Essen

Essen has a typical oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb) with cool winters and warm summers (different from Berlin or Stuttgart). Without large mountains and the presence of inland seas, it ends up extending a predominantly marine climate is found in Essen, usually a little more extreme and drier in other continents in such geographical location.^[8] Its average annual temperature is 10 °C (50 °F): 13.3 °C (56 °F) during the day and 6.7 °C (44 °F) at night. The average annual precipitation is 934 mm (37 in). The coldest month of the year is January, when the average temperature is 2.4 °C (36 °F). The warmest months are July and August, with an average temperature of 18 °C (64 °F).^[9] The record high is 36.6 °C (98 °F) and the record low is −24 °C (−11 °F).^[10]

History

Origin of the name

In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it has the same form as the German

The oldest archaeological find, the Vogelheimer Klinge, dates back to 280,000 – 250,000 BC. It is a blade found in the borough of Vogelheim [de] in the northern part of the city during the construction of the Rhine–Herne Canal in 1926.^[15] Other artifacts from the Stone Age have also been found, although these are not overly numerous. Land utilization was very high—especially due to mining activities during the Industrial Age—and any more major finds, especially from the Mesolithic era, are not expected. Finds from 3,000 BC and onwards are far more common, the most important one being a Megalithic tomb found in 1937. Simply called Steinkiste (Chest of Stone), it is referred to as "Essen's earliest preserved example of architecture".^[16]

Essen was part of the settlement areas of several Germanic peoples (

The Alteburg [de] castle in the south of Essen dates back to the eighth century, the nearby Herrenburg [de] to the ninth century.

Recent research into Ptolemy's Geographia has identified the polis or oppidum Navalia as Essen.^[17]

Eighth–twelfth centuries

Around 845, Saint

The first documented mention of Essen dates back to 898, when Zwentibold, King of Lotharingia, willed territory on the western bank of the River Rhine to the abbey. Another document, describing the foundation of the abbey and allegedly dating back to 870, is now considered an 11th-century forgery.

In 971,

In 1216, the abbey, which had only been an important landowner until then, gained the status of a princely residence when Emperor

During the Thirty Years' War, the Protestant city and the Catholic abbey opposed each other. In 1623, princess-abbess Maria Clara von Spaur, Pflaum und Valör, managed to direct Catholic Spaniards against the city in order to initiate a Counter-Reformation. In 1624, a "re-Catholicization" law was enacted, and churchgoing was strictly controlled. In 1628, the city council filed against this at the Reichskammergericht. Maria had to flee to Cologne when the Dutch stormed the city in 1629. She returned in the summer of 1631 following the Bavarians under Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim, only to leave again in September. She died 1644 in Cologne.

The war proved a severe blow to the city, with frequent arrests, kidnapping and rape. Even after the Peace of Westphalia from 1648, troops remained in the city until 9 September 1650.

Industrialisation

Three rings of the Krupp logo

The historic house of the Krupp Family in 2014

The first historic evidence of the important mining tradition of Essen date back to the 14th century, when the princess-abbess was granted mining rights. The first silver mine opened in 1354, but the indisputably more important coal was not mentioned until 1371, and coal mining only began in 1450.

At the end of the 16th century, many coal mines had opened in Essen, and the city earned a name as a centre of the weapons industry. Around 1570, gunsmiths made high profits and in 1620, they produced 14,000 rifles and pistols a year. The city became increasingly important strategically.

Resident in Essen since the 16th century, the Krupp family dynasty and Essen shaped each other. In 1811, Friedrich Krupp founded Germany's first cast-steel factory in Essen and laid the cornerstone for what was to be the largest enterprise in Europe for a couple of decades. The weapon factories in Essen became so important that a sign facing the main railway station welcomed visitors Hitler and Mussolini to the "Armory of the Reich" (German: Waffenschmiede des Reiches) in 1937.^[18] The Krupp Works also were the main reason for the large population growth beginning in the mid-19th century. Essen reached a population of 100,000 in 1896. Other industrialists, such as Friedrich Grillo, who in 1892 donated the Grillo-Theater to the city, also played a major role in the shaping of the city and the Ruhr area in the late 19th and early 20th century.

