Leverkusen

Leverkusen
Morsbroich Castle
Morsbroich Castle
Coat of arms of Leverkusen
Leverkusen is located in Germany
Leverkusen
Coordinates
Administration
Country Germany
State North Rhine-Westphalia
Admin. region Cologne
District Urban district
Mayor Reinhard Buchhorn (CDU)
Governing parties CDUSPD / Bürgerliste
Basic statistics
Area 78.85 km2 (30.44 sq mi)
Elevation 60 m  (197 ft)
Population 160,593 (31 December 2009)[1]
 - Density 2,037 /km2 (5,275 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate LEV
Area codes 0214, 02171 & 02173
Website www.Leverkusen.de/English

Leverkusen is a county-level city in Southern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The city is geographically a part of the Bergisch Land and belongs to the same Rhineland. It is located on the eastern bank of the Rhine, half way between Cologne and Düsseldorf. The Middle center northeast of Cologne one of the smaller Cities of the country and has about 161 000 inhabitants. Leverkusen gained popularity especially in the group Bayer AG and the sports club Bayer 04 Leverkusen.

Contents

History

Dating to the 12th century as Wiesdorf, the Leverkusen area was rural until the late 19th century.

Chemical facility
In 1860, Wiesdorf was chosen by the apothecary Carl Leverkus for establishing a dye factory. The factory was taken over by the Bayer company in 1891. The company moved its office to Wiesdorf in 1912, turning the town into the centre of German chemical industry. In World War II, the Bayer (Standard Oil/IG Farben) plant [1] was bombed on August 22, 1943,[2] and during the Battle of Berlin (air) on November 19/20 and December 10/11, 1943.

Leverkusen was founded in 1930 by merging Wiesdorf, Schlebusch, Steinbüchel and Rheindorf. In 1975, Opladen (including Lützenkirchen since 1930), Hitdorf and Bergisch Neukirchen joined. The present city is made up of several villages, originally called Wiesdorf, Opladen, Schlebusch, Lützenkirchen, Steinbüchel, Rheindorf and Bergisch-Neukirchen.

Main sights and places of interest

Japanese Garden in front of the Bayer tower


International relations

BayArena

Leverkusen is twinned with:

Notable people

References

  1. "Amtliche Bevölkerungszahlen" (in German). Landesbetrieb Information und Technik NRW. 31 December 2009. http://www.it.nrw.de/statistik/a/daten/amtlichebevoelkerungszahlen/index.html. 
  2. More informations and a video about the plans of the media sculpture: http://www.annualreport2007.bayer.com/en/Bayer-tower.aspx
  3. "Twin towns". www.ouka.fi. http://www.ouka.fi/kansainvalisyys/english/ystavyyskaupungit.html. Retrieved 2009-11-07. 
  4. (Bracknell Town, part of the Bracknell Forest local authority twinned with Opladen in 1973, Opladen then incorporated with Leverkusen in 1975
  5. "Profit Over Life". The Nuremberg Pharma Tribunal. http://www.profit-over-life.org/rolls.php?roll=95&pageID=33&expand=no. Retrieved tbd. 

Literature