Osnabrück is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, some 80 km NNE of Dortmund, 45 km NE of Münster, and some 100 km due west of Hanover. As of June 30, 2002, its population was 163,919, making it the third largest city in Lower Saxony.

Famous people

Personalities from Osnabrück include the writer Erich Maria Remarque and the painter Felix Nussbaum, for whom the city erected a very modern museum designed by Daniel Libeskind that opened in 1998. This looks like a scaled-down version of the same architect's well-known Jewish Museum in Berlin. British King George I was born and raised here, and the poet and scholar Johann Ernst Hanxleden was born in Osnabrück, as was the current Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Christian Wulff, and reggae musician Gentleman.
 
Victory Records recording artists Waterdown, known for their catchy post-hardcore sound, are based in Osnabrück. Actress Birgitta Tolksdorf, who made a name for herself in American television in the 1970s, as well as Peter van Pels, love interest of famous diarist Anne Frank, and his parents Auguste van Pels and Hermann van Pels, who would later gain fame from their roles in Anne's diary, all hailed from Osnabruck.

Education

In addition to the Universität Osnabrück (University of Osnabrück) and the Fachhochschule Osnabrück (University of Applied Science), the Katholische Fachhochschule Norddeutschland (Catholic University of North Germany) has some of its faculties in the city of Osnabrück.

Traffic

The city of Osnabrück is connected to the A1, the A30 and the A33. Together with the city of Münster it shares the Münster Osnabrück International Airport.

The "Hauptbahnhof" (Main Station) of Osnabrück is an important railway station. Travellers from the Netherlands heading for either Hamburg and Denmark, or Berlin and Eastern Europe, often have to change here.

Districts of Osnabrück

Districts of Osnabrück

The city is divided into 23 districts:

Name

The origin of the name Osnabrück is disputed. The suffix -brück suggests a bridge over or to something (from German Brücke = bridge) but the prefix Osna- is explained in at least two different ways: the traditional explanation is that today's name is a corruption of Ochsenbrücke (meaning "ox' bridge") but others say that it is derived from the name of the Hase River which again is argued to be derived from Asen (Æsir), giving Osnabrück the meaning Bridge to the Gods.^[2] The pronunciation of the city's name can also serve as a means of telling if one is a native of Osnabrück or a visitor: most people from Osnabrück stress the last syllable while most people from elsewhere stress the first one.

Twin cities

• Gmünd, Austria, since 1971
• Evansville, Indiana, United States, since 1991
• Kwangmyong, Korea, since 1997
• Hefei, China, since 2006

Source: Wikipedia