It is located in the district ofSiegen-Wittgenstein in theArnsberg region. The university town (nearly 20,000 students in the 2018–2019 winter semester) is the district seat, and is ranked as a "higher centre" in the South Westphalian urban agglomeration.
In 1975, municipal reforms and amalgamations lifted Siegen's population above the 100,000 mark.
The city of Siegen lies in the basin of the upper reaches of the riverSieg. From there, lateral valleys branch off in many directions. The heights of the surrounding mountains, wherever they are not actually settled, are covered incoppice. To the north lies theSauerland, to the northwest theRothaargebirge and to the southwest theWesterwald.
The nearest cities to Siegen, taking into account average travelling distances, areHagen to the north 83 km (52 mi),Frankfurt am Main to the southeast 125 km (78 mi),Koblenz to the southwest 105 km (65 mi) andCologne to the west 93 km (58 mi).
As the crow flies the distances to these places are, however, 65 km (40 mi) (Hagen), 95 km (59 mi) (Frankfurt), 65 km (40 mi) (Koblenz) and 75 km (47 mi) (Cologne).
The city lies on the German-Dutch holiday road called theOrange Route, joining towns, cities and regions associated with theHouse of Orange.
The city's total land area is roughly 115 km2 (44 sq mi). Its greatest east-west span is about 12 km (7 mi), and its greatest north-south span is about 12 km (7 mi). City limits are 48 km (30 mi) long. Siegen lies at a median elevation of 290 m (951 ft) above sea level. The city's greatest elevation is the peak of the Pfannenberg at 499 m (1,637 ft)above sea level at southern city limits. Siegen's lowest point is 215 m (705 ft)above sea level at Niederschelden at southwestern city limits, which there also forms the state boundary withRhineland-Palatinate. Roughly 60% of the city's land is wooded, making Siegen one of Germany's greenest cities.
The city area is divided into six zones, calledBezirke in German and comparable to boroughs in some cities, which themselves are further divided into various communities (Ortsteile andStadtteile). Each "borough" has a borough board consisting of 15 voting and 15 non-voting members who are appointed by city council with regard to each party's share of the vote in the municipal elections in the borough in question. The borough boards decide on matters particular to their respective boroughs. These matters are laid down in Siegen's city charter.
Siegen's six boroughs and communities belonging to each boroughs are:
District I (Geisweid): Birlenbach, Meiswinkel, Langenholdinghausen, Geisweid, Dillnhütten, Sohlbach, Buchen, Niedersetzen, Obersetzen
District II (Weidenau): Weidenau
District III (Ost): Kaan-Marienborn, parts of Alt-Siegen (Giersberg), Bürbach, Volnsberg, Breitenbach, Feuersbach
District IV (Mitte): Alt-Siegen (Kernband(=City Centre), Lindenberg, Häusling, Winchenbach)
District V (West): Seelbach, Trupbach and parts of Alt-Siegen (Wellersberg, Fischbacherberg, Achenbach, Rothenberg)
District VI (Süd): Oberschelden, Gosenbach, Niederschelden, Eiserfeld, Eisern
Along with the boroughs and communities into which the city is divided, as mandated by law, there are also further subdivisions within the communities, each with its own name, but none with distinctly clear borders. They are calledQuartiere, which can be rendered as "quarters" or "neighbourhoods". Examples of these include the Unterstadt, the Oberstadt, Hammerhütte, Lindenberg, Charlottental, Haardter Berg (with the university) and the Alte Dreisbach. Some neighbourhoods even straddle community boundaries, like Sieghütte, parts of which can be found in both Siegen-Mitte and Weidenau. Moreover, some neighbourhoods even overlap each other. Unlike the boroughs (Bezirke) or communities (Ortsteile andStadtteile), theQuartiere have no statistical or administrative importance. They do, however, serve some function as to their inhabitants' identity, but more practically than that, they are also useful for finding one's way with a city map and using in bus route names and on public notices and traffic signs. Many of theHüttentalstraße city Autobahn's exits are also named after theQuartiere that they serve.
The communities of Weidenau, Geisweid, Birlenbach, Langenholdinghausen, Buchen, Sohlbach, Dillnhütten, Niedersetzen, Obersetzen and Meiswinkel formed from 1 July 1966 to 31 December 1974 the town of Hüttental. The communities of Eiserfeld, Eisern, Gosenbach, Niederschelden and Oberschelden formed the town of Eiserfeld between those same two dates.
