Leverkusen

Leverkusen


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Leverkusen

Coordinates: 51°02′N 06°59′E / 51.033°N 6.983°E / 51.033; 6.983Coordinates: 51°02′N 06°59′E / 51.033°N 6.983°E / 51.033; 6.983
Country Germany
State North Rhine-Westphalia
Admin. region Köln
District Urban district
Government
 • Mayor Uwe Richrath (SPD)
 • Governing parties CDU / SPD / Bürgerliste
Area
 • Total 78.85 km2 (30.44 sq mi)
Population (2015-12-31)[1]
 • Total 163,487
 • Density 2,100/km2 (5,400/sq mi)
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Dialling codes 0214, 02171 & 02173
Vehicle registration LEV and OP
Website www.Leverkusen.de/English

Leverkusen (/ˈleɪvərˌkuːzən/; German pronunciation: [ˈleːvɐˌkuːzn̩]) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany on the eastern bank of the Rhine. To the South, Leverkusen borders the city of Cologne and to the North is the state capital Düsseldorf.

With about 161,000 inhabitants, Leverkusen is one of the state's smaller cities. The city is known for the pharmaceutical company Bayer and its associated sports club Bayer 04 Leverkusen.

History

The heart of what is now Leverkusen was a village called Wiesdorf, which dates back to the 12th century. During the Cologne War, from 1583 to 1588 Leverkusen was ravaged by war. The entire area was rural until the late 19th century, when industry prompted the development that led to the city of Leverkusen, and to its becoming one of the most important centres of the German chemical industry.

The chemist Carl Leverkus, looking for a place to build a dye factory, chose Wiesdorf in 1860. He built a factory for the production of artificial ultramarine blue at the Kahlberg in Wiesdorf in 1861, and called the emerging settlement "Leverkusen" after his family home in Lennep. The factory was taken over by the Bayer company in 1891; Bayer moved its headquarters to Wiesdorf in 1912. After asset confiscation at the end of the First World War, it became IG Farben. The city of Leverkusen proper was founded in 1930 by merging Wiesdorf, Schlebusch, Steinbüchel and Rheindorf, and was posthumously named for Carl Leverkus.

During the Second World War, the IG Farben factories were bombed by the USAAF Eighth Air Force on 1 December 1943,[2] by the RAF on 22 August 1943,[3] and by the RAF during bombing campaigns on 19/20 November and 10/11 December 1943.

In 1975, Opladen (including Quettingen and Lützenkirchen since 1930), Hitdorf and Bergisch Neukirchen joined Leverkusen. The present city is made up of several villages, originally called Wiesdorf, Opladen, Schlebusch, Manfort, Bürrig, Hitdorf, Quettingen, Lützenkirchen, Steinbüchel, Rheindorf and Bergisch-Neukirchen.

Main sights and places of interest

Japanese Garden in front of the Bayer tower

International relations

BayArena

Leverkusen is twinned with:

Notable people


References

  1. ↑ "Amtliche Bevölkerungszahlen". Landesbetrieb Information und Technik NRW (in German). 18 July 2016.
  2. ↑ 322nd Dailies from 1943 - 91st Bomb Group (H). 91st Bomb Group. Retrieved on 2013-07-17.
  3. ↑ WW2 People's War - A Bedfordshire Bomb Aimer - Part Two. BBC. Retrieved on 2013-07-17.
  4. ↑ "Ystävyyskaupungit (Twin Cities)". Oulun kaupunki (City of Oulu) (in Finnish). Retrieved 2013-07-27.
  5. ↑ (Bracknell Town, part of the Bracknell Forest local authority twinned with Opladen in 1973, Opladen then incorporated with Leverkusen in 1975
  6. ↑ "Medmestno in mednarodno sodelovanje". Mestna občina Ljubljana (Ljubljana City) (in Slovenian). Retrieved 2013-07-27.
  7. ↑ Contract in German and Polish
  8. ↑ contract signed(in German)

Sources

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