.

The women's monastery, which until then had only been an influential landowner, was officially confirmed its position as a princely seat in 1216: King Friedrich II named the abbess at the time imperial duchess in a letter - which put her on an equal footing with the abbot of the nearby Werden monastery .

The becoming of the city and conflict with the pen

In 1244 the community of ministers of the monastery and the citizens of the city jointly built the Essen city wall . The document about this is the first to contain the Essen city seal. The citizens of Essen developed a civic awareness.

King Rudolf confirmed her sovereignty over the city to the abbess again in 1290, but was unable to fully restore it: the citizenship was in conflict with the monastery, the growing city demanded self-administration: in 1336 there was the first attempt to maintain imperial immediacy , it But it lasted more than 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 then incumbent Abbess Elisabeth von Nassau.

The first evidence of mining activities in Essen also dates from the 14th century: in 1349 the abbess received the right to exploit the mineral resources, and in 1354 there is evidence that silver was mined. Coal was first mentioned in Essen in 1371, but the first coal mine was not recorded until 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 trials lasted 200 years until the Imperial Court of Justice ruled in 1670 that the city had to obey the abbesses in command and prohibition , but was still allowed to keep all old customary rights. Thus, the situation between the city and the monastery remained unresolved 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 preached his first sermon in the Heilig-Geist-Kapelle on April 28, 1563, he distributed the Lord's Supper for the first time on May 2 in the Gertrudiskirche. Already on May 17th Barenbroch had to leave the city because the abbess had called for the protection of the Duke of Klev against the church innovators. Otherwise the Catholic monastery, which had no troops with whom anything could have been achieved, was left with nothing but to watch.

At the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century, there is evidence that Essen became an armory. The gunsmithing trade prospered around 1570. In 1620 the Essen smithy produced 14,000 rifles and pistols; the city became strategically interesting.

Thirty Years' War

Heckingsturm 1861, four years before its demolition, the last remaining part of the city ​​wall
Essen around 1647
Essen 1898, view from the east

In the Thirty Years' War the Protestant city and the monastery faced each other. The then abbess Maria Clara von Spaur, Pflaum and Vallier brought the Catholic Spaniards to Essen in 1623 in order to take counter-Reformation action against the evangelical city. In 1624 a re-Catholicization law was passed, which controlled the church attendance of the citizens. The city, not the monastery, was responsible for boarding and lodging for the occupation troops. In 1628, however, the Essenes sued the Reich Chamber of Commerce .

In 1629 the Dutch stormed the city. The abbess fled to Catholic Cologne on November 4th of this year, taking the church treasure with her . In the summer of 1631 she came back in the wake of a Bavarian garrison under Gottfried Heinrich zu Pappenheim , but had to leave again in September. Maria Clara died in Cologne in 1644.

Overall, the Essenes were badly beaten by the war, there were always arrests, people being abducted and being forced into military service.

Even after the Peace of Westphalia , the troops stayed for a while; the last troops left Essen on September 9, 1650.

Dissolution of the Essen monastery and annexation to Prussia

In 1802, the territory of the Essen monastery was occupied by Prussian troops because it was supposed 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 1803 Reichsdeputationshauptschluss . Eating and becoming were incorporated into County Mark. In 1806 it was occupied by French troops. Essen und Werden were actually annexed by the Grand Duchy of Berg on November 3rd, 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. So Essen and Werden belonged to the Grand Duchy of Berg until the end of 1813 , then again to Prussia and from 1822 to the Prussian Rhine Province . The city became part of the Duisburg district . In 1859, the district of Essen was re-established from the eastern district , from which the city of Essen withdrew as a separate urban district with effect from March 8, 1873 .

industrialization

Alfred Krupp , first painting by Julius Gruen

Essen and the Krupp industry have influenced each other for many years. The Krupp family had been resident since the 16th century and held high offices. Friedrich Krupp founded the Krupp cast steel factory in 1811 , which brought the townspeople with bread and money for many years, although business did not go particularly well at first. The need for workers led to a significant increase in the population of Essen. The unique company expansion began in 1846 when Alfred Krupp succeeded in manufacturing the seamless tire. The expansion meant that the factories west of the old city area had grown to more than 300 hectares as early as 1873 and had reached ten times the area of ​​the old town. The era of the Krupp family only ended in 1967 with the abdication of Arndt von Bohlen and Halbach.

The industrialist Friedrich Grillo donated a theater and opera house to the up-and-coming city in 1892. The building, which today still functions as the city theater under the name Grillo-Theater , was built in the neoclassical style in the city center and was inaugurated on September 16, 1892 with a performance by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm .

By the end of the 19th century, the city of Essen had the densest railway network in the Ruhr area. 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 mining sites and industrial plants.

Several mines were built near the old town, such as the Victoria Mathias colliery in the north quarter on Altenessener Strasse, the Hercules colliery in the east quarter and the Zur Hoffnung colliery west of the city center.

In 1865 the city of Essen took over the gas works on the street Auf der Union (Thurmfeld).

The Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk Aktiengesellschaft was founded in 1898. 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 Empire, Essen was gripped by a 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 guns like the Big Bertha were built in the Krupp cast steel factory . During the war, Krupp produced 22.5 million grenades and 25 million cartridges. As the war continued, 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 hunger crisis in the turnip winter of 1916/1917, in which large parts of the Essen population suffered hardship. Working families impoverished. In February 1917 there were protest strikes against the food situation - starting with the Krupp employees - 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.

Ruhr occupation

Entry of French troops into Essen 1923

On January 11, 1923, the occupation of the Ruhr took place when French and Belgian troops marched into the Ruhr area. The French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré was convinced that Germany was deliberately not meeting the reparations payments stipulated in the Versailles Peace Treaty . Above all, they criticized the lack of deliveries of benefits in kind such as coal, steel and wood, because the Allies switched to demands for benefits in kind due to the underpaying of financial reparations 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 command had occupied what was then the Krupp vehicle hall on Altendorfer Strasse in order to confiscate several vehicles there. Since the plant management called for a stoppage of work, there were tumults and the French felt in a tight spot. They fled, shooting around. This event killed 13 and injured 28. There was great outrage over the carnage. 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 area ended in the summer of 1925.

Phase of the National Socialist conquest of power in 1933/34

Heinrich Maria Martin Schäfer was appointed Lord Mayor of Essen on December 21, 1932 . After the National Socialists had initially taken over the office with Theodor Reismann-Grone on a provisional basis, he was given leave of absence on April 5, 1933, and later retired.

Essen was divided into 27 local groups of the NSDAP , whose offices are listed in the address book of the city of Essen from 1939.

November pogrom 1938

On the night of November 10, 1938, the synagogue was sacked, but the exterior remained almost intact throughout the war (despite the bombing of the inner city). The Steeler Synagogue was completely destroyed. Likewise, a Jewish youth home built in 1932, on the site of which the New Synagogue was built in 1959 .

These November pogroms 1938 related to the night are also called (Reichs-) Kristallnacht or Reichspogromnacht and were measures of violence against Jews throughout the German Reich that were co-organized and directed by the National Socialist regime .

Across Germany, these attacks marked the transition from discrimination against German Jews since 1933 to systematic persecution.

Forced labor camp and sub-concentration camp

Concentration camp subcamp, memorial plaque, Humboldtstrasse / corner of Regenbogenweg

Tens of thousands of forced laborers came to 350 camps in Essen during the Nazi era, forced to do forced labor at companies such as Krupp, Siemens and underground. In Essen there were several subcamps during the Second World War , such as the subcamp Humboldtstrasse (official name SS-Arbeitsskommando Fried. Krupp, Essen), the Gelsenberg camp and the Schwarze Poth subcamp .

Second World War

Day attack by the Royal Air Force on the Essen Kruppwerke
Aerial view of the destroyed Krupp cast steel factory in Essen, 1945

In September 1939, began the Nazi regime the Second World War . The attack on Poland and the campaign in the west were quick and successful for the Wehrmacht ; likewise the company Weserübungen . In early 1943 the Wehrmacht lost the Battle of Stalingrad (now Volgograd ). The confidence of victory in the German Reich - also in Essen - waned; the everyday burdens grew.

Due to its important armaments companies, especially the Krupp cast steel factory , Essen was an important military target. To deceive, the Krupp night glow system was built as a dummy on the Rottberg, 10 km away . The attack on Essen marked the beginning of a five-month British air offensive that lasted until mid-July 1943, known as the Battle of the Ruhr. The 26 air raids in 1942 caused relatively little damage; Heavy bombing followed in 1943. On March 5, 1943, over 442 aircraft took off from airfields in East and Central England. Around 9 p.m., colored Christmas trees marked the Krupp works and downtown Essen as destinations. 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 again overturned the ruins of the city. The roads were impassable because of the many bomb holes and mountains of rubble; the supply of gas, water and light collapsed; the Krupp factories were a huge field of rubble. The city center was over 90 percent destroyed. Although the war was obviously lost, Hitler vehemently refused to surrender. In Essen, which had been under artillery fire for some time, the deputy Gauleiter Fritz Schleßmann issued an appeal on March 27, 1945 that the enemy would be "cut out again with brutal severity". Before that, however, the evacuation of food is required. The appeal was not heard. Schleßmann did not fight for the propagated final victory , but went into hiding with his lover.

The Ruhr area was encircled (" Ruhrkessel "), Karnap was taken on March 31st, and the end of the war was imminent. On the night of April 5 to 6, 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 following days they drew the ring around the city center closer and closer together. On April 11, 1945, the city was officially handed over to US troops. Werden and Kettwig followed on April 15th. The Commander-in-Chief of the Westkessel, 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. For example, production was focused 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 were only made accessible again in 2008 through the urban development project Krupp-Gürtel and put to new use.

The reconstruction was the most urgent task of the city politicians after the Second World War. Between 1950 and 1961, over 100,000 new apartments were built in Essen. The focus of residential construction was in Altendorf and Holsterhausen, where large-scale projects could be realized by amalgamating several plots of land. Furthermore, the city center should be expanded to make it suitable for cars. On wide streets, the traffic was led in a ring around the city center, so that most of the city center was within walking distance. Another goal of town planning was the erection of administrative buildings, most of which were built as high-rise buildings.

Coal crisis

In the years 1957/1958 the coal crisis hit Essen. Crude oil and imported coal brought domestic hard coal into distress and the miners had to put in party shifts . The situation on the energy market in Essen, the former largest mining town on the continent, showed its first consequences just one year after the start of the coal crisis. The Jungmann small mine 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 the Essen mining industry fell to below 50,000. However, the situation worsened enormously in the 1960s with a second coal crisis. 25 mines 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 north quarter and the Langenbrahm colliery in Rellinghausen. Over 13,000 workers were employed on these facilities. The crisis therefore resulted in a reorganization of the German hard coal mining industry. On November 27, 1968, Ruhrkohle AG was founded in Essen, which was supposed to coordinate the reduction of the workforce and the production capacities. With the decline of mining, the number of people in employment 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 mine in Altenessen and the Carl Funke colliery in Heisingen were closed. The Zeche Zollverein remained as the last supporting mine for a little over a decade . With the closure of the Zeche Zollverein on December 23, 1986, Essen's tradition as a mining town finally ended.

New developments

Fountain at Essen Cathedral, symbolic representation of the emergence of the diocese from parts of the dioceses of Cologne, Paderborn and Münster

On July 26, 1956, the 700,000. Born in Essen. On June 30, 1963, the Ruhr metropolis of Essen had its highest population of 731,994. After that, the population steadily decreased. On January 1, 1958, Essen became a 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 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 Federal Horticultural Show in 1965 took place in the Gruga. On March 5, 1969, the former mayor 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 towards the service sector in the course of structural change . In September 1970, the Ruhrschnellweg tunnel for the traffic connection known at the time as Bundesstraße 1 was completed and inaugurated on September 25th by the then Federal President Gustav Heinemann. The University of Essen was founded in 1972 as a comprehensive university for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It was deliberately created - like other start-ups 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 Essen underground line was the first underground railway in the Ruhr area. The length of the first underground line was 600 meters. With a height of 106 meters and 22 floors, the Essen town hall was opened on November 7, 1979 . One day after the city hall opened, the City Center Essen opened with 26,000 square meters of floor space. Pope John Paul II visited Essen on May 2, 1987. The Pope stayed at 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 1st, 1993. More than 300,000 people followed the call of various organizations to demonstrate against xenophobia in Germany and to light the lights of humanity and friendship. In 2006, Essen and the Ruhr area won the competition for European Capital of Culture 2010 (see RUHR.2010 - European Capital of Culture ).

