Short answers, pulled from the story.
Düsseldorf received city rights on the 14th of August 1288, when Count Adolf VIII of Berg granted town privileges to the settlement on the banks of the Düssel River. The grant followed the Battle of Worringen, in which the Archbishop of Cologne's forces were defeated by the Count of Berg's army, supported by citizens and farmers from Cologne and Düsseldorf.
Düsseldorf had a population of 618,685 as of 2024, making it Germany's sixth-largest city. As of 2023, its GDP was approximately 62.7 billion euros, ranking it eighth among German cities by economic output, with a GDP per capita of around 93,600 euros within the city itself.
Düsseldorf is the birthplace of Kraftwerk, described as the most significant band in the history of postwar German music and pioneers of electronic music. The city also produced Neu!, formed in 1971 by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother, La Düsseldorf, Die Toten Hosen, D.A.F., Die Krupps, and Warlock, making it one of the most productive sources of electronic and experimental music in the world. Düsseldorf hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2011.
Japanese companies began opening offices in Düsseldorf from the 1950s onwards, attracted by its role as an international business and financial centre. The Japanese Club Düsseldorf was founded in 1964, the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry followed in 1966, and the Japanese International School was established in 1971. By the 1980s, Düsseldorf hosted the largest Japanese community in Germany, and today about 11,000 Japanese nationals live in the city and its surroundings.
Altbier is a top-fermented beer brewed using warm yeast, a method predating the cold-fermentation lager process. The first brewery to use the name Alt was Schumacher, which opened in Düsseldorf in 1838. Five brewpubs in Düsseldorf still brew Altbier on site today, with four of them located in the historic Altstadt district.
Messe Düsseldorf organises nearly one fifth of premier trade shows worldwide. In 2023 it held 27 trade shows in the city, attracting more than 26,000 exhibitors and over 1.1 million visitors, with about 78 percent of exhibitors coming from abroad. Major fairs include drupa for printing and paper technologies, boot Düsseldorf for boats and water sports, and MEDICA for medical technology.