Wuppertal - Portrait of a CityThe photographic foray shows the many facets of the suspension
railway city. Large and small districts that have developed individually are strung together
from east to west due to their location in the valley of the Wupper and on the sometimes very
steep slopes of the relatively low mountain range. The bourgeois sense of technology and trade
created the world famous pioneering project of the suspension railway even before the merger of
Barmen and Elberfeld into the city of Wuppertal in 1929. Factories are still located on the
banks of the Wupper which flowed through a lovely meadow landscape in the 18th century. Rapid
population growth caused considerable social problems in the 19th century. The development of
the world's leading textile city with leading companies in the mechanical engineering and
chemical industries as well as the typical Wilhelminian neighbourhoods are still visible in the
cityscape despite considerable destructions in the Second World War. Civil initiatives for the
preservation of monuments have saved a lot of old buildings since the 1970s. The centre of
Elberfeld between the train station and the city has undergone major changes since the year
2000. The Comprehensive University which was founded in 1974 and is now the Bergisch University
gave the city a new face shaped by science design and media professions. The life of the city
is inconceivable without diverse often obstinate private initiative. This is how the 13
kilometre cycle path of the Nordbahntrasse on the former railway line in the north and the
successful popular Junior University were built. This portrait book shows a dynamic city in a
constant state of flux.