On April 16, 2016, an explosives attack was carried out on the prayer house of the Sikh community Gurdwara Nanaksar in Essen.

Urban area and population development

Urban area development

View from the Ruhr Bridge to the old town of Kettwig

Before 1800 the area of ​​today's city of Essen belonged to the imperial monastery of Essen (Essen, town charter since 1244, Altenessen , Borbeck and Steele ), to the imperial abbey Werden (town of Werden, town charter since 1256 as well as Bredeney , Heisingen and Kettwig ), to the duchy of Berg and to the county Mark ( Königssteele , Horst and Freisenbruch ). The individual places within the Duchy of Berg were divided into the following administrations: Kettwig in front of the bridge ( Angermund office ), Fulerum and Haarzopf (Broich rule) and Dilldorf and Vossnacken ( Hardenberg rule ). The village of Oefte was disputed between the Duchy of Berg and the Imperial Abbey of Werden. (Burg-) Altendorf , Horst and Königssteele, which was only called Steele before 1718 and had been a town since the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, belonged to the Hörde district in the Prussian county of Mark. In French times, the entire area came to the Grand Duchy of Berg and in 1815 to Prussia. Thereafter, the places belonged to the districts of Essen , Mettmann and Düsseldorf in the district of Düsseldorf and to the district of Bochum in the district of Arnsberg . These four circles changed several times in the following decades, until they were either completely dissolved or renamed and their layout changed significantly. A district of Essen existed first until 1823, when it was united with the district of Dinslaken to form the district of Duisburg , and again from 1859. It now comprised the cities of Essen, Kettwig, Steele and Werden as well as the mayorries of Altenessen, Borbeck, Kettwig-Land and Steele Country and becoming country. In 1873 the city of Essen was circled. Since then, the Essen district has been known as the Essen district .

Until the end of the 19th century, the urban area of ​​Essen only included the old imperial city or the imperial monastery of Essen . Between 1873 and 1898 its area grew slightly and last exceeded 10 km². From 1901 the city experienced a series of territorial expansions:

Town hall of the Mayorry of Rüttenscheid 1903
  • In 1901 the mayor's office Altendorf was incorporated, which had been dissolved by the mayor's office Borbeck in 1874
  • The Rüttenscheid mayor's office followed in 1905, which was part of the Stoppenberg mayor's office until 1884, then the Rellinghausen mayor's office and from 1900 onwards it was independent.
  • In 1908 Huttrop, which had belonged to the mayor's office in Stoppenberg since 1874, was added
  • In 1910 Rellinghausen was incorporated.
  • Also in 1910, Fulerum was released from the mayor's office in Heißen and incorporated into Essen. The urban area now covered around 39 km².
  • In 1915 the mayor's offices were incorporated
    • Borbeck, from which a small part of Frintrops went to Oberhausen,
    • Altenessen, whose municipality of Karnap has since formed its own mayor's office,
    • Bredeney, part of Kettwig-Land until 1902, then its own mayor's office, Zweihonnschaften , renamed Bredeney in 1903; Since 1910, the municipality of Haarzopf, which was part of the Mülheim-Land mayor since 1846 and the Heißen mayor in the district of Mülheim an der Ruhr , has belonged to the Bredeney mayor since 1910 . Essen grew to almost 98 km².
  • On August 1, 1929, the Essen district was dissolved. Its communities were mainly incorporated into the city of Essen. Only the city of Kettwig remained independent and was incorporated into the Düsseldorf-Mettmann district and Rotthausen was incorporated into Gelsenkirchen as early as 1923 . When the district was dissolved:
    • the city Steele (with the 1876 incorporated, then belonging to the mayor's Steele-country sharing of Bergerhausen and 1926 incorporated office king Steele, the 1885 from the Office Wattenscheid related places Eiberg , Freisenbruch and King Steele as well as from the Office Hattingen formed corresponding location Horst and belonged to the district of Hattingen , formerly the district of Bochum )
    • If the city (with the 1915 incorporated Unterbredeney) to give the city of Essen since then with pen food and Abbey are two former imperial abbeys includes
    • the municipality of Heisingen, which has had its own mayor's office since 1910
    • the municipality of Karnap, which has had its own mayor's office since 1915
    • the municipality of Kray, in which Leithe was incorporated in 1920
    • the municipality of Kupferdreh, into which Byfang was incorporated in 1922
    • the community of Überruhr, which formed its own mayor's office since 1894
    • the communities Frillendorf, Katernberg, Schonnebeck and Stoppenberg of the Stoppenberg office
    • most of the community of Siebenhonnschaften ; only the minority circumstance fell to the city of Velbert . The area of ​​Essen was then almost 189 km².

A second phase of urban expansion did not follow until well after the Second World War . On January 1, 1970, Altendorf, located in the south, came to Essen under the current name of Burgaltendorf ( Bochum district, Hattingen district from 1885 , Ennepe-Ruhr district from 1929 ). On January 1, 1975, the city of Kettwig (Düsseldorf-Mettmann district, with the district Kettwiger Umstand largely incorporated in 1875, the Kettwig-Land Office formed in 1857 and incorporated in 1929, the Kettwig vor der Brücke incorporated in 1930 and the Oefte incorporated in 1936, which has since 1897 to the mayor's office of Heiligenhaus and previously to the mayor's office of Velbert) dissolved against the massive protest of the Kettwig citizens and incorporated into Essen. The urban area grew to over 210 km².

An incorporation of the city of Bottrop with the Kirchhellen district of Grafenwald to Essen, which had already been decided by the Düsseldorf state cabinet, was rejected by both the city council of Essen and the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia in spring 1976. If it had been incorporated, the population of Essen would have grown to a good 790,000.

Population development

Population development of Essen from 1871 to 2017

In 1896 the city's population exceeded 100,000; Essen became a big city . In 1962, converted to today's urban area, 749,193 inhabitants were counted (Kettwig and Burgaltendorf were only incorporated later - in the former urban area there were 729,301), the highest population level to date had been reached. On December 31, 2005 the official number of inhabitants for Essen was 585,430 (only main residences ) according to updates by the State Office for Data Processing and Statistics North Rhine-Westphalia . This has meant a decrease of around 20 percent since 1962. The trend continued to decline until 2012, as the death surplus reached around 2500 to 3000 people each year. Since 2012, the city of Essen has seen another increase in population. As of December 31, 2013, the city reported an increase from 1708 inhabitants to 573,115 inhabitants, on December 31, 2014 the city of Essen reported a number of 576,691 inhabitants. In 2015, the State Office for Information and Technology in North Rhine-Westphalia (IT.NRW) predicted an increase in the population of Essen by 3.6% to 590,200 people by 2040. The city had 591,018 inhabitants as of December 31, 2019, the state statistical office determined a population of 582,760 for the same time.

The dichotomy of the cityscape is reflected in the social structure. The northern, more densely built-up districts are characterized by a relatively young population with a relatively low income and a relatively high proportion of foreigners. The districts south of the inner city, on the other hand, are more affluent, the people are older and the proportion of the foreign population is lower. Such a south-north divide can be found in many other cities in the Ruhr area (depending on their position in relation to the Emscher zone ). However, there has been an opposite trend towards an inside-outside gradient in Essen for years. Northern parts of the city are upgraded through large-scale residential construction projects (for example Böhmerheide in Altenessen-Nord) and the city center or the city districts surrounding the city are developing into areas in need of renewal due to their old, largely unrenovated buildings.

The unemployment rate in Essen was 9.8 percent on November 30, 2019.

year 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Unemployment rate in Essen (percent as of December 31) 12.9 13.1 13.6 13.3 13.3 13.1 12.7 10.1
Unemployment rate in North Rhine-Westphalia (percent as of December 31) 9 8.4 8.8 9 8.7 8.4 8.1

According to data from the social atlas of the city of Essen, the density of unemployment is highest in the districts of Altendorf (17.7 percent), city center, north quarter and Altenessen south.

Unemployment density by districts of Essen (in percent on December 31, 2013)
District number Districts Values ​​in%
1 City center 16.8
2 East quarter 15.9
3 North quarter 16.6
4th West quarter 11.9
5 Südviertel 9
6th Southeast quarter 14.8
7th Altendorf 17.7
8th Frohnhausen 11.1
9 Holsterhausen 9.5
10 Rüttenscheid 4.8
11 Huttrop 10.5
12 Rellinghausen 4.6
13 Bergerhausen 4.9
14th City forest 2.8
15th Fulerum 3.6
16 Schönebeck 5.1
17th Condition 5.8
18th Frintrop 8.6
19th Dellwig 10.2
20th Gerschede 7th
21st Borbeck-Mitte 8.8
22nd Bochold 13.8
23 Bergeborbeck 15.3
24 Altenessen-Nord 11.9
25th Altenessen-Süd 16
26th Bredeney 2.8
27 Schuir 2.5
28 Pigtail 2.3
29 Become 3.3
30th Heidhausen 3.4
31 Heisingen 3.2
32 Copper turning 5
33 Byfang 2.4
34 Steele 9.7
35 Kray 12.9
36 Frillendorf 9
37 Schonnebeck 11.1
38 Stoppenberg 11.4
39 Katernberg 15.5
40 Karnap 12.7
41 Margarethenhöhe 5.1
42 Fish sheets 3.1
43 Überruhr-Hinsel 5.6
44 Überruhr-Holthausen 8.3
45 Freisenbruch 11.4
46 horst 11
47 Leithe 10
48 Burgaltendorf 3
49 Kettwig 4th
50 Bird home 14th
Source: City of Essen: Social Atlas , as of December 31, 2013. Additional information: As a percentage of the population at the place of the main residence between the ages of 18 and 64. Unemployed people are people up to the age of 65 who live in the Federal Republic of Germany, are not or only temporarily in an employment relationship, are looking for a job that is subject to insurance, at least 15 hours a week, are able to and are allowed to pursue a desired employee activity and to take up work as Workers are available immediately. You must have registered personally with your responsible employment agency. Participants in active labor market policy measures are not considered to be unemployed. City of Essen: including people who cannot be spatially assigned Source: Data from the Federal Employment Agency, Nuremberg.

Origin of name

The name of the city has changed continuously over the centuries. While the city was still called Astnide (oldest form: Astnithi) in the first mentions, it changed to today's Essen via Astnidum, Astanidum, Asbidi, Asnid, Assinde, Asnida, Assindia, Essendia, Esnede, Essende, Essend. Assumptions suggest that the name originally referred to an ash area or an area in the east. However, the connection to the German term Esse , which is a play on words from the 19th century and creates a connection between the name and the appearance at the time , is wrong . In the late 14th century, a sub-bailiff of the Essen monastery who was not known by name ensured that the citizens of Essen were not called “eaters” (like the citizens of Bremen were called “Bremer”), but “Essener”, as he was not known as “better known in the city” Esser ”( Latin manducator in urbe illustris ) wanted to be called.

politics

Town hall , inaugurated in 1979

The administration of the city of Essen was initially incumbent on the monastery or its subordinate officials. Since 1335, two mayors from the center of the council have been mentioned at the head of the city, one of whom is also the rentmaster . From the 14th century the council became increasingly important. At that time Essen was even able to obtain imperial freedom ; this she had to give up later. The council was elected annually. From 1602 onwards, due to a new health resort regulations, the council was elected indirectly by eleven electorates from the guilds and offices. The 14 council members included two mayors and a rentmaster. In 1804 the Prussian state replaced the council with a magistrate . In 1807 the grand-ducal-Bergisch then Prussian municipal constitution was introduced. After the city regulations were introduced in 1856, there was a mayor and a council. The mayor later received the title of Lord Mayor .

