Essen Cathedral Treasury

Essen Minster (German: Essener Münster), since 1958 also Essen Cathedral (Essener Dom) is the seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Essen, the "Diocese of the Ruhr", founded in 1958. The church, dedicated to Saints Cosmas and Damian and the Blessed Virgin Mary, stands on the Burgplatz in the centre of the city of Essen, Germany. The minster was formerly the collegiate church of Essen Abbey, founded in about 845 by Altfrid, Bishop of Hildesheim, around which the city of Essen grew up. The present building, which was reconstructed after its destruction in World War II, is a Gothic hall church, built after 1275 in light-coloured sandstone. The octagonal westwork and the crypt are survivors of the Ottonian pre-Romanesque building that once stood here. The separate Church of St. Johann Baptist stands at the west end of the minster, connected to the westwork by a short atrium – it was formerly the parish church of the abbey's subjects. To the north of the minster is a cloister that once served the abbey. Essen Minster is noted for its treasury (Domschatz), which among other treasures contains the Golden Madonna, the oldest fully sculptural figure of Mary north of the Alps.

The Golden Madonna of Essen is a sculpture of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. It is a wooden core covered with sheets of thin gold leaf. The piece is part of the treasury of Essen Cathedral, formerly the church of Essen Abbey, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and is kept on display at the cathedral. Dated around the year 980, it is both the oldest known sculpture of the Madonna and the oldest free-standing medieval sculpture north of the Alps, and is also one of the few major works of art to survive from Ottonian times. To this day it remains an object of veneration and symbol of identity for the population of the Ruhr Area. It is the only full-length survival from what appears to have been a common form of statue among the wealthiest churches and abbeys of 10th and 11th century Northern Europe; some of these were life-size, especially figures of the Crucifixion.

The Diocese of Essen is a bishopric of the Catholic Church in Germany, founded on 1 January 1958. The Bishop of Essen is seated in Essen Cathedral (Essener Dom or Essener Münster), once the church of Essen Abbey, and over one thousand years old. The diocese contains about one million Catholics in the heavily urbanized and industrial Ruhr Area.

The Catholic parish church of St. Johann Baptist is a Gothic hall church in Essen, dedicated to John the Baptist, which stands on Kettwiger Straße, the main street of Essen, in front of Essen Minster, to which it is connected. On account of its position and the fact that its spire towers over the Minster, visitors often mistake it for part of the Minster.

Theater im Rathaus is a theatre in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

The Bank im Bistum Essen eG (BIB) is a cooperative bank which was founded in 1966. The bank is located in Essen and is focused on a specifically defined clientele. These include the Catholic Church and its institutions. Its members are business clients like hospitals, foundations, church-related housing construction, homes for disabled people, retirement homes and other institutions of provision – as well as a number of private customers: staff members of the institutions mentioned above. By now people who do not work for the church can also become customers as well as atheists or people of other religions. Due to the bank's ethic sustainability orientation, numerous customers from the charitable-foundations-field have joined the bank in recent years. Companies that are solely profit oriented are, according to the bank, not part of the bank's customer base.The BIB is as well as the Bank für Kirche und Caritas eG in Paderborn, the DKM Darlehnskasse Münster and the Pax-Bank in Cologne one of the four catholic church banks in North Rhine-Westphalia. Measured by the bank's total assets in 2016 the Bank im Bistum Essen makes place 21 on the list of the largest cooperative banks in Germany.The bank offers the whole range of services of a universal bank.

National-Bank AG (own spelling: NATIONAL-BANK) is one of the medium-sized regional banks in Germany. With around 600 employees, it provides services for approximately 100,000 retail clients, freelancers, corporate clients and institutional investors with a focus on medium-sized companies.

Grillo-Theater is a theatre in Essen, Germany. Named after the industrialist Friedrich Grillo, who made the building possible, it opened on 16 September 1892 with Lessing's drama Minna von Barnhelm. The building was badly damaged in World War II; it was restored with a much simpler façade and re-opened in 1950 with Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Notable directors included Erwin Piscator, Jean-Louis Barrault, Heinz Dietrich Kenter, Hansgünther Heyme. Caspar Neher became head of design in 1927 and designed here eight operas and 11 plays. In 1988, the role of the Grillo-Theater as Essen's major stage venue was taken by the newly constructed Aalto Theatre which also opened with Die Meistersinger. Following a major reconstruction by the architect Werner Ruhnau and a reduction of the auditorium from 670 to 400 seats, the Grillo-Theater became a flexible smaller venue; it re-opened in September 1990 with Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The Old Synagogue (German: Alte Synagoge) in Essen is one of the largest, best preserved and architecturally most impressive testimonies to Jewish culture in pre-war Germany. Built in the centre of the city, the Byzantine style former Synagogue was originally consecrated as the Neue Synagoge in 1913; it now houses an institution dedicated to documenting and promoting the history of the city's former Jewish community. After being severely damaged during Kristallnacht in 1938, but fortunately avoiding further damage from bombing during WWII, the burnt out interior was first completely redesigned to become a Museum of Industrial design in 1960. With greater interest in historic preservation, it underwent a second restoration in the 1980s to its original design; in preparation for its new use as a memorial centre and museum. The attached Rabbinerhaus (House of the Rabbi) has housed the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute since 2011.

The Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute of German-Jewish Studies is a research institute of the University of Duisburg-Essen whose research focuses on the cultural and religious history as well as the history of literature and events of the Jewish community in German-speaking areas. The institute has made contributions in teaching in the field of Jewish Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen. In 2003, the faculty was transferred to the Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf and cooperation with the institute has been maintained.

Rathaus Essen (English: Essen City Hall) is a 22-storey, 106 m (348 ft) skyscraper in Essen, Germany. When completed on 1 July 1979, it was the tallest city hall in Europe, and is currently the tallest city hall in Germany. It has a base floor area of more than 69,000 m2 (740,000 sq ft).

Kennedyplatz is a plaza in the German city of Essen. It was laid out on a previously densely-built site which had been destroyed in the Second World War. Today, the area serves as an inner-city event space. Previously known as the Gildenplatz, the square was renamed on 17 December 1963 in memory of US president John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated the previous month.