Bielefeld
Bielefeld is a city in
North Rhine-Westphalia,
Germany. It is located at
52° N, 8.5 E on both the western and eastern slopes of the
Teutoburg Forest. Population: 329,000. The current mayor is Eberhard David.
The name
Bielefeld is derived from the old name
bileveld, which means "hilly field". The city separates the two main ridges of the Northern and Southern Teutoburg Forest from each other. The centre of Bielefeld is situated on the eastern side of the Teutoburg Forest, but the modern city incorporates boroughs on the opposite side and on the hilltops.
Bielefeld was founded in
1214 by Count Hermann IV von Ravensberg in order to guard a pass crossing the Teutoburg Forest. A great castle, the
Sparrenburg, was built in the middle of the
medieval town - it remained impregnable through the
Middle Ages. The castle no longer looks as it did in the medieval period: it decayed during the
18th and
19th centuries and was restored in
1879.
In the
15th century Bielefeld was a minor member of the
Hanseatic League. Later it began to trade in
linen and indeed became famous as "the town of linen". Major industries in Bielefeld currently include
food processing,
home appliance manufacture,
information technology, and various
heavy industries. Bielefeld is also the seat of the two largest
Protestant social welfare establishments (
Diakonie) in
Europe, the
von Bodelschwingsche Anstalten Bethel and the
Evangelisches Johanneswerk.
Bielefeld has had a
university since
1969. Among its first professors was the notable contemporary German sociologist
Niklas Luhmann. Other institutions of higher education in Bielefeld are the
Theological Seminary Bethel (Kirchliche Hochschule Bethel) and a
Fachhochschule (see
Fachhochschule). Among important cultural institutions for the region and beyond are the
art museum (Kunsthalle) and the Rudolf Oetker concert hall (
Rudolf-Oetker-Halle).
In
1973 the first villages on the opposite side of the Teutoburg Forest were incorporated. The current districts of the city are:
Bielefeld-Mitte (downtown),
Brackwede,
Dornberg,
Gadderbaum,
Heepen,
Jöllenbeck,
Quelle,
Schildesche,
Senne,
Sennestadt,
Stieghorst, and
Ummeln.
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Subway system in Bielefeld |
Two major
autobahns, the A2 and A33, intersect at the south east of Bielefeld. The
Ostwestfalen-Damm expressway connects the two parts of the city naturally divided by the Teutoburg Forest. The main railroad station of Bielefeld is part of the German
ICE high-speed railroad system. Bielefeld has a small
airstrip in the Senne district, but is mainly served by the two larger airports nearby,
Paderborn-Lippstadt and
Münster-Osnabrück.
Bielefeld has a well developed public transport system, served mainly by the companies
moBiel (formerly
Stadtwerke Bielefeld - Verkehrsbetriebe) and
BVO. Beside buses, there is a subway system with 4 major subway lines and also local overland trains connecting different parts of the city and nearby counties.
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Old City Hall (Altes Rathaus) |
The castle Sparrenburg is the best known landmark and the emblem of Bielefeld. It was built between
1240–
1250 by Count Ludwig von Ravensberg. The 37
m (121
ft) high tower and the catacombs of the castle are open to the public.
The
Old City Hall (
Altes Rathaus) was built in
1904 and is today the seat of the mayor of the city. On its facade can be found various
architectural styles, including elements of the
Gothic style and of the
Renaissance. Most of the city's current administration operates from the neighboring
New City Hall (
Neues Rathaus).
The
City Theater (
Stadttheater) is part of the same constructional unit as the Old City Hall, and was also built in
1904. It has a notable
Jugendstil facade. It is the biggest theater in the city.
The
Altstädter Nicolaikirche is the oldest city church of Bielefeld. It is a Gothic
hall church with a height of 81.5 m (267 ft) which has existed in its current form since
1340. The church was founded in
1236 by the Bishop of
Paderborn, and was enlarged at the beginning of the 14th century. Three times a day, a
carillon can be heard. The most valuable treasure of this church is a carved altar from
Antwerp, decorated with 250 carved figures. The building includes a small museum, showing the history of the church up to World War II.
The city's second biggest church is the
Neustädter Marienkirche, an early Gothic hall church dating from
1293. It has a height of 78 m (256 ft) and a length of 52 m (161 ft). In terms of
art history, this building is considered the most precious in the city. It was the starting point of the
Protestant Reformation in Bielefeld in
1553. The church has a valuable wing-altar with 13 pictures, known as the
Marienaltar. The original
baroque spires were destroyed in World War II, and were replaced by two Gothic spires with an unusual spiky shape.
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Regional Superior Court in Bielefeld |
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Stadium "Schüco-Arena" (traditional: "Alm") |
*The original name of the Teutoburg Forest was
Osning. During the rise of German nationalism around 1848/1849, people became aware of the reference in
Tacitus's
Annals I 60, which refers to a defeat of the Roman army at
saltus Teutoburgiensis. The similarity resulted in the renaming for "patriotic" reasons, while the actual place was about 40 km (25 miles) north, near
Osnabrück. The details of what is known as the
Varus Battle are currently subject to archaeological debates.
*The altarpiece of the Bielefeld church
Neustädter Marienkirche from around 1400 is among the most prominent masterpieces of artwork of the German Middle Ages. Two of the altarpieces,
The Flagellation and
The Crucifixion are now in the collection of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York.
*Being a strategically highly important point of the traffic connection between
Ruhrgebiet and
Berlin, the ten tonne
Grand Slam bomb, the largest conventional bomb of
World War II, was dropped by the
No. 617 Squadron of the British
Royal Air Force on the railroad viaduct of Bielefeld shortly before Germany surrendered. The viaduct has been rebuilt with a different design.
*Among German
netizens, especially on the
Usenet, a running gag is the claim that Bielefeld does not exist. This is known as the "
Bielefeld-Verschwörung".
*It is twinned with
Concarneau,
France*
Official Bielefeld homepage*
Live webcam of the central plaza Jahnplatz of Bielefeld*
Deutsche Welle - Conspiracy Theory: Bielefeld does not exist
