Wolfsburg
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Weser watershed with Wolfsburg (right centre)
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Wolfsburg is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located on the River Aller northeast of Braunschweig (Brunswick), and is mainly notable as the headquarters of Volkswagen AG. Wolfsburg is bordered by the districts of Gifhorn and Helmstedt.
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History
Wolfsburg was founded in 1937 as Stadt des KdF-Wagens (English: City of the KdF Car), a planned town around the village of Fallersleben in order to house the workers of the newly opened Volkswagen factories, which were built to house the Volkswagen Beetle "people's car" and remain there today, although Beetle production finished there in 1978 (when it was transferred to Mexico for the final 25 years).
During World War II, there were also military cars, airplanes and other military equipment built, mainly by forced workers and POWs at these factories. The train station of Wolfsburg was built on the order of Adolf Hitler in order to transport or receive prefabricated parts for military equipment.
In 1945, the city was renamed Wolfsburg after the castle of the same name located in the city, which was founded about 1300 on the bank of the Aller river. Today, there is another castle at the place, which was built after 1600. In 1951, Wolfsburg was separated from the District of Gifhorn, and became an urban district. In November 2003, Wolfsburg was renamed "Golfsburg" for one week to celebrate the 5th generation of the Volkswagen Golf.
Main sights
Centre of Wolfsburg lacks historical buildings, and the sights include new attractions like the Autostadt (a huge open air museum dedicated to automobiles, owned and operated by Volkswagen), a planetarium, the Phaeno Science Center, the largest hands-on science museum in Germany, and an excellent private art museum (Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg) specialised in modern and contemporary art.
The old part of the city Alt Wolfsburg shows some manor buildings in traditional framework style.
With the opening in 2000 of Autostadt and that of Phaeno, as well as restaurants and a Ritz Carlton Hotel, tourism increased.
Sport
The most famous professional sports club in the city is VfL Wolfsburg, a football club that was established in 1945. They won the 2009 Fußball-Bundesliga. Ice hockey team EHC Wolfsburg Grizzly Adams is also based in the city. The Volkswagen Challenger tennis tournament has been held annually in the city since 1993.
International relations
Wolfsburg is twinned with:
Luton, United Kingdom, since 1950
Marignane, France, since 1963
Province of Pesaro e Urbino, Italy, since 1975
Halberstadt, Germany, since 1989
Togliatti, Russia, since 1991
Bielsko-Biała, Poland, since 1998
Associated cities:
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1985
Changchun, People's Republic of China
Toyohashi, Japan since 2002
Notable people
- Peter Bialobrzeski (born 1961), photographer
- Dero Goi (born 1970), musician
- Stefanie Gottschlich (born 1978), footballer
- August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben (1798–1874), poet
- Karin Janke (born 1963), sprinter
- Wolfgang Müller (born 1957), musician
- Sascha Paeth (born 1970), musician
See also
- Metropolitan region Hannover-Braunschweig-Göttingen-Wolfsburg
References
- ↑ "Bevölkerungsfortschreibung" (in German). Landesbetrieb für Statistik und Kommunikationstechnologie Niedersachsen. 31 December 2009. http://www1.nls.niedersachsen.de/statistik/html/parametereingabe.asp?DT=K1000014&CM=Bev%F6lkerungsfortschreibung.
External links
- City of Wolfsburg
- Autostadt
- Wolfsburg Art Museum
- Wolfsburg travel guide from Wikitravel
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Urban and rural districts in the state of