Solingen is called the "City of Blades", and has long been renowned for the manufacturing of fine swords, knives, scissors and razors made by firms such asWKC, P.D Rasspe Söhne, DOVO,Wüsthof,Zwilling J. A. Henckels,Böker, Güde, Hubertus, Diefenthal, Puma, Clauberg/Klauberg, Eickhorn, Linder, Carl Schmidt Sohn, Dreiturm, Herder, Martor Safety Knives, Wolfertz, Ralf Aust and numerous other manufacturers.
The medievalswordsmiths of Solingen designed the town'scoat of arms. In the late 17th century, a group of swordsmiths from Solingen broke their guild oaths by taking their sword-making secrets with them toShotley Bridge, County Durham, in England. In the local dialect the Solinger Platt, a variety of the Limburgish language, the city is called Solich or Zóóliech.
Typical houses in Solingen-GräfrathSolingen-Mitte: St. Clemens Church and Clemens GalerienMummenscheid farmyard in the borough of WaldHistorical marketplace in GräfrathRiverWupper
Solingen lies southwest ofWuppertal in theBergisches Land. The city has an area of 89.45 square kilometres (34.54 sq mi), of which roughly 50% is used for agriculture, horticulture, or forestry. The city's border is 62 kilometres (39 mi) long, and the city's dimensions are 15.6 kilometres (9.7 mi) east to west and 11.7 kilometres (7.3 mi) north to south. TheWupper river, a right tributary of theRhine, flows through the city for 26 kilometres (16 mi). The city's highest point at 276 metres (906 ft) is in the northern borough ofGräfrath at the Light Tower, previously thewater tower, and the lowest point at 53 metres (174 ft) is in the southwest.
Solingen currently consists of five Stadtbezirke, orboroughs. Each borough has a municipal council of either 13 or 15 representatives (Bezirksvertreter) elected every five years by the borough's population. The municipal councils are responsible for many of the boroughs' important administrative affairs.
Ohligs/Aufderhöhe/Merscheid and Höhscheid/Burg are divided into sections ("Stadtteile") that were once separate towns and are still statistical and planning units but are no longer self-governing.
The city further comprises many neighborhoods with their own names, although they often lack precise borders:
Solingen's climate is classified asoceanic (Köppen:Cfb;Trewartha:Dolk). The average annual temperature in Solingen is 9.1 °C (48.4 °F). The average annual rainfall is 1,046.1 mm (41.19 in) with December as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in July, at around 17.1 °C (62.8 °F), and lowest in January, at around 1.2 °C (34.2 °F).
The Solingen weather station has recorded the following extreme values:[3]
Highest Temperature 36.6 °C (97.9 °F) on 18 June 2002.
Warmest Minimum 23.6 °C (74.5 °F) on 9 August 1992.
Coldest Maximum −14.0 °C (6.8 °F) on 1 February 1956.
Lowest Temperature −23.6 °C (−10.5 °F) on 27 January 1942.[4]
Highest Daily Precipitation 84.1 mm (3.31 in) on 17 April 1936.
Wettest Month 267.8 mm (10.54 in) in September 1957.
Wettest Year 1,420.0 mm (55.91 in) in 1954.
Driest Year 720.6 mm (28.37 in) in 1959.
Earliest Snowfall: 28 October 1950.
Latest Snowfall: 3 May 1979.
Climate data for Solingen (1961−1990 normals, extremes 1936–2002)
A sword with built-in flint wheellock pistol made in Solingen in 1575
Solingen was first mentioned in 1067 by a chronicler who called the area "Solonchon". Early variations of the name included "Solengen", "Solungen", and "Soleggen", although the modern name seems to have been in use since the late 14th and early 15th centuries.
Blacksmiths' smelters, dating back over 2000 years, have been found around the town, adding to Solingen's fame as a Northern Europe blacksmith centre. Swords from Solingen have turned up in places such as the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the British Isles. Northern Europe prized the quality of Solingen's manufactured weaponry, and they were traded across the European continent. Solingen today remains the knife-centre of Germany.
It was a tiny village for centuries, but became a fortified town in the 15th century.
After being ravaged by theplague with about 1,800 deaths in 1614–1619, Solingen was heavily fought over during theThirty Years' War, repeatedly attacked and plundered, and the Burg Castle was destroyed.
Coins issued in 1919 by the City of SolingenBond of the City of Solingen, issued 1 July 1922
Early in the 20th century, Ohligs's chief manufactures werecutlery andhardware, and there were iron-foundries andflour mills. Other industries were brewing, dyeing, weaving and brick-making.[5]In 1929, Ohligs located in thePrussianRhine Province, 17 miles (27 km) by rail north ofCologne became part of Solingen.
InWorld War II, the Old Town was completely destroyed by abombing raid by theRAF in 1944; 1,800 people died and over 1,500 people were injured.[6] As such, there are few pre-war sites in the centre.
From 1945 to 1949 Solingen was part of the British occupation zone. Reconstruction of the old town began in 1949. The newly built Protestant church in Fronhof was consecrated in 1954, and the destroyed towers of the Catholic church of St. Clemens were rebuilt in a different style. By the end of the 1970s, the city's population had increased due to numerous new housing developments in all parts of the city. The city's infrastructure continued to grow, with the opening of the theatre and concert hall in 1963 and the construction of the Viehbachtalstraße motorway through the city in the late 1970s. In 1975, the city grew again with the incorporation of the previously independent town of Burg an der Wupper. In 1993, Solingen made international headlines for aright-wing extremist arson attack in which five Turkish girls and women were killed. The attack was followed by demonstrations and riots in the city.
