On 8 June 1910 the brothers Strack took off for the first time in Duisburg near what later became the Stadthaus, in a flying machine they had built themselves. The rapid development of air travel led in 1912 to the opening of the Neuenkamp airfield, which was expanded in 1927. In this year an area for water landings was opened in Wanheim. In 1939 the airfield had to be handed over to the Air Force. After 1945 air traffic was prohibited.

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It is still possible to find remains of the historic city wall with individual towers in the area of the Old Market in the Duisburg Old Town. The city wall, which is believed to be one of the oldest in the Rheinland, goes back to the 12th century. A complete impression of the fortifications can be obtained from the City Plan of Johannes Corputius (1566).

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The 'Corputius plan', the oldest plan of the city of Duisburg, was drawn up in 1566 by a Dutch pupil of Gerhard Mercator, Johan van den Corput, latinised as Johannes Corputius. The plan, in colours, shows the city from the so-called oblique angle. Corputius presented the city itself within the area of the walls with considerable exactness and at the correct scale. For this he made use of bearings taken with a quadrant.

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The building of the underground railway terminal at the Rathaus in 1980 brought to light discoveries regarding the civic history of the Middle Ages in Duisburg. These are accessible today in the 'Old Market-place Archaeological Area', as an element of the population which helped to give the city its shape. The finds included fragments of pottery with decorations, remains of amphoras, pieces of wood and other small finds from the time of the Vikings.

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One of the factors which led to persecution of the Jews in Duisburg during the Nazi era was the unexplained murder of Ernst vom Rath, secretary at the German embassy in Paris, on 7 November 1938, by Herschel Leibel Grynszpan, a 17-year-old Polish Jew. The murder attracted considerable attention worldwide. Sympathy in Duisburg was particularly great, since some of the vom Rath family were residents of Duisburg.

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