History
Dating to the 12th century as Wiesdorf, the Leverkusen area was rural until the late 19th century.
- Chemical facility
- In 1860, Wiesdorf was chosen by the apothecary Carl Leverkus for establishing a dye factory. The factory was taken over by the Bayer company in 1891. The company moved its office to Wiesdorf in 1912, turning the town into the centre of German chemical industry. In World War II, the Bayer (Standard Oil/IG Farben) plant was bombed on August 22, 1943, and during the Battle of Berlin (air) on November 19/20 and December 10/11, 1943. The predominance of Bayer could easily classify Leverkusen as a German monogorod.
Leverkusen was founded in 1930 by merging Wiesdorf, Schlebusch, Steinbüchel and Rheindorf. In 1975, Opladen (including Quettingen and Lützenkirchen since 1930), Hitdorf and Bergisch Neukirchen joined. The present city is made up of several villages, originally called Wiesdorf, Opladen, Schlebusch, Manfort, Bürrig, Hitdorf, Quettingen, Lützenkirchen, Steinbüchel, Rheindorf and Bergisch-Neukirchen.
Read more about this topic: Leverkusen
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We know only a single science, the science of history. One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature and the history of men. However, the two sides are not to be divided off; as long as men exist the history of nature and the history of men are mutually conditioned.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“A man will not need to study history to find out what is best for his own culture.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)