Oberhausen
CentrO-Park in Oberhausen
Oberhausen
Coordinates	51°33′0″N 6°51′0″E / 51.55°N 6.85°E / 51.55; 6.85Coordinates: 51°33′0″N 6°51′0″E / 51.55°N 6.85°E / 51.55; 6.85
Administration
Country	Germany
State	North Rhine-Westphalia
Admin. region	Düsseldorf
District	Urban district
Lord Mayor	Klaus Wehling (SPD)
Basic statistics
Area	77.04 km2 (29.75 sq mi)
Elevation	78 m  (256 ft)
Population	212,945 (31 December 2010)[1]
- Density	2,764 /km2 (7,159 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate	OB
Postal codes	46001-46149
Area code	0208
Website	City of Oberhausen (de)

Oberhausen (German pronunciation: [ˈoːbɐhaʊzən]) is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg (c. 12 km) and Essen (c. 13 km). The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. It is also well known for the Centro, which is the biggest shopping mall in Germany. The city's Sea Life Centre was home to Paul the Octopus.

History[link]

Oberhausen was named for its 1847 railway station which had taken its name from the Castle Oberhausen (German: Schloss Oberhausen). The new borough was formed in 1862 following inflow of people for the local coal mines and steel mills. Awarded town rights in 1874, Oberhausen absorbed several neighbouring boroughs like Alstaden, parts of Styrum and Dümpten in 1910. After becoming a city in 1901, Oberhausen incorporated the towns of Sterkrade and Osterfeld in 1929. The Ruhrchemie AG synthetic oil plant ("Oberhausen-Holten" or "Sterkrade/Holten")^[2] was a bombing target of the Oil Campaign of World War II, and the US Forces had reached the plant by April 4, 1945.

Oberhausen was largely focused on mining and steel production until the 1960s. The last coal mine closed in 1992 and the large Thyssen iron and steel mill closed in 1997 (over 50,000 jobs). The Altenberg zinc factory (German: Zinkfabrik Altenberg) closed in 1981, was taken over by the Rheinisches Industriemuseum (English: Rhineland Industry Museum) in 1984, and opened in 1997.^[3]

In 1954 the city began hosting the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, and the 1982 Deutscher Filmpreis was awarded to a group that wrote the Oberhausen Manifesto.

Demographics and Industry[link]

The age breakdown of the population is 0-18, 18.2%; 18-64, 62.9%; >65, 18.9%; while the unemployment rate is 13.2% (January 2007) and the foreign population ratio is 12.4%.

Oberhausen performs chemical processing, mechanical engineering, and education. The "Neue Mitte Oberhausen" (English: New Central Oberhausen) at the former site of the Thyssen mill has light industry.

Cityscape[link]

Schloss Oberhausen - inner courtyard with little castle

Oberhausen has 4 city centres, and Alt-Oberhausen, Sterkrade and Osterfeld are common town centres. The new city centre with its mall draws many people from more distant places as it also boasts a larger number of exceptional shops. Much of the city is composed of low- to medium-density residential areas, most of which date from the 1950s-1970s.

Main sights[link]

• Gasometer Oberhausen, a huge gas holder converted into exhibition space.
• Ludwiggalerie in the Castle Oberhausen
• "Neue Mitte" with CentrO shopping mall, Sea Life aquarium, König Pilsener Arena, and CentrO.park, an amusement park.
• OLGA-Park, a landscaped garden in Osterfeld created for a horticultural show
• Rheinisches Industriemuseum (English: Rhineland Industrial Museum)
• The memorial shrine of Paul the Octopus in the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre, who predicted national soccer match winners by choosing between two food boxes labelled with flags

Gallery[link]

• 

  Oberhausen Hauptbahnhof

• 

  Gasometer

• 

  Castle Oberhausen as seen from the Gasometer

• 

  Townhall with Grillo-Park

• 

  Theatre

Transport[link]

Road

Oberhausen is well connected to the German motorway network.

• A2 (E34) (Oberhausen - Dortmund - Bielefeld - Hanover - Magdeburg - Berlin)
• A3 (E35) (from Arnhem - Oberhausen - Cologne - Frankfurt - Würzburg - Nuremberg - Passau - to Linz)
• A40 (Ruhrschnellweg, Venlo - Duisburg - Essen - Dortmund)
• A42 (Emscherschnellweg, Kamp-Lintfort - Oberhausen - Gelsenkirchen - Dortmund)
• A516 (Motorway Interchange from A2 to Oberhausen-Zentrum)

Rail

Oberhausen Hauptbahnhof is the main railway station in the city. Long-distance trains stop at the station (some even to Amsterdam and Basel) as well as regional and local services. There are stations at Holten, Sterkrade and Osterfeld, catering for regional and local travel.

Airports

Nearby commercial airports are at Düsseldorf International Airport (28 km), Dortmund Airport (50 km) and Weeze Airport (60 km).

Waterways

The Rhein-Herne Canal bisects the city, and the Ruhr is in the city's south-west (river navigation uses a shortcut canal to the south).

Public Transport

The city-owned company "STOAG" provides an extensive coverage of bus and tram services. It is part of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr transport association covering the whole Rhine-Ruhr area.

Sport[link]

With around 250 sports clubs Oberhausen has an active community. Local football club Rot-Weiss Oberhausen currently play in the second tier of the league.

