The famous poet Else Lasker-Schüler described her hometown Wuppertal during the 19th century as “a strangely murky working-class town with thousands of smokestacks.” Indeed, there was great poverty among workers. 1853 a welfare project named Elberfeld System was introduced, which later became popular all over Germany.

Even today, it is still often voluntary projects that bring the city forward. The "Nordbahntrasse", for example, which used to be an old train track and now runs through the city as a cycle and hiking trail, would not have been built without the committed citizens – nor would the cultural and community centre "Utopiastadt", which is located in an old railway station directly on the track.

The district Arrenberg, which we are now crossing, was not spared by industrialization and used to look just as gloomy as Else Lasker-Schüler described the city in her drama "die Wupper". Today, the district is largely climate-neutral and known for the modern coexistence of living and working with a co-working space on the Elba site.