Remscheid

Remscheid is one of the largest towns in the Bergisches Land and is also well-known as the “Seestadt auf dem Berge” (the maritime city of the mountains) with a view to the importance of trade and industry. The town started to be called by this name towards the end of the decade before last, as the Remscheid metal and tooling industry traded and still trades with many companies overseas and even across the entire world. First mentioned in the 12th century, the people of the Bergisches Land took up residence where the current city of Remscheid is located today even despite the complex mountainous terrain, as the wealth of natural resources on offer was a deciding factor.

Remscheid is now regarded as the last industrial city in North Rhine-Westphalia thanks to its rich industrial fabric. Despite this, almost one third of the metropolitan area is made up of wooded and green spaces and it has a total of 4,500 hectares of conservation area. There are also 23 nature reserves covering an area of 715 hectares.

Remscheid originally has Napoleon I to thank for its current city status; the Emperor elevated the small commune and its numerous farmsteads to a town in August 1808 and in 1929, the independent town, located around 40km to the north east of Cologne, gained the status of a city. Nowadays, Remscheid houses around 114,000 inhabitants.

Pirna has been twinned with Remscheid since 1990 and the city has numerous sights to see, including the German Tool Museum and the birthplace of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. Some well-known destinations for a day trip are the Eschbach Dam (opened in 1891, it was the first dam to be built in Germany for a drinking water supply), the Müngsten Bridge (the highest railway bridge in Germany standing at 107m above the Wupper valley) and the Burg castle (ancestral seat of the Count of Berg).