During the time of National Socialism , the mayor was appointed by the NSDAP . After the Second World War , the military government of the British occupation zone appointed a new Lord Mayor and in 1946 it introduced the local constitution based on the British model. Then there was a “city council” elected by the people, whose members are known as “city councilors”. The council initially elected the mayor from among its members as chairman and representative of the city, who was active on a voluntary basis. Furthermore, from 1946 the council also elected a full-time senior city director as head of the city administration. In 1999 the dual leadership in the city administration was given up. Since then there has only been the full-time mayor. He is chairman of the council, head of the city administration and representative of the city. He was elected directly by the people for the first time in 1999.

City leaders

Thomas Kufen of the CDU , who was elected on September 27, 2015, has been the Lord Mayor since October 21, 2015 . His predecessor is Reinhard Pass from the SPD .

City council

Election of the Essen City Council in 2014
in percent
 %
40
30th
20th
10
0
34.0%
31.5%
11.2%
5.3%
4.3%
3.8%
3.3%
1.9%
3.7%
Gains and losses
compared to 2009
 % p
   4th
   2
   0
  -2
  -4
-3.2  % p
-0.4  % p
-0.2  % p
-0.3  % p
+ 0.1  % p
+ 3.8  % p.p.
-3.1  % p
+1.9  % p
+ 0.4  % p
Allocation of seats in the
Essen city council in 2014
          
A total of 90 seats

Currently there is the following distribution of seats in the city council according to parliamentary groups (as of October 16, 2019):

SPD CDU Green The left EBB FDP Non-attached total
30th 28 9 4th 4th 5 10 90
Council group "Animal Welfare Here" 2
non-party 3
AfD 1
NPD 1
Council group Animal Welfare Party / BAL 3

In December 2014, the SPD and CDU formed a coalition for the 2014–2020 electoral period.

Council meetings

The city of Essen has been broadcasting the public part of its council meetings via live stream on the Internet since January 2013.

household

The total amount of debt of the city of Essen at the end of 2012 was 4.41 billion euros. This corresponds to an amount of 7802 euros per inhabitant. This puts Essen 13th in the debt ranking of the 103 independent cities in Germany.

Since January 13, 2014, the city ​​of Essen's debt clock has been showing a debt reduction for the first time in around 30 years. On this basis, the city repaid the equivalent of 0.71 euros per second in outstanding loans. The city's plans also provided that the city of Essen would flow a total of 22.4 million euros into debt relief for the city in 2014. Investment loans were to be repaid over a portion of 18.8 million euros. Liquidity loans should be repaid with a further 3.6 million euros. Furthermore, according to the planning of the city treasurer of Essen, the debt should be reduced by 500 million euros by 2020. However, according to budget planning, there is currently a negative budget deviation of more than 52 million euros for 2015 alone, so that the achievement of the announced goals is questionable. In addition, the city's liabilities in euros increased significantly in January 2015 as a result of the decoupling of the euro from the Swiss franc, as the city did not take on part of its liabilities in euros but in Swiss francs. After a deficit of 3.4 million euros was originally expected for 2016, the budget situation continued to deteriorate in 2016 and the volume of cash loans taken out by the city of Essen for short-term financing exceeded the total of the cash loans of all municipalities in Baden-Württemberg , Bavaria and the five new federal states together.

As of April 6, 2019, the city of Essen had a total debt of around 3.26 billion euros, which corresponds to a per capita debt of 5,520 euros.

City coat of arms and flag

The coat of arms of the city of Essen is a heraldic peculiarity, as it consists of two shields and a crown . It is called an alliance or combined coat of arms , as its shields are usually grouped together in a pushed (split) shield; but not with the coat of arms of the city of Essen. It shows two individual shields under the prince's crown . Such a double shield coat of arms usually only shows the coat of arms of the city of Brandenburg an der Havel in Germany .

Blazon : Alliance coat of arms with two shields in Courtoisie (heraldic right (front) shield mirror-inverted, inclined heraldically to the left)

"Front shield: in gold a red-armored, black-shaded blue double-headed eagle with a red three-leaf crown over both heads, rear shield: in blue a left-slanting golden sword . Above both shields a black, shaded, golden three-leaf crown in perspective with a red inside, the browband between two rows of silver pearls set with three green and two red stones ('Essen prince crown'). "

Meaning of the coat of arms: The black double-headed eagle on a golden background in the front shield is the German double-headed eagle , but without a scepter and orb ; it symbolizes the imperial immediacy of the city. The golden sword of execution shown in the back shield stands for the city saints Cosmas and Damian , who are said to have been executed with this ceremonial sword . The prince's crown, in the place of which a wall crown would actually have to be used in a city coat of arms , is, like the entire structure, quite unheraldic and refers to the prince abbey of Essen .

The coat of arms in its current form was designed by the Berlin painter Emil Doepler in 1887 and enforced by the city against some resistance from heraldists. A version with a more heraldically correct structure welcomes visitors leaving the train station in the direction of the city on the roof of the Handelshof Hotel opposite . The coat of arms only uses a split shield and the wall instead of the princely crown.

Blazon of the pushed together (split) coat of arms:

“Split by gold and blue, in front half a red-armored and red-crowned black (double) eagle at the crack, behind a left-leaning golden sword. A four-pinned gold wall crown above the shield. "

The current city colors yellow and blue were taken from the coat of arms.

Town twinning

Essen maintains a city ​​partnership with the following cities :

Economy and Infrastructure

Loan for 10,000 marks from the city of Essen dated August 4, 1922 with industrial views
Villa Hügel with hill park , museum and the former residence of the Krupp family

In the past, the economic development of Essen was accompanied by changes in the internal structure. The interaction of numerous economic and non-economic factors shifted the dimensions of the individual areas - the primary (landscape and mining), the secondary (industry and manufacturing) and the tertiary sector (services). The relations between these branches of the economy changed as well as to the economic area of ​​Essen. Accompanied by measures to promote the economy and improve the structure of the city, the state and the federal government, reallocations are still taking place in the domestic economic structure.

The Essen area is of supraregional importance thanks to the mining industry. Coal and steel once dominated the image, but it was not restored after the Second World War. The dismantling and the development of new industries ultimately led to the fact that no more steel is produced in Essen and no more coal is mined. With the developing cross-regional and international interdependencies, the Essen region began to change its economic character more and more. While the primary industry shrank, the processing industry grew.

The “Krupp and Coal City” no longer exists today. Essen is predominantly an administrative city with a high, but no longer classic, industrial potential. The decline in traditional industries offered the region's economy a unique opportunity that was also used. The high flexibility and efficiency of the companies enabled a successful structural change. Today the industrial structure and production programs are broadly diversified. The Essen companies are represented in many markets around the world.

The most noticeable growth process took place in the services sector. Significant impulses came first from trade, then from the state and the other service providers. While trade was initially focused on the needs of the Ruhr area, today it is of national and international importance. The development in the tertiary sector has alleviated many of the frictions caused by the structural change in production, even if it has not been able to fully absorb the high job losses in the mining sector.

Today the city of Essen is one of the decision-making centers in the German economy. Eight of the 100 top-selling companies in the country are based here with their corporate headquarters. Essen is a media, trade and service center as well as a high-tech metropolis in the fields of energy and medicine.

Essen is one of the three cities in Germany with the strongest economic growth. According to official statistics, the performance of the economy increased significantly between 2004 and 2014. Between 2004 and 2014, the gross domestic product rose by 31.9 percent to 25.5 billion euros, that is 78,370 euros per employed person. Furthermore, gross value added is also showing strong growth. In 2016, Essen achieved a gross domestic product (GDP) of € 24.196 billion within the city limits, making it 11th in the ranking of German cities by economic output . In the same year, GDP per capita was € 41,512 (North Rhine-Westphalia: € 37,416, Germany € 38,180). In 2016, around 330,000 people were employed in the city. However, the unemployment rate in December 2018 was 10.1% and thus well above the average for North Rhine-Westphalia of 6.4%.

Established businesses

Deutsche Bank Essen, former service building of the Essen Railway Directorate

With the energy suppliers RWE AG and E.ON SE, two DAX-30 groups have their headquarters in Essen. The groups Brenntag AG, Evonik Industries AG, thyssenkrupp AG and Hochtief AG are listed in the MDAX . In 2019, these seven DAX companies reached a market value of around 91.7 billion euros. The city of Essen ranks fourth behind Munich, Walldorf and Bonn in the “Stock Exchange League” of German cities 2019.

Other large companies based in Essen include Steag , Aldi- Nord, BackWerk , Pitstop , Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof , Deichmann , Open Grid Europe , Medion , ifm electronic , Trimet Aluminum , Schenker AG , Ferrostaal , a subsidiary of Siemens AG, Siemens Industry Software GmbH & Co. KG, Funke Mediengruppe (WAZ media group until 2012) and NOWEDA .

The local credit institutions include the National Bank , the Sparkasse Essen , the Bank in the Diocese of Essen , the Geno Bank Essen , and the Von Essen Bank . The Essen branch of the Deutsche Bundesbank is located in the Moltkeviertel . The subsidiary PCC Services GmbH of Deutsche Bank with around 1000 employees is based in the southern quarter on Bismarckplatz .

The Gagfah that Allbau , Vivawest , Immeo residential , RAG Montan Immobilien, ThyssenKrupp Real Estate, Kölbl Kruse , Instone Real Estate and Hochtief Property Management are based property company.

The city administration employs around 5,200 people, the companies close to the city another around 2,000. (Status: 2007)

The Messe Essen is also an important factor of economic life, in addition to several smaller special fairs ( IPM , game ) have here primarily to the utility industry focused events such as the E-world energy & water , and the Plumbing, Heating and Air established. Likewise, "the world equestrian fair", Equitana , Security and Deubaukom have been attracting numerous visitors for years. Also worth mentioning are the Techno-Classica, the world's largest classic car fair with around 150,000 visitors, and the Essen Motor Show .

retail trade

After Limbecker Straße was closed to cars in 1927 and in fact became Germany's first pedestrian zone, Kettwiger Straße developed into the main shopping street after the Second World War. On June 16, 1965, the first piece became car-free and was then expanded several times. Essen became the shopping city of the Ruhr area. The shops for mass consumption are therefore in Limbecker Strasse and Kettwiger Strasse . The Limbecker Platz shopping center with around 200 shops has been located on the north-western edge of the city center since 2009, and the Rathaus Galerie Essen (known as City Center Essen from 1979 to 2010) with around 80 shops on the eastern edge of the city center .

The retail and specialist trade is also decentralized. Almost each of the districts has its own square with department stores and retailers. The shops also line the thoroughfares.

Essen shopping city Hotel Handelshof 2014.jpg
Hotel Handelshof with retail and hotel operations, access to the main shopping street on the left
Limbecker Platz aerial view looking east 2014.jpg
Limbecker Platz shopping center
Rathaus-Galerie-Essen-I.jpg
City hall gallery Essen


media

Radio tower in Essen-Holsterhausen

In Essen, Westdeutsche Rundfunk (WDR) has a studio on III. Hagen 43. With the regional news in WDR 2 and the television programs Lokalzeit Ruhr and Lokalzeit Kompakt , the WDR studio Essen serves the city ​​and region. From 1974 to 1980 the ARD broadcast the Tatort episodes of the WDR with the Essen inspector Haferkamp . RTL is also represented at the location with RTL-West-Studio Essen. The Essen editorial team covers the entire Ruhr area for the various television formats such as RTL aktuell , Punkt 12 or Guten Abend RTL . The TV learning channel nrwision bundles TV programs about Essen or from TV producers from Essen in its media library. There is a newsroom of the German Press Agency (dpa) in downtown Essen .

The local radio station 102.2 Radio Essen is broadcast in Essen and its studio is located in the city center on Lindenallee. In the evening, programs from the Essen radio workshops are broadcast on Radio Essen's frequency, such as Radio ECO, which provides information on the most important economic events of the week, the Neue Essener Welle reports on local issues and Radio-Rosa-Rauschen is the magazine for gays and lesbians. The university radio CampusFM also broadcasts a 24-hour program, which is primarily aimed at students at the University of Duisburg-Essen. It consists of magazine and special programs, editorial contributions, music and program takeovers from Deutschlandfunk.

