Bielefeld () is a city in the

Ostwestfalen-Lippe Ostwestfalen-Lippe (, literally ''East(ern) Westphalia-Lippe'', abbreviation OWL) is the eastern region of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, congruent with the administrative region of Detmold and containing the eastern part of Westph ...

Region in the north-east of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region (''

Regierungsbezirk A ' () means "governmental district" and is a type of administrative division in Germany. Four of sixteen ' ( states of Germany) are split into '. Beneath these are rural and urban districts. Saxony has ' (directorate districts) with more res ...

'') of

Detmold Detmold () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a population of . It was the capital of the small Principality of Lippe from 1468 until 1918 and then of the Free State of Lippe until 1947. Today it is the administrative center of ...

and the 18th largest city in Germany. The historical centre of the city is situated north of the

Teutoburg Forest The Teutoburg Forest ( ; german: Teutoburger Wald ) is a range of low, forested hills in the German states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. Until the 17th century, the official name of the hill ridge was Osning. It was first renamed th ...

line of hills, but modern Bielefeld also incorporates boroughs on the opposite side and on the hills. The city is situated on the ', a hiking trail which runs for 156 km along the length of the Teutoburg Forest. Bielefeld is home to a significant number of internationally operating companies, including

Dr. Oetker Dr. Oetker () is a German multinational company that produces baking powder, cake mixes, frozen pizza, pudding, cake decoration, cornflakes, party candles, and various other products. The company is a wholly owned branch of the Oetker Group, ...

, Gildemeister and Schüco. It has a

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

and several technical colleges (''

Fachhochschule A ''Fachhochschule'' (; plural ''Fachhochschulen''), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts ...

n''). Bielefeld is also famous for the

Bethel Institution The Bethel Foundation, officially the Bodelschwingh Foundation Bethel (german: von Bodelschwinghsche Stiftungen Bethel as of 2009, previously ''v. Bodelschwinghsche Anstalten Bethel'') is a diaconal (i.e. Protestant charitable) psychiatric ho ...

, and for the

Bielefeld conspiracy The Bielefeld conspiracy (German: or , ) is a satirical conspiracy theory that claims that the city of Bielefeld, Germany, does not exist,Archived aGhostarchiveand thWayback Machine but is an illusion propagated by various forces. First posted ...

, which satirises

conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * * * * The term has a nega ...

by claiming that Bielefeld does not exist. This concept has been used in the town's marketing and alluded to by

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...

History

Founded in 1214 by Count Hermann IV of Ravensberg to guard a pass crossing the

, Bielefeld was the "city of

linen Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen is very strong, absorbent, and dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. It also ...

" as a minor member of the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German to ...

, known for

bleachfields A bleachfield or bleaching green was an open area used for spreading cloth on the ground to be purified and whitened by the action of the sunlight. Bleaching fields were usually found in and around mill towns in Great Britain and were an integral ...

into the 19th Century. Bielefeld was part of the

Kingdom of Westphalia The Kingdom of Westphalia was a kingdom in Germany, with a population of 2.6 million, that existed from 1807 to 1813. It included territory in Hesse and other parts of present-day Germany. While formally independent, it was a vassal state of the ...

when it was created in 1807. In 1815 it was incorporated into the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...

following the defeat of France and the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

. After the Cologne-Minden railway opened in 1849, the Bozi brothers constructed the first large mechanised spinning mill in 1851. The Ravensberg Spinning Mill was built from 1854 to 1857, and metal works began to open in the 1860s. Founded in 1867 as a Bielefeld sewing machine repair company, Dürkoppwerke AG employed 1,665 people in 1892; it used

Waffenamt ''Waffenamt'' (WaA) was the German Army Weapons Agency. It was the centre for research and development of the Weimar Republic and later the Third Reich for weapons, ammunition and army equipment to the German Reichswehr and then Wehrmacht ...

code "WaA547" from 1938 to 1939 as the Dürkopp-Werke, and merged with other Bielefeld companies to form Dürkopp Adler AG in 1990. Between 1904 and 1930, Bielefeld grew, opening a rebuilt railway station, a municipal theatre, and finally, the Rudolf-Oetker-Halle concert hall, renowned for its excellent acoustics. The Dürkopp car was produced 1898–1927. After printing emergency money (german:

Notgeld ''Notgeld'' (German for "emergency money" or "necessity money") refers to money issued by an institution in a time of economic or political crisis. The issuing institution is usually one without official sanction from the central government. This ...

