Hanseatic city of Wipperfürth

Wipperfürth

Wipperfürth is a medium-sized centre with a catchment area of 50,000 inhabitants. The town is characterised by a high local recreational value in a charming and largely undestroyed low mountain landscape and a high quality of life. Several dams are popular tourist attractions and local recreation destinations. More than a quarter of the area is forest.

First documented in 1131, Wipperfürth today looks back on a long and eventful history. The town owes its name to a ford through the Wupper, which is still called Wipper here. At this ford, which was the intersection of the important trade routes from Cologne to the Westphalian region and from the Siegerland region to the lower Wuppertal, a lively trading and transhipment centre quickly developed. Wipperfürth as a Hanseatic town emerged in particular from the Wipperfürth Hanseatic merchants de Wolde, who appeared in the 14th century together with merchants from Cologne, Dortmund and Attendorn and whose name can be found in numerous lists of customs payments, stack levies, loans and customs distraints.