| Wolfsburg | |
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Wolfsburg
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| Coordinates | |
| Administration | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Lower Saxony |
| District | Urban district |
| Town subdivisions | 17 Ortschaften, 40 Stadtteile |
| Lord Mayor | Klaus Mohrs (SPD) |
| Basic statistics | |
| Area | 204.02 km2 (78.77 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 63 m (207 ft) |
| Population | 121,451 (31 December 2010)[1] |
| - Density | 595 /km2 (1,542 /sq mi) |
| Other information | |
| Time zone | CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) |
| Licence plate | WOB |
| Postal codes | 38400–38448 |
| Area codes | 05361, 05362, 05363, 05365, 05366, 05367, 05308 |
| Website | www.Wolfsburg.de |
Wolfsburg is an urban district and the sixth largest major city in the Lower Saxony area in the North of Germany. It is located on the River Aller northeast of Braunschweig (Brunswick). Wolfsburg is bordered by the districts of Gifhorn and Helmstedt. Germany's capital city, Berlin, is located about 230 kilometers East of Wolfsburg.
The city is world famous as the main headquarters of the Volkswagen AG and was one of the few German cities built during the first half of the 20th century. In 1972 the population first exceeded the mark of 100,000 which made Wolfsburg a major city. From its foundation on 1 July 1938 until 25 May 1945 the city was called "Stadt des KdF-Wagens near Fallersleben". It was meant to be the domicile for the workers of the Volkswagen factory which should produce the "KdF-Wagen" (VW Beetle).
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Wolfsburg is located at the Southern edge of the ancient river valley of the Aller at the Mittellandkanal (Midland Canal).
The total annual precipitation is about 532 mm (21 in) which is quite low as it belongs to the lowest tenth of the measured data in Germany. Only 7% of all observation stations of the Deutscher Wetterdienst (German Weather Service) record lower data. The driest month is October, most precipitation is measured in June where observation stations measure 1.9 times more precipitation than in October. Precipitation hardly diversifies and is constantly distributed all over the year. Only 17% of observation stations measure lower annual deviation.
The city of Wolfsburg is organized into 40 districts. One or more districts make up one of the total of 16 localities which are represented by their own councils. Every council has a local official as its mayor.
First the councils were only established in the 11 localities suburbanized in 1972. They partly took over the functions of the former town councils of each of the districts. In 1991 and 2001 some of the localities were split into smaller areas so that today there are 16 localities, each with its own council which are directly voted by the citizens.
The only exception from this organization is the Allerpark (Aller Park), a local recreation area extending around a lake called the Allersee, and the area of the Volkswagen factory which are both located in the central area of the city.
The administrative area of Wolfsburg includes six nature reserves. Five of them are located in the ancient Aller river valley.
In 1302 the castle "Wolfsburg" was first mentioned in a document as the domicile of the noble lineage of Bartensleben. At the beginning this used to be a keep next to the Aller which obtained its well-fortified character as a moat not until later centuries. In 1372 the first documentary reference to the Burg Neuhaus (castle of Neuhaus) near Wolfsburg followed. After the extinction of the noble lineage of Bartensleben in 1742 the property, including the Schloss Wolfsburg (Wolfsburg Castle), was passed on to the Earls of the Schulenburg. The communal manor was an important employer for the near-by settlements Rothenfelde and Heßlingen.
Some of today's urban districts, including Heßlingen, used to belong to the Duke of Magdeburg during the 18th century. It was not until 1932 that these districts were outsourced from the Prussian province Saxony and integrated in the administrative district of Lüneburg belonging to Hannover. Other urban districts, like Vorsfelde and the villages transferred to Wolfsburg from the county of Helmstedt, belonged to the later Duke of Braunschweig (Brunswick) for centuries. Fallersleben and other villages belonged to the Electorate of Braunschweig - Lüneburg or the Kingdom of Hannover.
Wolfsburg was founded on 1 July 1938 as the Nazis' Stadt des KdF-Wagens bei Fallersleben (English: City of the KdF Car at Fallersleben), a planned town around the village of Fallersleben in order to house the workers of the newly opened Volkswagen factories, which were built to assemble the Volkswagen Beetle "people's car" and remain there today, although Beetle production finished there in 1978 (when it was transferred to Mexico for the final 25 years).
