3215 GERMANY (North Rhine-Westphalia) - Münster

Münster, the cultural centre of the Westphalia region, is situated on the river Aa, approximately 15km south of its confluence with the Ems in the Westphalian Bight, a landscape studded with dispersed settlements and farms, the so-called Münsterland. Its roots can be traced back to the 6th century, but the city officially came into existence in 793, when Frisian missionary Liudger founded the "Monasterium" cloister.

3083 GERMANY (North Rhine-Westphalia) - Rheine

3083 Rheine: background - Kloster Bentlage; 1. Saline Gottesgabe;
2. Ems river; 3. Dreiklang Bentlage; 4. NaturZoo.

Rheine is a town located on the river Ems, at about 40km north of Münster, not far from the border with Netherlands. The most important touristic attractions in Rheine are the Saline Gottesgabe, the Bentlage Monastery, and the NaturZoo. Kloster Bentlage is a former monastery of the Crosiers and dates back to 1437. Secularized in 1803, has been in municipal ownership since 1978; today it is an artistic and cultural monument, renovated in a contemporary manner. Since 1990s Kloster Bentlage has established itself as a major centre for contemporary art in the Münsterland region.

3078 GERMANY (North Rhine-Westphalia) - Schwanentor Bridge in Duisburg

Located in the western part of the Ruhr Area, at the confluence of the Rhine and Ruhr rivers, Duisburg has the world's biggest inland harbor. Actually it is officially regarded as a seaport, because seagoing river vessels go to ports in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Until around 1000 AD, Duisburg was located on the banks of the Rhine, but after that, the river shifted its course westwards, and the town remained connected to the river only through a "dead" arm for the following 400 years. As a result, this previously important trading town declined into a small agricultural settlement.

3039 GERMANY (North Rhine-Westphalia) - Church of Saint Reinold in Dortmund

3039 Old market square with Church of Saint Reinold

The Lutheran Protestant Church of Saint Reinold is, according to its foundation date, the oldest extant church in Dortmund. It was built as a palatine church in the Ottonian era, between 1250 and 1270, and is dedicated to Reinold, also known as Renaud de Montauban, the patron of the city. The present building is a late Romanesque church with a late gothic quire. Located in the centre of the city, directly at the crossing of the Hellweg (a historic trade route) and the historic road from Cologne to Bremen.

2948 GERMANY (North Rhine-Westphalia) - Dortmund

Dortmund is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, located in the middle part of the state, and is considered to be the administrative, commercial and cultural centre of the eastern Ruhr Area. Nearly half the municipal territory consists of waterways, woodland, agriculture and green spaces with spacious parks. This stands in a stark contrast with nearly a hundred years of extensive coal mining and steel milling within the city limits. The near-complete destruction of Dortmund's city centre during World War II (98%) has resulted in a varied architectural landscape.

2743 GERMANY (North Rhine-Westphalia) - Ruhr Valley

 

River Ruhr, an important tributary of the lower Rhine, rises on the north side of Winterberg and flows 235km west past Witten (the head of navigation), Essen, and Mülheim to enter the Rhine at Duisburg. Its functions chiefly as a supplier of water and is dammed in many places to form lakes and reservoirs. Nearby canals carry the bulk of the water traffic. The river has given its name to one of the world’s largest single industrial regions.

1866 GERMANY (North Rhine-Westphalia) - A facade of an old building from Gelsenkirchen

Gelsenkirchen was first documented in 1150, but it remained a tiny village until the 19th century, when the Industrial Revolution led to the growth of the entire area. In 1840, when the mining of coal began, 6,000 inhabitants lived in Gelsenkirchen; in 1900 the population had increased to 138,000. Actually in the early 20th century it was the most important coal mining town in Europe. And even if three quarters of the city was destroyed during the bombings of WWII, some buildings reminding of its peak survived until today, how is the one shown in the image, with a neoclassical facade.

1637 GERMANY (North Rhine-Westphalia) - Bielefeld

1637 Bielefeld: 1. Overview; 2. Bielefeld Convention Center;
3. Bunnemann Square; 4. Old Town Church Square;
5. Old Market Square; 6. Saint Bartholomew Church;
7. The City Theatre.

Located in the north-east of North-Rhine Westphalia, Bielefeld is a city with a population of 327,000. Its historical centre is situated north of the Teutoburg Forest line of hills, but modern Bielefeld also incorporates boroughs on the opposite side and on the hills. 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. The Industrial Revolution led to the construction of the mechanised spinning mills. In the early 1920s the Town's Savings Bank (Stadtsparkasse) issued money made of linen, silk and velvet, known as stoffgeld.

0665 & 0779 GERMANY (North Rhine-Westphalia) - Cologne Cathedral (UNESCO WHS)

Posted on 03.06.2013 and completed on 02.08.2013
With 157,4m height, Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom), dedicated to St. Peter, is the tallest Roman Catholic cathedral in the world. In 1248, when was commenced its construction, the site had been occupied by several previous structures, the earliest been a grain store, succeeded by a Roman temple. Nothing strange, because the city was built by Romans in 50 AD, Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium becoming the provincial capital of Germania Inferior in 85 AD. The work to the cathedral was halted in 1473, leaving the south tower complete up to the belfry level and crowned with a huge crane that remained in place as a landmark of the Cologne skyline for 400 years.

Work has resumed in the 19th century, the building being completed in 1880. The enormous costs (over US$ 1 billion in today's money) were supported in the proportion of two-thirds through civic effort, while the Prussian state supplied the remaining third. During the WWII the cathedral suffered seventy hits by aerial bombs, but didn't collapse. The repairs were completed in 1956, and in 1995 Cologne Cathedral became an UNESCO WHS. Today is Germany's most visited landmark, attracting an average of 20,000 people a day.

