Kaiserswerth is one of the oldest quarters of the City of

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

, part of Borough 5. It is in the north of the city and next to the river

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

. It houses the where

Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during th ...

worked. Kaiserswerth has an area of , and 7,923 inhabitants (2020).

History

About the year 700 the monk Saint Suitbert founded a

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...

at Werth, a

river island River Island (stylised as RiverIsland and abbreviated as RI) is a London-based, multi-channel fashion brand, founded in 1948 by Bernard Lewis (entrepreneur), Bernard Lewis. The retailer has a presence in over 125 of worldwide markets, in stores ...

that formed an important crossing point of the

. The abbey was destroyed 88 years later. On that area there is now the "Erzbischöfliches Suitbertus- Gymnasium", an archiepiscopal secondary school with the old chapel and parts of the abbey. The former monastery garden is a meeting point for the upper school between lesson times. The

Kaiserpfalz The term ''Kaiserpfalz'' (, "imperial palace") or ''Königspfalz'' (, "royal palace", from Middle High German ''phal ne'' to Old High German ''phalanza'' from Middle Latin ''palatia'' luralto Latin ''palatium'' "palace") refers to a number o ...

which is a general term for a temporary seat of the Holy Roman Emperor was built at an unknown date but before the year 1016. In 1062, the

archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, Anno II, kidnapped the underage German King Heinrich IV from here and in this way obtained the unofficial regency of the Holy Roman Empire. At this time the island's name changed from Werth to Kaiserswerth. In 1174, Friederick I Barbarossa moved the Rhine customs collection to Kaiserswerth. The eastern branch of the Rhine around the island silted up connecting Kaiserswerth to the east bank of the river. In 1273, the emperor pledged Kaiserswerth to the Archbishop of Cologne forming a de facto enclave within the Duchy of Jülich-Berg. In 1591, Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld was born in Kaiserswerth. Due to its strategic position the town changed regularly. The town was captured in 1586 during the Cologne War, and then occupied by the Spanish from 1589 to 1592. In 1636 the town was captured again by the forces of

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

. When in 1688 the Elector of Cologne made an alliance with

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

during the War of the Grand Alliance he gave the French access to the Rhine crossing at Kaiserswerth. This caused the Dutch and

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

to lay siege to the town in the June 1689. The French garrison surrendered at the end of the month when their supplies were destroyed by fire. The French reoccupied Kaiserswerth in 1701 during the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish E ...

and the Allies laid siege to it again in 1702. After a long and hard struggle the town surrendered and the Alliance decided to demolish the fortifications. In the 19th century Kaiserswerth was chiefly noted for its deaconess clinic, founded by local pastor Theodor Fliedner.

worked there for some months meeting Paulina Irby. Another noted student was the Swedish Maria Cederschiöld, a pioneer of nursing in her country.A Maria Cederschiöld, urn:sbl:14717, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (art av O. Centerwall.), hämtad 2015-03-10. In both World Wars there was a great military hospital in Kaiserswerth. Kaiserswerth became a part of Düsseldorf in 1929.

Art in Kaiserswerth

Since 2001 an old school is home to the ″Kaiserswerth art archive″ (Kunstarchiv Kaiserswerth). Under the roof of Museum Kunstpalast the archive presents works of the collector Volker Kahmen, which mainly contains paintings by Bruno Goller who was Professor of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, and works of the photo-artists Bernd and Hilla Becher with their pioneering photography. In 2014 the sculptor Peter Schwickerath created the

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

″Im Kontext″ situated next to the Ruin of the Kaiserpfalz.

Education

Kaserswerth is home to the Theodor Fliedner Gymnasium, one of Germany's largest proestant schools.

Infrastructure

Kaiserswerth is connected to the central stations and the central districts of the cities of Düsseldorf and Duisburg by the metropolitan railway line U 79. There are some bus lines to other parts of Düsseldorf, to Mettmann,

Krefeld Krefeld ( , ; ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, its c ...

, Ratingen and Düsseldorf Airport. There is a ferry crossing the Rhine over to Meerbusch

Bibliography

* Christa-Maria Zimmermann / Hans Stöcker (Hrsg.), Edmund Spohr: ''Kayserswerth, 1300 Jahre, Heilige, Kaiser, Reformer''. Herausgegeben im Auftrag der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf, Kulturamt. 2. durchgesehene Auflage. Triltsch Verlag, Düsseldorf 1981,

References

External links

Wir Kaiserswerther e.V.

Kaiserswerth Aktuell

Kaiserswerther Diakonie

Websites from Düsseldorf-Kaiserswerth on Duesselgo.de

News and information about Hedda and Herbert Eulenberg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dusseldorf-Kaiserswerth Kaiserswerth Tourist attractions in Düsseldorf History of Düsseldorf Former municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia