Krefeld

Industrial city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, near the River Rhine; 52 km/32 mi northwest of Cologne; population (1995) 249,900. Products include pharmaceuticals, hosiery, textiles, foodstuffs, and machinery. It is situated on the Westphalian coalfield.

Krefeld's great industrial importance dates from the the 17th century with the founding of a velvet and silk textiles industry here by Protestant Huguenot immigrants. In 1929 it annexed the Rhine port of Uerdingen which had opened in 1906. The old town, with its regularly planned 18th-century extensions, forms a large rectangle bounded by eastern, southern, western, and northern walls. The Schönwasserpark contains a zoo and botanical gardens.