) in 1923 during the

inflation in the Weimar Republic Hyperinflation affected the German Papiermark, the currency of the Weimar Republic, between 1921 and 1923, primarily in 1923. It caused considerable internal political instability in the country, the occupation of the Ruhr by France and Belgium, ...

, Bielefeld was one of several towns that printed very attractive and highly collectable

banknote A banknote—also called a bill (North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable instrument, negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes w ...

s with designs on

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...

and

velvet Weave details visible on a purple-colored velvet fabric Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric in which the cut threads are evenly distributed, with a short pile, giving it a distinctive soft feel. By extension, the word ''velvety'' means ...

. These pieces were issued by the Bielefeld Stadtsparkasse (town's savings bank) and were sent all around the world in the early 1920s. These pieces are known as ''Stoffgeld'' – that is, money made from fabric. The town's

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

was burned in 1938 during the ''

Kristallnacht () or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from ...

'' pogrom carried out against Jewish population. In 1944,

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

es of the

USAAF The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

bombed the gas works at Bielefeld on 20 September and the marshaling yard on 30 September;September 1944
/ref> Bielefeld was bombed again on 7 October and the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

bombed the town on the night of 4/5 December. On 17 January 1945, B-17s bombed the nearby

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader and ''Born'', an old German term for t ...

marshalling yard, and the railway viaduct in the suburb of Schildesche. On 14 March the RAF bombed the viaduct again, wrecking it. This was the first use of the RAF's 10 tonne

Grand Slam bomb The Bomb, Medium Capacity, (Grand Slam) was a earthquake bomb used by RAF Bomber Command against German targets towards the end of the Second World War. The bomb was originally called Tallboy Large until the term Tallboy got into the press an ...

. American troops entered the city in April 1945. Due to the presence of a number of barracks built during the 1930s and its location next to the main East-West Autobahn in northern Germany, after World War II Bielefeld became a headquarters town for the fighting command of the

British Army of the Rhine There have been two formations named British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). Both were originally occupation forces in Germany, one after the First World War and the other after the Second World War. Both formations had areas of responsibility located a ...

– BAOR (the administrative and strategic headquarters were at

Rheindahlen Rheindahlen (called ''Dalen'' from the Early Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period around 1700, and ''Dahlen'' until 1878) is a town in the western and largest borough of the city of Mönchengladbach in the German state of North Rhine-Westphali ...

near the Dutch border). Until the 1980s there was a large British presence in the barracks housing the headquarters of the British First Corps and support units, as well as schools,

NAAFI The Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI ) is a company created by the British government on 9 December 1920 to run recreational establishments needed by the British Armed Forces, and to sell goods to servicemen and their families. It runs ...

shops, officers' and sergeants' messes and several estates of married quarters. The British presence was heavily scaled back after the

reunification of Germany German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

and most of the infrastructure has disappeared. In 1973 the first villages on the south side of the Teutoburg Forest were incorporated.

Subdivisions

Bielefeld is subdivided into the following ten (10) districts: * Bielefeld-Mitte (downtown) * Brackwede * Dornberg * Gadderbaum * Heepen * Jöllenbeck * Schildesche * Senne * Sennestadt * Stieghorst

Climate

Bielefeld has an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ( ...

(''Cfb''). The average annual high temperature is , the annual low temperature is , and the annual precipitation is .

Industry and education

Bielefeld Germany Linen Notgeld 8 November 1923

Bielefeld was a linen-producing town, and in the early 1920s the Town's Savings Bank (Stadtsparkasse) issued money made of linen, silk and velvet. These items were known as 'stoffgeld'. In addition to the manufacture of

home appliances A home appliance, also referred to as a domestic appliance, an electric appliance or a household appliance, is a machine which assists in household functions such as cooking, cleaning and food preservation. Appliances are divided into three ty ...

and various

heavy industries Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, huge buildings and large-scale infrastructure); or ...

, Bielefeld companies include

(food manufacturing), Möller Group (leather products and plastics), Seidensticker (clothing and textiles) and

with 17.000 employees.