Since the beginning of the new millennium, theKlingenstadt has undergone a massive transformation as a result of urban development projects such as Regionale 2006 and City 2013. For example, the new Korkenzieherstrasse cycle path was created and the demolition of the Turmhotel and the former Karstadt Passage made it possible to build a new shopping centre on Neumarkt in Solingen-Mitte. After the closure of the old central station in Solingen-Mitte, Ohligs station was officially named the new Solingen central station byDeutsche Bahn AG on 10 December 2006.
Solingen's population doubled between the years 1880 and 1890 due to the incorporation of the town of Dorp into Solingen in 1889, at which time the population reached 36,000. The population again received a large boost on 1 August 1929 through the incorporation of Ohligs, Wald, Höhscheid, and Gräfrath into the city limits. This brought the population above the 100,000 mark, which gave Solingen the distinction of being a "large city" (Großstadt). The number of inhabitants peaked in 1971 with 177,899 residents, and the 2006 population figure was 163,263.
The following chart shows the population figures within Solingen's city limits at the respective points in time. The figures are derived from census estimates or numbers provided by statistical offices or city agencies, with the exception of figures preceding 1843, which were gathered using inconsistent recording techniques.
The people of Solingen have been able to elect a council and a mayor since 1374, the year the town was granted its charter. The mayor changed annually on 24 June. Solingen has had a mayor since 1896. During theNazi era (1933–1945), the mayor was appointed by theNSDAP and not democratically elected by the people of Solingen.
After the Second World War, the military government of the British occupation zone appointed aLord Mayor. From 1946, the Solingen City Council elected an honorary Lord Mayor and a full-time Lord Mayor from among its members. Until 1997, the honorary lord mayors had mainly representative functions, while the full-time lord mayors were the chief administrative officers of the city of Solingen. In 1997, the dual leadership of the city administration was abolished. Since then there has been only one full-time Lord Mayor. He is the chairman of the council, the head of the city administration and the first representative of the city. Since 1999, the Lord Mayor has been directly elected by the electorate in a secret ballot.
The current mayor of Solingen is Tim Kurzbach of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD), elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2020. The most recent mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows:
The Solingen 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:
Solingen has belonged from its beginnings to theRoman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne (Erzbistum Köln), and more specifically to theArchdeaconry of theProbst (provost) ofSt. Kunibert, thedeanery of Deutz. For reasons that are unclear, the city has long been associated with St. Clement, the third Pope, symbols of whose martyrdom appear on the city’s shield.Although theProtestant Reformation gradually made gains in the city, which was under the control of theCounts of Berg, the population by and large remained Roman Catholic for a while. The Catholic community was newly endowed by the local lord in 1658 and in 1701 received a new church building. In 1827 Solingen became the seat of its own deanery within the newly defined Archdiocese of Cologne, to which the city's current parishes still belong.
As mentioned, the Reformation only gradually gained a foothold in Solingen. Areformed church affiliated with the Bergischsynod was established in 1590, and the city'sparish church became reformed in 1649.Lutherans had been present in Solingen since the beginning of the 17th century, and a Lutheran congregation was founded in 1635. In 1672 a formalized religious agreement was reached between the city's religious groups. The Reformation was also introduced in Gräfrath in 1590, where a church council was apparently established in 1629. The Reformed and Lutheran churches were formed into aunited church community in 1838 following the generalmerger of Reformed and Lutheran churches inPrussia in 1817.
TheProtestant parishes originally belonged to the district synod of Lennep, today part of the cityRemscheid. A new synod was established in Solingen in 1843, and the city acquired its ownsuperintendent, a form of church administrator. This formed the basis for the present-day Church District of Solingen, a member of theEvangelical Church in the Rhineland. With the exception of thefree churches, most Protestant churches belong to the Church District of Solingen.
Müngsten Bridge, a railway bridge connecting Solingen with the neighbour town ofRemscheid. Standing at 107 m above the ground, it is the highest railway bridge in Germany. It was constructed in 1897 and originally named theKaiser-Wilhelm-Brücke afterWilhelm I
German Blade Museum, presenting swords and cutlery of all epochs
Art Museum Solingen (Museum of Art)
Museum Plagiarius, the Plagiarius exhibition shows more than 350 product units –i.e., original products and their brazen plagiarisms – in direct comparison. The registered society conducts an annual competition that awards the anti-prize "Plagiarius" to those manufacturers and distributors that a jury of peers have found guilty of making or selling "the most flagrant" imitations.
TheSolingen Alligators are a baseball and softball club from Solingen. The club was founded in 1991 and the first men's team was promoted to the first division of the Baseball Bundesliga for the 2003 season. It has played there in every season since, winning the league championship in 2006 and 2014. The club claims over 250 members.
TheSchachgesellschaft Solingen e.V. 1868 is best known for its chess team, which plays in theSchachbundesliga (Chess Bundesliga), the top tier of the German chess league system, and is the most successful club in German chess history, having won a record 12 national titles (1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1980, 1980/81, 1986/87, 1987/88, 1996/97 and 2015/16), three national cups (1986, 2006 und 2009) and 2 European cups (1976 and 1990).
Inhandball, Solingen's most successful team isBergischer HC, playing in the top-tierHandball-Bundesliga which they were promoted to for the second time in 2013, reaching 15th place in the2013–14 campaign and therefore staying in the top flight for a second consecutive season.BHC originates from a 2006 cooperation between theSG Solingen and rivalsLTV Wuppertal from the nearbycity of the same name. The club advertises itself as a representative of the entireBergisches Land region. The team plays its home games at both Solingen'sKlingenhalle (2,600 seats) and Wuppertal'sUni-Halle (3,200 seats).
The founders of Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, which later became the automobile companyStudebaker, trace their lineage to bladesmen from the region who emigrated to America in 1736.[11][12]
