Solingen
Solingen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and, with a 2009 population of 161,366, is after Wuppertal the second largest city in the Bergisches Land. It is a member of the regional authority of the Rhineland.
Solingen is called the "City of Blades", since it has long been renowned for the manufacturing of fine swords, knives, scissors and razors made by famous firms such as WKC, DOVO, Wüsthof, Zwilling J. A. Henckels, Böker, Hubertus, Diefenthal, Puma, Clauberg, Eickhorn, Linder, Carl Schmidt Sohn, Dreiturm, Herder, and numerous other manufacturers.
In Medieval times, the swordsmiths of Solingen designed the town's coat of arms, which continues to the present. In the latter part of the 17th century, a group of swordsmiths from Solingen broke their guild oaths by taking their sword-making secrets with them to Shotley Bridge, County Durham in England.
Geography
Solingen lies southwest of Wuppertal in the Bergisches Land. The city has an area of, of which roughly 50% is used for agriculture, horticulture, or forestry. The city's border is long, and the city's dimensions are east to west and north to south. The Wupper river, a right tributary of the Rhine, flows through the city for. The city's highest point at 276 metres is in the northern borough of Gräfrath at the Light Tower, previously the water tower, and the lowest point at 53 metres is in the southwest.Neighbouring cities and communities
The following cities and communities share a border with Solingen, starting in the northeast and going clockwise around the city:- Wuppertal
- Remscheid
- Wermelskirchen
- Leichlingen
- Langenfeld
- Hilden
- Haan
City administration
The five city boroughs:
- Gräfrath
- Wald
- Mitte
- Ohligs/Aufderhöhe/Merscheid
- Höhscheid/Burg
History
Middle Ages
Solingen was first mentioned in 1067 by a chronicler who called the area "Solonchon". Early variations of the name included "Solengen", "Solungen", and "Soleggen", although the modern name seems to have been in use since the late 14th and early 15th centuries.Blacksmiths' smelters, dating back over 2000 years, have been found around the town, adding to Solingen's fame as a Northern Europe blacksmith centre. Swords from Solingen have turned up in places such as the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the British Isles. Northern Europe prized the quality of Solingen's manufactured weaponry, and they were traded across the European continent. Solingen today remains the knife-centre of Germany.
It was a tiny village for centuries, but became a fortified town in the 15th century.
Thirty Years War
After being ravaged by the plague from 1614-1619, with about 1800 deaths, Solingen was heavily fought-over during the Thirty Years War, repeatedly attacked and plundered, and the Schloss Burg was destroyed.Modern Age
Interwar Period
In 1929 Ohligs, located in the Prussian Rhine Province, by rail north of Cologne became part of Solingen. Its chief manufactures were cutlery and hardware, and there were iron-foundries and flour mills. Other industries were brewing, dyeing, weaving and brick-making.World War II
In World War II the Old Town was completely destroyed by an air raid by the British Royal Air Force in 1944; 1,800 people died and over 1,500 people were badly injured. As such, there are few pre-war sites in the centre.Skinhead terrorism
In 1993 Solingen, the birthplace of Adolf Eichmann became once again the scene of racist violence with its 1993 Solingen arson attack, when four skinheads, with neo-Nazi ties, set fire to the house of a large Turkish family. Three girls and two women died; fourteen other family members, including several children, were injured, some of them severely.Population
Solingen's population doubled between the years 1880 and 1890 due to the incorporation of the town of Dorp into Solingen in 1889, at which time the population reached 36,000. The population again received a large boost on August 1, 1929 through the incorporation of Ohligs, Wald, Höhscheid, and Gräfrath into the city limits. This brought the population above the 100,000 mark, which gave Solingen the distinction of being a "large city". The number of inhabitants peaked in 1971 with 177,899 residents, and the 2006 population figure was 163,263.The following chart shows the population figures within Solingen's city limits at the respective points in time. The figures are derived from census estimates or numbers provided by statistical offices or city agencies, with the exception of figures preceding 1843, which were gathered using inconsistent recording techniques.