Bielefeld University Bielefeld University (german: Universität Bielefeld) is a university in Bielefeld, Germany. Founded in 1969, it is one of the country's newer universities, and considers itself a "reform" university, following a different style of organization ...

was founded in 1969. Among its first professors was the notable contemporary German sociologist

Niklas Luhmann Niklas Luhmann (; ; December 8, 1927 – November 6, 1998) was a German sociologist, philosopher of social science, and a prominent thinker in systems theory. Biography Luhmann was born in Lüneburg, Free State of Prussia, where his father's fa ...

. Other institutions of

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...

include the Theological Seminary Bethel (''Kirchliche Hochschule Bethel'') and the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences (german: Fachhochschule Bielefeld), which offers 21 courses in 8 different departments (agriculture and engineering are in

Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the greatest town between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district (''Kreis'') of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of Detm ...

) and has been internationally recognized for its photography school.

Demographics

Einwohnerentwicklung von Bielefeld - ab 1871

Politics

Mayor

The current Mayor of Bielefeld is Pit Clausen of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

(SPD), who was elected in 2009 and re-elected in 2014 and 2020. The most recent mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, with a runoff held on 27 September, and the results were as follows: ! rowspan=2 colspan=2, Candidate ! rowspan=2, Party ! colspan=2, First round ! colspan=2, Second round , - ! Votes ! % ! Votes ! % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Pit Clausen , align=left,

, 53,836 , 39.7 , 57,803 , 56.1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Ralf Nettelstroth , align=left, Christian Democratic Union , 39,782 , 29.3 , 45,246 , 43.9 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Kerstin Haarmann , align=left,

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens ...

, 16,903 , 12.5 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Jan Maik Schlifter , align=left, Free Democratic Party , 6,984 , 5.1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Onur Ocak , align=left, The Left , 5,503 , 4.1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Florian Sander , align=left,

Alternative for Germany Alternative for Germany (german: link=no, Alternative für Deutschland, AfD; ) is a right-wing populist * * * * * * * political party in Germany. AfD is known for its opposition to the European Union, as well as immigration to Germany. I ...

, 4,708 , 3.5 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Lena Oberbäumer , align=left,

Die PARTEI (''Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Animal Protection, Promotion of Elites and Grassroots Democratic Initiative''), or Die PARTEI (''The PARTY''), is a German political party. It was founded in 2004 by the editors of the German satirical magazi ...

, 2,799 , 2.1 , - , , align=left, Rainer Ludwig , align=left, League of Free Citizens , 1,612 , 1.2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Gordana Rammert , align=left,

Pirate Party Germany The Pirate Party Germany (german: Piratenpartei Deutschland), commonly known as Pirates (), is a political party in Germany founded in September 2006 at c-base. It states general agreement with the Swedish Piratpartiet as a party of the informa ...

, 1,206 , 0.9 , - , , align=left, Sami Elias , align=left, Alliance for Innovation and Justice , 1,204 , 0.9 , - , , align=left, Michael Gugat , align=left, Local Democracy in Bielefeld , 958 , 0.7 , - ! colspan=3, Valid votes ! 135,765 ! 99.4 ! 103,049 ! 99.4 , - ! colspan=3, Invalid votes ! 812 ! 0.6 ! 612 ! 0.6 , - ! colspan=3, Total ! 136,577 ! 100.0 ! 103,661 ! 100.0 , - ! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout ! 254,778 ! 53.6 ! 254,757 ! 40.7 , - , colspan=7, Source
State Returning Officer

City council

The Bielefeld 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: ! colspan=2, Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , 37,503 , 27.7 , 2.5 , 18 , 2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

(SPD) , 33,716 , 24.9 , 5.9 , 16 , 4 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

(Grüne) , 30,166 , 22.3 , 6.4 , 15 , 4 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Free Democratic Party (FDP) , 9,529 , 7.0 , 4.1 , 5 , 3 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Left (Die Linke) , 8,278 , 6.1 , 1.2 , 4 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

(AfD) , 4,630 , 3.4 , New , 2 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

