Solingen (German pronunciation: [ˈzoːlɪŋən] ⓘ; Limburgish: Solich) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, 25 km east of Düsseldorf along the northern edge of the Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr.

Solingen is called the "City of Blades", and has long been renowned for the manufacturing of fine swords, knives, scissors and razors made by firms such as WKC, DOVO, Wüsthof, Zwilling J.

A. Henckels, Böker, Güde, Hubertus, Diefenthal, Puma, Clauberg/Klauberg, Eickhorn, Linder, Carl Schmidt Sohn, Dreiturm, Herder, Martor Safety Knives, Wolfertz, Ralf Aust and numerous other manufacturers.

In the late 17th century, a group of swordsmiths from Solingen broke their guild oaths by taking their sword-making secrets with them to Shotley Bridge, County Durham, in England.

The five city boroughs: Ohligs/Aufderhöhe/Merscheid and Höhscheid/Burg are divided into sections ("Stadtteile") that were once separate towns and are still statistical and planning units but are no longer self-governing.

The city further comprises many neighborhoods with their own names, although they often lack precise borders: Solingen's climate is classified as oceanic (Köppen: Cfb; Trewartha: Dolk).

After being ravaged by the plague with about 1,800 deaths in 1614–1619, Solingen was heavily fought over during the Thirty Years' War, repeatedly attacked and plundered, and the Burg Castle was destroyed.

[5] In 1929, Ohligs located in the Prussian Rhine Province, 17 miles (27 km) by rail north of Cologne became part of Solingen.

In 1993, Solingen made international headlines for a right-wing extremist arson attack in which five Turkish girls and women were killed.

Since the beginning of the new millennium, the Klingenstadt has undergone a massive transformation as a result of urban development projects such as Regionale 2006 and City 2013.

For example, the new Korkenzieherstrasse cycle path was created and the demolition of the Turmhotel and the former Karstadt Passage made it possible to build a new shopping centre on Neumarkt in Solingen-Mitte.

On 23 August 2024, a mass stabbing by islamic terrorist occurred in which three German citizens were killed during a festival for the city's 650th founding anniversary.

The population again received a large boost on 1 August 1929 through the incorporation of Ohligs, Wald, Höhscheid, and Gräfrath into the city limits.

The following chart shows the population figures within Solingen's city limits at the respective points in time.

The current mayor of Solingen is Tim Kurzbach of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2020.

Solingen has belonged from its beginnings to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne (Erzbistum Köln), and more specifically to the Archdeaconry of the Probst (provost) of St. Kunibert, the deanery of Deutz.

Although the Protestant Reformation gradually made gains in the city, which was under the control of the Counts of Berg, the population by and large remained Roman Catholic for a while.

In 1827 Solingen became the seat of its own deanery within the newly defined Archdiocese of Cologne, to which the city's current parishes still belong.

The Protestant parishes originally belonged to the district synod of Lennep, today part of the city Remscheid.

In handball, Solingen's most successful team is Bergischer HC, playing in the top-tier Handball-Bundesliga which they were promoted to for the second time in 2013, reaching 15th place in the 2013–14 campaign and therefore staying in the top flight for a second consecutive season.

BHC originates from a 2006 cooperation between the SG Solingen and rivals LTV Wuppertal from the nearby city of the same name.