World War I and occupation

Riots broke out in February 1917 following a breakdown in the supply of flour. There were then strikes in the Krupp factory.^[19]

On 11 January 1923 the Occupation of the Ruhr was carried out by the invasion of French and Belgian troops into the Ruhr. The French Prime Minister, Raymond Poincaré, was convinced that Germany failed to comply the demands of the Treaty of Versailles. On the morning of 31 March 1923, the culmination of this French-German confrontation^[20] occurred when a small French military command, occupied the Krupp car hall to seize several vehicles. This event caused 13 deaths and 28 injured. The occupation of the Ruhr ended in summer 1925.^[21]

Nazism, World War II

On the night of

During the Nazi era, tens of thousands of slave laborers were forced to work in 350 Essen forced labour camps. Here, they did mining work and worked for companies like Krupp and Siemens.

As a major industrial centre, Essen was a target for

The Krupp decoy site (German: Kruppsche Nachtscheinanlage) was built in Velbert to divert Allied airstrikes from the actual production site of the arms factory in Essen.

The Allied ground advance into Germany reached Essen in April 1945. The US

Although weaponry is no longer produced in Essen, old industrial enterprises such as ThyssenKrupp and RWE remain large employers in the city. Foundations such as the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung still promote the well-being of the city, for example by supporting a hospital and donating €55,000,000 for a new building for the Museum Folkwang, one of the Ruhr area's major art museums.

Politics

Historical development

The administration of Essen had for a long time been in the hands of the

The current Mayor of Essen is Thomas Kufen of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who was elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2020.

The most recent mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows:

City council

The Essen city council governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows:

Party		Votes	%	+/-	Seats	+/-
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	73,206	34.4	3.0	30	2
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	51,550	24.3	9.7	21	10
	Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)	39,569	18.6	7.4	16	6
	Alternative for Germany (AfD)	15,849	7.5	3.7	6	3
	The Left (Die Linke)	8,309	3.9	1.4	3	2
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	6,476	3.0	0.2	3	±0
	Essen Citizens' Alliance (EBB)	6,209	2.9	1.4	3	1
	Die PARTEI (PARTEI)	5,282	2.5	1.7	2	1
	Human Environment Animal Protection (Tierschutz)	4,396	2.1	New	2	New
	Social Liberal Alliance (SLB)	760	0.4	New	0	New
	German Communist Party (DKP)	463	0.2	0.1	0	±0
	Volt Germany (Volt)	357	0.2	New	0	New
	Pirate Party Germany (Piraten)	86	0.0	1.8	0	2
Valid votes		212,512	98.9
Invalid votes		2,327	1.1
Total		214,839	100.0		86	4
Electorate/voter turnout		446,384	48.1	2.8
Source: State Returning Officer

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of the city of Essen is a heraldic peculiarity. Granted in 1886, it is a so-called Allianzwappen (

Demographics

Largest groups of foreign residents as of March 2022^[34]

Nationality	Population
Turkey	14,984
Syria	13,076
Poland	6,952
Iraq	6,317
Ukraine	5,642
Romania	4,652
Serbia	3,774
Greece	3,429
China	3,047
Italy	2,974
Croatia	2,890
Afghanistan	2,504
Bulgaria	2,471
Spain	1,911
Iran	1,863
Russia	1,800
Lebanon	1,719
India	1,561
Morocco	1,458
Netherlands	1,306

Essen has a population about 580,000 and is the 2nd largest city in Ruhr area after Dortmund and the 10th largest city in Germany. Essen has also the largest urban density with cities such as Bochum, Gelsenkirchen and Oberhausen borders this city. In 1960, the population reached its historical peak of over 720,000 (Essen was the fifth largest German city at that time) due to its booming industrial era of the Ruhr Area and West Germany (Wirtschaftswunder). Since 1970s, the population of Essen declined due to loss of jobs by coal and mining. Essen has a large migrant population, most of them are from Turkey, Syria and Poland.

