Every design for Wuppertal

Wuppertal did not exist under that name until the towns of Elberfeld, Barmen, Ronsdorf, Cronenberg and Vohwinkel were merged into one city, first called Barmen-Elberfeld and renamed a year later after the valley they share. The Wupper Valley had long been one of the first heavily industrialised regions of Germany, rich from textile mills and smithies, and the city still carries that working past in its streets.

For many people, Wuppertal is a feeling of being both in a city and in the countryside. Steep slopes, woods and parks cover so much of it that it counts as the greenest city in Germany, and a short climb takes you from a busy street to a quiet forest path. Above the river glides the Schwebebahn, the suspension railway built by the then independent towns, and generations have ridden it to school and work. Friedrich Engels was born in Barmen, and the Engels-Haus remembers him; the Bandwebermuseum recalls the weavers who made the valley prosper. Aspirin, too, was patented here.

If you grew up between these hills, you know the rattle of the Schwebebahn overhead and the climb home at the end of the day. Take that valley with you.