Düsseldorf
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40 free Düsseldorf trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Düsseldorf is a city that surprises people. It sits on a broad bend of the Rhine, mixes glass-and-steel offices with a compact Old Town, and keeps turning up in stories about art, music, fashion and sport that most visitors never connect with it. This quiz covers the ground a curious traveller or a proud local would expect: landmarks and famous streets, the long history from medieval charter to state capital, food and drink, carnival traditions, well-known sons and daughters, and the clubs that play here. It is written for anyone planning a trip, warming up for a pub quiz, or settling an argument about what the city is really known for. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you leave knowing more than when you arrived.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Lights on the shaft of Düsseldorf's Rheinturm tower form the world's largest what?
Digital clock
The digital clock on the Rheinturm is a light sculpture read from top to bottom, with separate rows of lamps for the hours, minutes and seconds.
Q 02Düsseldorf's Old Town, packed with hundreds of pubs, is nicknamed the longest what in the world?
Bar
The longest bar in the world is the Altstadt's boast because its pubs stand so close together that each counter is said to join the one next door.
Q 03Which extinct human species is named after a valley just east of Düsseldorf, where bones emerged in 1856?
Neanderthal
Neanderthal comes from the Neander Valley, where quarry workers dug bones out of a cave and a local teacher reportedly saw at once that they were not from a modern human.
Q 04Düsseldorf has more than 600,000 residents, but what does the German suffix '-dorf' in its name mean?
Village
Village is the literal meaning: the city began as a fishing and farming settlement on the riverbank and never dropped the humble ending as it grew.
Q 05Which electronic music pioneers, known for the 1974 album Autobahn, formed in Düsseldorf in 1970?
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk were founded by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, who met as music students in the city in the late 1960s.
Q 06Which Asian country has its largest community in Germany in Düsseldorf, centred on Immermannstraße?
Japan
Japan's companies began opening offices in the city in the 1950s, and the shops and restaurants along Immermannstraße are now known as Little Tokyo.
Q 07Which copper-coloured, top-fermented beer is Düsseldorf's signature brew, poured in small glasses?
Altbier
Altbier means old beer, a nod to the warm, top-fermenting brewing method that was the norm before lager took over.
Q 08Which German supermodel was discovered at age 17 in a Düsseldorf nightclub in 1987?
Claudia Schiffer
Claudia Schiffer, from nearby Rheinberg, had planned a career in law until the head of a Paris modelling agency spotted her that night.
Q 09Which annual televised music competition did Düsseldorf host in May 2011, after Lena's win for Germany?
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest filled the city's football arena for three nights, and Azerbaijan's duo Ell and Nikki took their country's first victory.
Q 10Which acrobatic move, shown on Düsseldorf fountains and drain covers, is said to be the city's oldest tradition?
Cartwheel
The cartwheel has its own fountain on Burgplatz, and a society founded in 1920 runs a yearly competition to keep the custom alive.
Q 11Düsseldorf has been the capital of which German state, the country's most populous, since 1946?
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia was created in 1946 while the region was under British occupation, and its ministries and parliament gave the city a political role it still holds.
Q 12Which neighbouring city on the Rhine is Düsseldorf's long-standing rival in beer, carnival parades and football?
Cologne
Cologne and Düsseldorf keep the feud mostly humorous these days, though ordering the other city's beer in either one can still earn a waiter's scorn.
Q 13Which poet, born in Düsseldorf in 1797 and famous for 'Die Lorelei', gives the city's university its name?
Heinrich Heine
Q 21Which name does Düsseldorf's biggest football club, German champions in 1933 and twice cup winners, carry?
Fortuna
Fortuna reached the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1979, losing to Barcelona, the high point of the club's European story.
Q 22Düsseldorfer EG, German champions eight times between 1967 and 1996, compete in which sport?
Ice hockey
Ice hockey brought the DEG four German titles in a row from 1990 to 1993, with the Brehmstrasse rink as its home for most of its history.
Q 23Borussia Düsseldorf, the long-time club of Timo Boll, is Germany's most successful team in which sport?
Table tennis
Table tennis titles have piled up since the club's first Bundesliga crown in 1969, and Timo Boll's arrival in 2007 began a run of nine championships in ten seasons.
Heinrich Heine spent the last 25 years of his life in Paris, where he is buried, and his books were among those burned in Berlin in 1933.
Q 14Which architect designed the three leaning Neuer Zollhof buildings in Düsseldorf's redeveloped harbour?
Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry gave each of the three towers a different skin: white plaster, red brick and stainless steel that mirrors its two neighbours.
Q 15Which three-week cycling race began in July 2017 with a time trial through the streets of Düsseldorf?
Tour de France
The Tour de France had not started in Germany since 1987, and Geraint Thomas won the opening stage to pull on the first yellow jersey.
Q 16Which Düsseldorf condiment comes in a traditional pot that Vincent van Gogh painted in an 1884 still life?
Mustard
Mustard from the city is strong and Dijon-like, and it also crowns the local Senfrostbraten, a steak roasted under an onion crust.
Q 17Which fourth wife of Henry VIII, whose marriage was annulled after six months, was born in Düsseldorf?
Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves did well out of the split: Henry gave her a generous settlement and she became known as the King's Beloved Sister.
Q 18Which Düsseldorf luxury shopping boulevard has a tree-lined canal, fed by the River Düssel, running down its centre?
Königsallee
Königsallee was called Kastanienallee until horse manure was thrown at the Prussian king in 1848, and the street was renamed King's Avenue to make amends.
Q 19Which nursing pioneer trained with the deaconesses at Kaiserswerth, now part of Düsseldorf, in 1851?
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale called her time at Kaiserswerth a turning point in her life, and her report on the institution, issued anonymously in 1851, was her first published work.
Q 20Which laundry detergent, launched in 1907, was created by the Düsseldorf company Henkel?
Persil
Persil takes its name from two of its original ingredients, sodium perborate, a bleaching agent, and sodium silicate.
Q 24Which film director, born in Düsseldorf in 1945, made Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire?
Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders won the Palme d'Or at Cannes for Paris, Texas, and got his start in the film business at the Düsseldorf office of United Artists.
Q 25Which composer became Düsseldorf's director of music in 1850 and wrote his Rhenish Symphony there?
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann took the post hoping for financial security, but shyness and failing mental health made leading the orchestra a struggle and he resigned after three years.
Q 26Which artist, known for sculptures in felt and fat, was dismissed from Düsseldorf's art academy in 1972?
Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys had abolished the entry requirements for his sculpture class, and his sacking set off a wave of protests from students, artists and critics.
Q 27Which British mobile phone company took over Düsseldorf's Mannesmann in 2000 after a months-long takeover battle?
Vodafone
Vodafone agreed a price of €190 billion in February 2000, the largest sum paid in any takeover up to then, and the Mannesmann name soon disappeared.
Q 28In October 1914, a British naval pilot bombed a Düsseldorf hangar and destroyed which kind of aircraft?
Zeppelin
The Zeppelin Z IX burned in its shed after Flight Lieutenant Reginald Marix's raid, weeks after British naval airmen had first bombed the city's airship base.
Q 29Which cry do revellers shout during Düsseldorf's carnival, which opens each year on 11 November at 11:11?
Helau
Helau is shared with Mainz, while several other Rhineland cities, Bonn and Aachen among them, shout Alaaf instead.
Q 30Which American history painting did Emanuel Leutze finish in his Düsseldorf studio in 1851?
Washington Crossing the Delaware
Washington Crossing the Delaware was painted beside the Rhine, so the icy river in the picture is modelled on Germany's great waterway rather than America's.