Essen is an important location for the press and publishing industry. In particular, the Funke Media Group (formerly WAZ Media Group), which was founded in Essen and is based here, shapes the local press landscape. It is one of the leading publishing companies in Germany and has also developed into a major media company across Europe. The group publishes 27 daily newspapers, 13 weekly newspapers, 175 general-interest and specialist magazines, 99 advertising papers and 400 customer magazines in Germany and abroad, making it the third largest publishing house in Germany and one of the largest regional newspaper publishers in Europe. In addition, the company has mainstays in the printing, broadcasting and internet business. The WAZ media group does not publish any business figures, but is considered one of the most profitable media companies in Germany in the industry.

The Ruhr School of Journalism (JSR) is based in Essen . It is an inter-company training and further education institution of the WAZ media group and the Thuringia newspaper group (ZGT). The Ruhr School of Journalism was founded in 1993 in Essen. It trains around 90 volunteers for regional daily newspapers and the West German magazine publisher.

The daily newspapers in Essen are the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) and the Neue Ruhr Zeitung (NRZ) . Both are being published by the Funke media group.

The Ruhr word of the diocese of Essen was discontinued at the end of 2013. The Werdener Nachrichten and Borbecker Nachrichten , which publish local news, appear weekly for a fee . The Borbecker Nachrichten was once the largest local weekly newspaper in Germany; the Borbecker news and BECOMING messages belong since 2000 to spark media group, the aforementioned daily newspapers in the WAZ and NRZ be laid. On the other hand, they are delivered free of charge. a. the city ​​mirror advertising papers twice a week .

The tabloid Bild has a local editorial office in Essen (Dietrich-Oppenberg-Platz 1). Axel Springer AG has a print shop in Teelbruch 100, a Kettwig industrial park. Around 400 employees work there and produce around a million daily and weekly newspapers.

Furthermore, with A. Sutter GmbH - Sutter Telefonbuchverlag GmbH is one of the largest publishers of telephone and branch telephone books in Germany - and Verlag Beleke, two other large publishers have their headquarters in Essen. A total of around 200 publishing companies are based in Essen. The large number of medium-sized and smaller companies in Essen's publishing landscape produce numerous national as well as many regional print products.

Educational institutions

Logo of the Essen European Schools
Main building of the Folkwang University in Essen-Werden: the former Werden monastery
Folkwang University , Department of Design
Campus Essen of the Uni DuE
International School Ruhr
Essen City Library

In 1927, the Folkwang School for Music was founded as an interdisciplinary educational institution for art. In 1929 the technical school for design was continued under the name Folkwang. In 1963 the institution received the status of a university in the country. In 1972 the educational subjects were integrated into the newly founded University of Essen and relocated back to the Folkwang Music Academy in 2007. With the addition of branches in Bochum, Dortmund and Duisburg, the now re-integrated art college has given itself the name Folkwang University .

In 1972 the University of Essen was founded, into which the Pedagogical University , several engineering schools, the Higher Technical School for Social Work and Economics and the Essen Clinic were integrated. In 2003 it merged with the University of Duisburg to form today's University of Duisburg-Essen , one of the ten largest universities in Germany.

The private FOM (University of Economics & Management) began its studies in 1994. It was launched as a university of applied sciences for professionals by business institutions. In 2010 the FOM had become the largest private university in Germany with over 16,000 students.

In 2013, the private University of Fine Arts in Essen was founded.

The KSG | GfS simulator center, the world's largest facility for training nuclear staff, has been located in the Kupferdreh district of Essen since 1986. In addition to training the license staff for the German nuclear power plants, the simulator center in Essen also provides training and further education for the staff of the Borssele NPP, which is the only commercial power plant in the Netherlands.

There are currently twelve European schools in Essen . Including a secondary school and a primary school, two secondary schools, three comprehensive schools as well as four grammar schools and a vocational college.

The International School Ruhr (IS Ruhr), which is located in Essen's Moltkeviertel , is an educational project of the Initiativkreis Ruhr. It was opened in Essen in 2010. The Initiativkreis Ruhr had previously created the necessary structural basis for this. The IS Ruhr, a recognized supplementary school, is designed as a private all-day school that promotes multilingualism and is aimed at children from the age of three (pre-school) with an individual learning and support program and leads to the international Abitur.

The Catholic School for Nursing Professions in Essen provides vocational training .

In the House of Technology especially the training take place annually over 1500 seminars, courses, conferences and congresses. There is also the Essen Adult Education Center with roots in 1919.

The Rheinisch-Westfälische Berufskolleg Essen (RWB Essen) in the Frohnhausen district is the largest special needs school for the deaf and hard of hearing in Germany. As an upper secondary school, it offers courses up to technical college entrance qualification and general university entrance qualification.

Music, dance and acting are taught at the Folkwang Music School .

The medicoreha Welsink Academy with its state-recognized technical college for physiotherapy offers over 140 apprenticeships and the dual bachelor's degree "Applied Therapy Sciences" in the academy in the MediClin specialist clinic Rhein / Ruhr in Essen-Kettwig.

The secondary schools include:

Health facilities

In addition to the university clinic , the city has twelve other hospitals with a total of almost 6,000 beds. These include the Alfried Krupp Hospital Rüttenscheid and the Alfried Krupp Hospital Steele (formerly Luther Hospital), the Elisabeth Hospital in Huttrop with the Haus Berge geriatric center in Bochold, the Essen-Mitte clinics ( Huyssens Foundation and Knappschafts Hospital ), the Katholische Klinikum Essen (consisting of the operating parts Philippusstift in Borbeck, St. Vincenz Hospital in Stoppenberg and Marienhospital in Altenessen), the Essen-Süd clinics ( St. Josef Hospital and Ev. Hospital in Werden), the Kamillushaus addiction clinic in Heidhausen and the St. Josef Hospital in Kupferdreh, which together with the St. Elisabeth Hospital in neighboring Hattingen forms the Catholic Clinics Ruhr Peninsula . The University Hospital and the Elisabeth Hospital have a children's clinic. Essen also has around 1,000 resident doctors, around 350 dentists and around 65 outpatient care services.

See also: List of hospitals in Essen

Public facilities

Headquarters of the Ruhr Association

Essen fulfills many functions of a central city in the Ruhr area, in which more than five million people live. This importance is documented by numerous institutions and associations that perform functions across the country or set standards for the region.

The Regionalverband Ruhr (RVR) has been based in Essen since it was founded in 1920. This oldest German regional association, to which four urban cities and four districts belong, fulfills community-wide tasks. They range from the maintenance and development of the landscape to organizational services for municipal administrations and the improvement of opportunities for leisure activities.

With the regional social court of North Rhine-Westphalia , the regional court of Essen , the labor court of Essen and the three local courts of Essen , Essen-Borbeck and Essen-Steele , the city is a nationally important place of jurisdiction.

In addition to the Essen Chamber of Commerce and Industry , which is also responsible for the cities of Mülheim an der Ruhr and Oberhausen , the three water management associations based in Essen, the Ruhrverband , the Emschergenossenschaft and the Ruhrtalsperrenverein, fulfill central functions in the economic sector .

Essen has been the seat of the diocese of Essen since 1958 . The diocese extends over large parts of the Ruhr area and smaller parts of the Sauerland. The Latin America Aid Organization of the Catholic Church in Germany, the Episcopal Action Adveniat , is also based in Essen.

The weather for North Rhine-Westphalia is forecast by the German Weather Service in Essen .

The customs investigation office in Essen's southern district is one of 8 customs investigation offices in Germany. It is responsible for the determination of the criminal and administrative offenses assigned to the customs administration for prosecution.

Essen is also the seat of the following institutions or corporations under public law :

The following foreign representations are based in Essen:

A Europe Direct information center has been located in Haus der Technik since January 2019 .

traffic

air traffic

Düsseldorf Airport, 30 km south of the city center, can be reached via the A 52 motorway; The main public means of transport are the S1 S-Bahn line and the RE1, RE2, RE6, RE11 regional express lines, which connect the airport with downtown Essen in 22 to 37 minutes, depending on the train chosen. The Dortmund airport is about 40 km away.

The Essen / Mülheim urban airfield is located on the city limits of Mülheim an der Ruhr . The airfield has a terminal building, but does not handle any scheduled or charter airlines. Private small aircraft form the majority in Essen / Mülheim, since jet aircraft in Essen / Mülheim are only allowed to take off and land with a special permit. There is also a glider club and an airship assembly hall of the WDL airship company . The operator of Essen / Mülheim Airport is FEM GmbH . Air Albatros occasionally offers sightseeing flights over the city with an old Antonov . The airport can be reached by public transport - from Mülheim the tram line 104 can be used to the main cemetery, from there you can change to the bus line 130 to the airport. From Essen main station you can reach the airport with the underground line U18 and bus line 145 with change to bus line 130 at the RheinRuhrZentrum .

Rail transport

Essen Central Station on the Freedom (before the renovation in 2009)

Essen has with the 2010 renovated main station through a ICE - train station and the local train station . There are direct connections to major German and European cities, including Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and Paris. There are also the regional train stations Altenessen , Borbeck, Kray Süd, and Steele as well as 21 S-Bahn stations: Bergeborbeck, Borbeck Süd, Dellwig, Dellwig Ost, Eiberg, Frohnhausen, Gerschede, Holthausen, Horst, Hügel , Kettwig, Kettwig Stausee , Kray Nord , Kupferdreh, Stadtwald, Steele East, South, Überruhr, Werden, West and Zollverein North. In rail freight traffic, Essen is no longer a rail hub after the shunting yard east of the main train station was closed .

Transportation

Essen Hauptbahnhof light rail
station - 2014
Network plan

Local public transport is largely carried out by the Ruhrbahn with currently (September 2017) 84 bus lines , 21 NachtExpress , eleven trams (total length 119 km) and three underground and light rail lines (total length 35 km). Stadtbahn operations began in 1977. All connections can be used at uniform tariffs within the Rhein-Ruhr transport association. The tram culture line 107 goes to Gelsenkirchen Hbf and provides information about the sights at the individual stations. Driving on the southern section to Bredeney requires a change in Essen Hbf.

Road traffic

Ruhr expressway

Essen is located in the catchment area of ​​the federal motorways A 40 (Ruhrschnellweg), A 42 (Emscherschnellweg), A 44 and A 52 as well as the federal highways B 224 , B 227 and B 231 . The A 2 motorway has the Essen / Gladbeck junction, which is about two kilometers north of the city limits of Essen and is connected to the city via the federal road 224. The shortest street in Essen with a length of 15 meters is called Saal and is located in Werden , the longest street is the Ruhrschnellweg with a length of 11.7 kilometers. The street Stotznocken, also in Werden, is the steepest street in the city with a gradient of 30%. On August 22, 1928, the first traffic light in Essen went into operation at the intersection of Altendorfer Strasse and Helenenstrasse . Today there are around 630 traffic lights.

With effect from January 1, 2012, a contiguous environmental zone was set up in the Ruhr area . This environmental zone extends from Duisburg to Dortmund and covers an area of ​​around 850 square kilometers. In the Ruhr area, motorways are exempt from the provisions of the environmental zone.

According to statistics from the registration office, a total of 348,313 vehicles were registered in Essen in February 2019. The vehicles registered included 2,438 electric and hybrid vehicles (562 of which were purely electric). There are also 18,492 motorcycles.

The long distance bus services to German and European destinations will be handled via the central bus station food at the main station.

Bicycle traffic

The city of Essen received the (anti) award Rusty Spoke in the ADFC bicycle climate test in 1991 as the most bicycle-unfriendly city . Essen has been a member of the working group for bicycle-friendly cities, districts and municipalities in NRW e. V. Today Essen advertises with around 200 km of cycle paths, cycle roads and former lines of the colliery railways within the city. Special cycle signs on the main route network ensure the right orientation. The Essen bicycle city map indicates routes and cycle paths as well as the city's sights. There are well over 3,000 bike racks at important destinations throughout the city.

Metropolrad Ruhr launched Germany's largest bicycle rental system in Essen in June 2010. By 2012, 3,000 rental bikes have been made available in a further nine cities in the Ruhr area. Ten cities from the Ruhr area are linked in this project, including Dortmund, Bochum, Essen and Oberhausen. The possibility of using the rental bikes across cities is new. In the current bicycle climate test of 2012, Essen also slipped in the ranking from 23/28 to 22/38 of the participating cities in North Rhine-Westphalia due to this offer. The average school grade of 3.97 and the low share of cycling of five percent (2011) in the modal split (for comparison: three percent in 2001) clearly shows that there is still considerable need for improvement in cycling.