0775 GERMANY (North Rhine-Westphalia) - Glaselefant in Hamm

Founded on 1226 by Count Adolf I of the Mark, Hamm was member of the Hanseatic League, and in 15th century became one of the most powerful towns in the region. Ham means "corner" in the old Low German dialect, and the name of the city derives from the description of its location in the corner of the Lippe river and the narrow Ahse affluent, in the northeastern part of the Ruhr area. During the 19th and early 20th century, Hamm has been one of the West German mining towns.

0634 GERMANY (North Rhine-Westphalia) - Schlosspark Benrath

Set near Düsseldorf, in the middle of a large park and surrounded by water features, Schloss Benrath (Benrath Castle) is a Rococo maison de plaisance, a testimony to late-Baroque taste. Erected for the Elector Palatine Charles Theodore by his garden and building director and garden supervisor, Nicolas de Pigage, it was begun in 1755 and completed in 1770. A combination of palace and park was planned from the outset here, the "architectural oeuvre", "garden oeuvre" and "water oeuvre" forming a whole.

0156, 0238, 0627 GERMANY (North Rhine-Westphalia) - Der Neue Zollhof and other stuff from Düsseldorf

Posted on 25.03.2012 and completed on 05.06.2012 and 03.05.2013
Grown on the mud and the sand of the east bank of the Lower Rhine, where the delta of the River Düssel flows into the Rhine, almost a thousand years ago, Düsseldorf granted the town privileges în 1288. Rival of the older and wealthy Cologne (located just 40 km upstream, which today means 18 minutes by Regional Bahn), the city has constantly developed as commercial, but also as cultural center, both under the dukes of Jülich-Cleves-Berg and under the house of Wittelsbach, peaking during the Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm II (r. 1690-1716). Strongly affected by the Napoleonic Wars, Düsseldorf enjoyed a revival by the mid-19th century, thanks to the Industrial Revolution. Heavily bombed by the allies in WWII, in 1946 Düsseldorf was made capital of the new federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Located now centrally within The Blue Banana, in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, is one of the country's five global cities (together with Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg and Berlin). The city itself has only 590,000 inhabitants (of which 110,000 are foreigners), but this doesn’t prevent to be one of the top telecommunications centres in Germany, and also one of advertising and fashion industries.

In the largest picture on the first postcard, but also in the second one, can seen Der Neue Zollhof (New Customs House), located in Unterbilk. The complex, consisting of three separate buildings, was designed in a style commonly considered deconstructivism by American architect Frank O. Gehry (which designed, among others, Olympic Fish from Barcelona, and Dancing House from Prague) and was completed in 1998. Floorplans and facades of all three buildings are curve and lean (constructed of concrete flat slab), reason for them being likened to leaning towers. Each building has a different facade cladding - the outer two in white plaster and red brick respectively; the central building's stainless steel facade reflects material and shapes of its two neighbour buildings. Otherwise geometry, massing and exterior material, provides each of the buildings with a unique identity. The buildings currently occupied primarily by… warehouses.

In the background of the second postcard is Rheinturm (Rhine Tower), a 240.5m high concrete telecommunications tower, built between 1979 and 1981. It houses a revolving restaurant and an observation deck at a height of 170m. As a special attraction, there is a light sculpture on its shaft which works as a clock, the biggest digital clock in the world. This sculpture was designed by Horst H. Baumann and is called Lichtzeitpegel (Light Time Level).

The other five figures illustrate in the first postcard, from left to right, are:
● a sculpture made by Horst Antes in 1986-1987, located in Bertha von Suttner Square, behind the Düsseldorf Central Station (Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof)
● promenade along the banks of the Rhine to the Medienhafen. In background can seen the Theodor Heuss Bridge, also known as the Nordbrücke (North bridge), a cable-stayed bridge built from 1953 to 1957, the clock tower of the ancient collegiate church of St Lambertus, and castle tower
● Central Station (Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof)
● Galeria Kaufhof 'an der Kö' (on Königsallee), a department store located centrally on Düsseldorf’s internationally renowned shopping boulevard in the heart of the city, between the Altstadt and Schadowstrasse.

0270 GERMANY (North Rhine-Westphalia) - Wuppertal Schwebebahn to 111 years

Who wouldn't want to live in a city like Wuppertal, where two-thirds of the total municipal area is green space? From any part of the city it's only a 10 minute walk in one of the public parks or woodland paths. In addition, Wuppertal (Wupper Valley), formed in 1929 by merging the cities of Barmen and Elberfeld with Vohwinkel, Ronsdorf, Cronenberg, Langerfeld, and Beyenburg, is known for its suspension railway, the Wuppertal Schwebebahn (Wuppertal Floating Tram), perfect because of the city's steep slopes.

0095 GERMANY (North Rhine-Westphalia) - Sparrenburg, the castle from the Teutoburg Forest

Located about 60 km southeast for the place of the famous battle in which Arminius massacred 2,000 years ago three Roman legions, in the territories held in the 8th century by Widukind, one of the most formidable opponents of Charlemagne, Bielefeld (the hilly field) was founded in 1215 by Count Hermann IV of Ravensberg to guard a pass crossing the dark Teutoburg Forest (until the 19th century named Osning). To serve intended purpose, sometime before 1250 was erected, above the town, on the Sparrenberg hill, the castle with the same name, the administrative centre and residence of the county sovereign (in the picture). The fact that Bielefeld, the "city of linen", has become member of the Hanseatic League in 1270, shortly after the castle's building, can't be accidental.