(PARTEI) , 3,936 , 2.9 , New , 2 , New , - , , align=left, League of Free Citizens (BfB) , 2,161 , 1.6 , 6.9 , 1 , 5 , - , , align=left, Close to the Citizens (Bürgernähe) , 1,662 , 1.2 , 0.3 , 1 , ±0 , - , , align=left, Alliance for Innovation and Justice (BIG) , 1,339 , 1.0 , New , 1 , New , - , , align=left, Local Democracy in Bielefeld (LiB) , 1,284 , 0.9 , New , 1 , New , - , colspan=7 bgcolor=lightgrey, , - , , align=left, Independent Citizens' Forum (UBF) , 505 , 0.4 , New , 0 , New , - , , align=left, Citizens' Movement for Civil Courage (BBZ) , 444 , 0.3 , New , 0 , New , - , , align=left, Independent Jürgen Zilke , 13 , 0.0 , New , 0 , New , - ! colspan=2, Valid votes ! 135,166 ! 99.0 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Invalid votes ! 1,319 ! 1.0 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Total ! 136,485 ! 100.0 ! ! 66 ! ±0 , - ! colspan=2, Electorate/voter turnout ! 254,778 ! 53.6 ! 2.6 ! ! , - , colspan=7, Source
State Returning Officer

Transport

Two major ''

autobahn The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...

s'', the A 2 and A 33, intersect in the south east of Bielefeld. The ''Ostwestfalendamm'' expressway connects the two parts of the city, naturally divided by the Teutoburg Forest.

Bielefeld Hauptbahnhof Bielefeld Hauptbahnhof is the main station in the region of Ostwestfalen-Lippe, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is an important station because of the size of the city of Bielefeld and its location at the Bielefeld Pass, which ...

, the main railway station of Bielefeld, is on the

Hamm–Minden railway The Hamm–Minden Railway is an important and historically significant railway in Germany. It is completely quadruple track. It is a major axis for long distance passenger and freight trains between the Ruhr and the north and east of Germany. I ...

and is part of the German

ICE Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaq ...

high-speed railroad system. The main station for

intercity bus service An intercity bus service (North American English) or intercity coach service (British English and Commonwealth English), also called a long-distance, express, over-the-road, commercial, long-haul, or highway bus or coach service, is a public tr ...

s is Brackwede station. Bielefeld has a small airstrip, Flugplatz Bielefeld, in the

Senne Senne may refer to: Places * Senne (Germany), a natural region of Germany *Senne, a district of Bielefeld, Germany * Senne (river), a river of Belgium *Senné (disambiguation), places in Slovakia People with the name *Yōkō Senne, a 13th-centur ...

district but is mainly served by the three larger airports nearby,

Paderborn Lippstadt Airport Paderborn Lippstadt Airport (German: ''Flughafen Paderborn Lippstadt'') is a minor international airport in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe area in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. While the name implies a location within the city of Paderborn ...

Münster Osnabrück International Airport Münster Osnabrück International Airport , ''Flughafen Münster/Osnabrück'' in German, is a minor international airport in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located near Greven, north of Münster and south of Osnabrück. The ...

and

Hannover Airport Hannover Airport is the international airport of Hanover, capital of the German state of Lower Saxony. The ninth largest airport in Germany, it is in Langenhagen, north of the centre of Hanover. The airport has flights to European metropo ...

. Bielefeld boasts a well-developed public transport system, served mainly by the companies ''moBiel'' (formerly ''Stadtwerke Bielefeld – Verkehrsbetriebe'') and "BVO". The

Bielefeld Stadtbahn The Bielefeld Stadtbahn is a metre gauge light rail (i.e. ''Stadtbahn'') network in the German city of Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The system does include some segments built to rapid transit standards. It is operated by moBie ...

has four major lines and regional trains connect different parts of the city with nearby counties. Buses also run throughout the area.

Main sights

Sparrenburg Castle Sparrenberg Castle, also known as the Sparrenburg (german: Burg und Festung Sparrenberg or ''Sparrenburg''), is a restored fortress in the Bielefeld-Mitte district of Bielefeld, Germany. It is situated on the Sparrenberg hill ( altitude) in the T ...

is Bielefeld's characteristic landmark. It was built between 1240 and 1250 by Count Ludwig von Ravensberg. The tower and the catacombs of the castle are open to the public. The Old City Hall (''Altes Rathaus'') was built in 1904 and still serves the same function. Its façade reflects the so-called Weserrenaissance and features elements of various

architectural styles An architectural style is a set of characteristics and features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. It is a sub-class of style in the visual arts generally, and most styles in architecture relate closely ...

