Wuppertal

Wuppertal
City
Clockwise from top: view over Wuppertal-Elberfeld, Wuppertal Suspension Railway running beneath Sonnborn Railway Bridge (Sonnborner Eisenbahnbrücke), St Lawrence's Basilica at dusk, the suspension railway running through the city, the suspension railway running above the Wupper, hilly cityscape at Friedrichstraße
Flag Coat of arms
Wuppertal within North Rhine-Westphalia
Wuppertal Show map of Germany Wuppertal Show map of North Rhine-Westphalia
Coordinates: 51°16′N 07°11′E / 51.267°N 7.183°E / 51.267; 7.183
Country	Germany
State	North Rhine-Westphalia
Admin. region	Düsseldorf
District	Urban district
Government
• Lord mayor (2020–25)	Uwe Schneidewind[1] (Greens)
• Governing parties	Greens / CDU
Area
• City	168.41 km2 (65.02 sq mi)
Highest elevation	350 m (1,150 ft)
Lowest elevation	100 m (300 ft)
Population  (2023-12-31)[2]
• City	358,938
• Density	2,100/km2 (5,500/sq mi)
• Urban	608,000 (Bergisches Dreieck)
• Metro	11,300,000 (Rhein-Ruhr)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	42001-42399
Dialling codes	0202
Vehicle registration	W
Website	wuppertal.de

Wuppertal (German pronunciation: [ˈvʊpɐtaːl] ^ⓘ; lit. 'Wupper Dale') is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and 17th-largest in Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of Elberfeld, Barmen, Ronsdorf, Cronenberg and Vohwinkel, and was initially called "Barmen-Elberfeld" before adopting its present name in 1930. It is the capital and largest city of the Bergisches Land.

The city straddles the densely populated banks of the River Wupper, a tributary of the Rhine. Wuppertal is located between the Ruhr (Essen) to the north, Düsseldorf to the west, and Cologne to the southwest, and over time has grown together with Solingen, Remscheid and Hagen. The stretching of the city in a long band along the narrow Wupper Valley leads to a spatial impression of Wuppertal being larger than it actually is. The city is known for its steep slopes, its woods and parks, and for being the greenest city in Germany, with two-thirds green space of the total municipal area. From any part of the city, it is only a ten-minute walk to one of the public parks or woodland paths.

The Wupper Valley was, along with the Ore Mountains and before the Ruhr, the first highly industrialized region of Germany, which resulted in the construction of the Wuppertal Schwebebahn suspension railway in the then independent cities of Elberfeld and Barmen. The increasing demand for coal from the textile mills and blacksmith shops from those cities encouraged the expansion of the nearby Ruhr. Wuppertal still is a major industrial centre, being home to industries such as textiles, metallurgy, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, electronics, automobiles, rubber, vehicles and printing equipment. Aspirin originates from Wuppertal, patented in 1897 by Bayer, as does the Vorwerk Kobold vacuum cleaner.^[3][4] The Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy and the European Institute for International Economic Relations are located in the city.^[5] Barmen was the birthplace of Friedrich Engels.