Duisburg

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Location of Duisburg

Duisburg is a german City in the western part of the Ruhr Area (known as the Ruhrgebiet) in North Rhine-Westphalia. It is a district-free city in the Düsseldorf Region. The harbour of Duisburg is the largest inland port in the world. Duisburg has a University which merged in 2003 with the University of Essen.

The current City borders are the result of multiple reforms in which some surrounding Cities were incorporated. At the beginning of the 20th century Duisburg reached the 100.000 resident limit. Today Duisburg is the 11th biggest City in Germany with currently 506.496 residents (status 31.12.2003). The city is also well-known for coal mining and steel industry. The whole steel producing area with 230 square kilometers is the biggest in the world. All six of the remaining blast furnaces of the Ruhr Area are located in Duisburg. 49% of all hot metal and 34.4% of all crude steel in Germany are produced here (status 2000).

Contents

1 Geography

1.1 Adjected Cities

2 History

2.1 Past Roman time
2.2 Middle Ages
2.3 Industrial Revolution
2.4 World War II
2.5 Post War Time

3 Economy and Infrastructure

3.1 Transport
3.2 Media

4 Culture

5 Sport

6 External links

Geography

Duisburg is located at the outskirts of the Bergisches Land at the confluence of the Rhine and Ruhr rivers. The City spreads along both sides of these rivers.

Adjected Cities

Following Cities are adjected to Duisburg (clockwise starting in the Northeast):

Oberhausen, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Ratingen, Düsseldorf, Krefeld, Moers, Rheinberg and Dinslaken

History

Past Roman time

Lastest archeaological studies show that the market was already used in the 1st Century AD. The "Old Market" was the major central trading place of the City since the 5th Century. The City itself was located at the "Hellweg", an importand tradeway, and a ford over the river Rhine. The Romans had a permanent presence at the ford.

420 Re-colonisation of the Old Town. Franks took over the roman settelments.
883 Normans conquer Duisburg and stayed for the winter. Earliest written mention of Duisburg

Middle Ages

Map of Duisburg, 1566

Due to the advantageous geographic position the City became a palatinate and a free City. Duisburg was also part of the Hanseatic League. After 1200 the river moved its bed. The borough of Ruhrort was founded in order to establish a new harbour on the mouth of the Ruhr river. This changed the development of the City Duisburg, it became a peasant city instead of a merchant city. The work of Cartographer Gerardus Mercator and the founding of the University in 1655 recognitioned the City as "Educated Duisburg" ("Duisburgum Doctum").

1120 construction of the City Wall
after 1200 river Rhine moves its bed away from Duisburg
1279 City Rights according to a document from King Lothar III
1445 an attack by the Cologne Archbishop is averted
1566 Johannes Corputius completes the City Map
1666 Duisburg as a part of the Duchy Kleve becomes part of Brandenburg and Prussia

Industrial Revolution

The rise of the tobacco- and textilesmanufactures in the 18th Century lead to a development which continued with the Industrialization and made Duisburg a Industry Center. Big industrial Companys (Thyssen, Krupp) affected the development of the City. Whole parts of the City were constructed for the workers around the producing areas.

1824 Contruction of the sulfuric acid factory Fr. W. Curtius. Start of the Industrialization
1828 Franz Haniel builds a dockyard for steamships
1846 railroad line to Düsseldorf
1847 railroad line via Dortmund to Minden
1873 Duisburg becomes a district-free city
1904 Birth of the 100.000th resident (Ernst R. Straube)

World War II

As a major logistical Center of the Ruhr area and an important location for chemical, steel and iron industry Duisburg quickly became a primary target for Allied Bombers. Not only the Industrial Areas but also the residental Areas were bombed. As entry lane to the Ruhr Area there were alerts on a daily dasis since 1943

1935 The City Duisburg-Hamborn is renamed Duisburg.
1938 in November the Nazis destroyed the jewish synagogue.
1941 between 12/13 June British Bombers drop 445t of Bombs
1943 577 British Bombers leveled the Old Town on 12/13 May with 1599t of Bombs 96.000 People are homeless.
1944 the City is heavyly damaged as a total of 2000t Bomb are dropped at the 22 May; on 14/October 15 this amount was even doubled when 1005 Halifax, Lancaster and Mosquito-Bomber appeared over Duisburg. Numerous attacks of similar size were following.
1945 The City is under Artillery fire since the 3 April 1945. On 12 April 1945 Units of the 9th Army enter Duisburg.

Post War Time

A total of 299 bombingruns on Duisburg had destroyed the historical cityscape almost completely. 80% of the residential buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged. Almost the whole City had to be rebuild, most historical Landmarks were lost.

1983 1100 anniversary
1999 The new jewish community center with synagogue was opened.
2004 On the 19 July Duisburg is hit by a Tornado the City Theatre and Parts of the City Center are damaged

Economy and Infrastructure

Transport

Watershed of the Rhine River

Duisburg Port

The Port "duisport" [1] is the largest inland port of the world, it is also officialy a seaport. Sea-going river vessels serve ports in Europe, Africa and Middle East. The numerous docks are mostly located at the mouth of river Ruhr.

Per Year more than 40 Mio. tons of various goods are handeled, more than 20.000 ship call at the Port. The public harbor facilities streches over an area of 740 hectare, 21 docks with a complete area of 180ha and 40 km "coastline". The area of the Logport Logistic Center Duisburg streches over an area of 265ha. A number of companies also have their own private docks so altogether 70 Mio t of goods are handled in Duisburg.

Streets and Railway

Duisburg is connected to the freeway system (known as Autobahn), 5 freeways cross the city or are very close to the city. In addition there are so-called 'S-Bahn' lines which not only connect the different parts of Duisburg (with 4 Stations) but also connect Duisburg to the other Cities in the Ruhr Area. A subway ('U-Bahn') and bus system makes for a good internal transportation system.

Media

There are serveral Newspapers which are reporting local events and politics, among others those are the "Westdeutsche Allgemeine" (WAZ), the "Neue Ruhr Zeitung" (NRZ) and the "Rheinische Post" (RP).

There is a local TV Station, who will start as first local Station to broadcast in North Rhine-Westphalia

Culture

Duisburg has a comprehensive range of cultural installations and presentation. One highlight are the annual "Duisburger Akzente" [2] which are dealing with actual social or culture-political topics.

Landschaftspark by night

Because of its age and its history as seaport, trade and industry center, Duisburg also offers a variety of architectural places of interest. The spectrum goes from old churches like the "St. Johann Baptist" in Duisburg-Hamborn which was built in 900 to modern age buildings like Micro-Electronic-Centrum in Duisburg-Neudorf from 1995.

Another object of interest is the Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord [3] an abandoned industrial complex.

In the City Center there are the Wilhelm-Lehmbruck Museum [4], the City Theatre [5] and the shopping street known as "fountain mile"

Sport

Duisburg is the home of the MSV Duisburg soccer team. The team currently plays in the 2nd Bundesliga. The MSV was one of the teams who founded the Bundesliga in 1963/64. One of the best known players to have played for MSV is Helmut Rahn

Duisburg is also known for the rowing- and canoe regatta and the world championships are hosted here regulary.

Duisburg will be the host of the 2005 World Games [6].

External links

Rural and urban districts in North Rhine-Westphalia

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