Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

city of

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...

; 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 Leve ...

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

Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle L ...

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

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) 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 Repu ...

River; cf.

North Germanic The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also r ...

''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. They later moved to

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

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. The name of the county lives on in the modern ...

, becoming the Zionites, a fringe sect. In 1826

Friedrich Harkort Friedrich Harkort (February 22, 1793, Hagen - March 6, 1880), known as the "Father of the Ruhr," was an early prominent German industrialist and pioneer of industrial development in the Ruhr region.(29 December 2009)Friedrich Harkort - Vorbild u ...

, 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 The Wuppertaler Schwebebahn ("Wuppertal Suspension Railway") is a suspension railway in Wuppertal, Germany. Its original name was ("Eugen Langen Monorail Overhead Conveyor System"). It is the oldest electric elevated railway with hanging cars ...

, 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.

Notable people

Greta Bösel Greta Bösel (née Mueller) (9 May 1908 – 3 May 1947) was a trained nurse. Born in Elberfeld, Wuppertal-Elberfeld, Germany, she became a camp guard at Ravensbrück concentration camp, Ravensbrück in August 1944. Her rank at the camp was ''Arbe ...

(1908–1947), concentration camp guard executed for war crimes * Arno Breker, sculptor * Heinz Thilo, SS war criminal *

Werner Eggerath Werner Eggerath (16 March 1900, in Elberfeld – 16 June 1977, in East Berlin) was an East German author and communist politician. He was a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED / ''Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands'') ...

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

politician *

Karl Germer Karl Johannes Germer (22 January 1885 – 25 October 1962), also known as ''Frater Saturnus'', was a German occultist and the United States representative and later a successor of author and occultist Aleister Crowley as the Outer Head of the Ord ...

, Outer Head of the

Ordo Templi Orientis Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.; ) is an occult initiatory organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century. The origins of the O.T.O. can be traced back to the German-speaking occultists Carl Kellner, Heinrich Klein, Franz Hartmann and T ...

(1947-1962) *

Will Glahé Will Glahé (February 12, 1902 – November 21, 1989) was a German accordionist, composer, and bandleader. Glahé was born at Elberfeld, Germany. In the 1930s, he was, along with Heinz Munsonius and Albert Vossen, one of the most successf ...

, accordionist, composer, and bandleader *

Carl Grossberg Carl Grossberg, originally Georg Carl Wilhelm Grandmontagne (6 September 1894 – 19 October 1940) was a German painter associated with the New Objectivity movement; best known for his urban and industrial scenes. Biography He received his pri ...

, artist *

Theodor Hausmann Theodor Hausmann (9 December 1880 – 19 June 1972) was a German composer. Life Born in Elberfeld, Hausmann showed musical talent at the piano as a child. His strict Calvinist father, however, did not tolerate the performance of secular works an ...

(1880–1972), composer *

August von der Heydt August von der Heydt (15 February 1801 – 13 June 1874) was an influential German economist. Biography Von der Heydt was born in Elberfeld in the Duchy of Berg. During the Revolution of 1848 he was appointed as Minister to the newly cr ...

(1801-1874), economist *

Eduard von der Heydt Eduard Freiherr von der Heydt (September 26, 1882 – April 3, 1964) was a German and Swiss banker, art collector and patron. Biography He was born in Elberfeld, Germany and died in Ascona Switzerland. His collections were the basis for the ...

(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 Bezirk ...

, NSDAP Gauleiter of East Prussia, Reichskommissar of Ukraine * Hermann Friedrich Kohlbrugge, minister * Friedrich Wilhelm Krummacher, minister *

Johann Peter Lange Johann Peter Lange (; 10 April 1802 in Sonnborn (now a part of Wuppertal) – 9 July 1884, Bonn), was a German Calvinist theologian of peasant origin. Biography He was born at Sonnborn near Elberfeld, and studied theology at Bonn (from 1822) ...

, Protestant theologian *

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

(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 dis ...

, mathematician and physicist *

Sigurd Raschèr Sigurd Manfred Raschèr (pronounced 'Rah-sher') (15 May 190725 February 2001) was an American saxophonist born in Germany. He became an important figure in the development of the 20th century repertoire for the classical saxophone. Early life ...

, saxophonist * Paul Ortwin Rave, art historian and director of the Berlin National Gallery *

Fritz Roeber Fritz Roeber (15 October 1851, Elberfeld – 15 May 1924, Düsseldorf) was a German illustrator, lithographer and history painter, associated with the Düsseldorfer Malerschule. As Director of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, he carried out some si ...

(1851-1924), painter *Sir Hans Wolfgang Singer, economist * Johannes Steele (1908-1988), journalist *

Horst Stein Horst Walter Stein (born 2 May 1928 in Elberfeld, Germany; died 27 July 2008 in Vandœuvres, Switzerland) was a German conductor. Biography Stein's father was a mechanic. At school in Frankfurt, he studied piano, oboe, and singing. Later, ...

(1901-1989), conductor *

Horst Tappert Horst Tappert (26 May 1923 – 13 December 2008) was a German film and television actor best known for the role of Inspector Stephan Derrick in the television drama ''Derrick''. Biography Horst Tappert was born on 26 May 1923 in Elberfeld ...

(1923-2008), actor *

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 co ...

(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