Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

city of

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...

; it was an independent town until 1929.

History

The first official mentioning of the geographic area on the banks of today's

Wupper The Wupper () is a right tributary of the Rhine in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Rising near Marienheide in western Sauerland it runs through the mountainous region of the Bergisches Land in Berg County and enters the Rhine at Le ...

River as "''elverfelde''" was in a document of 1161. Etymologically, ''elver'' is derived from the old

Low German Low German is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language variety, language spoken mainly in Northern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands. The dialect of Plautdietsch is also spoken in the Russian Mennonite diaspora worldwide. "Low" ...

word for "river." (See etymology of the name of the German

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

River; cf. North Germanic ''älv''.) Therefore, the original meaning of "elverfelde" can be understood as "field on the river." Elverfelde received its town charter in 1610. In 1726, Elias Eller and a pastor, Daniel Schleyermacher, founded a

Philadelphian Society The Philadelphians, or the Philadelphian Society, were a 17th-century English dissenter group. They were organized around John Pordage (1607–1681), an Anglican priest from Bradfield, Berkshire, who had been ejected from his parish in 1655 bec ...

. They later moved to

Ronsdorf Ronsdorf is a district of the Germany, German city of Wuppertal. It has a population of about 22,500. Ronsdorf was first mentioned in 1494, and in 1745 it received its town charter. It was founded a few years earlier by Elias Eller when he relocated ...

in the

Duchy of Berg Berg () was a state—originally a county, later a duchy—in the Rhineland of Germany. Its capital was Düsseldorf. It existed as a distinct political entity from the early 12th to the 19th centuries. It was a member state of the Holy Roman Emp ...

, becoming the Zionites, a fringe sect. In 1826 Friedrich Harkort, a famous German industrialist and politician, had a type of suspension railway built as a trial and ran it on the grounds of what is today the tax office at Elberfeld. In fact the railway, the Schwebebahn Wuppertal, was eventually built between Oberbarmen and Vohwinkel and runs through Elberfeld. In 1888 the district of Sonnborn was incorporated into Elberfeld. In 1929 the towns of

Barmen Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which merged with four other towns in 1929 to form the city of Wuppertal. Barmen, together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the first electric ...

, Elberfeld, Vohwinkel, Cronenberg and Ronsdorf became a municipal entity officially called "Barmen-Elberfeld;" in the same year, the unified city administration through a vote of its council members decided to rename the newly incorporated city "Wuppertal." This took place in 1930. Today Elberfeld is the largest municipal subdivision of Wuppertal. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, forced laborers of the 3rd SS construction brigade were dispatched by the Nazis in Barmen-Elberfeld in 1943.

Notable people

Greta Bösel Greta Bösel (née Mueller) (9 May 1908 – 3 May 1947) was a Nazi Party, Nazi German Nursing, nurse and camp guard at Ravensbrück concentration camp. She was arrested and tried for her role in the Holocaust, found guilty of War crime, war crime ...

(1908–1947), concentration camp guard executed for war crimes *

Arno Breker Arno Breker (19 July 1900 – 13 February 1991) was a German sculptor who is best known for his public works in Nazi Germany, where he was endorsed by the authorities as the antithesis of degenerate art. He was made official state sculptor, ...

, sculptor * Heinz Thilo, SS war criminal * Werner Eggerath,

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

politician *

Karl Germer Karl Johannes Germer (22 January 1885 – 25 October 1962), also known as Frater Saturnus, was a German and American businessman and occultist. He served as the United States representative of Ordo Templi Orientis, and on the death of Aleister ...

, Outer Head of

Ordo Templi Orientis Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.; ) is an occult secret society and hermetic magical organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century. The origins of O.T.O. can be traced back to the German-speaking occultists Carl Kellner, Theodor Reuss, ...

(1947–1962) * Will Glahé, accordionist, composer, and bandleader * Carl Grossberg, artist * Theodor Hausmann (1880–1972), composer * August von der Heydt (1801–1874), economist * Eduard von der Heydt (1882–1964), banker *

Walter Kaufmann (physicist) Walter Kaufmann (June 5, 1871 – January 1, 1947) was a German physicist. He is best known for the first experimental proof of the velocity dependence of mass, which was an important contribution to the development of modern physics, including sp ...

, physicist *

Hans Knappertsbusch Hans Knappertsbusch (12 March 1888 – 25 October 1965) was a German conductor, best known for his performances of the music of Wagner, Bruckner and Richard Strauss. Knappertsbusch followed the traditional route for an aspiring conductor in Ger ...

, conductor *

Erich Koch Erich Koch (; 19 June 1896 – 12 November 1986) was a ''Gauleiter'' of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in East Prussia from 1 October 1928 until 1945. Between 1941 and 1945 he was Chief of Civil Administration (''Chef der Zivilverwaltung'') of Bezi ...

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

Gauleiter of East Prussia, Reichskommissar of Ukraine, convicted war criminal * Hermann Friedrich Kohlbrugge, minister * Friedrich Wilhelm Krummacher, minister * Johann Peter Lange, Protestant theologian *

Else Lasker-Schüler Else Lasker-Schüler (née Elisabeth Schüler) (; 11 February 1869 – 22 January 1945) was a German poet and playwright famous for her bohemian lifestyle in Berlin and her poetry. She was one of the few women affiliated with the Expressionist ...

(1869–1945), poet *

Wilhelm Neumann-Torborg Wilhelm Neumann-Torborg (born 24 August 1856 in Elberfeld; died 31 December 1917 in Elberfeld) was a German sculptor whose works are still well-known. Biography Wilhelm Neumann-Torborg grew up in Wuppertal, Germany, the son of a school headmast ...

, sculptor * Friedrich Philippi, historian *

Julius Plücker Julius Plücker (16 June 1801 – 22 May 1868) was a German mathematician and physicist. He made fundamental contributions to the field of analytical geometry and was a pioneer in the investigations of cathode rays that led eventually to the di ...

, mathematician and physicist * Eugene Plumacher (1838–1910), emigrant to the United States, diplomat * Sigurd Raschèr, saxophonist * Paul Ortwin Rave, art historian and director of the Berlin National Gallery * Fritz Roeber (1851–1924), painter *Sir Hans Wolfgang Singer, economist * Johannes Steele (1908–1988), journalist *

Horst Stein Horst Walter Stein (2 May 1928 – 27 July 2008) was a German conductor. Biography Stein was born in Elberfeld, Germany; his father was a mechanic. At school in Frankfurt, he studied piano, oboe, and singing. Later, he continued studies ...

(1901–1989), conductor * Horst Tappert (1923–2008), actor * Edward Thonen (1827-1854), emigrant to Australia, leader of

Eureka Rebellion The Eureka Rebellion was a series of events involving gold miners who revolted against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British administration of the Victoria (Australia)#Colonial Victoria, colony of Victoria, History of Au ...

Günter Wand Günter Wand (7 January 1912, in Elberfeld, Germany – 14 February 2002, in Ulmiz near Bern, Switzerland) was a German orchestra conductor and composer. Wand studied in Wuppertal, Allenstein and Detmold. At the Cologne Conservatory, he was a ...

(1912–2002), conductor * Carl Wirths (1897–1955), politician *

Sulamith Wülfing Sulamith Wülfing (January 11, 1901 – 1989) was a German artist and illustrator. The author Michael Folz explains that Wülfing's art was a "realistic reflection of the world she lives in: she has seen the angels and elfin creatures of her painti ...

, artist

References

{{Reflist Wuppertal Former municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia Districts of the Rhine Province

History

Notable people

See also

References