The Ruhr cycle route also leads through Essen.

Shipping

The Ruhr is navigable up to Essen-Rellinghausen for vessels with a maximum draft of 1.70 m, a maximum length of 38 m and a width of up to 5.20 m. Passenger ships operate on the Ruhr and the Ruhr reservoirs for local recreation.

The city ​​port of Essen was the youngest port on the Rhine-Herne Canal and was commissioned by the city of Essen in 1934 and has been operated by the Essen municipal utilities since 1987 . The port consists of a stab port basin and a parallel port along the canal, which together have a water surface of 63,000 m². The most important goods handled are solid and mineral fuels, mineral oil and chemical products, stone and earth as well as iron and steel.

Water supply

Drinking water production in Essen can be traced back to the 16th century. Until well into the 19th century, drinking water was obtained from springs and wells to supply the city's citizens. But the enormous population growth in the times of industrialization made a new form of drinking water production necessary. The City of Essen's magistrate therefore decided in 1863 to build a pumping station in the Ruhr Valley in order to extract the water from the bank filtrate of the Ruhr . This process has basically proven itself to this day, but the demands on availability and the quality of the drinking water have increased over the years. In 1984 a modern and technically sophisticated water treatment plant was put into operation. This and another system in Essen-Horst are operated by Wassergewinnung Essen GmbH.

The Stadtwerke Essen AG operates eight water tank systems to meet the water security as well as the peak consumption levels. These are water towers as well as elevated and underground tanks. Together they have a capacity of around 52,000 m³. The annual water release averages 35 million m³.

Waste management

Buildings

Aalto Theater, Opera House
Steep storage on the freedom, in the background the Postbank high-rise
Front view of the Folkwang Museum with the new building planned by David Chipperfield .
Gasthaus zur Margarethenhöhe

The city has numerous administrative buildings from the entire last century, starting with the Emschergenossenschaft building ( Wilhelm Kreis ) to the RWE tower (based on designs by Düsseldorf architect Christoph Ingenhoven ; Overdiek und Partner). Many buildings from the first third of the 20th century determine the image of the city center (station forecourt with Haus der Technik (formerly Stock Exchange), Hotel Handelshof , Eickhaus , old savings bank and main post office as well as in the city center area Deutschlandhaus , Steinhaus, Derendorfhaus, Lichtburg , Baedekerhaus, Blumhaus ). These buildings were designed by well-known architects, mostly from southern Germany (in the vicinity of the Essen School of Applied Arts and the Essen spatial art group).

Striking in the city center is the Burgplatz with Johanneskirche , atrium, minster , cathedral treasury , bishop's palace, adult education center and the view of the old synagogue and the old Catholic church of peace .

Many old residential and commercial buildings were renewed after the war with architecture from the 1950s and 1960s on the ground plan of the medieval city in a higher construction.

Essen acted particularly in the south of the city in terms of urban development. Numerous planned districts have emerged ( Moltkeviertel , Margarethenhöhe, Altenhof I and II , large parts of Frohnhausen, etc.). Furthermore, the city was equipped with a second inner city ring with partly representative architecture (for example Erlöserkirche , Glückaufhaus , Steag headquarters, parish church St. Engelbert , building of the Emschergenossenschaft, headquarters of the KVR, Ruhrhaus and the Resurrection Church at the Friedrich-, Hohenzollern-, Crownprinzen -, Kurfürstenstrasse).

What is also noticeable is the building height of only three floors in many places and the layout of wide green inner courtyards. This goes back to the work of Robert Schmidt (1869–1934), alderman of the city of Essen. In this way, a structural counterpart to the Berlin tenement architecture in the Ruhr area was implemented.

With the Moltkeviertel , Robert Schmidt created a residential area close to the city center from around 1908 based on the reform idea of ​​the garden city . Large green, sports and play areas combine with high-quality buildings - consistently in the style of reform architecture - to create a globally unique example of modern urban planning influenced by the reform movement.

The city is characterized by a lot of trees and forests as well as by a hilly landscape in the south (Ruhr Mountains / Baldeneysee).

Outstanding buildings are the opera house , built according to plans by the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto , as well as the new headquarters of the RWE Group, a cylindrical high-rise building with a climatically effective double-shell glass facade by the architects Ingenhoven, Overdiek and Partner (Düsseldorf), which is a landmark for the city set.

In the northeast of the city is the area of ​​the former coking plant and coal mine Zollverein , which is part of the world cultural heritage , the latter is considered a milestone in industrial architecture . The Zollverein area is an anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Culture (ERIH). With the closure of the Zollverein coking plant in 1993, Essen's mining history came to an end.

For the Zollverein site, there are specific plans to expand the world cultural heritage into a regional cultural center, which are controversial because of the necessary interventions in the historical building fabric. The Red Dot Design Museum , the Museum Zollverein, which is currently under construction, and various smaller exhibitions and projects are already located there . The new Ruhr Museum was opened at the beginning of 2010 . The Zollverein cube , built in 2006, has also been used by the Folkwang University's design department since the beginning of 2010 .

In the center of the city you can still find the Johanniskirche , the cathedral (which in parts goes back to the 10th century and is a landmark of the city), the massive Baedeker House, which was completed in 1928, and the Lichtburg, built in 1928 and renovated in 2003 , grouped around Burgplatz . The striking glass entrance of the new VHS building can also be seen there. In the minster is the Golden Madonna , the oldest extant fully plastic Madonna figure in the Christian West. Opposite the main train station is the so-called House of Technology , built in the early 1920s as an office and commercial building based on designs by the architect Edmund Körner .

Also worth seeing is the Old Synagogue , which was still called the New Synagogue when it opened in 1913 : burned out during the Reichspogromnacht , it was no longer used by the Jewish community (which built a new, smaller synagogue after the Second World War ). After changing uses, including as a design museum, it now serves as a meeting place between religions and cultures. In 1980 the synagogue became a memorial.

To the south of the city is the Folkwang Museum , which presents an important collection of romantic and modern art, as well as the Grugapark , named after the Great Ruhr Land Horticultural Exhibition (GRUGA) , which took place here in 1929. The park has an area of ​​70 hectares and is a popular local recreation area for the people of Essen. This includes the Grugahalle , where concerts and major events such as the EU summit in 1994 take place, and Messe Essen .

Even further south, above the Baldeneysee, which was artificially created from 1931 to 1933 as part of a job creation measure, is Villa Hügel , the monumental residence of the Krupp family, built by the industrialist Alfred Krupp , in which a permanent exhibition of the Krupp Foundation and various temporary exhibitions can be found.

In the immediate vicinity of the Grugapark is the Margarethenhöhe district , named after the Margarethenhöhe settlement built in 1929 by Georg Metzendorf on behalf of Margarethe Krupp (who gave it its name), an architecturally significant example of the garden city movement .

The two southern districts of Kettwig and Werden, located on the Ruhr, show a strong contrast to the rest of the cityscape. They both have an old town center that was almost completely spared from the Second World War and subsequent demolition renovations. In the Kettwig district there is also the barrage of the Ruhr reservoir of the same name, where the ships from Mülheim and Essen dock. Also worth seeing is the Krayer Town Hall , where the first council meeting took place after the Second World War, as the old Essen Town Hall was badly damaged during the war. Another striking structure in Essen is the 157.5 meter high telecommunications tower, which is not open to the public.

Natural spaces

According to the Federal Statistical Office , Essen is the greenest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the third greenest city in Germany due to the large proportion of recreational areas. Essen was awarded the title European Green Capital for 2017 on June 18, 2015 .

In Essen there are twelve designated nature reserves , 58 landscape reserves and numerous natural monuments .

Green areas and parks

Artificial waterfall in the Grugapark

Already at the time of industrialization, the Krupp company, among others, had its numerous factory settlements in the city area equipped with parks, most of which are still there today, for workers to relax. With greening programs, the city of Essen has also endeavored in recent decades to improve the quality of living and living and thus to change the formerly industrial cityscape. Essen became the greenest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the third greenest city in Germany. Essen has more than 700 green spaces, around 400 playgrounds and several partly larger parks in the districts.

The Grugapark is the largest park in Essen with 70 hectares. As the former venue for the 1938 Reichsgartenschau and the 1965 Federal Horticultural Show , it is today both a playground and sports facility and an oasis of calm in the city. Various events take place in the park in summer, including concerts, park and children's parties. Around 40 sculptures can also be seen here.

The Hügelpark is the park in the Bredeney district, now open to the public, belonging to Villa Hügel, which the industrialist Alfred Krupp planned and had built from 1869. Essen's oldest publicly accessible green area, the Essen City Garden, is located in the southern quarter . With 6.87 hectares today, it is the largest green space in the city center. In 2009, part of the Krupp Park in the Westviertel was opened, which was created as part of the urban development project Krupp-Gürtel .

The Borbeck Castle Park is one of the oldest parks in the Rhineland . It is designed as an English landscape garden and dates from the time when Maria Kunigunde von Sachsen was the abbess of the Essen monastery. The source of the Borbecke can still be reached today via winding paths, which feeds Grafts and Schlossteich via a narrow stream. In the eastern area of ​​the park is the Dubois-Arena , a former boxing arena that is now used as a venue.

Further examples of larger parks in the city are the Kaiser Wilhelm Park in Altenessen, the Ludwig Kessing Park in Überruhr-Hinsel, the Stadtgarten Steele , the Volksgarten Kray in the east of the city, the Gervinuspark in Frohnhausen and the Brehminsel in the river Ruhr in Werden.

tourism

The sights and shopping opportunities in the city, the central location in the Rhine-Ruhr region, but also its trade fairs and congresses attract numerous tourists and business travelers. 39 hotels with a total of 4,832 beds is one of the country's operational information and technology Nordrhein-Westfalen (IT.NRW) in 2017. There are also two guesthouses with 44 beds, 36 Inns with 2,974 beds, five recreation, vacation or training centers with 688 beds , seven youth hostels or huts with 431 beds, two prevention and rehabilitation clinics with 520 beds and five campsites. With five stars, the Hugenpoet Castle in Kettwig is the most luxurious hotel in town. With an occupancy rate of around 42.6%, the Essen location is an attractive market for hotel operators, so that further hotels are currently being built and planned throughout the city. This increases the number of hotels to 96. Thus, the city of Essen is by far the largest hotel location in the Ruhr area.

year 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Overnight stays 1,357,737 1,302,511 1,376,165 1,386,466 1,409,205 1,408,879 1,387,825 1.480.104 1,602,022 1,665,817

Culture

Borbeck Castle as a cultural and meeting place and event location with a historical permanent exhibition
The hall is the seat of the Essen Philharmonic
Bandstand in the Grugapark

Philharmonic, opera and theater

In the Theater und Philharmonie Essen (TuP) - organized under a single roof - Essen has a philharmonic orchestra with the hall (as a performance location) , an opera house ( Aalto Theater ) and a city theater ( Grillo Theater ) with a few connected smaller stages . The TUP venues are among the architectural icons of the region. Over 400,000 guests visit the more than 1,000 TuP events per season.

The theater in the town hall is located on the ground floor of the town hall . The repertoire ranges from genres from tabloid comedy to crime novels, operettas and musicals to classical drama.

The Stratmanns Theater is located in the Europahaus on Kennedyplatz . Since July 1995 Ludger Stratmann has been performing on his own stage with various cabaret programs under the motto Doctor Stratmanns - Heiteres Medizinisches Kabarett.

There is also the oldest private theater in North Rhine-Westphalia ( Das Kleine Theater Essen ), a boulevard theater and the GOP Varieté Essen in Essen . The Colosseum Theater has served as an event hall since 2010, mainly for dance and music shows.

Museums

The Zeche Zollverein, Essen's landmark, is home to several museums and places worth seeing. The Ruhr Museum stands for culture in the Ruhr area like no other . Spatially it takes up most of the colliery and shows the past, present and future of the mining region.

