For the anniversary finale

Siegen New Year's Eve Party 2024

Castle Square Unteres Schloss

The biggest New Year’s Eve party Siegen has ever seen took place on the Schlossplatz at the Lower Castle at the turn of the year.

To mark the end of the anniversary year 2024, the city of Siegen once again hosted a big party for young and old with cool chart hits, New Year’s Eve drinks and an ice rink. The highlight: a 15-minute laser show designed for the anniversary city of Siegen.

Welcome to our website

Greeting from the mayor

Dear people of Siegen,

We have kept our promise: The anniversary year 2024 was a complete success, a year filled with unforgettable moments in which our city showed itself from its best side.

With over 100 events, there really was something for everyone – from concerts, theatre performances, lecture series and exhibitions to sporting challenges and festivals that focused on community and joie de vivre. Whether it was the opening concert, the Open Town Hall Day, the Friendship Festival in the castle park, the big Siegen City Festival or the spectacular New Year’s Eve laser show – each event showed just how lively, variegated and creative our city is.

But a whole year of events doesn’t work on its own: we couldn’t have done it without the many people who got involved. Associations, volunteers, schools, cultural institutions, businesses – you have all helped to ensure that we will remember this anniversary year for a long time to come. And, of course, I would also like to thank you, the visitors who brought these events to life. Together we have shown what Siegen is all about.

The ‘Siegen800’ homepage will remain available to you as an archive beyond the anniversary year. Here you can look back at the highlights of the year and browse through the pages. And there’s something special to come: a film summarising the best moments and highlights of the anniversary year will soon be available here.

And if you would like to delve even deeper into the history of Siegen, you will find what you are looking for in our detailed city chronicle.

With this in mind, I hope you enjoy this homepage.

Chronicle

7000 BC

Hunters and gatherers move through the Siegerland.

600 BC–100 AD

Latène period iron smelting at Engsbach-Seifen near Achenbach

8./9. 8th/9th century

Christianisation of the Siegerland,
starting with the archbishoprics of Mainz and Trier

1079 - 89

First documentary reference of Sigena.

11th century

The archbishopric of Mainz appoints Count Rupert von Siegen as administrative officer.
He and his descendants go down in Siegen history as the Counts of Nassau.

1224

Siegen is documented as a town for the first time.
Evidence of the commencement of joint sovereignty between the Counts of Nassau and the Archbishops of Cologne.

1259

First documentary reference to the Oberes Schloss.

1303

Conferment of Soest town charter.

1311

First documentary reference to Martinikirche.

1311

Earliest mention of a foundry (‘Mashutte uff der Weste’).
The foundry "Massenhütte" on the river Weisbach is presumed to be a forerunner of the subsequent Marienborn ironworks.

1421

Town is under the sole rule of the Counts of Nassau.

15th century

First mines commence operations in the region.

28.6.1577

Peter Paul Rubens is born in Siegen.
To this day, Rubens remains one of the most famous painters in Europe; his studio was the largest of the Baroque era. Some of his world-famous paintings can be admired in the Rubenssaal of the Siegerland museum.

1580

Change from Lutheran to Calvinist denomination ushers in a period of sectarian turmoil.

1607

The principality of Nassau-Siegen is established with Siegen as the seat of power .

1604

Count Johann Moritz is born.

1623

The House of Nassau-Siegen is divided into a Protestant line and a Catholic line.

1658

The golden Krönchen, a gift of Prince Johann Moritz (title granted in 1652), is placed atop Nikolaikirche.

1668-1671

The Princely Crypt is constructed.

1695

Major fire between the market square and Martinikirche.
The fire claims eleven lives and destroys, among other things, the Protestant residence of the Nassauischer Hof, the hospital, Johanneskirche and 252 residential houses.

1698-1720

The Unteres Schloss is constructed as a residence for the Protestant sovereigns.

1702-1725

Marienkirche is constructed.

1742

The principality of Nassau-Siegen transfers to Orange-Nassau-Diez.

1790

The educationalist Adolf Diesterweg is born in Siegen.

1815

Congress of Vienna: Siegen falls to Prussia.

1817

Siegen becomes part of the administrative district of Arnsberg.

1853

The Wiesenbauschule (College for Land Improvement) is founded, (from 1913 on Häusling hill).

1861

The Rhein-Sieg-Bahn and Ruhr-Sieg-Bahn railways commence operation.

1869

The ‘Klubb’, a residential block adjacent to Nikolaikirche (today the Alfred-Fissmer-Anlage), burns down. There are no deaths or injuries. Es gibt weder Verletzte noch Tote.

1897

Siegen has 20,000 inhabitants.

1905

The Siegerland museum opens in the Oberes Schloss.

1923

Population tops 30,000; Siegen forms an urban district until 1966.

1935

The Apollo-Theater opens,
initially as a venue for "sound films and Music Hall shows"; it is used as a cinema from 1948 onwards.

10.11.1938

Watched by onlookers, members of the Siegen branches of the SA and SS set fire to the synagogue at Obergraben.

1939

Siegen has 40,000 inhabitants.

16.12.1944

Siegen suffers a Second World War bombing raid
in which 348 German citizens and an unknown number of forced labourers from abroad are killed, with many others seriously injured. Eighty per cent of the city centre is destroyed.

1945

Main transit camp for refugees and displaced persons built in Wellersberg.

1955

Rubens Prize of the city of Siegen is inaugurated.

1961

The Neue Haardt mine becomes the last mine in Siegen to close.

1961

The Siegerlandhalle opens.
The TV show Starparade is broadcast from here, with James Last making his television debut.

1972

One of five comprehensive universities in NRW is founded in Hüttental;
in 1980 it is renamed the Universität-Gesamthochschule before becoming the University of Siegen in 2003.

1974

Construction of Hüttentalstrasse begins;
the urban motorway takes over 40 years to complete.

1975

The towns of Hüttental and Eiserfeld are incorporated and Siegen becomes a city.
The population reaches an all-time high of 117,000.

1987

The women’s team of Sportfreunde Siegen becomes the German football champion, a success it will go on to repeat five times by 1996.

1994

Belgian forces withdraw from Siegen, where they have been stationed since 1946.

1998

The City-Galerie shopping centre opens.

2001

The Museum für Gegenwartskunst is opened.

2007

The Apollo-Theater reopens as a theatre.

2016

The redeveloped Siegufer is completed in the city centre.
As part of a city festival lasting several days, thousands of people celebrate "Siegen – zu neuen Ufern", (New shores for Siegen).

2023

The urban redevelopment continues:
the Herrengarten zone is restyled, new university buildings are constructed in the city and the FJM (Fürst-Johann-Moritz) quarter creates another new attraction near the station.