The city of Siegen borders in the north on the town ofKreuztal and the community ofWenden, in the east on the town ofNetphen, in the southeast on the community ofWilnsdorf, in the south on the community ofNeunkirchen, in the west on the community ofMudersbach (Altenkirchen in Rhineland-Palatinate) and in the northwest on the town ofFreudenberg.
The name Siegen comes from the possiblyCeltic river name Sieg. It is, however, unclear whether there is any relation between this name and the Celtic-Germanic Sicambri (Ger.Sugambrer) people, who in pre-Christian times lived in parts of North Rhine-Westphalia. The first documentary mention of the place calledSigena dates from 1079. The city's history is markedly shaped by mining, which locally began as far back asLa Tène times. Bearing witness to this longtime industry are the many mines that can be found within city limits.
In 1224, Siegen is mentioned as a newly built town whose ownership was shared by the Count ofNassau, Heinrich the Rich, andEngelbert II of Berg,Archbishop of Cologne after the latter transferred one half of the ownership to the former. Moreover, there is proof that theOberes Schloss ("upper stately home") was already standing at this time. On 19 October 1303, the town was grantedSoester Stadtrecht, or Soest town rights. The town remained under the two overlords' joint ownership until 1 February 1381, only then passing fully into Nassau hands.
In the 16th century, the town of Siegen bore a formidable defensive look. It was surrounded by mighty walls with 16 towers and three town gates, and was home to a great castle. The town was stricken several times by townwide fires. Documents record such fires in 1592, and from 10 to 20 April 1695.
In 1536, Heinrich the Rich built a "paedagogium" in the buildings that had once housed aFranciscanMonastery. It later grew into today'sGymnasium at Siegen'sLöhrtor (gate).John VII of Nassau-Siegen ("John the Middle") built theUnteres Schloss ("lower stately home") on the site of an old Franciscan Monastery. In 1616, John VII founded a knightly war school in the still standing old armoury on Burgstraße, "expressly to produce an officer corps for Calvinism".[2]
His son John VIII ("The Younger") returned in 1612 to theRoman Catholic Church, and wanted to use force to make the townsfolk also convert back toRoman Catholicism. In 1632, Nassau-Siegen was conquered by the Swedes, after which his half-brotherJohn Maurice of Nassau-Siegen, the Dutch commander in Brazil, re-introduced Protestantism. John VIII died in 1638 and was succeeded by his only sonJohan Frans Desideratus, who had to cede part of Nassau-Siegen (north of the Sieg river) to the Protestant branch of the family.
John Maurice's leadership served in 1650–1651 to bring about a split in the Siegerland along denominational lines. Under Wilhelm Hyacinth of Nassau-Siegen, violence broke out between the two denominational groups. When on 29 March 1707 townsman Friedrich Flender was killed, Wilhelm Hyacinth was himself unseated and furthermore driven out of the town. Wilhelm Hyacinth was the last in the line of Nassau-Siegen's Catholic rulers, dying in 1743. Already in 1734, though, the Reformed line had died out, too, with Friedrich Wilhelm's death, leadingCharles VI, Holy Roman Emperor to transfer power in the territory to the Prince ofOrange and the Prince ofNassau-Diez. Under their leadership, mining, the main source of wealth, blossomed, along with agriculture andsilviculture. When Prince William of Orange refused to join theConfederation of the Rhine, founded byNapoleon, he found himself unseated by the French leader and the Siegerland passed to the Grand Duchy ofBerg. After Napoleon's downfall in 1813, however, William I regained his former German inheritances, but in 1815 he ceded them to theKingdom of Prussia for the Grand Duchy ofLuxembourg. Siegen was assigned to theSiegen district, first in theKoblenz region, and as of 1817 in theArnsberg region within the PrussianProvince of Westphalia.
Under Prussian rule, Siegen developed into the South Westphalian centre that it is today. On 1 March 1923, Siegen was set apart from the district bearing its name, and became adistrict-free town, while still keeping its function as seat of the district of which it was no longer part, and which was itself merged with Wittgenstein district under district reform in 1975. Siegen also lost its district-free status at this time, becoming part of the new Siegen-Wittgenstein district, the name that the district has borne since 1984.