International relations

The City of Monessen, Pennsylvania, situated along the Monongahela River, was named after the river and Essen.^[35]

Twin towns – sister cities

Essen is twinned with:^[36]

Cooperation agreements

Essen cooperates with:^[37]

• Kōriyama, Japan (2017)
• Qingdao, China (2008)
• Rivne, Ukraine (2022)
• Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (2012)

Industry and infrastructure

Economy

Essen is home to several large companies, among them the

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  ThyssenKrupp headquarters in Essen
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  RWE AG headquarters in the business district
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  E.ON headquarters
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  RWE AG headquarters
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  Hochtief headquarters
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  Evonik Industries headquarters
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  Schenker AG headquarters
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  Postbank Essen
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  Deutsche Bank branch in the financial district
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  Emschergenossenschaft Essen

Fairs

The city's exhibition centre,

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  Messe Essen south entrance
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  Messe Essen east entrance
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  Messe Essen south entrance

Media

The

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  Folkwang University of the Arts
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  Zollverein School of Management and Design
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  Universität Essen
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  Folkwang University

The University of Duisburg-Essen, which resulted from a 2003 merger of the universities of Essen and Duisburg, is one of Germany's "youngest" universities with about 42,000 Students.^[44] One of its primary research areas is urban systems (i.e., sustainable development, logistics and transportation), a theme largely inspired by the highly urbanised Ruhr area. Other fields include nanotechnology, discrete mathematics and "education in the 21st century". Another university in Essen is the private Fachhochschule für Ökonomie und Management, a university of applied sciences with over 6,000 students and branches in 15 other major cities throughout Germany.

Medicine

Essen offers a highly diversified health care system with more than 1,350 resident doctors and almost 6,000 beds in 13 hospitals, including a university hospital. The university hospital dates back to 1909, when the city council established a municipal hospital; although it was largely destroyed during

• 
  Elisabethkrankenhaus Essen
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  University Hospital Essen

Transport

Streets and motorways

The road network of Essen consists of over 3,200 streets, which in total have a length of roughly 1,600 km (994 mi).

Four

In the north, the A 42 briefly touches Essen territory, serving as an interconnection between the neighboring cities of Oberhausen and Gelsenkirchen and destinations beyond.

A part of the A 44, a highly segmented connection from Aachen and the Belgian border to Kassel, planned to go further into Central Germany, ends in Essens south.

A segment of the

With the A 40/A 52 in the southern parts of the city and the A 42 in the north, there is a gap in the motorway system often leading to congestion on streets leading from the central to the northern boroughs. An extension of the A 52 to connect the Essen-Ost junction with the A 42 to close this gap is considered urgent;^[45] it has been planned for years but not yet been realized – most importantly due to the high-density areas this extension would lead through, resulting in high costs and concerns with the citizens.

Public transport

As with most communes in the Ruhr area, local transport is carried out by a local, publicly owned company for transport within the city, the

As of 2009^[update], Ruhrbahn operates 3 U-Stadtbahn lines of the Essen Stadtbahn network, 7 Straßenbahn (tram) lines and 57 bus lines (16 of these serving as Nacht Express late-night lines only). The Stadtbahn and Straßenbahn operate on total route lengths of 19.6 kilometres (12.2 mi) and 52.4 kilometres (32.6 mi), respectively.^[46] One tram line and a few bus lines coming from neighboring cities are operated by these cities' respective carriers. The U-Stadtbahn, which partly runs on used Docklands Light Railway stock, is a mixture of tram and full underground systems with 20 underground stations for the U-Stadtbahn and additional four underground stations used by the tram. Two lines of the U-Stadtbahn are completely intersection-free and hence independent from other traffic, and the U18 line leading from Mülheim main station to the Bismarckplatz station at the gates of the city centre partly runs above ground amidst the A 40 motorway. The Essen Stadtbahn is one of the Stadtbahn systems integrated into the greater Rhine-Ruhr Stadtbahn network.

