Acapulco Gold Ratingen/Düsseldorf (D)

Ratingen (D)

Name origin

Hratuga (Old High German, = clearing in the forest)

First documented mention

849 AD

Population

88,000

Area

88.74 km²

Federal state

North Rhine-Westphalia

Administrative region

Düsseldorf

District

Mettmann

Vehicle registration

ME

River

Angerbach, Schwarzbach

The Club Acapulco Gold is located in Ratingen-Tiefenbroich, northeast of Düsseldorf Airport.

Düsseldorf:

Düsseldorf, the state capital of NRW, is the ultimate insider tip among German metropolises when it comes to quality of life, and has plenty to offer - a beautiful landscape, the river Düssel and lots of sporting activities. So why isn't the Rhine metropolis of Cologne, which is twice as big, the state capital of NRW instead? - Because the British occupying forces wanted it that way after World War II! The British were stationed in Düsseldorf, and that's where the key administrative structures were located. Once the decision had been made in favour of the city on the Düssel, the British went on to found the state of North Rhine-Westphalia on 21 June 1946.

Düsseldorf is an extremely affluent city, home to numerous well-known companies from the manufacturing, trade and services sectors. In particular, Düsseldorf is considered Germany's leading fashion metropolis. Today, no fewer than 20 public and private institutions of higher education contribute to its educational scene, including the Heinrich-Heine-Universität, the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and the AMD Akademie Mode & Design. The football club Fortuna Düsseldorf and the well-known ice hockey club Düsseldorfer EG thrill their fans. Throughout the year, numerous national and international sporting events take place that are well worth a visit. Anyone who prefers strolling through the city is well catered for in the Altstadt. Because of its many pubs, the Altstadt is known as the "longest bar in the world."

Who has the more beautiful Rhine promenade? As in almost every respect, Düsseldorf is here too locked in stubborn cross-cultural competition with its rival Cologne. The fact that Altbier is the drink of choice here in the Düsseldorf Altstadt is met with rather scornful acknowledgement in Colonia. In any case, Düsseldorf is fashion-savvy and thus happily struts up and down the riverside promenade as if on a catwalk - whether from the Medienhafen with its hip, creative architecture and its towering 240 m high Rheinturm, all the way up to the old imperial palace of Kaiserswerth, or at least as far as the Golzheimer Stadtgarten right by the Rhine, where, when the weather is nice, half of Düsseldorf seems to gather.

Düsseldorf is also "Nippon on the Rhine" - in no other German city has Japanese culture spread so extensively over the decades, based primarily on flourishing trade relations, as it has in Düsseldorf, and this is celebrated every year here on the Rhine with Japan-Tag. Across the river on the left bank of the Rhine, another one of Germany's largest folk festivals, the Rheinkirmes, also takes place annually. Numerous further parks as well as several palaces and manor houses, such as the Nordpark/Aquazoo and the Rococo/Baroque Schloss Benrath, are open to visitors within the city limits of Düsseldorf.

Düsseldorf, the shopping city: Schadowstraße is one of the busiest shopping streets in Germany. It runs from the so-called Wehrhahn westward through the city centre and leads almost directly into Düsseldorf's grand boulevard par excellence, the KÖ. The shopping boulevard Königsallee naturally also invites you to shop, with the futuristic shopping centre Sevens-Center as well as the elegant and chic KÖ-Galerien and the Schadow-Arkaden on the KÖ. The Arkaden captivate with a gleaming granite façade and the seemingly free-floating glass cylinder above the main entrance. A little way diagonally across from there at the Hofgarten, you'll finally find the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, which is run in cooperation with the Stadttheater Duisburg.

How do you get to Düsseldorf quickly? Düsseldorf Airport NRW is the intercontinental hub of North Rhine-Westphalia and enables quick transfers from all national and many international airports. Travelling by car is possible via the federal motorways A 44, A 46, A 52, A 57 and A 59. The federal roads B 1, B 7, B 8, B 228 and B 326 run right through the city to every destination. The tram network even extends as far as Krefeld, Duisburg and Benrath.

Among the well-known sons and daughters of Düsseldorf are Heinrich Heine, Gustaf Gründgens, Hugo Wilhelm Henkel, Helmut Käutner, Jürgen Habermas, Heide Keller, Rosemarie Nitribitt, Thomas Allofs, Doro Pesch, Heike Makatsch, Heino, Wim Wenders, Marie Bäumer, Marius Müller-Westernhagen and Campino.

Recommended hotels include, for example, the Steigenberger Parkhotel, Hilton Düsseldorf, Günnewig Uebachs or the Innside Düsseldorf Hafen.

Ratingen:

Count Adolf V of Berg granted Ratingen its town charter in the year 1276, even before Düsseldorf (1288). In the late Middle Ages, the town held market rights, guild rights, its own mint and a jurisdiction superior to that of Düsseldorf. After centuries of economic prosperity, Ratingen became increasingly insignificant in the 16th century, while Düsseldorf, by contrast, grew stronger, particularly politically. During the Thirty Years' War, Ratingen was practically destroyed entirely.

And yet Ratingen has written industrial history: in 1783, Johann Gottfried Brügelmann built a mechanical cotton mill here, making it the first factory in the modern sense on continental European soil, which can be visited today as the Industriemuseum Cromford. Other noteworthy buildings in Ratingen include Schloss Linnep, Schloss Landsberg, the moated castle Haus zum Haus, Burg Gräfgenstein, and the charming half-timbered house Im Roten Hahn.

With its immediate proximity to Düsseldorf Airport and the motorways A3, A44 and A52, as well as a well-developed rail network, the town enjoys excellent transport connections. Combined with the extensive commercial space available, the town has offered an unbeatable location advantage in the Düsseldorf economic region over recent decades, which is why many globally leading companies - especially from the computer industry and the textile industry - have settled here, such as Asus, easycash, Hewlett-Packard, LogicaCMG, Mitsubishi Electric Europe, Nokia, SAP, Sun Microsystems, TechniSat, TIPTEL, Vodafone; as well as Harry-Brot, Balcke-Dürr, Keramag, TOI TOI & DIXI Sanitärsysteme, Coca-Cola, as well as s.Oliver, Benetton, Tom Tailor and Esprit, all four of which operate outlet stores in Ratingen. Accordingly, the average income in Ratingen is well above the national average.