During World War II, Siegen was repeatedly bombed by theAllies owing to a crucial railroad that crossed through the town. On 1 April 1945, the US8th Infantry Division began the Allied ground assault against Siegen and the dominating military-significant high ground north of the river. The battle against determined German forces at Siegen continued through 2 April 1945, until organized resistance was finally overwhelmed by the division on 3 April 1945.[3]
The town of Siegen belonged in the beginning to theArchbishopric of Mainz, or more precisely to its deaconry ofArfeld. There was a White Nunconvent in town that folded in the 15th century. Furthermore, there was aFranciscan Monastery that was dissolved in 1533 after the Nassau overlords had introduced theReformation in 1530. After that, the town was firstLutheran, but in 1550, the Principality of Nassau converted to the Reformed Church. Subsequently, Siegen was a predominantlyProtestant town, but not so strongly that theCounterreformation could not gain ground in 1623, with one fifth of the townsfolk and those living in the surrounding area becoming Catholic once again. As of 1626, there was once more a monastery in town, this time aJesuit one. After passing to Prussia in 1815, the union between Lutheran and Reformed churches was introduced in Siegen, as it was throughout Prussia, but the town's parishes kept their Reformed emphasis. As part of the Westphalian Provincial Church (now the Church of Westphalia), Siegen became the seat of a Superintendency. A similar entity still exists in Siegen, known as theKirchenkreis, or church district, to which all the city's parishes nowadays belong, unless they are Free Church parishes. This church district encompasses the whole of South Westphalia all the way toOlpe.
The town's Catholics, even after the Reformation, still belonged to theArchbishopric of Mainz. With the restructuring of the Catholic Church early in the 19th century, Siegen was assigned to theArchbishopric of Paderborn and became the seat of a districtsynod, today a deaconry, to which all the district's Catholic parishes belong. Paderborn was raised to Archbishopric in 1929.
Moreover, there are variousfree churches established in Siegen, among them several Evangelical Free Church parishes (Baptists), an Evangelical-Methodist Church, anIndependent Evangelical-Lutheran Church (SELK), aSeventh-day Adventist parish, several Free Evangelical parishes (FeG), the Achenbach Christian Community, the Christian Assembly,Calvary Chapel and the Siegen-Meiswinkel Mission Community.
Further religious communities in Siegen arethe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, theNew Apostolic Church, theJehovah's Witnesses, an Original Christianity community andBaháʼí. Moreover, owing to a great number of Turkish and Arab migrants in Siegen, the Muslim community is also very much in evidence there and there are several mosques in Siegen run by Turkish, Arab and Albanian communities. There are said to be more than 15,000 Muslims out of Siegen's total population.
In 1897, Siegen had 20,000 inhabitants. By 1939, this figure had doubled to 40,000. In the World War II, the town lost roughly 30% of its inhabitants (12,000). The population had fallen to 28,000 by 1945 and only in 1952 did it once again reach prewar levels.
On 1 January 1975, Siegen's population surpassed 100,000 through the amalgamation of Hüttental (38,867 inhabitants in 1974) and Eiserfeld (22,354 inhabitants in 1974), making it a city. With 117,224 inhabitants it also at the same time reached its all-time highest population. At the end of June 2005, according to the North Rhine-Westphalia State Office for Data Processing and Statistics (Landesamt für Datenverarbeitung und Statistik Nordrhein-Westfalen), 105,328 people made Siegen their main abode. Since 1975, the population has fallen by roughly 10% (12,000).
The following chart shows population figures for Siegen's municipal area, however big it was at each given time. Up to 1833, most figures are estimates, and thereafter census figures (¹) or official estimates by the statistical office of the time or the town/city administration itself. The given figures indicate from 1843 the "population present in the town" (Ort Anwesende Bevölkerung), from 1925 the "dwelling population" (Wohnbevölkerung), and since 1987 the "Population in the place of main residence" (Bevölkerung am Ort der Hauptwohnung). Before 1843, population figures come from irregular surveying procedures.