, including

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

and

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

. Though the mayor still holds office in the Old City Hall, most of the city's administration is housed in the adjacent New City Hall (''Neues Rathaus''). Sparrenburg innovative sights

The City Theatre (''Stadttheater'') is part of the same architectural ensemble as the Old City Hall, also built in 1904. It has a notable

Jugendstil ''Jugendstil'' ("Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German counterpart of ...

façade, is Bielefeld's largest theatre and home of the

Bielefeld Opera The Bielefeld Opera is the venue of Städtische Bühnen Bielefeld (Municipal stages Bielefeld) in Bielefeld, Germany. It is a ''Dreisparten Haus'' (three-department house), offering plays, music (opera, musical theatre), and ballet. The main pe ...

. Another theatre (''Theater am Alten Markt'') resides in the former

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

building on the Old Market Square (''Alter Markt''), which also contains a row of restored 16th and 17th-century townhouses with noteworthy late Gothic and

Weser Renaissance Weser Renaissance is a form of Northern Renaissance architectural style that is found in the area around the River Weser in central Germany and which has been well preserved in the towns and cities of the region. Background Between the star ...

style façades (''Bürgerhäuser am Alten Markt''). The oldest city church is ''Altstädter Nicolaikirche''. It is a Gothic

hall church A hall church is a church with a nave and aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was invented in the mid-19th century by Wilhelm Lübke, a pioneering German art historian. In contrast to an archi ...

with a height of . It was founded in 1236 by the

Bishop of Paderborn The Archdiocese of Paderborn is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany; its seat is Paderborn.carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...

can be heard. The most valuable treasure of this church is a carved altar from

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, decorated with 250 figures. A small museum housed within illustrates the history of the church up to World War II. The largest church is the ''Neustädter Marienkirche'', a Gothic hall church dating back to 1293, completed 1512. It stands tall and has a length of . Historically speaking, this building is considered to be the most precious possession of the town. It was the starting point of the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

in Bielefeld in 1553. A valuable wing-altar with 13 pictures, known as the ''Marienaltar'' is also kept inside. The

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

s were destroyed in World War II and later replaced by two unusually-shaped "Gothic" clocktowers. The altarpiece of the Bielefeld church ''Neustädter Marienkirche'' from around 1400 is among the most prominent masterpieces of artwork of the German Middle Ages. Two of the altarpieces, ''The Flagellation'' and ''The Crucifixion'' are now in the collection of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. Bielefeld is also the seat of the two largest

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

social welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

establishments (''Diakonie'') in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, the

and the ''Evangelisches Johanneswerk''. Other important cultural sights of the region are the art museum (Kunsthalle), the Rudolf-Oetker-Halle concert hall, and the city's municipal

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

( Botanischer Garten Bielefeld). Bielefeld is home to the widely known

Bielefelder Kinderchor Bielefelder Kinderchor is a children's choir founded in 1932 in Bielefeld by Friedrich Oberschelp in 1932 and led by him until 1984, when his son Jürgen Oberschelp took over until 2016. The choir, the first mixed children's choir in Germany, has ...

, founded in 1932 by Friedrich Oberschelp as the first mixed children's choir in Germany. It became famous for its recordings and concerts of traditional German Christmas carols, filling the Rudolf-Oetker-Halle several times each season. Foreign tours have taken the choir to many European countries, and also the U.S. and Japan. On Hünenburg there is an

observation tower An observation tower is a structure used to view events from a long distance and to create a full 360 degree range of vision to conduct long distance observations. Observation towers are usually at least tall and are made from stone, iron, an ...

, next to a

radio tower Radio masts and towers are typically tall structures designed to support antennas for telecommunications and broadcasting, including television. There are two main types: guyed and self-supporting structures. They are among the tallest human-made ...

Sport

Bielefeld is home to the professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team

DSC Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia offers the sports of ...

. Currently a member of 1. Bundesliga in the 2020–2021 season, the club plays at the SchücoArena stadium in the west of the town centre. Bielefeld is home to the Radrennbahn Bielefeld bike racing track.

Notable people

Born before 1900

* Johann Christoph Hoffbauer (1766–1827), philosopher

* Christian Friedrich Nasse (1778–1851), psychiatrist *

August Krönig August Karl Krönig (; 20 September 1822 – 5 June 1879) was a German chemist and physicist who published an account of the kinetic theory of gases in 1856, probably after reading a paper by John James Waterston. Biography Krönig was born i ...

(1822–1879), chemist and physicist *

Friedrich von Bodelschwingh, Senior Friedrich Christian Carl von Bodelschwingh (* 6 March 1831 in Tecklenburg; † 2 April 1910 in Bielefeld-Bethel), better known as Friedrich von Bodelschwingh the Elder, was a German theologian and politician. He is remembered as the founder of th ...

