Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf, city in west central Germany, capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, a port at the confluence of the Rhine and Düssel rivers. The city is an important manufacturing, financial, and transport centre and is the seat of several major corporate headquarters. Düsseldorf hosts numerous industrial and trade shows. Products include motor cars, metal goods, machinery, chemicals, textiles, clothing, and printed fabrics. Notable buildings in Düsseldorf, known as one of the most elegant cities in Germany, include St Lambert's Church (begun 13th century), the Jägerhof Castle (now housing a museum of 20th-century painting), and several modern office blocks. The city is the site of the National Academy of Art, birthplace of the mid-19th century Düsseldorf school of art. Paul Klee and Joseph Beuys taught there.

Among Düsseldorf's many other cultural facilities are the Art Collection, with fine displays of 20th-century painting, including the largest collection of works by Klee in Germany, and works by Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Georges Braque, Piet Mondrian, and Marc Chagall, among others; the Hetjens Museum, with a large collection of ceramics covering 8000 years of pottery; a museum devoted to the life and work of the writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; and a university (1965). The poet Heinrich Heine spent his youth in Düsseldorf. The city's Heine Institute is devoted to research on his life and work. Composer Robert Schumann was conductor of the city orchestra from 1850 to 1854; he and his wife, pianist Clara Schumann, are buried here.

Düsseldorf received a charter in 1288 from Count Adolf of Berg, and one of the local castles was for a long period the residence of the counts (later dukes) of Berg. The city became the capital of the Napoleonic Grand Duchy of Berg in 1805, and in 1815, along with the duchy, control of Düsseldorf passed to Prussia. Düsseldorf grew into an important centre of the Ruhr industrial district after 1870. Following World War I the city was occupied by Allied forces from 1921 to 1925. It was badly damaged by bombing during World War II. Population 572,700 (2005 estimate).