The Zeche Zollverein is also home to the Red Dot Design Museum , which shows the largest design exhibition in the world. Less art in the narrower sense is exhibited in the boiler house of the Zeche Zollverein - functional design is the focus here. Mainly objects of daily use can be seen, from cutlery and kitchen fittings to furniture and office equipment to various cars.

The Folkwang Museum is located in the Rüttenscheid district . The art museum houses a large collection of important paintings, sculptures and graphics by world-famous artists as well as an important collection of photos. The German Poster Museum is also located in the new building on Museumsplatz .

In addition to the large, well-known museums, Essen also has a number of other museums to offer. Also in Rüttenscheid there is the Soul of Africa Museum , the only voodoo museum in Europe. The Essen Cathedral Treasury is one of the most important collections of church works of art in Germany. In the Grugapark , over 40 sculptures and works of art are currently on display. They range from classic modern art to contemporary art and can be viewed on guided tours, among other things. An ensemble of contemporary sculptures can be found on Moltkeplatz in the Moltkeviertel .

History clubs

The Historical Association for the City and Abbey of Essen e. V. is one of the oldest historical societies in Germany.

A large number of Essen citizens work full-time or voluntarily with the history of the city of Essen and the Essen districts. Most of them have come together to form the Essen History Initiatives Working Group .

movie theater

The cinema landscape in Essen exists in several places: on Kettwiger Straße is the Lichtburg , built in 1928 and restored in 2003 ; In addition, there is the multiplex cinema Cinemaxx , which opened on Berliner Platz in 1991, as well as several arthouse cinemas . The Lichtburg has the largest cinema in Germany with 1250 seats. Film premieres and galas take place here at regular intervals. The Cinemaxx cinema center is the largest multiplex cinema in Germany with 16 cinemas and a total of 5354 seats. Due to the triumph of the television set, around three quarters of all cinemas closed in Essen alone in the 1960s and 1970s. After the Cinemaxx opened , the number of visitors to the other cinemas in Essen fell again and most of them were closed. In downtown Essen alone, more than ten cinemas fell victim to the Cinemaxx . The majority of the closed cinemas were converted into shops, some also into discos and clubs. Some former cinemas are still empty today. Only the Lichtburg and four Essen arthouse cinemas were able to hold their own against the multiplex cinema. The Astra film theater in Teichstrasse is the largest art theater in the Ruhr area. It can accommodate 430 spectators. The small cinema Luna in the same building complex offers 80 seats. The Eulenspiegel cinema on Steeler Strasse, which opened in 1955, has been one of Essen's art theaters since 1980. A special feature is a Wurlitzer silent film organ in the cinema hall and the associated cinema museum. The Glückauf film studio is located in Rüttenscheid . The cinema in Glückaufhaus is one of the oldest film theaters in the Ruhr area. Also in Rüttenscheid is the Cinema Gallery , the smallest cinema in Essen with 45 seats. Here is already since 1975 a week Harold and Maude on the program. In the north of the city is located on Sulterkamp 70 , the drive-in drive-in food with a capacity of 1000 cars.

Cultural centers

Imperfect house

The Unperfekthaus (also called UpH for short) is a cultural institution in downtown Essen. The "artist village" offers on 4000 square meters, spread over seven floors, creatives and workers the opportunity to realize themselves. Any censorship or guidelines are waived. The only requirement is that the activities are legal, creative and open to the public. Other cultural centers are the Zeche Carl in Altenessen, the cultural center Grend in Steele and the Kunsthaus Essen in Rellinghausen.

Regular events

  • January
    • IPM - International Trade Fair for Plants, Technology, Floristry and Sales Promotion
    • Eating on ice
    • Polar Soccer Cup
  • February
  • March
    • Equitana - International Equestrian Fair
  • April
    • Techno-Classica - world fair for oldtimers, classic & prestige automobiles, motorsports and motorcycles
  • May
  • June
    • Essen company run
    • Dragon boat race on the Baldeneysee
    • ExtraSchicht night of industrial culture
    • Rü-Fest
    • Culture Path Festival Essen
    • ART day. Become
    • Gourmet mile on Kettwiger Strasse

On April 11, 2006, a seven-person EU jury voted the city the European Capital of Culture 2010 on behalf of the entire Ruhr area. At the same time contributed Pécs ( Hungary ) and Istanbul the title. In addition to Essen, the Ruhr Regional Association , the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Initiativkreis Ruhrgebiet were involved in RUHR.2010 .

The Love Parade , which previously took place in Berlin , was in Essen at the end of August 2007. From August 23, many clubs in the region were open for special events, until the event ended on August 25 with the actual parade. The train was led through the northern city center, the final rally took place on the former fairground on Berliner Platz.

The Essen Light Weeks , which take place annually, stand under a motto every decade . From the end of October to the beginning of January of the following year, light installations will be installed over the city center streets of Essen.

The city ​​of Essen's culture trail leads visitors to places of art and culture between the Marktkirche and the Folkwang Museum.

In many districts of Essen there are local, citizen and tourist associations. Eighteen such associations have come together to form the "City Association of Citizens and Transport Associations Essen". Another city association is the Essen city association of allotment gardeners , which currently includes 104 Essen allotment garden associations with a total of 250 allotment gardens (as of 2009).

Culinary specialties

Religions

Denomination statistics

On June 30, 2020, 32.5% (33.6% on December 31, 2018) of the residents belonged to the Roman Catholic Church, 22.2% (23.0% in 2018) are Protestant and 45.3% belong other or no religious community. Since 2014, the group of people in Essen who belong to another or no religious community has been larger than that of Protestant or Roman Catholic Christians. In 2015, 208,713 residents of Essen belonged to the Catholic Church. 144,451 residents were Protestant,

Christianity

Confessional situation up to secularization

Essen Minster (also Essen Cathedral)

The Essen Abbey was directly under the 951 since Pope . The first parish church was probably the collegiate church. Later St. Gertrud became the parish church for the northern area (with Altenessen and Karnap) and St. Johann for the southern area (with Altendorf, Frohnhausen, Holsterhausen, Frillendorf, Rüttenscheid and Huttrop).

From 1524 on, evangelical preaching was occasional in the city. In 1543 a Protestant preacher appeared and from 1560 German was also sung in St. Gertrudiskirche. By decision of the city council, the Reformation was finally introduced in 1563 . The city tried to consolidate its status as a Free Imperial City . From 1563 the St. Gertrudiskirche was permanently left to the Protestants for use. After that, the Münsterkirche took on the rank of Essen parish church for the Catholics.

In Werden, evangelical preaching began in 1583 in the Clemenskirche. In the 17th century, a reformed community also emerged. Steele became Protestant from 1554. Around 1600 almost all of Steele was Protestant, but afterwards the church was used jointly by the Lutherans, the Reformed and the Catholics, sometimes with great friction. In Kettwig in 1609 the whole population converted to the Reformed creed.

Henceforth both denominations were represented side by side in Essen. The monastery remained Catholic, the city was Protestant. From 1571 there was initially only one Lutheran congregation among the Protestants, but from 1655 the council also recognized a Reformed congregation. From 1605 the Counter Reformation was able to gain a foothold, which meant that the St. Gertrudiskirche became partially Catholic again. The city had to acknowledge the final abandonment of imperial freedom in 1670, but this had no consequences for the previous confessional differences. Until 1802 church affairs were done by the council or the monastery. The reformed church was autonomous. The relationship between the two denominations was roughly balanced.

Protestant churches

In 1802 the Lutheran congregation of Essen was assigned to the Prussian consistory of the county of Mark , in 1809 to the Klevian-Lutheran consistory of the Grand Duchy of Berg and from 1815 to the Düsseldorf district synod. It thus belonged to the Evangelical Church in Prussia or its later Rhenish provincial church. Essen became the seat of a superintendent , from which the Essen church district later emerged. This was divided into the three church districts of Essen-Mitte, Essen-Nord and Essen-Süd within what is now the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland . To the three church districts are now a total of 30 parishes . Together with the three church districts, these have formed the Evangelical City Church Association of Essen since 1972 . Since July 1, 2008, the Essen church districts have again been merged into one church district. The exception to this is the district of Kettwig, which despite incorporation in 1975 still belongs to the church district Ruhr with its seat in Mülheim an der Ruhr.

As a reaction to the forced union between the Lutheran Church and the Reformed tradition to form the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union, the Old Lutheran Evangelical Lutheran Church in Prussia was created . The Old Lutherans insisted on their religious freedom by demanding unreserved Lutheran worship, constitution and teaching. After a period of severe persecution by the state, it was constituted in 1841 under King Friedrich Wilhelm IV and was recognized. With the introduction of the Union in Essen, the Evangelical Lutheran (Old Lutheran) parish of Essen came into being in 1844; today it belongs to the church district of Westphalia of the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church . With the election of the parish priest there is the provost office of the district West of the independent Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Roman Catholic Church

With the abolition of the monastery, the Catholic parishes fell to the Archdiocese of Cologne in 1802 . In 1958, Essen became the seat of its own diocese . The parishes of the district of Kettwig, which was incorporated in 1975, still belong to the Deanery of Ratingen and thus to the Archdiocese of Cologne. In 1968 the 82nd German Catholic Day took place in Essen.

At present, 58 parishes belong to the city dean of Essen, which is divided into the deans of Essen-Mitte, Essen-Altendorf, Essen-Borbeck, Essen-Heisingen-Kupferdreh, Essen-Rellinghausen, Essen-Steele, Essen-Stoppenberg and Essen-Werden. Together they form the Catholic City Church Association / Community Association (K. d. Ö. R.) (since 1925) as a carrier of church tasks at city level (family education, youth pastoral care / youth professional help, advisory services, public relations) and as a service provider and special-purpose association for the communities. The Catholic City Church is centrally accessible in the Catholic City Hall on Bernestrasse. The city dean of Essen comprises around a quarter of the Catholics and the parishes of the diocese.

In the meantime, however, the structure of the bishopric in Essen has been fundamentally changed due to diocesan decisions. Since 2009 there are only ten so-called large parishes (church bodies) in the city of Essen, each of which comprises several parish districts (communities). In the long term, up to 26 Catholic churches in Essen are to be given up (see Diocese of Essen ). Furthermore, the content of the city church institutions (e.g. family education, pastoral care for young people) and pastoral offers (e.g. counseling services) are to be reduced and diocesan to be merged into new central support structures. The number of Catholic day-care centers will also be adapted to financial and demographic developments; their content control and administration are also centralized diocesan.

Essen owes the important Essen cathedral treasure to the princess abbesses . The focus is on the Golden Madonna . Created around the year 980, it is the first fully plastic image of the Mother of God and is considered to be one of the most important works of art in the West. After Pope John XXIII. Maria had made the patroness of the diocese of Essen in 1959, the figure was publicly exhibited by then Bishop Franz Hengsbach in Essen Cathedral. Since then it has been the destination of numerous pilgrims .

The priory of the Pius Brotherhood is the third priory founded in Germany by the Roman Catholic traditionalists.

Orthodox communities

Three Orthodox congregations celebrate their services in Catholic churches in Essen: the Russian Orthodox congregation for the unselfish Saints Kosmas and Damian (St. Augustine, Frohnhausen), the Serbian Orthodox (St. Stephen, Stoppenberg) and the Romanian Orthodox Christians (St. Ewaldi, Altenessen).

Other churches and Christian communities

There are several free churches , including several Evangelical Free Church communities ( Baptists ), an Adventist church , congregations of the United Methodist Church , Free Protestant congregations (FeG) that SELK , 13 municipalities of the New Apostolic Church (NAC), three municipalities of the Apostolic Community and the Old Catholic Church . Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons are also represented.

Judaism

New Essen Synagogue

The Jewish religious community has more than 900 members. The community has the synagogue on Sedanstrasse , a mikveh , a cemetery, a library, a children's group, a youth group and a women's choir. There is no community rabbi. Until it was destroyed in the night of the pogrom , there was a synagogue in Steele that had already opened in 1883. The Old Synagogue , inaugurated in 1913, is located in downtown Essen , the exterior of which was largely intact during the Nazi era. After it was initially unused, the city of Essen acquired it and used it as a museum for industrial design, among other things; Finally, after a two-year renovation phase, it was opened in July 2010 as the House of Jewish Culture .