(1831–1910), second boss of the "Evangelischen Heil- und Pflegeanstalt für Epileptische" (Protestant Sanatorium for Epileptics) (1874 renamed into "Bethel") * Friedrich von Bodelschwingh (1877–1946) (named after F. v. Bodelschwingh Senior), Protestant theologian, third boss of the von Bodelschwinghsche Anstalten (later renamed into von Bodelschwinghsche Stiftungen) *

Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe; December 28, 1888March 11, 1931) was a German film director, producer and screenwriter. He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at th ...

(1888–1931), German film director Stenner Hermann Museumsberg Flensburg Hans-Christansen-Haus

* Hermann Stenner (1891–1914), early Expressionist painter

Born 1900–1950

Erich Consemüller Erich Consemüller (10 October 1902 — 11 April 1957) was a German photographer and architect who studied and taught at Bauhaus art school. He worked alongside the photographer Lucia Moholy documenting life at the Bauhaus. Early life Consemülle ...

(1902–1957), Bauhaus-trained architect and photographer * Heinz Klingenberg (1905–1959), actor *

Horst Wessel Horst Ludwig Georg Erich Wessel (9 October 1907 – 23 February 1930) was a Berlin ''Sturmführer'' ("Assault Leader", the lowest commissioned officer rank) of the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA), the Nazi Party's stormtroopers. After his killing in 1 ...

(1907–1930), SA leader, author of the Horst-Wessel-Song Friedrich von Bodelschwingh

Hermann Paul Müller Hermann Paul Müller (21 November 190930 December 1975) was a German sidecar, motorcycle, and race car driver. Müller started his competitive career on an Imperia in 1928. He became German Sidecar Champion in 1932, then in 1936, he took the Ge ...

(1909–1975), racing driver *

Veronica Carstens Veronica Carstens (born Prior; 18 June 1923 – 25 January 2012) was the wife of the German President Karl Carstens.Karl Carstens Karl Carstens (, 14 December 1914 – 30 May 1992) was a German politician. He served as the president of West Germany from 1979 to 1984. Early life and education Carstens was born in the City of Bremen, the son of a commercial school teacher, ...

Hajo Meyer Hajo Meyer (born Hans Joachim Gustav Meyer; 12 August 1924 – 23 August 2014) was a German-born Dutch physicist, Holocaust survivor and political activist. While primarily known for his public commentaries in terms of the European Jewish communi ...

(1924–2014), German-Dutch physicist and author *

Werner Lueg Werner Lueg (16 September 1931 – 13 July 2014) was a West Germany, West German middle distance runner who equalised Lennart Strand's and Gunder Hägg's 1500 m world record in 3:43.0 min in Berlin in 1952. Along with Otto Peltzer he is th ...

(1931–2014), athlete *

Rüdiger Nehberg Rüdiger Nehberg, also known as 'Sir Vival', (4 May 1935 – 1 April 2020) was a German human rights activist, author and survival expert. He was the founder and chairman of the anti- FGM organization TARGET, and chairman of the organizations Fri ...

(1935–2020), survival expert and activist for human rights *

Christian Tümpel Christian Tümpel (1937–2009) was a German art historian active in the Netherlands. Tümpel was born in Bielefeld. He first studied theology and philosophy before continuing his education at Heidelberg in art history and archeology, receiving h ...

(1937–2009), art historian *

Klaus Hildebrand Klaus Hildebrand (born 18 November 1941, Bielefeld, Germany) is a German liberal-conservative historian whose area of expertise is 19th–20th-century German political and military history. Biography Hildebrand is an intentionalist on the ori ...

(born 1941), historian * Klaus Kobusch (born 1941), cyclist *

Hannes Wader Hannes Wader (born Hans Eckard Wader on 23 June 1942) is a German singer-songwriter (" Liedermacher"). He has been an important figure in German leftist circles since the 1970s, with his songs covering such themes as socialist and communist resis ...

(born 1942), musician and songwriter *

Bernhard Schlink Bernhard Schlink (; born 6 July 1944) is a German lawyer, academic, and novelist. He is best known for his novel '' The Reader'', which was first published in 1995 and became an international bestseller. He won the 2014 Park Kyong-ni Prize. Ear ...