At the city's helm since the 13th century, there have been several mayors of whom evidence survives. In 1304 and 1305, a council ("consules") was mentioned for the first time. As early as 1224, however, documents mentionBurgmänner ("Castle Men") as well as threeBürgermeister ("Mayors") who were changed yearly. As of 1500, only two mayors were chosen every year. In the 18th century, theguilds were achieving ever greater influence in the town. Thereafter the "ruling" or "office-holding" oldshoemaking master represented the "common townsfolk" on the council. Themediaeval town charter was kept right up until 1809, and parts of it even held until 1815, but that year there was a self-endorsing council with 12 members, over which presided the mayor. As of 1824, the suburbs got their own chief administrator who was subordinate to the mayor of Siegen. In 1836, the Prussian municipal system was introduced. After the town was separated from Siegen district in 1923, the mayor was given the titleOberbürgermeister (roughly equivalent to Lord Mayor). The mayor who came to office in 1919 kept his position right through the time of theThird Reich, whereas some mayors in other German and Austrian towns, whose political views were at odds with theNazis', were removed forcibly.
After the Second World War, the military government of theBritish Zone of Occupation installed a new mayor, and in 1946 it introduced a new town charter based on a British model, leading to a "Council of the town" elected by the people, whose members were calledStadtverordnete (town councillors). In the beginning, the council chose one from its midst as the mayor as the town's head and representative, which was an honorary function. Furthermore, as of 1946, the council also began choosing a full-timeOberstadtdirektor, or Higher Town Director, to lead the town's administration.
After Siegen was reunited with the district of the same name in 1975, these two officials bore the titlesBürgermeister andStadtdirektor respectively. In 1999, this two-headed arrangement was forsaken in favour of a single city leader, with the titleBürgermeister, who serves as chairman or chairwoman of city council, leader of city administration and city representative. The mayor is directly elected.
Mayors (Bürgermeister andOberbürgermeister) since 1919
1919–1945: Alfred Fißmer,Oberbürgermeister
1945: Fritz Fries,Oberbürgermeister
1945–1946: Otto Schwarz,Oberbürgermeister
1946–1948: Ernst Weißelberg,Oberbürgermeister
1948–1956: Ernst Bach,Oberbürgermeister
1956–1961: Erich Pachnicke,Oberbürgermeister
1961–1966: Karl Eckmann,Oberbürgermeister
1966–1975: Karl Althaus,Oberbürgermeister
1975–1979: Friedemann Keßler,Bürgermeister
1979–1990: Hans Reinhardt,Bürgermeister
1990–1994: Hilde Fiedler,Bürgermeisterin
1994–1999: Karl Wilhelm Kirchhöfer,Bürgermeister
1999–2007: Ulf Stötzel (CDU),Bürgermeister
2007–2025: Steffen Mues (CDU),Bürgermeister
2025–today: Tristan Vitt (SPD),Bürgermeister
Stadtdirektoren andOberstadtdirektoren 1946–1999
1946–1954: Max Baumann,Oberstadtdirektor
1954–1975: Kurt Seibt,Oberstadtdirektor
1975–1985: Hans Mohn,Stadtdirektor
1985–1989: Volker Oerter,Stadtdirektor
1989–1995: Otto-Werner Rappold,Stadtdirektor (left office early with effect on 2 December 1995 by his own wish)
1995–1999: Ulrich Mock,Stadtdirektor (at first as Dr. Rappold'sGeneral Agent until 31 January 1997, then appointed fulltimeStadtdirektor)
The Siegen city council governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows:
Siegen's civiccoat of arms might be described thus: Argent a town wall embattled gules with an open gateway argent, therein in an inescutcheon azure a lion rampant Or armed and langued gules, issuant from the wall a bishop in robe and mitre azure (trimmed in argent) holding in his hand dexter a crozier argent with crook Or sinister, in his hand sinister, upraised, an open book argent with pages edged gules.
The bishop in the city's arms is theBishop of Cologne. The wall symbolizes the city itself, and theinescutcheon in the gateway shows the Lion of Nassau in blue and gold (or yellow), which are Nassau's colours. The arms are based on the oldest known town seal, from 1248. The inescutcheon once also had gold billets (upright rectangles) around the lion, but these do not appear in what became the town's (and later city's) coat of arms in 1875.[1]
Siegen pedestrian zoneCity hallOberes SchlossPart ofUnteres Schloss with the "Fat Tower"Schloss Square during the opening2006 World Cup match
Although the town was about 80% destroyed in the World War II, Siegen has kept a number of buildings worth seeing, such as the two stately homes, theOberes Schloss and theUnteres Schloss.