Twin towns[link]

• Middlesbrough, United Kingdom, since 1974
• Zaporizhia, Ukraine, since 1986
• Freital, Germany, since 1990
• Iglesias, Italy, since 2002
• Carbonia, Italy, since 2002
• Mersin, Turkey, since 2004

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Oberhausen

• Ludwiggalerie in the Castle Oberhausen (English)
•  "Oberhausen". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920. 
•  "Oberhausen". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. 

v t e Urban and rural districts in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany Urban districts Bielefeld Bochum Bonn Bottrop Dortmund Duisburg Düsseldorf Essen Gelsenkirchen Hagen Hamm Herne Köln (Cologne) Krefeld Leverkusen Mönchengladbach Mülheim Münster Oberhausen Remscheid Solingen Wuppertal Rural districts Aachen Borken Coesfeld Düren Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis Euskirchen Gütersloh Heinsberg Herford Hochsauerlandkreis Höxter Kleve (Cleves) Lippe Märkischer Kreis Mettmann Minden-Lübbecke Oberbergischer Kreis Olpe Paderborn Recklinghausen Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis Rhein-Erft-Kreis Rhein-Kreis Neuss Rhein-Sieg-Kreis Siegen-Wittgenstein Soest Steinfurt Unna Viersen Warendorf Wesel

Farid Bang and Kollegah

Farid El Abdellaoui (born June 4, 1986),^[1] better known as Farid Bang, is a Düsseldorf-based rapper of Moroccan descent.

Early life and youth[link]

Farid Bang was born in Melilla, Spain, and grew up in the Spanish city of Malaga, before he moved with his family to Düsseldorf, Germany at the age of eight. He is signed to record label German Dream Entertainment ^[2]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

Farid Bang began to rap, at the age of 19, together with his friend called "Tekken". Through Summer Cem he met Eko Fresh, who signed him to his label German Dream Entertainment.^[3] In 2005 Farid Bang was featured on three songs appeared Eko Fresh's mixtape Fick immer noch deine Story. During that time, he used the pseudonym "Farid Urlaub" (based on German rock artist Farin Urlaub). In 2006, an album was planned to be released, entitled Ghetto Kodex, which however never got published.

[edit] 2009-2010: Jung, brutal, gutaussehend and Asphalt Massaka 2

After the release of his debut album, Farid Bang stated that he won't record an album in 2009. As well as his fellow rapper Kollegah confirmed to not record for his own.

On March 2009, Farid Bang was featured on the song "Westdeutschlands Kings" from Chronik 2, an album that features the artists of Düsseldorf hip hop label Selfmade Records. The song features also Kollegah and Favorite, and leaked online as free "pre-single".^[4]

In July released Farid Bang together with Kollegah the collaboration album Jung, brutal, gutaussehend, over Selfmade Records. In the German Charts it reached #30 and for the only single "Mitternacht" was a video shot in the Serbian capital Belgrade. The video leaked online on May 26, 2009.^[5]. Before the album's release date Kollegah and Farid Bang leaked two tracks online for free downloading. The tracks were "Wir ficken die Szene" (on May 19) and "Ghettosuperstars" (at the beginning of June).^[6] In additional, an snippet of the album has been placed at the disposal.^[7]The release of Jung, brutal, gutaussehend was celebrated on June 19 in Rheingold.

On March 12, 2010, released Farid Bang his second album Asphalt Massaka 2, which ranked #56 in the German Album Charts. The song "Wer will Beef" has been put online on Farid Bang's homepage, on February 5, for free downloading. A snippet for the album as been released as well. The first single "Teufelskreis", released on February 11, inclusive the track "König der Nacht" for downloading. To both songs was a video shot and put online on January 11 or February 9. However "Teufelskreis" could not enter the charts. A video for "Es ist soweit" has been shot and released on February 25. It features appearance of his mentor Eko Fresh and football player Kevin Kurányi. The single to that song released the following day. On March 10, released the video to the song "Gangsta Musik", featuring Bass Sultan Hengzt. In addition, the release party toke place on March 12 in the club called "Noir" in Düsseldorf, where all the guest artists from the album were represented.^[8]

[edit] 2011-presents: Banger leben kürzer and Der letzte Tag deines Lebens

On 18 February 2011, released Fraid Bang's third album Banger leben kürzer which ranked #11 in the German album charts, in Switzerland #25 and in Austria #32.^[9] With this album reached Farid Bang the highest chart entrance for himself and his label German Dream. Ahead of the albums, Farid Bang put an 10 video part-videoblog on YouTube, where he gave informations to his album. Two videos has been shot to the intro and the song "Bitte Spitte 5000". According to some informations the album has sold over 10.000 times.^[10]

Before the release of his album Der letzte Tag deines Lebens (released in January 2012), were videos shot to following songs: "Keine Träne", "Alemania", "Irgendwann" and "Pusher". A snippet has been additional put on the internet (on January 18). Like on the last release of Banger leben kürzer, he made a videoblog on YouTube, with 9 videos.

On January 27, released Der letzte Tag deines Lebens.

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• 2008: Asphalt Massaka
• 2010: Asphalt Massaka 2
• 2011: Banger leben kürzer
• 2012: Der letzte Tag deines Lebens

Collaborations

• 2009: Jung, brutal, gutaussehend (with Kollegah)

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Farid Bang