(born 1944), professor of jurisprudence and author *

Ulrich Wessel The Red Army Faction (RAF) existed in West Germany from 1970 to 1998, committing numerous crimes, especially in the autumn of 1977, which led to a national crisis that became known as the "German Autumn". The RAF was founded in 1970 by Andreas ...

(1946–1975), member of the

Red Army Faction The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970. The ...

Aleida Assmann Aleida Assmann (born Aleida Bornkamm, 22 March 1947) is a German professor of English and Literary Studies, who studied Egyptology and whose work has focused on cultural anthropology and Cultural and Communicative Memory. Life Born Aleida Bornk ...

(born 1947), anglist, egyptologist and literary and cultural scientist *

Irmgard Möller Irmgard Möller (born 13 May 1947) is a former member of the German group the Red Army Faction (RAF). Her father was a high school teacher, and before joining the RAF, she was a student of German studies. RAF activity *On 12 May 1972, Möller ...

(born 1947), member of the Red Army faction * Johannes Friedrich (born 1948), Lutheran Protestant theologian *

Hans-Werner Sinn Hans-Werner Sinn (born 7 March 1948) is a German economist who served as President of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research from 1999 to 2016. He currently serves on the German economy ministry’s advisory council. He is Professor Emeritus ...

(born 1948), economist and president of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research

Born 1951 and later

Richard Oetker Richard Oetker (born 4 January 1951) is a German billionaire heir and businessman, who in 2010 became CEO of multinational food processing company Dr. Oetker. In 1976 he was kidnapped by Dieter Zlof, a Slovene-born mechanic, and only released af ...

(born 1951), entrepreneur

Michael Diekmann Michael Diekmann (born December 23, 1954) is a German manager who served as the CEO of Allianz in between 2003 and 2015. Early life and education Diekmann knew early that the family construction business would go to his twin brother, who was mo ...

(born 1954), chief executive officer of

Allianz SE Allianz ( , ) is a German multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management. The company is one of the world's largest insurers and financial services groups. Th ...

Annette Groth Annette Groth (born 16 May 1954 in Bielefeld) is a German politician from Baden-Wuerttemberg. Career From 1974 to 1979, she studied at the Free University of Berlin, in development sociology, economics and business administration and interna ...

(born 1954), politician (The Left) *

Erich Marks Erich Marks (born June 22, 1954, in Bielefeld) is a German educationalist and the managing director of thCrime Prevention Council of Lower Saxony Furthermore, he is the managing director of the German Foundation for Crime Prevention and Offender S ...

(born 1954), educator * Christina Rau (born 1956), political scientist and widow of the Federal President

Johannes Rau Johannes Rau (; 16 January 193127 January 2006) was a German politician (SPD). He was the president of Germany from 1 July 1999 until 30 June 2004 and the minister president of North Rhine-Westphalia from 20 September 1978 to 9 June 1998. In the ...

* Klaus Tscheuschner (born 1956), Lord Mayor of the City of Flensburg *

Rolf Kanies Rolf Kanies (born 21 December 1957) is a German actor who played many high-profile roles on the stage before switching to a career in film and television in 1997. Since then Rolf has specialized in German and international film and television. M ...

(born 1957), film and theater actor *

Karoline Linnert Karoline Linnert (born 30 August 1958) is a German politician of the Alliance '90/The Greens. From 2007 Bremen state election, 2007 until 2019 Bremen state election, 2019, she served as Senator of Finance and Mayor of the city-state of Bremen (sta ...

(born 1958), politician (The Greens) *

Ingolf Lück Ingolf Lück (born 26 April 1958) is a German actor, comedian and television host. Lück was born in Bielefeld. He hosted several sketch comedy shows; the best known, '' Die Wochenshow'', aired on Sat.1 between 1996 and 2002. He also hosted ' ...

(born 1958), actor, synchronizer, presenter, comedian and director *

Hartmut Ostrowski Hartmut Ostrowski (born 25 February 1958 in Bielefeld) was CEO of Bertelsmann AG from 1 January 2008 until 31 December 2011, succeeding Gunter Thielen. Ostrowski studied business administration at Bielefeld University and joined Bertelsmann AG in ...

