Bielefeld — latest news, discussion & facts — IJR

History

Founded in 1214 by Count Hermann IV of Ravensberg to guard a pass crossing the Teutoburg Forest, Bielefeld was the "city of linen" as a minor member of the Hanseatic League, known for bleachfields into the 19th century. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 turned Ravensberg, from 1719 Minden-Ravensberg, into a part of Brandenburg–Prussia. When Prussia lost its western territories to French control in 1807, Bielefeld became part of the Kingdom of Westphalia. In 1813 the region reverted back to the Kingdom of Prussia, and following the defeat of France and the Congress of Vienna in 1815 Bielefeld was incorporated into the newly formed Province of Westphalia.

After the Cologne-Minden railway opened in 1849, the Bozi brothers constructed the first large mechanised spinning mill in 1851. The Ravensberg Spinning Mill was built from 1854 to 1857, and metal works began to open in the 1860s.

Founded in 1867 as a Bielefeld sewing machine repair company, Dürkoppwerke AG employed 1,665 people in 1892; it used Waffenamt code "WaA547" from 1938 to 1939 as the Dürkopp-Werke, and merged with other Bielefeld companies to form Dürkopp Adler AG in 1990.

Between 1904 and 1930, Bielefeld grew, opening a rebuilt railway station, a municipal theatre, and finally, the Rudolf-Oetker-Halle concert hall, renowned for its excellent acoustics. The Dürkopp car was produced from 1898 to 1927. After printing emergency money (German: Notgeld) in 1923 during the inflation in the Weimar Republic, Bielefeld was one of several towns that printed very attractive and highly collectable banknotes with designs on silk, linen and velvet. These pieces were issued by the Bielefeld Stadtsparkasse (town's savings bank) and were sent all around the world in the early 1920s. These pieces are known as Stoffgeld – that is, money made from fabric.

The town's synagogue was burned in 1938 during the Kristallnacht pogrom carried out against Jewish population. In 1944, Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses of the USAAF bombed the gas works at Bielefeld on 20 September and the marshaling yard on 30 September; Bielefeld was bombed again on 7 October and the RAF bombed the town on the night of 4/5 December. On 17 January 1945, B-17s bombed the nearby Paderborn marshalling yard, and the railway viaduct in the suburb of Schildesche. On 14 March the RAF bombed the viaduct again, wrecking it. This was the first use of the RAF's 10 tonne Grand Slam bomb. American troops entered the city in April 1945.

Due to the presence of a number of barracks built during the 1930s and its location next to the main East-West Autobahn in northern Germany, after World War II Bielefeld became a headquarters town for the fighting command of the British Army of the Rhine – BAOR (the administrative and strategic headquarters were at Rheindahlen near the Dutch border). Until the 1980s there was a large British presence in the barracks housing the headquarters of the British First Corps and support units, as well as schools, NAAFI shops, officers' and sergeants' messes and several estates of married quarters. The British presence was heavily scaled back after the reunification of Germany and most of the infrastructure has disappeared, with the final departure in 2020.

As a part of larger municipal reforms in North Rhine-Westphalia, the city of Bielefeld was merged with the surrounding district of Bielefeld to form the “district-free city” of Bielefeld on 1 January 1973. This created the administrative structures and borders that the city has to this day. For the first time, Bielefeld was extended to the south side of the Teutoburg Forest. The city’s population rose from 167,000 to 320,000 and its area increased more than five-fold, from 48 to 259 km².

Starting in 1994, the city has been the subject of the humorous Bielefeld conspiracy, which satirises conspiracy theories by claiming that the city does not exist.

Main sights

Sparrenburg Castle is Bielefeld's characteristic landmark. It was built between 1240 and 1250 by Count Ludwig von Ravensberg. The 37-metre-high (121 ft) tower and the catacombs of the castle are open to the public.

The Linen Weavers' Monument, with the German name Leineweber-Denkmal, created by the Tyrolean sculptor Perathoner, has been one of Bielefeld's most recognisable symbols for over 100 years. It stands as a reminder of the time when the city gained importance through the production of linen, with the traditional crafts of spinning and weaving, and its high-quality linen became known worldwide, characterised by its own seal of quality.

The Old City Hall (Altes Rathaus) was built in 1904 and still serves the same function. Its façade reflects the so-called Weserrenaissance and features elements of various architectural styles, including Gothic and Renaissance. Though the mayor still holds office in the Old City Hall, most of the city's administration is housed in the adjacent New City Hall (Neues Rathaus).