Buddhism

In 1988, a community of friends of the Western Buddhist Order established itself on Herkulesstrasse in Essen city center . The Zenkreis Essen e. V. stands in the tradition of Rinzai - Zen and was founded by the German Zen teacher Rei Shin Sensei. Since 2007 is found in food, a group of Diamond - Buddhism of Ole Nydahl .

Islam

Fatih mosque

Due to the increased immigration from Muslim countries, especially Turkey, Muslim places of worship have also been set up in recent decades. Initially, these were only " backyard mosques ". In the meantime, larger representative mosques have also been built. In 2002, the district Katernberg the Fatih Mosque opened in Altendorf since 2009, the DITIB central mosque food in construction. In 2016 there were 24 Muslim places of worship in Essen, seven of which belong to the DITIB .

Sikhism

There are two Gurdwara in Essen . The Gurdwara Dasmesh Darbar Essen e. V. is on Herkulesstrasse in the east quarter , and Gurdwara Nanaksar Sat Sang Darbar is on Bersonstrasse in the north quarter . On April 16, 2016 Salafists carried out a bomb attack on the latter. Three men were injured, one of them seriously.

Hinduism

There is a Tamil Hindu temple in the east quarter. This is dedicated to the god Murugan and was inaugurated in 2004. The sponsoring association is the Sri Kathirvelauthaswamy Temple e. V.

Sports

rowing

Rowing plays a very important role in Essen. You can row on the Ruhr and on the Baldeneysee. There are six clubs in Essen that specialize in rowing or have a rowing team. Among these are the big clubs ETuF (Essener Turn- und Fechtclub) and the RaB (Rowing Club at Baldeneysee). In addition, the hill regatta takes place every two years. Rowing is also offered in the Turnverein Kupferdreh (TVK).

Soccer

The most famous football club in Essen is Rot-Weiss Essen , which produced players like Helmut Rahn , Willi Lippens , Horst Hrubesch and Frank Mill , won the DFB Cup in 1953 and became German champions in 1955 . The club last played after bankruptcy in the NRW League , before being promoted back to the fourth-class Regionalliga West in the 2010/2011 season . The home games will be played in the Essen stadium on Hafenstrasse. In the 2005/06 season the average attendance was 12,291. Also of greater importance is Schwarz-Weiß Essen , whose football department won the German Cup in 1959 and has played in the fifth-class Oberliga Niederrhein since the 2012/13 season . Jens Lehmann , the former German national goalkeeper who was born in Essen, played for this club, as did the current manager of the national team, Oliver Bierhoff .

The women's soccer team of SGS Essen , whose home games are also played in the Essen stadium on Hafenstrasse, has played in the Bundesliga since 2004 and reached the semi-finals in 2007 and 2010 and the final of the DFB Cup in 2014 and 2020 .

Handball

The second largest sports club in Essen , TUSEM Essen, is a multiple German champion, cup winner and European cup winner in handball . After winning the European Cup, the club lost its license for the Bundesliga and entered the regional league in 2005. Thanks to an almost flawless season (63:01 points), they were promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga. Since the 2007/2008 season, the Margarethenhöhe club, which plays its home games in Stoppenberg in the “Am Hallo” hall there, has been first class again. However, it has been certain since November 2008 that the club is facing another forced relegation due to bankruptcy, this time probably to the 2nd Bundesliga. As the table seventh in the 2010/11 season in the 2nd division north, the club qualified for the single-track 2nd division from the 2011/12 season. In 2011/12 the TUSEM was vice-champion of the 2nd division and thus managed to return to the 1st division.

basketball

The basketball players of ETB Wohnbau Baskets Essen have been taking part in the ProA , which is the second highest division in Germany, since they were promoted from the ProB in the 2007/08 season . The basketball department of the ETB was founded in 1960. The home games will be played in the new “Am Hallo” hall.

volleyball

The men from VV Humann Essen play in the 2nd Bundesliga . In addition, the national beach volleyball team Katrin Holtwick / Ilka Semmler plays for the Seaside Beach Club Essen . The team became German champions in 2009 and 2012 .

American football

The Assindia Cardinals played in the Regionalliga West, the third highest division, in 2019, were first in the regular season, won both promotion games against Oldenburg and Berlin and were promoted back to the GFL2 . The home games are played by the first team in the “Am Hallo” sports park in Essen-Stoppenberg.

rugby

The rugby union team has existed at the Grashof Rugby Club in Essen since 2007 . Originally an AG of the Grashof School in Bredeney, the team has played in the 2nd Bundesliga since the 2016/17 season. The team's youth teams are multiple German schoolmasters.

Field hockey

In Essen there are various clubs that offer field hockey: HTC Kupferdreh, located on Eisenhammer, the Essener Turn- und Fechtclub (ETuF), which is located directly on Lake Baldeney, as well as the Essen Hockey Club (HCE) and the Essener Turner-Bund Schwarz-Weiß (ETB).

Skater hockey

In 1985, the SHC Rockets Essen is home to one of the oldest inline skate hockey clubs in Europe with the largest number of members . In 2009 the club won the Junior European Cup. In 2011 the Rockets wore the European Cup in the ice rink at Westbahnhof and won the European Cup 2011 as an outsider thanks to the wildcard . The SHC Rockets play in the inline skate hockey Bundesliga . In 2012 the Rockets were German cup winners.

ice Hockey

Essen has had an ice hockey tradition since the 1960s and was sponsored by the ESC Moskitos Essen e. V. represented in the German Bundesliga and professional league. In 1999 Essen was German champion in the 1st Bundesliga and then played in the DEL. From 2008 the club played in the regional league, as it had to file for bankruptcy and thus forcibly relegate. In the 2009/2010 season he was German regional league champion and was promoted to the top league.

figure skating

The figure skater Nicole Schott from the Essen youth figure skating club e. V. became German champion for the second time in 2012 and 2015, making it the first from Essen to win this title.

To run

Germany's oldest continuously running marathon has been taking place around the Baldeneysee since 1963 . In addition, the Essen company run has been held every year since 2011 in June . Groups and teams from different companies, associations and organizations from Essen compete in the company run. The running route is five and a half kilometers long and leads through Essen-Rüttenscheid from the Aalto Theater to the Grugapark . Furthermore, the Essen Onko Run takes place once a year in the Grugapark. The proceeds from the runs will go to oncology and cancer counseling in Essen.

lacrosse

Since 2009, Essen Pirates has been a lacrosse club that plays in the 2nd Bundesliga West.

sailing

25 sailing clubs with more than 3400 members give the sport of sailing on the Baldeneysee supraregional importance with the organization of many ranking regattas. International championships are also held here.

Canoeing

The Essen Canoeing Association is one of the most successful canoe clubs in Germany and has already produced a number of world and Olympic champions in canoe racing, including Thomas Reineck , Olaf Winter and Tomasz Wylenzek .

Table tennis

A well-known table tennis club is SV Moltkeplatz Essen . It was founded in 1953 and was the club four times German runner-up from 1964 to 1970. In 1966 he was one of the founding members of the table tennis Bundesliga and played in this class for four years from 1966 to 1970. After relegation in 1971, you could move up again in 1978, but not hold the class. Wilfried Lieck is one of the most famous players .

golf

In the Essen city area there are three golf clubs , the GC Essen-Heidhausen (27 holes), the Golfriege ETuF Essen (9 holes) and the GC Haus Oefte (18 holes). All three clubs hold tournaments on a regular basis.

snooker

Founded in 2009, SC 147 Essen has been playing in the 1st snooker division since 2011 and became German champions in 2016 . The first SC Essen played from 1999 to 2002 and from 2004 to 2008, the first Snooker League and in 2001 German runners-up.

Wheelchair dance

In the largest sports club in Essen, the Märkische Turngemeinde Horst 1881 e. V. - Essen there is a wheelchair dance group in popular sport. Some couples also contest competitions or belong to the cross-club formation NRWheelers .

Wrestling

The city of Essen was previously home to four wrestling clubs, of which only two are still active today. The clubs ASV Essen-West 03 (former Bundesliga club) and KSV Essen-Kray have disbanded, only TV Essen-Dellwig 1893 (upper division, formerly 2nd Bundesliga) and Germania 1888 Essen-Altenessen (district league) are currently still active .

swim

The SG Essen (starting community of many Essen swimming clubs) is a club represented at national and international level. The SG Essen swims in the 1st Bundesliga swimming .

Swimming pools:

Essen currently (2017) has the following swimming pools in operation: the Grugabad , the Sportbad am Thurmfeld , the Kettwig swimming center , the Hesse swimming pool in Dellwig, the Oststadt swimming center , the Friedrichsbad , the Rüttenscheid swimming center , the Nord-Ost indoor swimming pool, the old bathing establishment in Altenessen, the indoor swimming pool Kupferdreh, the indoor swimming pool Werden, the indoor swimming pool Borbeck, the indoor swimming pool at Südpark in Kray and the outdoor swimming pool in Steele, managed by the swimming club SV Steele 1911 . Until 2000, the Kuhlhoffbad existed in the north of Essen and the Nöggerathbad open-air pool in the west of Essen. Both were closed so that the land could be sold profitably as building land. In addition, the Oase leisure pool in Frohnhausen has been closed since April 1, 2010 and demolished at the beginning of 2014. The Gildehofbad in the city center was a fun pool that was in operation from 1987 to 1992; The city library has been located in the premises since the late 1990s. The main pool was closed on December 30, 2015; in 2008 the German Short Course Championships were still held here.

Olympic base

The Olympiastützpunkt Rhein-Ruhr, based in Essen, is a cross-sport and cross-border advisory and support facility for top and young athletes and supports around 400 team athletes in 17 sports. The conception of the location includes the professional management of all talent-enhancing and training-accompanying measures. The Olympic base is in the immediate vicinity of the Alfried Krupp Hospital, which guarantees highly qualified medical care for the top athletes.

Roller derby

Essen is home to the Roller Derby League. Roller derby is a full-contact roller-skating sport from the United States that is practiced predominantly by women. Men's roller derby is sometimes referred to as merby (men's roller derby) . Ruhrpott Roller Derby is a flat-track roller derby league based in Essen. The league was founded in 2009 and consists of an A-Team, Ruhrpott Roller Girls and a B-Team. Both teams compete against teams from other leagues. The club is a member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association ( WFTDA ). In April 2013 Ruhrpott was accepted as a member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association and in October 2014 it was accepted into the WFTDA member league.

The Ruhrpott Roller Girls play the 1st Bundesliga for the 2020 season and came second in 2019. Overall, the team is currently 61st among the European teams.

Personalities

The city of Essen has conferred honorary citizenship rights since 1879. A complete list of all honorary citizens follows:

Margarethe Krupp
Federal President Gustav Heinemann (1969)

In addition, independent communities at the time also granted honorary citizenship rights to local personalities, including the Steele community in 1890 to Carl Humann , the discoverer of the Pergamon Altar . After the incorporation, this practice was abolished.

Since 1961 the ring of honor of the city of Essen has been awarded as the highest honor, which honorary citizen Berthold Beitz received in 1983. Other bearers of the ring of honor include Gustav Heinemann , Lord Mayor and later Federal President, Franz Cardinal Hengsbach , the first Bishop of Essen and various former Lord Mayors of the city. In addition to the ring of honor, a plaque of honor is awarded as the city's second highest award.

The city's youth welfare office has also been awarding the best food prize in various categories to young people and young adults since 2004 .

Instead of a golden book , Essen has had a steel book commissioned by the then mayor Theodor Reismann-Grone since 1933 . He justified the choice of name with the fact that the rise of Essen was only possible through the steel industry and so the expression Stahlbuch was more appropriate. The guest book was used for the first time at the wedding of Gauleiter Josef Terboven on June 28, 1934, to which Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring also appeared as witnesses. After the end of World War II it was decided to replace the steel book. Since the cover did not bear any National Socialist insignia, it was also used for the new volume. The extracted pages with entries from 1934 to 1945 are now in the Essen city archive.

