- published: 10 Apr 2014
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Düsseldorf [ˈdʏsl̩ˌdɔɐ̯f] ( listen) is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.
Düsseldorf is an international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the city is headquarter to five Fortune Global 500 and several DAX companies. Messe Düsseldorf organizes nearly one fifth of all world‘s premier trade shows.
Culturally, Düsseldorf is known for its academy of fine arts (Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, e.g. Joseph Beuys, Emanuel Leutze, August Macke, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and Andreas Gursky), its influence on early electronic music (Kraftwerk) and its large Japanese community. As a city by the river Rhine, Düsseldorf is a stronghold for Rhenish Carnival celebrations. Every year in July more than 4.5 million people visit the city's Largest Fair on the Rhine funfair.
As the seventh most populous city in Germany by population within city limits and an urban population of 1.5 million, Düsseldorf is one of the country's five global cities. The Mercer's 2009 Quality of Living survey of cities with the highest quality of life ranked Düsseldorf sixth worldwide and first in Germany.