Every design for Hilden

Hilden is known for being compact: a busy town hemmed in by motorways between Düsseldorf, Solingen and Wuppertal, with hardly any outlying villages and one of the highest population densities in Germany. It sits where the Lower Rhine plain gives way to the Bergisches Land, and locals simply say Mitte, Nord, Süd, Ost or West when they tell you where they live.

The memories sit close together too. A Sunday afternoon at Holterhöfchen, a rainy day in the Wilhelm-Fabry-Museum, the paths of the Hildener Stadtwald, still the largest stretch of open ground in town. Up in the Hildener Heide, the Jaberg and the Sandberg are about as close as Hilden comes to hills. For a generation after the war, soldiers of the British Army of the Rhine were part of everyday life here, which is why the town is still twinned with Warrington.

Move away for a few years and come back, and you will find your way without thinking. Hilden is small enough to hold in your head, and it is still home.