Wupper

Wupper
Wupper
Basin
Main source	Sauerland
Source elevation	441 m
River mouth	Rhine 51°02′43″N 6°56′27″E / 51.04528°N 6.94083°ECoordinates: 51°02′43″N 6°56′27″E / 51.04528°N 6.94083°E
Size	827 km²
Country	Germany
Physiognomy
Length	113 km

The Wupper is a right tributary of the River Rhine in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Rising near Marienheide in western Sauerland it runs through the mountainous region of the Bergisches Land in Berg County and enters the Rhine at Leverkusen, south of Düsseldorf. Its upper course is called the Wipper.

Müngsten Bridge between Remscheid and Solingen.

On its course of about 113 km, the Wupper passes through the city of Wuppertal where the suspension railway runs for 10 kilometres above the river. According to a popular local story, on 21 July 1950 a young elephant named Tuffi jumped into the Wupper from the railway.

It is crossed by the highest railway bridge in Germany near Müngsten, between Remscheid and Solingen. A few kilometers further down, Burg Castle is located on a hill overlooking the river.

Hydropower

From the 15th century, the Wupper and its numerous streams gave birth to hundreds of workshops, mills and factories on their banks. Originally water was used for dying, bleaching and washing canvas and cloth,^[1] later it was used to power machines or transport waste.

The Wupper thus facilitated the early industrial expansion of Wuppertal (German for "Wupper Valley") during the 18th, 19th and early 20th century, similar to that of Silicon Valley in the United States in the 20th century. The Wupper Valley was one of world's first industrialized regions and empowered inter alia the Ruhrgebiet as a coal-mining region.

The suspension railway over the Wupper in Wuppertal.

Other

• The Wupper is cited in the German sayings: "Über die Wupper gehen", literally "To go over the Wupper", metaphorically meaning "going bankrupt", "going into jail" or "going to die".^[2]
• Else Lasker-Schüler wrote a drama entitled Die Wupper.

References

1. "Cloth Bleaching alongside Wupper River". Municipality of Wuppertal. Retrieved January 2011.
2. Rolf-Bernhard Essig. "Woher kommt “Über die Wupper gehen”?" (in German). SWR. Retrieved September 2014.