During World War II, there were also military cars, airplanes and other military equipment built, mainly by forced workers and POWs at these factories. The train station of Wolfsburg was built on the order of Adolf Hitler in order to transport or receive prefabricated parts for military equipment.
Due to the urge of the British occupying power the city was renamed as Wolfsburg on 25 May 1945, after the castle of the same name located in the city, which was founded about 1300 on the bank of the Aller river. Today, there is another castle at the place, which was built after 1600. In 1951, Wolfsburg was separated from the District of Gifhorn, and became an urban district.
In 1955 the one-millionth VW-beetle was manufactured in Wolfsburg. This was celebrated with a gold-colored beetle whose chrome parts were highlighted with burnished beads. During the years of the economic miracle Wolfsburg experienced an enormous influx of immigrant workers, especially from Italy. In 1958 the city hall was inaugurated. In 1960 the Volkswagen GmbH (limited partnership with a limited liability) was changed into an AG (public limited company).
In the course of a land reform in Lower Saxony in 1972, 20 localities were suburbanized to the city through the so-called "Wolfsburg-Act". Thus the population exceeded the mark of 100,000 and so Wolfsburg gained the state of a major city with nearly 131,000 inhabitants. The expanse of the city grew from 35 to nearly 204 square kilometers. For the new suburbanized districts eleven directly voted councils with a mayor each were established. In 1973 the highest population of the city was reached with a number of 135,000.
With the A39, the city got a direct highway junction as a side road of the A2 (Oberhausen - Hannover - Werder) in 1982 and in 1988 the city became a university location for the University of Applied ScienceBraunschweig/ Wolfenbüttel(today: Ostfalia University of Applied Science) established a facility.
As a demonstration of sympathy for the 5th generation of the Volkswagen Golf the city of Wolfsburg welcomed visitors on the internet, on the official stationery and on every city limit sign with the name "Golfsburg" from 25 August to 10 October 2003. This campaign gained a nationwide reverberation in press, radio and TV broadcasting.
In the summer of 2009 Wolfsburg gained nationwide attention through the avail of the German soccer championship of the VfL Wolfsburg. The party was celebrated in the city center with about 100,000 people and was unique in the history of the city.
From about 1,000 inhabitants in 1938 the population of the city increased to 25,000 in 1950 and doubled to 50,000 until 1958. On 1st July 1972 the population of Wolfsburg first went beyond the mark of 100,000 because of the suburbanization of several villages which made Wolfsburg a major city. In 1973 the population reached its highest level in history with a number of 131,971. At the end of December 2010 121,451 people were registered to have their principal residence in Wolfsburg.
Head of the young "Stadt des KdF-Wagens" became the government assessor Karl Bock on enactment #145 of the chief president of the government of Lüneburg effective from 1st July 1938. His followers were also deployed by the government.
In 1946 the military government of the British zone of occupation established a communal constitution after British example. After this, the citizens had to vote a council which voted the mayor/ lord mayor as the leader and representative of the city who worked voluntarily. Besides, from 1946 on the council voted a full-time city director as the leader of the city council. In 2001 the dual leadership of the city council was abolished. Nowadays it is led by a full-time lord mayor who is as well the representative of the city. Since 2001 the lord mayor is directly voted by the citizens. The council still has its own chairperson who is voted by the constitutive conference of the council after every local election.
The council of the city is made up of the fractions of the different parties (47 seats) and the lord mayor with one seat. The lord mayor is head of administration, thus the superior of all employees of the city council. In his job the lord mayor is supported by four departmental heads that are voted by the council on his proposal. Together they make up the board of directors of the city administration where the most important decisions concerning administration are deliberated weekly.
Results of the local elections on 11. September 2011:[2]
| Party | Seats | Votes (%) | Votes |
|---|---|---|---|
| CDU | 14 | 31,6 % | 44.635 |
| SPD | 17 | 37,7 % | 53.355 |
| PUG | 5 | 11,9 % | 16.769 |
| Bündnis 90/Die Grünen | 5 | 9,9 % | 14.026 |
| FDP | 1 | 2,4 % | 3.326 |
| Wolfsburger Linke | 1 | 1,5 % | 2.106 |
| PIRATEN | 2 | 3,9 % | 5.528 |
| WTZ | 1 | 1,2 % | 1.673 |
| Lord mayor | 1 | – | – |
Voter participations: 49,4 %.