(born 1958), chief executive officer of Bertelsmann AG * Ralf Ehrenbrink (born 1960), versatility rider *

Hartmut Schick Hartmut Schick (born 16 October 1960) is a German musicologist and since 2001 professor at the Institute for Musicology of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Life Born in Herrenberg, Schick grew up mainly in Schwäbisch Hall, and from ...

(born 1960), musicologist *

Olaf Hampel Olaf Hampel (sometimes shown as Olav Hampel, born 1 November 1965) is a German bobsledder who competed during the 1990s. Competing in two Winter Olympics, he won gold medals in the four-man event in both 1994 and 1998. Hampel was also ...

(born 1965), bob driver *

Anja Feldmann Anja Feldmann (born 8 March 1966 in Bielefeld) is a German computer scientist. Education and career Feldmann studied computer science at Universität Paderborn and received her degree in 1990. She continued her studies at Carnegie Mellon Uni ...

(born 1966), computer scientist *

Oliver Welke Oliver Welke (born 19 April 1966) is a German television presenter, journalist, satirist, comedian and voice actor. Biography Welke was born in Bielefeld and studied journalism at the University of Münster, graduating in 1993. He then worke ...

(born 1966), author, comedian, sports journalist and moderator *

Ruediger Heining Ruediger Heining (* 1968 in Bielefeld, West Germany) is a German graduate economist and agricultural scientist. He is considered an expert on vocational education and development in South-West Europe and the Caucasus and since 2017 has been manag ...

(born 1968), agricultural scientist and economist * Ingo Niermann (born 1969), writer, journalist and artist *

Ingo Oschmann Ingo Oschmann (born 3 August 1969 in Bielefeld) is a German comedian, entertainer and stage magician who also works as a television presenter and actor. In 2003, he became the first comedian to win the final of ''Star Search'' in Germany. Career ...

(born 1969), comedian, entertainer and magician * Nina George (born 1973), writer and journalist *

Florian Panzner Florian Panzner (born 20 July 1976) is a German actor who has been active since 1999. Life and career Panzner studied at the University of Film and Television Potsdam-Babelsberg. In 2000, he played the role of Truffaldino in the comedy ''The S ...

(born 1976), actor *

Lisa Middelhauve Elisabeth Rodermund, known as Lisa Middelhauve (born Elisabeth Schaphaus on 28 November 1980) is a German musician, better known as the former lead vocalist and pianist (on the earliest works) of German symphonic metal band Xandria from early 2 ...

(born 1980), metal singer *

Lena Goeßling Lena Goeßling (born 8 March 1986) is a German former footballer. She played as a midfielder. Career Club Goeßling began her career at her local football club SV Löhne-Obernbeck. She later joined FC Gütersloh 2000, where she won the German U ...

(born 1986), women's

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player for

Germany women's national football team The Germany women's national football team (german: Deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft der Frauen) represents Germany in international women's football. The team is governed by the German Football Association (DFB). The German national team ...

and

VfL Wolfsburg (women) Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg, is a German Women's association football, women's football club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club is currently playing in the top division of Germany the Bundes ...

Aylin Tezel Aylin Tezel (; born 29 November 1983) is a German actress and dancer. She was born in Bünde. Her father is a Turkish-born medical doctor practicing in Bielefeld, Germany, and her mother is a nurse. She is a middle child, having an older sister ...

(born 1983), German actress *

Mieke Kröger Mieke Kröger (born 18 July 1993) is a German track and road racing cyclist, who rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam . Career After two years with the team, she rode for on the road in 2015. In November 2015, she was announced as part of the t ...

(born 1993), cyclist

Twin towns – sister cities

Bielefeld is twinned with: * Concarneau, France *

Estelí Estelí (), officially Villa de San Antonio de Pavia de Estelí is a city and municipality within the Estelí department. It is the 3rd largest city in Nicaragua due to the high urbanization of its municipality, at 83%, with an urban population of ...

, Nicaragua *

Nahariya Nahariya ( he, נַהֲרִיָּה, ar, نهاريا) is the northernmost coastal city in Israel. In it had a population of . Etymology Nahariya takes its name from the stream of Ga'aton (river is ''nahar'' in Hebrew), which bisects it. Hist ...

, Israel *

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

, England, United Kingdom *

Rzeszów Rzeszów ( , ; la, Resovia; yi, ריישא ''Raisha'')) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów has been the capital of the Subcarpathian Vo ...

, Poland *

Veliky Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ol ...

, Russia

References

External links

{{Authority control Members of the Hanseatic League