30.9% of the population of Solingen has foreign roots. TransportationRailis served by Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn line S1 from Düsseldorf and Düsseldorf Airport Station. S-Bahn line S7 links Solingen to Wuppertal via Remscheid, Remscheid-Lennep and Wuppertal-Ronsdorf. This line has been operated by Abellio Deutschland since 15 Dec. 2013. The Rhein-Wupper-Bahn runs over the Gruiten–Köln-Deutz line to Bonn-Mehlem via Opladen and Cologne. It has been operated by National Express as of 13 Dec. 2015.TrolleybusSolingen has a trolleybus network, one of only three in Germany remaining besides Eberswalde and Esslingen am Neckar.Air transportThe nearest airports are Düsseldorf Airport and Cologne Bonn Airport. Both airports can be reached by train from Solingen-Hauptbahnhof.Other easily reached airports are those of Frankfurt am Main, Dortmund and the low cost Weeze Airport. ReligionChristianitySolingen has belonged from its beginnings to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne, and more specifically to the Archdeaconry of the Probst of St. Kunibert, the deanery of Deutz. Although the Protestant Reformation gradually made gains in the city, which was under the control of the Counts of Berg, the population by and large remained Roman Catholic for a while. The Catholic community was newly endowed by the local lord in 1658 and in 1701 received a new church building. In 1827 Solingen became the seat of its own deanery within the newly defined Archdiocese of Cologne, to which the city's current parishes still belong.As mentioned, the Reformation only gradually gained a foothold in Solingen. A reformed church affiliated with the Bergisch synod was established in 1590, and the city's parish church became reformed in 1649. Lutherans had been present in Solingen since the beginning of the 17th century, and a Lutheran congregation was founded in 1635. In 1672 a formalized religious agreement was reached between the city's religious groups. The Reformation was also introduced in Gräfrath in 1590, where a church council was apparently established in 1629. The Reformed and Lutheran churches were formed into a united church community in 1838 following the general merger of Reformed and Lutheran churches in Prussia in 1817. The Protestant parishes originally belonged to the district synod of Lennep, today part of the city Remscheid. A new synod was established in Solingen in 1843, and the city acquired its own superintendent, a form of church administrator. This formed the basis for the present-day Church District of Solingen, a member of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland. With the exception of the free churches, most Protestant churches belong to the Church District of Solingen. Today approximately 34% of Solingen's population belongs to Protestant churches, and roughly 26% belong to Catholic churches. Other church communities in Solingen include Greek Orthodox, Evangelical Free, Methodist, Seventh-day Adventist, Pentecostal, Salvation Army, and free churches. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jehovah's Witnesses and the New Apostolic Church also have communities in Solingen. Image galleryIslamMost of the Turkish immigrants belong to the Muslim faith and they have several mosques/worship places in Solingen:
Main sights
Born before 1900
SportsAmerican FootballThe Solingen Paladins are an American football club from Solingen in North Rhine-Westphalia, which was founded in 2006. In the 2020 season, the Paladins will play their third season in GFL2 Nord, the second-highest division in Germany.BaseballThe Solingen Alligators are a baseball and softball club from Solingen. The club was founded in 1991 and the first men's team was promoted to the first division of the Baseball Bundesliga for the 2003 season. It has played there in every season since, winning the league championship in 2006 and 2014. The club claims over 250 members.ChessThe Schachgesellschaft Solingen e.V. 1868 is best known for its chess team, which plays in the Schachbundesliga, the top tier of the German chess league system, and is the most successful club in German chess history, having won a record 12 national titles, three national cups and 2 European cups.HandballIn handball, Solingen's most successful team is Bergischer HC, playing in the top-tier Handball-Bundesliga which they were promoted to for the second time in 2013, reaching 15th place in the 2013–14 campaign and therefore staying in the top flight for a second consecutive season. BHCoriginates from a 2006 cooperation between the SG Solingen and rivals LTV Wuppertal from the nearby city of the same name. The club advertises itself as a representative of the entire Bergisches Land region. The team plays its home games at both Solingen's Klingenhalle and Wuppertal's Uni-Halle. ReceptionIn May 1955, the city of Solingen took over the partnership of the German general cargo ship Solingen of the Hamburg-American Packet Transit Actien-Gesellschaft.International relationsTwin towns – sister citiesSolingen is twinned with:
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