The emblem of Wolfsburg shows a silver two-tower castle with a closed gate on red ground over a green base with silver waved timbers. Over the battlement of the castle paces a golden wolf with a blue tongue. The flag of the city is green and white.
The emblem of the city of Wolfsburg was awarded by the Department of the Interior of Lower Saxony in 1952 after it had already been constituted in the association articles in 1947. In 1961 it was improved heraldically and newly awarded by the governmental executive committee of Lüneburg. The symbols of the wolf and the castle reflect the name of the city (canting arm) and do not have a historical, directly conveyed reference. The flag was already adopted in 1955.
The centre of Wolfsburg lacks historical buildings, and the sights include new attractions like the Autostadt (a huge open air museum dedicated to automobiles, owned and operated by Volkswagen), a planetarium, the Phaeno Science Center, the largest hands-on science museum in Germany, and an excellent private art museum (Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg) specialised in modern and contemporary art.
The old part of the town Alt Wolfsburg shows some manor buildings in traditional framework style.
With the opening in 2000 of Autostadt and that of Phaeno, as well as restaurants and a Ritz Carlton Hotel, tourism increased.
The main sights of Wolfsburg at www.wolfsburg.de
The city of Wolfsburg is a member of the association Braunschweigische Landschaft e.V. with a registered office in Braunschweig and in the Lüneburgischen Landschaftsverband e.V. with a registered office in Uelzen. These associations were founded to foster cultural establishments of the regions.
• The Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (Art museum Wolfsburg) is internationally renowned and has shown contemporary and modern international art since 1994
• The Städtische Galerie (Municipal Gallery), located in the Schloss Wolfsburg (castle of Wolfsburg) shows multifarious pieces of contemporary art
• The AutoMuseum Volkswagen was opened in an old textile factory in Heßlingen in 1985
• The Stadtmuseum Wolfsburg (Town Museum) is a modern museum with an exhibition about the history of the castle, the region and the city. It is located inside the castle of Wolfsburg.
• The Hoffmann-von-Fallersleben-Museum in the castle of Fallersleben shows the history of German poetry and democracy, especially focused on the life time of Hoffmann von Fallersleben between 1798 and 1874.
• The Heinrich-Büssing-Haus in Nordsteimke was opened on the initiative of the MAN-group in the house of Büssing's birth in 1988. It shows the life of Büssing and the development from craft to industry.
• The Burg Neuhaus (castle of Neuhaus) is a moat showing an exhibition of models of the castle and the water mill, late medieval weapons and documents concerning the life of people of the time before 1800.
• The Autostadt is besides the Disneyland in Paris the most frequented theme park in Europe. The topic is (auto) mobility.
• The Phæno is a science center with 250 experiment stations on an exhibition space of nearly 6,000 square meters. The architecturally uncommon construction was designed by Zaha Hadid.
• The Romantikpark Landleben (theme park Romantik Park Landleben) in Kästorf shows a historical Lower Saxon village combined with parks and restaurants.
• The Schloss Wolfsburg (castle of Wolfsburg), a Weser renaissance castle of the 13th century was first documented as the domicile of the noble lineage of Bartensleben in 1302. As the city is named after this castle, it is Wolfsburg's landmark.
• The Burg Neuhaus (castle of Neuhaus) is a medieval moat from the 14th century which has been owned by the city government since 1981.
• The Schloss Fallersleben (castle of Fallersleben) was completed in 1551. Since 1991 it has housed the Hoffmann-von-Fallersleben-Museum. The historic center of Fallersleben is worth a visit as well as the old brew house near the castle.
The most famous professional sports club in the town is VfL Wolfsburg, a football club that was established in 1945. They won the 2009 Fußball-Bundesliga. Ice hockey team EHC Wolfsburg Grizzly Adams,which since 2007 has made it to a leading position in the German ice-hockey league, is also based in the town. The Volkswagen Challenger tennis tournament has been held annually in the town since 1993.
Wolfsburg is twinned with the following towns:
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Wolfsburg has relationships with the following Association Cities:
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