Germany Guide
North Rhine-Westphalia
Düsseldorf
Chic DÜSSELDORF is not just North Rhine-Westphalia's capital but also its Knightsbridge or Upper East Side – a sophisticated, cosmopolitan city of swish hotels and designer labels, which is very different from the industrial Ruhr. This worldly flair is evidently nothing new, for when Napoleon passed through in 1806 he thought the city "a little Paris". First mentioned in the twelfth century, the village at the mouth of the River Düssel owed its subsequent rise to the counts of Berg, whose Schloss dominated the Altstadt until it burned down in 1872. It blossomed under Elector Johann Wilhelm of Pfalz-Neuburg (1658–1716), known as Jan Wellem, and by the time Napoleon arrived the city had already spread in planned fashion beyond its historic core.
Though its surface glitter is underpinned by the business acumen of its banks and corporate headquarters, fashion houses and advertising agencies, it's the confident ease with which Düsseldorf enjoys its prosperity that strikes visitors most forcefully, from the Altstadt's bars and restaurants to the chi-chi boutiques on stately Königsallee. The city has latterly acquired some cutting-edge architecture to match its established reputation for modern art: Joseph Beuys, the enfant terrible of the postwar art scene, was a professor at the city's esteemed Kunstakademie, and the city's galleries are impressive. It has a strong rock music tradition too, the most famous local musical export being synthesizer pioneers Kraftwerk. And it was in a Düsseldorf nightclub in the 1980s that supermodel Claudia Schiffer was discovered. The city's greatest son was, however, neither rock star nor fashion plate, but the Romantic poet Heinrich Heine, who is commemorated by a museum. For all its glitz, Düsseldorf is an easy city to enjoy, but its pleasures don't necessarily come cheap. You'll probably notice the price differential if you arrive here after Cologne or the Ruhr.
The Rheinuferpromenade is the main pedestrian thoroughfare between the vibrant Altstadt in the north and the trendy Medienhafen to the south. Inland, swanky Königsallee (or Kö as it is known) runs north– south from the Hofgarten to Graf-Adolf-Strasse, with the peaceful Carlstadt to the west. Most of the city's sights are located between Kö and the river, though many of its hotels are to the east or south.
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