Essen


Essen is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as the tenth-largest city of Germany. Essen lies in the larger Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, second largest by GDP in the EU, and is part of the cultural area of Rhineland. Due to its central location in the Ruhr, Essen is often regarded as the Ruhr's "secret capital".
Two rivers flow through the city: the Emscher in the north, and in the south the Ruhr River, which is dammed in Essen to form the and reservoirs. The central and northern boroughs of Essen historically belong to the Low German Westphalian dialects area, and the south of the city to the Low Franconian Bergish area.
Essen is seat to several of the region's authorities, as well as to eight of the 100 largest publicly held German corporations by revenue, including three DAX-listed corporations. Essen is often considered the energy capital of Germany with E.ON and RWE, Germany's largest energy providers, both headquartered in the city.
Essen is also known for its impact on the arts through the respected Folkwang University of the Arts, its School of Management and Design, and the Red Dot industrial product design award. In early 2003, the universities of Essen and the nearby city of Duisburg were merged into the University of Duisburg-Essen with campuses in both cities and a university hospital in Essen. In 1958, Essen was chosen as the seat to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Essen, often referred to as the diocese of the Ruhr.
Founded around 845, Essen remained a small town within the sphere of influence of an important ecclesiastical principality, Essen Abbey, until the onset of industrialization. The city then—especially through the Krupp family's iron works—became one of Germany's most important coal and steel centres. Essen, until the 1970s, attracted workers from all over the country; it was the fifth-largest city in Germany between 1929 and 1988, peaking at over 730,000 inhabitants in 1962. Following the region-wide decline of heavy industries in the last decades of the 20th century, the city has seen the development of a strong tertiary sector of the economy. The most notable witness of this structural change is the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex, which had once been the largest of its kind in Europe. Ultimately closed in 1993, both the coking plant and the mine have been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site since 2001.
Notable accomplishments of the city in recent years include the title of European Capital of Culture on behalf of the whole Ruhr area in 2010 and the selection as the European Green Capital for 2017.

Geography

General

Essen is located in the centre of the Ruhr area, one of the largest urban areas in Europe comprising eleven independent cities and four districts with some 5.3 million inhabitants into a megalopolis. The city limits of Essen itself are long, and border ten citiesfive belonging to a district and five independentwith a total population of approximately 1.4 million. The city extends over from north to south and from west to east, mainly north of the River Ruhr.
The Ruhr forms the reservoir in the boroughs of Fischlaken, Kupferdreh, Heisingen and Werden. The lake, a popular recreational area, dates from 1931 to 1933, when some thousands of unemployed coal miners dredged it with primitive tools. Generally, large areas south of the River Ruhr are quite green and are often quoted as examples of rural structures in the otherwise relatively densely populated central Ruhr area. According to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, Essen with 9.2% of its area covered by recreational green is the greenest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the third-greenest city in Germany. The city has been shortlisted for the title of European Green Capital two consecutive times, for 2016 and 2017, winning for 2017. The city was singled out for its exemplary practices in protecting and enhancing nature and biodiversity and efforts to reduce water consumption. Essen participates in a variety of networks and initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the city's resilience in the face of climate change.
The lowest point can be found in the northern borough of Karnap at, the highest point in the borough of Heidhausen at. The average elevation is.

City districts

Essen comprises fifty boroughs which in turn are grouped into nine suburban districts often named after the most important boroughs. Each Stadtbezirk is assigned a Roman numeral and has a local body of nineteen members with limited authority. Most of the boroughs were originally independent municipalities but were gradually annexed from 1901 to 1975. This long-lasting process of annexation has led to a strong identification of the population with "their" boroughs or districts and to a rare peculiarity: the borough of Kettwig, located south of the Ruhr River, and which was not annexed until 1975, has its own area code and remains part of the Archdiocese of Cologne, whereas all other boroughs of Essen and some neighbouring cities constitute the Diocese of Essen.