The City Theatre (Stadttheater) is part of the same architectural ensemble as the Old City Hall, also built in 1904. It has a notable Jugendstil façade, is Bielefeld's largest theatre and home of the Bielefeld Opera. Another theatre (Theater am Alten Markt) resides in the former town hall building on the Old Market Square (Alter Markt), which also contains a row of restored 16th and 17th-century townhouses with noteworthy late Gothic and Weser Renaissance style façades (Bürgerhäuser am Alten Markt).

The oldest city church is Altstädter Nicolaikirche. It is a Gothic hall church with a height of 81.5 m (267 ft). It was founded in 1236 by the Bishop of Paderborn, and enlarged at the beginning of the 14th century. The church was damaged in World War II and later rebuilt. Three times a day, a carillon can be heard. The most valuable treasure of this church is a carved altar from Antwerp, decorated with 250 figures. A small museum housed within illustrates the history of the church up to World War II.

The largest church is the Neustädter Marienkirche, a Gothic hall church dating back to 1293, completed 1512. It stands 78 m (256 ft) tall and has a length of 52 m (171 ft). Historically speaking, this building is considered to be the most precious possession of the town. It was the starting point of the Protestant Reformation in Bielefeld in 1553. A valuable wing-altar with 13 pictures, known as the Marienaltar is also kept inside. The baroque spires were destroyed in World War II and later replaced by two unusually-shaped "Gothic" clocktowers. The altarpiece of the Bielefeld church Neustädter Marienkirche from around 1400 is among the most prominent masterpieces of artwork of the German Middle Ages. Two of the altarpieces, The Flagellation and The Crucifixion are now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Bielefeld is also the seat of the two largest Protestant social welfare establishments (Diakonie) in Europe, the Bethel Institution and the Evangelisches Johanneswerk.

Other important cultural sights of the region are the art museum (Kunsthalle), the Rudolf-Oetker-Halle concert hall, the city's municipal botanical garden (Botanischer Garten Bielefeld) and the Olderdissen Heimat-Zoo, a zoological garden based on German wildlife. Bielefeld is home to the widely known Bielefelder Kinderchor, founded in 1932 by Friedrich Oberschelp as the first mixed children's choir in Germany. It became famous for its recordings and concerts of traditional German Christmas carols, filling the Rudolf-Oetker-Halle several times each season. Foreign tours have taken the choir to many European countries, and also the U.S. and Japan.

On Hünenburg there is an observation tower, next to a 164-metre-high (538 ft) radio tower.

Born 1900–1950

Rudolph Angermüller (1940–2021), musicologist

Aleida Assmann (born 1947), anglist, egyptologist and literary and cultural scientist

Veronica Carstens (1923–2012), medical doctor, wife of Karl Carstens

Erich Consemüller (1902–1957), Bauhaus-trained architect and photographer

Elfriede Eilers (1921–2016), politician (SPD)

Johannes Friedrich (1948–2025), Lutheran Protestant theologian

Karen Gershon (1923–1993), German-born writer and poet

Theodor Göllner (1929–2022), musicologist

Klaus Hildebrand (born 1941), historian

Friedrich Holzapfel (1900–1969), politician (CDU)

Heinz Klingenberg (1905–1959), actor

Klaus Kobusch (1941–2025), cyclist

Werner Lueg (1931–2014), athlete

Hajo Meyer (1924–2014), German-Dutch physicist and author

Reinhard Meyer zu Bentrup (1939–2024), politician (CDU)

Irmgard Möller (born 1947), member of the Red Army faction

Hermann Paul Müller (1909–1975), racing driver

Rüdiger Nehberg (1935–2020), survival expert and activist for human rights

Jürgen Oberschelp (born 1938), conductor and choir director

Ursula Oetker (1915–2005), businesswoman

Günther Pankoke (1925–1999), racing cyclist

Heinz Pauck (1904–1986), screenwriter

Walter Quakernack (1907–1946), Oberscharführer in the SS during the Nazi era and war criminal

Günter Rixe (1939–2024), politician (SPD)

Klaus Ruedenberg (born 1920), chemist

Bernhard Schlink (born 1944), professor of jurisprudence and author

Hans-Werner Sinn (born 1948), economist and president of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research

Christian Tümpel (1937–2009), art historian

Reiner Uthoff (1937–2024), writer and stage director

Werner Vordtriede (1915–1985), emigrant, professor of German language and literature, writer

