You can also find out more about the following:Train travel is a romantic experience. Imagine sleeping trains, boat-trains, vintage steam railways and elegant dining cars. The Wuppertal Schwebebahn is the oldest suspended railway system in the world.
In October, it’ll be 125 years to the day since Kaiser Wilhelm II tested the Schwebebahn. It was only a few weeks before the hanging rail officially opened its doors in March of 1901. The engineering feat was incredible then and it remains so. It looks like something Jules Verne would have imagined, even though sleek, modern carriages have long since replaced the originals. The carriages glide smoothly under the overhead track. Even the original carriage of 1901, called Kaiserwagen, is preserved and can be hired by private parties.
As I sat at the back of the carriage, I felt a childlike sense of joy as I watched the city unfold as I floated anywhere between 8 and 9 metres (26ft-39ft) above the ground. Vohwinkel at the westernmost station is one of four that have carriages suspended between iron arches above the street. The remaining eight miles of railway follows the course of the Wupper river. The hanging train sways and curves above the serpentine water, turning this commuter service to a fairground for its 80,000 passengers daily. I was thrilled to discover a train enthusiast that had never been known before.
The Schwebebahn almost happened by accident. The Wupper valley, about 15 miles east of Düsseldorf, was a major textile production base when Germany was undergoing its own Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. As workers flooded to the growing cities of Barmen and Elberfeld – which merged in 1929 and were renamed Wuppertal in 1930 – the authorities realised a public transport system was needed. Wuppertal was not able to have a U-Bahn because of its narrow, steep valley and rocky soil.
At Schwebodrom, the railway museum that opened in late 2023 near Werther Brücke station at the line’s eastern end, the rich history of the Schwebebahn is laid out in three galleries, revealing one fascinating detail after another. In one gallery, Tuffi is told as a circus elephant was loaded onto the Schwebebahn in 1950 for a publicity stunt. Tuffi became so frightened by the commotion of journalists that she fell through a window into the river. Luckily she was only lightly bruised and lived for another 49 years, her landing spot in the Wupper now marked by an elephant statue between Alter Markt and Adler Brücke stations. You can’t move in Wuppertal without seeing Tuffi on some souvenir or another – even on milk cartons.
The highlight of the museum was the replica carriage. I sat in my VR headset, glued to the screen, and felt like I was back in the 1920s. I rode the rails and then went back to see how things had changed. Much of Wuppertal had to be rebuilt after heavy allied bombing in the second world war, and the railway itself has been completely reconstructed – including its art nouveau stations – while keeping the original steampunk-style design in the iron girders.
The city is as pleasant as the railway. Heike Questionmann, the local guide who took me on the tour, led me through the streets of Laurentiusplatz. The square is dominated with the austere 19th-century Basilica of St Lawrence dedicated to Wuppertal’s Patron Saint. Popular with many of the 23,000 students at the University of Wuppertal as well as people of all ages, the cosmopolitan streets hummed with cafes, delis, boutiques, bars and restaurants run by some of the many nationalities that have settled here over the decades – Italian, Turkish, Greek, Indian, Vietnamese and Spanish among them. There were many restaurants in the city, including Lebanese and Chinese cuisine, as well as traditional German food.
Pointing out an example of Wuppertal’s distinctive style of architecture – slate cladding, green shutters and white window frames – Heike led me along the narrow streets behind Laurentiusplatz as we steadily walked uphill. Heike explained that Wuppertal was not only Germany’s Manchester due to its industry but also San Francisco because of its steepness. She said, “We are a city of steps,” as we approached another. “We have more than 12,000 steps in the city, 500 staircases.” “This is the most well-known one.” She pointed to a sign with the captivating name of Tippen-Tappen-Tönchen, in honour of those 19th-century workmen clopping in their wooden clogs towards the riverside factories – hence the tipping-tapping sound. Add this to my list.
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The wealthy industrialists of the 19th century shaped Wuppertal, not only with their hillside villas but also the cultural institutions. The Von der Heydt Museum is named after a banking family that collected art. It houses its impressive collection from the 19th- and 20th-century in what used to be the neoclassical Town Hall. Tony Cragg is a Liverpool-born Turner Prize-winning artist who moved to Wuppertal in 1977. Two large sculptures flank the entrance. Richard Strauss was one of the first conductors at the Historische Stadthalle, which is celebrating its 125th birthday this year. Sir Simon Rattle also rated the acoustics as among the best in world. The city is filled with many public gardens including the Botanical Garden, a vast hilly garden.
As I sat in the warm, bookish surroundings of Café Engel in Laurentiusplatz, I was reminded of Friedrich Engels, the son of a wealthy Wuppertal textile manufacturer, who turned his back on his bourgeois background to co-author The Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx after seeing the appalling working conditions in mid-19th-century Manchester. Engels died six years before Schwebebahn was opened in London, but the industrialists of the city had implemented many social reforms that were far ahead of their times. Although the Schwebebahn looks futuristic, its history is unique to Wuppertal. Here, in Germany’s old industrial heartland, the high life is yours from €3.60 a ticket.
The trip was sponsored by the German tourist board You can also find out more about the following: Le Shuttle, which has return fares from Folkestone to Calais from £155 Per vehicle. More information is available at wuppertal.de. Doubles at Holiday Inn Express Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof (some with views of the Schwebebahn), start at £79B.&B. Schwebebahn Tickets for 24 hours €8.80. €4.40 Additional passengers. Schwebodrom Adult Tickets €16.50