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  Main station
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  Essen Stadtbahn NF2-TW 1601
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  Essen Hauptbahnhof
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  Essen Hauptbahnhof in the city centre
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  Essen Hauptbahnhof subway station
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  Platforms at Kaiser-Wilhelm-Park

On the same motorway, a long-term test of a guided bus system is being held since 1980. Many Ruhrbahn rail lines meet at the main station but only a handful of bus lines. However, all but one of the Nacht Express bus lines originate from / lead to Essen Hauptbahnhof in a star-shaped manner. All Ruhrbahn lines, including the Nacht Express lines, are closed on weekdays from 1:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m.

Of the

In 2017, the public transport organization of Mülheim, the Mülheimer Verkehrsgesellschaft (MVG) and the Essener Verkehrsgesellschaft (EVAG) merged and became the Ruhrbahn. All vehicles and staff were merged and are now operated together.

Aviation

Together with the neighbouring city of

The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex is the city's most famous landmark. For decades, the coal mine (current form mainly from 1932, closed in 1986) and the coking plant (closed in 1993) ranked among the largest of their kinds in Europe. Shaft XII, built in Bauhaus style, with its characteristic winding tower, which over the years has become a symbol for the whole Ruhr area, is considered an architectural and technical masterpiece, earning it a reputation as the "most beautiful coal mine in the world".^[49] After UNESCO had declared it a World Heritage Site in 2001, the complex, which had lain idle for a long time and was even threatened to be demolished, began to see a period of redevelopment. Under the direction of an agency borne by the land of North Rhine-Westphalia and the city itself, several arts and design institutions settled mainly on the grounds of the former coal mine; a redevelopment plan for the coking plant is to be realised.

On the grounds of the coal mine and the coking plant, which are both accessible free of charge while paid guided tours (some with former Kumpels) are available, several tourist attractions can be found, most importantly the Design Zentrum NRW/Red Dot Design Museum. The Ruhrmuseum, a museum dedicated to the history of the Ruhr area, which had been existing since 1904, opened its gates as one of the anchor attractions in the former coal-washing facility in 2010.

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  Coal mine Zollverein
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  Shaft XII of Zollverein
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  Zollverein entrance
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  Ruhrmuseum
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  Ruhrmuseum staircase

Essen Minster and treasury

The former collegiate church of

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  Golden Madonna of Essen
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  Golden Madonna of Essen
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  Cross of Otto and Mathilde, tenth century
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  St. Ludger Basilica
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  Essen Minster overshadowed by the town hall

Old Synagogue

Opened in 1913, the then-New Synagogue served as the central meeting place of Essen's pre-war Jewish community. The building ranks as one of the largest and most impressive testimonies of Jewish culture in pre-war Germany. In post-war Germany, the former house of worship was bought by the city, used as an exhibition hall and later rededicated as a cultural meeting centre and house of Jewish culture.

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  Synagogue, 1917
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  Synagogue, 1922
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  Old Synagogue, 2010
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  Old Synagogue, 2014
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  Old Synagogue interior

Villa Hügel

Built in 1873 by industrial magnate

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  Villa Hügel
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  Villa Hügel
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  Villa Hügel
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  Great hall

Kettwig and Werden

In the south of the city, the boroughs of Kettwig and Werden exceptionally stand for towns once of their own, which have been annexed in 1929 (Werden) and 1975 (Kettwig), respectively, and which have largely preserved their pre-annexation character. While most of the northern boroughs were heavily damaged during the

In Werden, St.

Kettwig, which was annexed in 1975, much to the dismay of the population that still struggles for independence,^[52] was mainly shaped by the textile industry. The most southern borough of Essen is also the city's largest (with regard to area) and presumably greenest.