Climate

Essen has a typical oceanic climate with cool winters and warm summers. Without large mountains and the presence of inland seas, it ends up extending a predominantly marine climate is found in Essen, usually a little more extreme and drier in other continents in such geographical location. Its average annual temperature is : during the day and at night. The average annual precipitation is. The coldest month of the year is January, when the average temperature is. The warmest months are July and August, with an average temperature of.
The Essen weather station has recorded the following extreme values:
  • Highest Temperature on 25 July 2019.
  • Warmest Minimum on 1 August 1943.
  • Coldest Maximum on 1 February 1956.
  • Lowest Temperature on 27 January 1942.
  • Highest Daily Precipitation on 14 August 1954.
  • Wettest Month in August 1938.
  • Wettest Year in 2023.
  • Driest Year in 1959.
  • Earliest Snowfall: 4 November 1966.
  • Latest Snowfall: 28 April 1985.
  • Longest annual sunshine: 2,058.8 hours in 2022.
  • Shortest annual sunshine: 1,192.5 hours in 1962.

    History

Origin of the name

In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it has the same form as the German infinitive of the verb for "eating", and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of the name, there remain a few noteworthy interpretations. The oldest known form of the city's name is Astnide, which changed to Essen by way of forms such as Astnidum, Assinde, Essendia and Esnede. The name Astnide may have referred either to a region where many ash trees were found or to a region in the east. In the dialects of the Limburgish language spoken in the city's southern boroughs Essen is called Äßße.

Early history

The oldest archaeological find, the Vogelheimer Klinge, dates back to. It is a blade found in the borough of in the northern part of the city during the construction of the Rhine–Herne Canal in 1926. Other artifacts from the Stone Age have also been found, although these are not overly numerous. Land utilization was very high—especially due to mining activities during the Industrial Age—and any more major finds, especially from the Mesolithic era, are not expected. Finds from and onwards are far more common, the most important one being a Megalithic tomb found in 1937. Simply called Chest of Stone, it is referred to as "Essen's earliest preserved example of architecture".
Essen was part of the settlement areas of several Germanic peoples, although a clear distinction among these groupings is difficult.
The castle in the south of Essen dates back to the eighth century, the nearby to the ninth century.
Recent research into Ptolemy's Geographia has identified the polis or oppidum Navalia as Essen.

Eighth–twelfth centuries

Around 845, Saint Altfrid, the later Bishop of Hildesheim, founded an abbey for women in the centre of present-day Essen. The first abbess was Altfrid's relative Gerswit. In 799, Saint Liudger had already founded Benedictine Werden Abbey on its own grounds a few kilometres south. The region was sparsely populated with only a few smallholdings and an old and probably abandoned castle. Whereas Werden Abbey sought to support Liudger's missionary work in the Harz region, Essen Abbey was meant to care for women of the higher Saxon nobility. This abbey was not an abbey in the ordinary sense, but rather intended as a residence and educational institution for the daughters and widows of the higher nobility; led by an abbess, the members other than the abbess herself were not obliged to take vows of chastity.
Around 852, construction of the collegiate church of the abbey began, to be completed in 870. A major fire in 946 heavily damaged both the church and the settlement. The church was rebuilt, expanded considerably, and is the foundation of the present Essen Cathedral.
The first documented mention of Essen dates back to 898, when Zwentibold, King of Lotharingia, willed territory on the western bank of the River Rhine to the abbey. Another document, describing the foundation of the abbey and allegedly dating back to 870, is now considered an 11th-century forgery.
In 971, Mathilde II, granddaughter of Emperor Otto I, took charge of the abbey. She was to become the most important of all abbesses in the history of Essen. She reigned for over 40 years, and endowed the abbey's treasury with invaluable objects such as the oldest preserved seven branched candelabrum, and the Golden Madonna of Essen, the oldest known sculpture of the Virgin Mary in the western world. Mathilde was succeeded by other women related to the Ottonian emperors: Sophia, daughter of Otto II and sister of Otto III, and Teophanu, granddaughter of Otto II. It was under the reign of Teophanu that Essen, which had been called a city since 1003, received the right to hold markets in 1041. Ten years later, Teophanu had the eastern part of Essen Abbey constructed. Its crypt contains the tombs of St. Altfrid, Mathilde II, and Teophanu herself.