If you are unfortunate enough to speak German, you can in fact check out an excellent on-line info source, the official city site. This site (German only) contains pretty much everything that you could possibly want to know about the city.

However, in the event that your German vocabulary consists of "Hamburger" and "St.Pauli Girl", then you'll have to rely on my completely unbiased and fact-free account of the city. And if you entertain delusions about learning German, please click here first.

As you can see from the map, Wuppertal is in fact the center of the (German) universe. As this map indicates, worthless places, such as Düsseldorf, have been eliminated from view. While some might argue this is the way things should be, the real reason is fact the long shadow cast by Mönchengladbach not only over German soccer, but but over the map space as well. (Actually this map is pretty bizarre, since it seems to omit some cities and include others that even the inhabitants never even heard of.)

Wuppertal is not only the center of the universe, but also the maincity of the Bergische Land, which generally describes the area immediately south of the Ruhr valley.

Wuppertal is a young city, i.e. it was only officially founded in 1929. Previously, it had been an amalgamation of independent towns, such as Elberfeld, Barmen, Vohwinkel and all sorts of other places with funny names.

The total population has hovered around 400,000 for decades. Like most northern-European nations, the total population would probably be declining if it weren't for zillions of immigrants from southern Europe and other parts.

Tourist Info:

The principal tourist attraction is in fact the Schwebebahn , a suspension railway that serves as one of the major transporttation methods for the town. If you're like most Americans, then you will probably demand to see a castle, of which there are none. However, you can see one by going to nearby Schloss Burg.

There used to be a brewery, Wicküler, whose logo was the Three Muskiteers. The two main beers were Pils and Export. Don't know where they exported too; probably some far away place like Remscheid or Solingen. Unfortunately, they went out of business. Then they popped up again, but apparently were brewing the beer in Köln!! Just another sign of the irrevocable decline.