Others

The main belt asteroid (133243) Essen was named after the city after it was discovered on September 2, 2003 by the Walter Hohmann observatory in the Schuir district of Essen .

literature

  • Ulrich Borsdorf (Hrsg.): Essen - history of a city . Pomp Verlag, Bottrop / Essen 2002, ISBN 3-89355-236-7 .
  • Cordula Brand, Detlef Hopp: Food. From the beginning to the Middle Ages . Ed. Archaea: Gelsenkirchen 1995, ISBN 3-929439-22-0 .
  • Erwin Dickhoff: Essen streets - city history in the mirror of street names . Verlag Richardt Bacht GmbH, Essen 1979, ISBN 3-87034-030-4 .
  • Essener Sportbund (ed.): Sportschau Essen . Klartext Verlag, Essen (since 1992, appears annually in November).
  • Detlef Hopp (Ed.): Close-ups. 100 discoveries of urban archeology in Essen . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8375-0514-6 .
  • Detlef Hopp (Ed.): With the bike in Essen's past. Selected tours on archeology and history . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8375-0708-9 .
  • Detlef Hopp, Bianca Khil, Elke Schneider: Archaeological bibliography of the city of Essen . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2000, ISBN 3-88474-897-1 .
  • Detlef Hopp, Bianca Khil, Elke Schneider (eds.): Burgenland Essen. Castles, palaces and permanent houses in Essen . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2017, ISBN 978-3-8375-1739-2 .
  • Robert Jahn: Essen history. The historical development in the area of ​​the city of Essen . W. Th. Webels publishing house, Essen 1952.
  • Heinz-K. Junk: Acta Collegii Historiae Societatis Urbanae Historicorum Internationalis - Series C . In: Heinz Stoob, Wilfried Ehbrecht, Jürgen Lafrenz, Peter Johanek (Eds.): German City Atlas . Volume IV 6. Dortmund-Altenbeken 1989, ISBN 3-89115-036-9 (on behalf of the Board of Trustees for Comparative Urban History and with the support of the German Research Foundation).
  • Erich Keyser: Rheinisches Städtebuch (=  German city book. Handbook of urban history . Volume 3 ). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1956 (on behalf of the working group of historical commissions and with the support of the German Association of Cities, the German Association of Cities and the German Association of Municipalities).
  • Ute Küppers-Braun: Power in women's hands - 1000 years of rule by noble women in Essen . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2002, ISBN 3-89861-106-X .
  • Helga Mohaupt: A Brief History of Essen - From the Beginnings to the Present . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2002, ISBN 3-89861-118-3 .
  • Helga Mohaupt, Willy van Heekern: Essen, A lost cityscape . Gudensberg-Gleichen: Wartberg-Verl., 1994, ISBN 3-86134-182-4 .
  • Karsten-Thilo Raab: Essen - European Capital of Culture 2010 . Wartberg Verlag, Gudensberg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8313-1914-5 .
  • Klaus Rosing: Eating in old and new travelogues . Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1989, ISBN 3-7700-0789-1 .
  • Sigrid Schneider: Matters of opinion. Pictures of food . Pomp Verlag, Bottrop / Essen 2002, ISBN 3-89355-237-5 .
  • Günter Streich, Karsten-Thilo Raab: Eating yesterday - today . Wartberg Verlag, Gudensberg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8313-1913-8 .
  • Ludger Tewes : Middle Ages in the Ruhr area settlement between Essen and Dortmund . Schoeningh Verlag, Paderborn 1997, ISBN 3-506-79152-4 .
  • Robert Welzel: Forays in Essen. Paths through culture and history (= Essener Streifzüge. Volume 1). Klartext Verlag, Essen 2014, ISBN 978-3-8375-1115-4 .
  • Herbert Westfalen: Essener Bilderbogen 1880-2007 . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2008, ISBN 978-3-89861-997-4 .

Web links

Commons : Food  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
 Wikinews: Food  - on the news
Wiktionary: Essen  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wikivoyage: Food  - Travel Guide

Individual evidence

  1. Population of the municipalities of North Rhine-Westphalia on December 31, 2019 - update of the population based on the census of May 9, 2011. State Office for Information and Technology North Rhine-Westphalia (IT.NRW), accessed on June 17, 2020 .  ( Help on this )
  2. Heimatabend Essen - The secret capital of the Ruhr area. September 10, 2014, accessed June 19, 2020 .
  3. Climate Essen, Ruhr , German Weather Service, on wetterdienst.de
  4. DWD
  5. wetterkontor.de.
  6. Detlef Hopp: Essen before history - The archeology of the city up to the 9th century in: Borsdorf (Hrsg.): Essen - Geschichte einer Stadt , 2002, p. 32.
  7. Detlef Hopp: Essen before history - The archeology of the city up to the 9th century in: Borsdorf (Hrsg.): Essen - Geschichte einer Stadt. 2002, pp. 21-57.
  8. No. 2865 of the Scottish Collection of State Laws by Cleve and Mark
  9. ^ Plan for the formation of the Essen city district . In: Official Journal of the Royal Government of Düsseldorf . Düsseldorf 1873, p. 78 ( online [accessed October 28, 2019]).
  10. ^ Pierre Broué: The German Revolution. 1917-1923. Chicago 2006, p. 60.
  11. Bring on the Coal - The Mirror One Day; Retrieved May 4, 2012.
  12. ^ Historical Association for the City and Abbey of Essen e. V./Stadtarchiv.
  13. ^ History of the house. Retrieved October 21, 2014 .
  14. ^ Raul Hilberg: The Destruction of the European Jews (1961) ; Jörg Wollenberg : The Significance of the November Pogrom within the National Socialist Persecution of the Jews (1999) ( Memento from February 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  15. Exhibition commemorates forced laborers. Retrieved October 21, 2014 .
  16. ^ The LVR in Europe. Retrieved October 21, 2014 .
  17. ^ Richard G. Davis: Bombing the European Axis Powers: A Historical Digest of the Combined Bomber Offensive, 1939-1945 . Air University Press, 2006, ISBN 1-58566-148-1 , pp. 109 (English, online [PDF; 2.0 MB ]).
  18. Historisches-Centrum.de , Ralf Blank : Die first Ruhrschlacht 1943 , accessed on November 29, 2010.
  19. ibiblio.org: Chapter XVI Reducing the Ruhr p. 364
  20. a b c Handbook Building. (PDF) BI1: Development of the outer territorial boundaries of the city of Essen since 1873. (No longer available online.) In: Handbuch Essener Statistik . City of Essen, Statistical Office for Urban Research and Elections, pp. 5-6 , archived from the original on September 13, 2017 ; accessed on July 13, 2017 .
  21. Martin Bünermann: The communities of the first reorganization program in North Rhine-Westphalia . Deutscher Gemeindeverlag, Cologne 1970, p. 112 .
  22. ^ Federal Statistical Office (ed.): Historical municipality directory for the Federal Republic of Germany. Name, border and key number changes in municipalities, counties and administrative districts from May 27, 1970 to December 31, 1982 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 291 .
  23. Essen shows population growth again . City of Essen, Press and Communications Office, January 22, 2014.
  24. City of Essen: ( page no longer available , search in web archives: population file ), accessed on February 28, 2015.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / webapps.essen.de
  25. it.nrw.de ( Memento from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  26. Population statistics at the end of 2019: As expected, only slight population growth - essen.de. Retrieved July 26, 2020 .
  27. ^ Urban redevelopment West - Essen - service city in the Ruhr area - challenges and strategies ( Memento from May 11, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
  28. An overview of the job market - reporting month November 2019 - Essen, Employment Agency at statistik.arbeitsagentur.de
  29. ^ State database North Rhine-Westphalia. July 28, 2019, accessed July 27, 2019 .
  30. Statistics from the Federal Employment Agency / state database NRW
  31. Source: City of Essen: Social Atlas , as of December 31, 2013, accessed on March 3, 2015.
  32. radioessen.de
  33. https://www.haushaltssteuerung.de/weblog-schulden-ranking-der-103-kreisfrei-staedte-in-deutschland.html
  34. The city of Essen's debt clock shows debt reduction . City of Essen, Press and Communication Office, January 13, 2014. Accessed January 15, 2014.
  35. derwesten.de Report of the daily newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) on September 25, 2014.
  36. derwesten.de Report of the daily newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) on January 16, 2015.
  37. Financial disaster on the Ruhr, press release of the Bund der Steuerpayers Nordrhein-Westfalen from April 14, 2016, accessed on May 24, 2018
  38. ^ Debt clock of the city of Essen , accessed on April 6, 2019.
  39. § 1 paragraph 2 of the main statute of the city of Essen. (PDF) Retrieved August 18, 2015 .
  40. ^ Homepage of the city of Essen ( Memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  41. ^ Sister city Sunderland. In: www.essen.de. Retrieved December 27, 2016 .
  42. ^ Twin City Tampere. In: www.essen.de. Retrieved December 27, 2016 .
  43. ↑ twin city Grenoble. In: www.essen.de. Retrieved December 27, 2016 .
  44. ^ Sister city Nizhny Novgorod. In: www.essen.de. Retrieved December 27, 2016 .
  45. ^ Twin city Tel Aviv. In: www.essen.de. Retrieved December 27, 2016 .
  46. Message on Essen.de from March 25, 2015.
  47. ^ Twin town Zabrze. In: www.essen.de. Retrieved December 27, 2016 .
  48. ^ Message on Essen.de from April 22, 2015.
  49. ↑ Twin City Changzhou. In: www.essen.de. Retrieved December 27, 2016 .
  50. [1]
  51. Current results - VGR dL. Retrieved January 7, 2019 .
  52. ^ Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Federal Employment Agency, accessed on January 7, 2019 .
  53. [2]
  54. ^ TV from Essen at nrwision. nrwision , accessed March 20, 2015 .
  55. simulatorzentrum.de
  56. ^ European schools in Essen.
  57. medicoreha Welsink Academy .
  58. [3]
  59. derwesten.de Report of the daily newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) on February 20, 2015.
  60. Michael Mücke: 90 years ago the first traffic lights were on in Essen ; In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of December 31, 2018
  61. [4]
  62. metropolradruhr - Experiencing the metropolis ( Memento from July 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  63. ^ Website of metropolradruhr.
  64. VRR website ( Memento from July 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  65. https://www.brd.nrw.de/verkehr_schiffsverkehr/Schifffahrt_auf_der_Ruhr.html
  66. ^ State database North Rhine-Westphalia. July 28, 2019, accessed July 27, 2019 .
  67. Record of overnight stays in Essen - essen.de. Retrieved February 22, 2020 .
  68. http://www.ag-essener-geschichtsinitiativen.de/
  69. grend.de
  70. ^ Hungarian city of Pécs opens the year of the European Capital of Culture ( Memento from August 31, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  71. People in Essen. Retrieved July 28, 2020 .
  72. People in Essen 2020/01. (PDF; 7.3 MB) p. 4 , accessed on February 8, 2020 .
  73. Evangelischer Kirchenkreux data facts
  74. Press release on Reformation Day: The denominational ties of the Essen population, page 3 , accessed on November 22, 2019
  75. ^ Religious affiliation of the population in selected cities . ( Online [accessed October 5, 2018]).
  76. ^ House of Jewish Culture . DerWesten.de; Retrieved July 15, 2010.
  77. Buddhist Group Essen ( memento from September 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on Diamond Way Buddhism, accessed on March 18, 2010.
  78. Homepage mosque search
  79. 16-year-old Salafist confesses to the act of terrorism in Essen.
  80. Reiner Burger: Terror planning at Whatsapp - FAZ from June 29, 2016
  81. ^ Website of the Hindu community.
  82. GWD Minden and TuSEM Essen again first class - tradition returns to the handball Bundesliga ( Memento from May 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  83. The Men in Blue are promoted to GFL2! - Assindia Cardinals. Accessed June 3, 2020 (German).
  84. 1st Bundesliga Snooker 2015/16. In: portal.billardarea.de. German Billard Union, accessed April 25, 2016 .
  85. ^ Märkische Turngemeinde Horst e. V. ( Memento from July 31, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  86. ^ West German General (WAZ) v. February 2, 2008, regional section.
  87. RuhrPott Roller Derby | Roller Derby Stats & Rankings | Flat track stats. Retrieved March 8, 2020 .
  88. Honorary Citizen of Essen.
  89. The historical “steel book” of the city of Essen , accessed on February 15, 2017.