Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the German 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 politician * Karl Germer, Outer Head of Ordo Templi Orientis (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), 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,

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 (1869–1945), poet * Wilhelm Neumann-Torborg, 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 (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