The castle on the Siegberg was first mentioned in a document in 1259 and was the family seat of the House of Nassau. Since 1905, the Siegerland Museum has been here. Alongside regional exhibits – among them an artificial demonstration mine – are many paintings. The centrepiece of this collection is made up of works by the man who is arguably the best known native,Peter Paul Rubens. There is also quite a comprehensive collection of portraits of members of the Houses of Nassau and Orange. The top floor is devoted to 19th-century home décor. A kitchen from the Siegerland, a bedroom and many pieces of furniture from theBiedermeier era give one an impression of life in the region in bygone days.
Late in the 17th century, the Lower Stately Home came into being in its current form, somewhat like an open rectangle. TheProtestant line of the House of Nassau-Siegen resided here. Also belonging to theSchloss is the"Dicker Turm", or "Fat Tower" with acarillon. In 1959, the then town of Siegen built a memorial for victims of war and tyranny. Inside theSchloss is also found the crypt of the Evangelical branch of the Nassau princely house.
Today, theSchloss serves as a state authority building in which the North Rhine-Westphalia Building and Property Establishment, the State Environment Office, the Office for Occupational Health and Safety and the Attendorn Correctional Facility (Siegen Branch Facility) are all housed. By the city's plans, a university is supposed to move into theUnteres Schloss within the next few years, but at this time, the plan is failing to find any financial backing.
Two churches in downtown Siegen are to be brought to the visitor's attention: TheMartinikirche dating from the 11th century and theNikolaikirche at the marketplace with its unusual eight-sided shape and its goldenKrönchen ("coronet") – the city's landmark – on the church tower, which is a prominent feature of Siegen's skyline (Siegen is sometimes calledKrönchenstadt for this unusual feature). Another church is theMarienkirche, built by the Jesuits between 1702 and 1729. Also worth seeing are Siegen's Old Town and several museums in the city core.
In the southwest of the city core, at the foot of the Ziegenberg, is a spherical gas holder, orgasometer, which is protected by law as a monument. It is one of the oldest spherical gas holders still preserved. Another peculiarity is its riveted casing. Only three other such gas holders are known to exist worldwide (all in Germany, inSchwerte,Offenburg andBielefeld). The holder had to be moved a few metres owing to construction on the municipal Autobahn, theHüttentalstraße, and in the residential area of Ziegenberg, and it now forms the symbolic sun as part of a scale model of the planets above the gas holder.
Within Siegen's city limits are 36 municipally runcemeteries. Ten of them are already closed and are available for burials only because of existing laws. The cemeteries have a total area of 730 000 m2 with roughly 65,000 graves. Characteristic of regional cemeteries are hillside graves and a green, parklike layout that even affords wildlife a chance at reoccupying the land.
In the Apollo-Theater (a downtown former 1930s cinema that underwent remodelling and opened in mid-2007), Siegen has one of the current decade's most important newly built theatres. A controlling interest in this venture is held by TheaterSiegen intendant Magnus Reitschuster.
Since 1992, the media and cultural house Lÿz has been a venue forcabaret, music and theatre in Siegen. On the two stages, roughly 150 events appear every season.
Bigger events take place at theBühne der Stadt ("City's Stage", with about 820 seats), the Siegerlandhalle (1 800 m2, 2,300 seats) or the Bismarckhalle. As well, there are regular open-air concerts and productions in the inner yard atUnteres Schloss.
The main centre of art in Siegen are the Museum for Contemporary Art and theHaus Seel – city gallery.
TheSiegerland Museum is dedicated to regional history. The Oranienstraße House, built at 1900 in the Italian country house style, is attached to the Siegerland Museum since 1993 as an exhibit forum. There is a varied program of temporary exhibitions of all kinds, from archaeological excavations to contemporary avant-garde art. Poet and author readings are also part of the program, such as classic concerts.
In Geisweid is found the Beatles Home Museum, run by Harold Krämer. According to the 2000Guinness Book of Records, the 27 m2 museum is the smallest public museum in the world devoted to the fourLiverpudlian musicians. The collection holds more than 17,000 recordings, souvenirs, film posters, andautographs and other memorabilia.