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  Essen Werden
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  Essen Werden
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  Essen Werden historic town centre
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  Protestant church Essen Werden
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  Essen Werden
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  Essen Werden, old town hall
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  Historic town centre of Kettwig
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  Essen Kettwig

Other important cultural sites

• Museum Folkwang: One of the Ruhr area's major art collections, mainly from the 19th and 20th centuries. Major parts of the museum have recently been rebuilt and expanded according to plans by David Chipperfield & Co. The Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation is the sole funder of the €55 million project which was completed in early 2010. After its re-opening, it also hosts the collection of the Deutsches Plakat Museum (more than 340 000 exhibits).
• Aalto Theatre: Opened in 1988 (the plans dating back to 1959), the asymmetric building with its deep indigo interior is home to the acclaimed Essen Opera and Ballet.
• Saalbau Essen: Home of the Essen Philharmonic Orchestra, completely renovated in 2003/2004. Critics have repeatedly voted the Essen Philharmonic as Germany's Orchestra of the Year.^[53]
• Colosseum Theater: Situated in a former Krupp factory building at the fringe of the central pedestrian precinct, the Colosseum Theater has been home to several musical theatre productions since 1996.
• cultural centre and venue for Rock concerts and home of Offener Kanal Essen
  .
• Grillo-Theater, a theatre in the centre of the city.

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  Saalbau Essen
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  Museum Folkwang
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  Aalto Theatre
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  Colosseum Theater
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  Grillo-Theater
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  Grugahalle concert hall
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  Schloss Borbeck
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  Hugenpoet castle

Other sites

• Gartenstadt Margarethenhöhe: Founded by Margarethe Krupp in 1906, the garden city with its 3092 units in 935 buildings on an area of 115 ha (284.2 acres) (of which 50 ha are woodland) is considered the first of its kind in Germany. All buildings follow the same stylistic concept, with slight variations for each one. Although originally designed as an area for the lower classes with quite small flats, the old part Margarethenhöhe I has developed into a middle class residential area and housing space has become highly sought after. A new part, Margarehenhöhe II, was built in the 1960s and 1970s but is architecturally inferior and especially the multi-storey buildings are still considered social hot spots.
• Moltkeviertel (Moltke Quarter): from 1908 on, following reformative plans of the city deputy Robert Schmidt, this quarter was developed just south-east of the city centre. Large green zones, forming broad urban ventilation lanes and incorporating sporting and playing areas and high quality architecture – invariably in the style of Reform Architecture, combine to create a unique example worldwide of modern town planning. It reflects reformative ideas and dates from the early part of the 20th century. The Moltkeviertel continues to be a much sought-after area for residential, educational, health care and small-scale commercial purposes. On the Moltkeplatz, the quarter's largest square, an ensemble of high quality contemporary art is maintained and cared for by local residents.
• Grugapark: With a total area of 70 ha (173.0 acres), the park near the exhibition halls is one of the largest urban parks in Germany and, although entry is not free of charge, one of the most popular recreational sites of the city. It includes the city's botanical garden, the Botanischer Garten Grugapark.
• Baldeneysee [de]: The largest of the six reservoirs of the River Ruhr, situated in the south of the city, is another popular recreational area. It is used for sailing, rowing and ship tours. The hilly and only lightly developed forest area around the lake, from which the Kettwig area is easily reachable, is popular with hikers.

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  Grugapark, Kranichwiese facing the Orangerie and the sculpture Orion
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  Grugapark, Sculpture "Trauer" by Joseph Enseling
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  Grugapark, Reichsgartenschau 1938, Keramikhof
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  Grugapark illuminated, 2015
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  Grugapark, Waterfall
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  Baldeneysee
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  Baldeneysee
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  Baldeneysee
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  Marketplace of Margarethenhöhe I
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  Margarethenhöhe houses
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  Sculptures by Friedrich Gräsel and Gloria Friedmann at the Moltkeplatz

Notable people

Natives

People born in Essen:

Honorary citizens

The city of Essen has been awarding honorary citizenships since 1879 but has (coincidentally) discontinued this tradition after the foundation of the