Leverkusen (German: [ˈleːvɐˌkuːzn̩] ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on the eastern bank of the Rhine. To the south, Leverkusen borders the city of Cologne, and to the north the state capital, Düsseldorf. The city is part of the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region, one of Europe's largest urban areas.
With about 163,000 inhabitants, Leverkusen is one of the state's smaller cities. The city is known for the pharmaceutical company Bayer and its sports club Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
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The closest international airports are Cologne-Bonn (; 22 km south of Leverkusen, 32 minutes by train) and Düsseldorf (; 40 km north of Leverkusen; 35 minutes by train).
The closest stations with high-speed and intercity service are in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Solingen. From there, frequently running regional trains and urban rail (S-Bahn) take you to Leverkusen (15 minutes from either Cologne or Düsseldorf, half an hour from Solingen).
Leverkusen is a relatively young city; its history is strongly linked to the growth of the Bayer chemical and pharmaceutical plants. Until the mid-19th century, there were some smaller settlements, including today's boroughs Opladen or Schlebusch, but no city of Leverkusen as such.
In 1861, the chemist Carl Leverkus (1804–1889) founded his synthetic ultramarine factory near the village of Wiesdorf. His workers' settlement was named Leverkusen after its founder. In 1891, the paint and pharmaceutical company Bayer AG, which was founded in Wuppertal-Barmen, moved their production to Leverkusen. In the 20th-century, there was a constant influx of workers and their families to Leverkusen and the surrounding settlements to work at the ever-growing Bayer plants.
In 1920, Wiesdorf was granted a city charter. Only in 1930, Schlebusch and other neighbouring settlements were incorporated into the city which now took the name of Leverkusen. The neighbouring towns Opladen and Bergisch Neukirchen were incorporated in 1975, pushing the number of inhabitants over 167,000. The city's dominant and connecting element have always been Bayer's huge chemical and pharmaceutical plants; the Bayer AG is to date the city's prime employer and corporate tax payer.
Internationally, Leverkusen is mainly known for its successful football (soccer) club, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, which was founded as a team of Bayer factory workers and is a fully-owned subsidiary of the chemical company. It has finished second-place in several national and international competitions, but never won the German championship, therefore being jokingly dubbed Vize-Kusen ("runner-up-Kusen") by fans of other clubs.
