Bielefeld is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 323,000, it is also the most populous city in the county of Detmold. Its current mayor is Pit Clausen. The satirical Bielefeld Conspiracy gave the city some international attention.
The historical centre of the city is situated north of the Teutoburg Forest, but modern Bielefeld also incorporates boroughs on the opposite side and on the hilltops. Bielefeld is home to a significant number of internationally operating companies, including Dr. Oetker, Gildemeister and Schüco. It has a university and several Universities of Applied Sciences. Bielefeld was a linen producing town and the Town’s Savings Bank (Stadtsparkasse), in the early 1920s issued money made of different materials, known as ‘stoffgeld’. These were pieces of money produced on linen, silk and velvet.
Sparrenburg Castle is the most famous landmark. It was built between 1240 and 1250 by Count Ludwig von Ravensberg. The 37 m (121 ft) high tower and the catacombs of the castle are open to the public.
The Old City Hall (Altes Rathaus) was built in 1904 and still serves the same function. Its façade 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 (161 ft). Historically speaking, this building is considered to be the most precious. 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.
Other important cultural sights of the region are the art museum (Kunsthalle), the Rudolf Oetker concert hall (Rudolf-Oetker-Halle), and the city’s municipal botanical garden (the Botanischer Garten Bielefeld). Bielefeld is home to the widely known Bielefeld Children’s Choir (Bielefelder Kinderchor), founded in 1932 and in the postwar era famed for its recordings of traditional German Christmas carols. Particularly notable is the choir’s annual Christmas Concert in the Rudolf Oetker concert hall. Foreign tours have taken the choir to many European countries, and also the U.S.A. and Japan.