June/July:Siegener Sommerfestival, plays, cabaret, theatre, music and cinema since about 1990. (In 2006, instead of the traditional summer festival, a World Cup festival was held)
July:Stadtfest (City Festival), even-numbered years only
TheDilldappe is an old mythical creature from the Siegerland. It lives mainly in the SiegerlandHauberg (coöperatively managed woodlots). Early in the 1980s, the writer and cartoonist Matthias Kringe first published a calendar about the creature, written in the local dialect of German.
The Rubens Prize of the City of Siegen, founded in 1955, is awarded every five years to a painter orgraphic artist whose life's work has been groundbreaking on the European stage. The title recalls the painter-diplomatPeter Paul Rubens, who expressed in his life's work the thought of European unity, long before it could become a political reality. Peter Paul Rubens – who was born in Siegen, grew up in Cologne andAntwerp, trained in art in Italy, was esteemed in France and acted as a diplomat in Spain and England – as the main master of European Baroque painting set those artistic and European standards to which the awarding of the prize has been bound since 1957–1958.
The city sport league includes 160 sport clubs in which roughly 37,000 members are active. National importance was achieved in 2005 by theSportfreunde Siegen men'sfootball team atLeimbachstadion when they rose from theRegionalliga Süd up to the2nd Bundesliga, although the next year they dropped back down again. As six-time German Champions, the TSV Siegen women's football team was very successful in the 1990s.
In the south of the district in the community ofBurbach lies theSiegerland Airport. There are no scheduled services to other German cities. The airport is mainly used for general aviation and parachuting. The nearest international airports areCologne Bonn Airport, located 88 km (55 mi) to the west andFrankfurt Airport, located 137 km (85 mi) to the south east of Siegen.
The city of Siegen lies onEuropean long-distance path E1 running from the middle of Sweden toUmbria in Italy. There is, however, no organized cycling trail network in Siegen. Riding in bus lanes is sporadically allowed. Bicycle transport is generally poorly developed in Siegen. Owing todual carriageways within the city and nearby, as well as transport planning that rather favours cars, bicycle transport has been somewhat thwarted. Together with the partly hilly topography, there is therefore little in the way of bicycle transport in Siegen.
Siegen station lies at the junction of the following railway lines:
The two-trackelectrifiedRuhr–Sieg line(Ruhr-Sieg-Strecke) is used for regional services, usually hourly, of theRuhr-Sieg-Express (RE 16) and theRuhr-Sieg-Bahn (RB 91).
TheRothaar Railway(Rothaarbahn) is served, usually hourly byRothaar-Bahn (RB 93) services, connecting inErndtebrück toObere Lahntal-Bahn (RB 94/RMV Line 43) services, usually two-hourly, on theUpper Lahn Valley Railway(Obere Lahntal-Bahn).
The two-track electrifiedDill Railway(Dill-Strecke) is served, usually two-hourly, by theRhein-Sieg-Express (RE 9) and theMain-Sieg-Express (RE 99) and hourly by theSieg-Dill-Bahn (RB 95) (only to and fromDillenburg).
The mostly two-track electrifiedSieg line(Siegstrecke) is served, usually hourly, by theRhein-Sieg-Express (RE 9) andSieg-Dill-Bahn (RB 95) services (only to and from Au).
On 18 March 1895, theNetphener Omnibusgesellschaft opened the world's first busline using a petrol-powered omnibus, running a service from its base inNetphen to Siegen and Deuz. Today, local road transport offers many regional, express and local buses, along with a night bus service connecting Siegen with its outlying communities and neighbouring towns. They are run by the South Westphalia Transport Services (Verkehrsbetriebe Westfalen-Süd; VWS) whose headquarters are in Siegen.
For the whole of local public transport, the tariff of the South Westphalia Transport Community (Verkehrsgemeinschaft Westfalen-Süd; VGWS) applies, regardless of the North Rhine-Westphalia tariff.
Siegen is home to the tallest bridge of the A 45 and one of the highest in Germany, the Siegtalbrücke. Built from 1964 to 1969, it is approximately 96 m high and 1 050 m long.
