Germany - Bielefeld

A map and multiviews of Bielefeld.

Sent by Alex, a postcrosser from Switzerland.

This is from Wikipedia : Bielefeld (German pronunciation: [ˈbiːləfɛlt]) 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 Regierungsbezirk Detmold. Its current mayor is Pit Clausen.


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 Fachhochschulen.

Founded in 1215 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.


After the Cologne-Minden railway opened in 1849, the Bozi brothers constructed the first large mechanised spinning mill in 1851. The Ravensberg Spinning Mill was built from 1854 to 1857, and metal works began to open in the 1860s.

Between 1904 and 1930, Bielefeld grew, opening a railway station, a municipal theatre, and finally, the Rudolf-Oetker-Halle concert hall, famous for its excellent acoustics. The Dürkopp car was produced 1898-1927. After printing emergency money (German: Notgeld) in 1923 during the inflation in the Weimar Republic, Bielefeld was one of several towns that printed very attractive and highly collectable banknotes with designs on silk, linen and velvet. These pieces were issued by the Bielefeld Stadtsparkasse (town saving's bank) and were sent all around the world in the early 1920s. These pieces are known as 'stoffgeld' - that is, money made from fabric. Many examples can be found on the http://www.notgeld.com website, where a new catalogue listing all the variants of different coloured borders and edges made on the 100m piece is being compiled.