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The Rhine promenade in front of the old city quarters in Düsseldorf
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A capital on the Rhine with International Flair
Düsseldorf is a city of the rich and the beautiful, of bankers and entrepreneurs, designers and artists - but also, a city of Japanese. The city has long been regarded as a Japanese stronghold in Germany, and is sometimes referred to mischievously as "the Nippon capital on the Rhine".
Düsseldorf's 7,000 Japanese residents are a high-profile group. In the area around the main train station you're just as likely to hear Japanese being spoken as German. Düsseldorfers call the area "Little Tokyo" because of its many specialty restaurants, Japanese food shops and bookshops, as well as an up-market Japanese department store. There are also two Japanese kindergartens, and a Japanese international school, which is the biggest in Europe. So it's no wonder that the city's Japanese residents also celebrate their mother country's main holidays - with the active participation of Düsseldorf's native population.
Düsseldorf is the political capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous federal state with more than 18 million inhabitants. The state government is housed in regal style complex directly on the river Rhine. It's situated between the historical old town center and the legendary Königsallee shopping boulevard. The people of Düsseldorfer just call it 'Kö' for short and claim it is the "smartest shopping street in Germany".
Always at Your Service
Düsseldorf is located on the edge of the Ruhrgebiet, a metropolitan area of five million inhabitants and numerous industrial sites in the Ruhr river valley. Since many of the region's coal and steel works had their administrative headquarters in Düsseldorf, the city was nicknamed "the writing desk of the Ruhrgebiet". But now that most of the mines and steelmills have been shut down, the Ruhrgebiet is transforming into a center of the service industry.
Big, Bigger, European Headquarters
Düsseldorf is at the forefront of this change and that is reflected in the modern, clean-cut architecture of the city's newer buildings: state government ministries, industry associations and company headquarters. The city center is packed with the high-profile buildings of the former steel bosses from the turn of the last century. But there are also the glass skyscrapers which house the headquarters of German and multi-national corporations. Some 3,000 foreign companies have their European headquarters in Düsseldorf. And because of the large Japanese community in the city, Japanese companies are particularly numerous.
Cultural Centre
Culturally, Düsseldorf has much to offer. There is a broad range of theaters, numerous art museums and exhibitions and many dance companies. And if Düsseldorf itself is not enough, all of the 25 major cities of the Ruhrgebiet area are within one hour's bus or train journey of the city. One advantage for students is that train travel in the Ruhrgebiet is included in the student public transport semester ticket.
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