The Siegtalbrücke as seen from Alte Dreisbach in Siegen
The shape that the city takes has much to do with theHüttentalstraße (HTS) (Federal Highways 54n and 62n) which serves as a municipal Autobahn – much of it elevated – that runs through the city area.
The A 4 betweenWenden andKreuztal has been newly built. In the heights over Kreuztal's outlying community of Krombach, it now joins with the HTS. On this 12-kilometre stretch of highway are eight valley bridges as well as ten under- and overpasses. This new part was opened on 1 December 2007.
Siegen is South Westphalia's service and administrative centre. Much of its industry is based onmetalworking.
Pedestrian precincts in Bahnhofsstraße ("Railway Station Street") and Kölner Tor ("Cologne Gate"), both downtown, have madeshopping in Siegen very convenient, as have the shopping centres City-Galerie (opened in 1998) andSieg Carré (opened in 2006, both downtown) andSiegerlandzentrum (Siegen-Weidenau), and the Marburger Straße shopping street (downtown). In 2005, anIKEA store and a Peek & Cloppenburg location opened.
Siegen is home to the Siegen-Wittgenstein district administration and location of a Chamber of Industry and Trade (Industrie- und Handelskammer, or IHK, one of 81 such regional institutions in Germany) for the districts of Siegen-Wittgenstein andOlpe.
Home to the Siegen State Court, a local court and a labour court, the city is also an important court centre.
In Siegen, theWestdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) maintains a studio where regional radio and television news for South Westphalia is produced. The daily broadcast goes out in the "South Westphalia" regional window following the programmeAktuelle Stunde (a newsmagazine show) on WDR's third channel. Moreover, WDR also runs a transmission facility forVHF radio and television (once alsomedium wave) at the Giersberg.
Daily newspapers in Siegen include not only theSiegener Zeitung but also local editions of theWestfälische Rundschau and theWestfalenpost. All three appear in the morning, although the first was until 2000 an afternoon paper. Furthermore, at the"Obergraben" is found the regional, Radio-NRW-connected Radio Siegen's studio building.
In the early decades of the 17th century, theHerborn Academy temporarily relocated to Siegen, in the buildings of theUnteres Schloss, which came to an end when thePlague broke out.
Siegen's oldest school is theGymnasium am Löhrtor, a grammar school.Other Schools:
For all those listed up to here, honorary citizenship, according to Enactment no. 21 to the amended German Municipal System of 1 April 1946, has been forfeited. *According to the city council of Siegen Adolf Hitler's honorary citizenship was lapsed by British military law. Caused by political discussion the city council denied Hitler's honorary citizenship posthumously on 29 August 2007.
^Parker, Geoffrey (1997). Parker, Geoffrey (ed.).The war in myth, legend and history. In: The Thirty Year's War (2nd ed.). London and New York: Routledge. p. 184.ISBN0-415-12883-8.
^Stanton, Shelby,World War II Order of Battle: An Encyclopedic Reference to U.S. Army Ground Forces from Battalion through Division, 1939–1946 (Revised Edition, 2006), p. 90
Heinrich Silbergleit:Preußens Städte: Denkschrift zum 100jährigen Jubiläum der Städteordnung vom 19. November 1808. Heymann, Berlin 1908
Heinrich von Achenbach:Die Haubergs-Genossenschaften des Siegerlandes. After the Bonn printing in 1863 newly published by the (then) Town of Siegen, Forschungsstelle Siegerland, Siegen 1963
Heinrich von Achenbach:Geschichte der Stadt Siegen. Erg. Nachdr. der Ausg. Vorländer, Siegen 1894. Verlag Die Wielandschmiede, Kreuztal 1983
Heinrich von Achenbach:Aus des Siegerlandes Vergangenheit. 2. erg. Nachdr. der Ausg. Siegen 1898. Verlag Die Wielandschmiede, Kreuztal 1982
Erich Keyser (publisher):Westfälisches Städtebuch. In:Deutsches Städtebuch. Band III 2. Teilband.Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart 1954
Walther Hubatsch (publisher):Westfalen. In:Grundriss zur deutschen Verwaltungsgeschichte 1815–1945. Band 8 Reihe A:Preußen. Marburg an der Lahn 1980,ISBN3-87969-123-1
