Hagen

Hagen is a city in the green: 42 percent of its area is covered by woods and forests, and four rivers meet on the city grounds: the rivers Ruhr, Lenne, Volme and Ennepe. It is one of 23 towns in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and is situated between the industrialized Ruhr area in the north and the rangy Sauerland in the south. In 2020, it was home to 189,000 people.

Understand
Hagen was of little significance until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, when the trip hammers provided the growing industry with products and led to a modest prosperity of the area. In the 19th century, Hagen became an important railway junction, and a traffic junction in the 20th century, with an urban population of 230,000 inhabitants at its peak in 1975. Hagen was hit by the steel and coal crisis of the late 20th century, and its peripheral position at the edge of the Ruhr area has led to a 20 percent reduction of population.
 * City council website

By plane
Dortmund airport 15 km north of Hagen is home of several low-cost airlines and serves mainly national and European travellers. If you are arriving from farther away, Düsseldorf (, Cologne-Bonn or Frankfurt Airport  may be options.

By train
Hagen's central station is the junction of nationwide Deutsche Bahn and regional railway lines with connections to most major cities. Service RE34 Dortmund - Witten - Siegen bypasses the central station and instead stops at, a suburban stop a few kilometres outside the city.

By car
Hagen is situated at the crossing of three main motorways, A1, A45 and A46.

Get around
Public transportation services are handled by the public transport operator Hagener Straßenbahn AG, which is part of the public transport association Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (abbreviated VRR). Some people say, walking is the best.

See
Castles Museums

Do

 * Walking in the hills surrounding the city centre, with an excellent network of hiking trails.
 * Cycling along the rivers flowing through the city, and along the adjacent lakes of the Ruhr valley, like the.

Buy
There are two malls in the city, Volme Galerie and Rathaus Galerie.

Go next

 * Iserlohn
 * Wuppertal - famous for its suspension railway
 * Dortmund