Hannes Wader (born 1942), musician and songwriter

Karl August Walther (1902–after 1964) writer and publisher

Horst Wessel (1907–1930), SA leader, author of the Horst-Wessel-Song

Ulrich Wessel (1946–1975), member of the Red Army Faction

Ulrich Wildgruber (1937–1999), actor

Born 1951–2000

Julia Abe (born 1976), tennis player

Friederike Abt (born 1994), football goalkeeper

Mehmet Akgün (born 1986), footballer

Dirk Becker (born 1966), politician (SPD)

Anja Blacha (born 1990), endurance and extreme athlete, high-altitude mountaineer

Tom Brüntrup (born 1997), politician (CDU)

Ulrich Büscher (1958–2020), footballer

Mark Carleton-Smith (born 1964), senior British Army officer

Charalampos Chantzopoulos (born 1994), Greek football player

Michael Diekmann (born 1954), chief executive officer of Allianz SE

Hendrik Dreekmann (born 1975), tennis player

Joachim Ebmeyer (born 1985), politician (CDU)

Kevin John Edusei (born 1976), conductor

Ralf Ehrenbrink (born 1960), versatility rider

Sabine Ellerbrock (born 1975), wheelchair tennis player

Wiebke Esdar (born 1984), politician (SPD)

Anja Feldmann (born 1966), computer scientist

Nils Fischer (born 1987), footballer

Moritz Fritz (born 1993), footballer

Baboucarr Gaye (born 1998), footballer and goalkeeper

Frank Geideck (born 1967), footballer

Nina George (born 1973), writer and journalist

Wolfram Goessling (born 1967), physician-scientist, specializes in oncology and gastroenterology

Maja Göpel (born 1976), political economist, sustainability scientist

Lena Goeßling (born 1986), women's association football player for Germany women's national football team

Annette Groth (born 1954), politician (The Left)

Berkant Güner (born 1998), footballer

Olaf Hampel (born 1965), bob driver

Ruediger Heining (born 1968), agricultural scientist and economist

Maximilian Hippe (born 1998), footballer

Marco Hober (born 1995), footballer

Marvin Höner (born 1994), footballer

Stefan Hübner (born 1975), volleyball player

Josef Ivanović (born 1973), football coach and a former player

Nadine Jarosch (born 1995), gymnast

Rolf Kanies (born 1957), film and theater actor

Denis Kina (born 1992), footballer

Jost Kobusch (born 1992), mountaineer and author

Julian Köster (born 2000), handball player, German national team

Serhat Kot (born 1997), footballer

Mieke Kröger (born 1993), cyclist

Markus Kullig (born 1974), footballer

Fabian Kunze (born 1998), footballer

Lukas Kunze (born 1998), footballer

Gitta Kutyniok (born 1972), mathematician

Karoline Linnert (born 1958), politician (The Greens)

Julia Lohoff (born 1994), tennis player

Ingolf Lück (born 1958), actor, synchronizer, presenter, comedian and director

Erich Marks (born 1954), educator

Andreas K. W. Meyer (1958–2023), dramaturge, journalist, librettist and opera manager

Lisa Middelhauve (born 1980), metal singer

Ingo Niermann (born 1969), writer, journalist and artist

Richard Oetker (born 1951), entrepreneur Dr. Oetker

Ingo Oschmann (born 1969), comedian, entertainer and magician

Hartmut Ostrowski (born 1958), chief executive officer of Bertelsmann AG

Can Özkan (born 1999), footballer

Uğur Pamuk (born 1989), footballer

Florian Panzner (born 1976), actor

Dinah Pfizenmaier (born 1992), tennis player

Mateusz Przybylko (born 1992), high jumper

Kacper Przybyłko (born 1993), footballer

Christina Rau (born 1956), political scientist and widow of the Federal President Johannes Rau

Mike Reed (born 1974), jazz drummer, bandleader, composer

Markus Reitzig (born 1972), organizational scientist

Hartmut Schick (born 1960), musicologist

Bianca Shomburg (born 1974), singer, participation in the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest

Keanu Staude (born 1997), footballer

Melanie Stiassny (born 1953), ichthyologist

Maike Stöckel (born 1984), field hockey player

Maren Tellenbröker (born 2000), footballer

Jens Teutrine (born 1993), politician (FDP)

Aylin Tezel (born 1983), actress, writer and director

Iris Vermillion (born 1960), operatic mezzo-soprano

Henri Weigelt (born 1998), footballer

Oliver Welke (born 1966), author, comedian, sports journalist and moderator

Louis Weßels (born 1998), tennis player

Christian Wieczorek (born 1985), footballer

Susanne Wolff (born 1973), actress

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