Europe’s
2010 Capital of Culture
GERMANY'S RUHR REGION
by Rich Rubin
Europe’s 2010 Capital of Culture
is...an industrial region. Yes, you heard right, but
there are very few industrial regions in the world like
the Ruhr, one of Germany’s most interesting areas
and a perfect, yet surprising, winner of these cultural
honors. The area is full of museums, but here, the museums
are as likely to be about the region’s industrial
heritage as its artistic one, and the buildings of significance
range from coal mines to abandoned breweries to the
unique Gasometer (a former gas tank used to power local
mills). Industry is what drove this region, and even
now, as the smokestacks stop belching forth their emissions
and the skies clear, it is industry that remains the
unique story the Ruhr region has to tell.
“Essen for the Ruhr” is the
series of events planned for 2010. Essen, one of the
main cities of the region, is the official Cultural
Capital, but the whole region is joining in with a series
of events that are as offbeat and captivating as the
Ruhr itself. The grand opening ceremony and festivities
will take place at Zeche Zollverein, once Germany’s
largest coal mine. The world’s first Biennale for
Light Art will fill private homes with illuminations
and open these residences to the public. A murder mystery
festival will welcome detective authors to create scenes
in 100 venues from courts to railway stations to boats.
Vast yellow balloons will fly from the chimneys of former
mines throughout the region, showcasing these industrial
sites that many residents didn’t even know were
there. Sports, dance, a fairy tale festival, and a national
poetry slam will provide a constant schedule of entertainment.
Tours will be conducted on vintage trains, and theatrical
and musical performances will occur on platforms all
along the Ruhr river. They’re even planning to
close the main highway for a day in July, transforming
it into a vast, international potluck picnic.
THE CITIES OF THE RUHR
Sounds great, but what exactly is this Ruhr region?
It’s more of a megalopolis than a series of distinct
cities, about an hour’s ride from Frankfurt (your
best Lufthansa hub). The region runs from Duisburg in
the West past Essen and Bochum to Dortmund in the East.
As the cities of the Ruhr grow, you probably won’t
even know you’re going from one city to the next.
If you add up the population of the entire regional
mega-city, it’s Germany’s largest. (At around
half a million, even the individual towns of Dortmund
and Essen are in the top ten.) Don’t expect a gray
and smoky landscape, as there’s a surprising amount
of green in the region. Add to this a slew of top-notch
restaurants and cultural sites, often housed in former
industrial buildings, and a respectable amount of gay
nightlife (and amazing gay-friendliness), and the Ruhr
becomes an area well worth the visit—especially
for those who have checked out the major GLBT centers
of Berlin and Cologne and are looking for something
a little different.
At the western edge of the Ruhr lies
Duisburg, the most lively and cosmopolitan of
the Ruhr cities, but only the third-largest. A walk
through the city center reveals public art at every
turn, much of it themed around the water that gave Duisburg
prominence. On the main pedestrian shopping street,
there’s fountain after fountain, including one
by famed Swiss kinetic artist Jean Tinguely (you’ll
see more of his work in the city’s Wilhelm Lehmbruck
Museum, which also holds works by Max Ernst, Man
Ray, and Alexander Calder, in addition to Lehmbruck
himself). There’s a real feeling of joie de vivre
in this city that makes it seem bigger than it is. People
are enjoying the luxury shops, having coffee and amazing
cakes in the many coffeehouses, and strolling/dining
in the Inner Harbour—a fascinating architectural
experiment where vintage harborside warehouses on one
side of the canal are echoed by modern structures on
the other. Of all the cities in the Ruhr, it’s
this one that’s most likely to make me say “what
a great town.”
A half hour east lies Essen,
the main city of the region, and one well worth exploring.
I love wandering the area known as Margarethenhöhe.
It was built for workers in the Krupp factory (a revolutionary
idea at the time—1909), to provide workers with
their own, quite nice, houses, each with a small plot
of garden. Strolling through this placid suburb, just
five minutes by car or subway from the city center,
it’s easy to forget its industrial origin, to realize
that these lovely, ivy-covered houses were, in fact,
lodgings for factory workers. Concrete houses boast
green and white shutters, and lovely little gardens
overflow with hydrangea, roses, and purple thistles.
In town, I stop in the Cathedral’s Treasury
(it’s not very well-known that Essen has one of
the largest cathedral treasuries in Germany), a remnant
of the wealth brought to the region by its industry
and impressive with its gilded statuary, silver chalices,
coral-topped reliquary, and tenth-century Essen sword
of gilt, jewel-studded iron, and wood.
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SLIDESHOW
OF GERMANY'S RUHR REGION
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Another twenty minutes east is Bochum,
a fun city with a lively nightlife scene, especially along
the “Bermuda Triangle,” which is not really a triangle
but a single, car-free strip lined with bar/cafés that
attract a mixed, youngish, gay-friendly crowd all hours
of night, particularly in summer when there are sidewalk
tables set out. Cultured types can catch a production
at Century Hall, the former power station for a
steel works, now a flexible performance space that can
hold three theaters. Check to see what’s playing here,
as there are sometimes performances or musical presentations
in English. It’s a significant conversion of industrial
to cultural, and a unique space to attend a show.
Dortmund, a half hour east of
Bochum, has the largest number of gay bars in the region,
and its adjacent old and new Marktplatz are great
places to stop and refuel. If you’re there at holiday
time, Dortmund has a huge Christmas market and what’s
claimed to be the world’s largest Christmas tree. Driving
from city to city is easy, and end to end it won’t take
you more than two hours, but why not save yourself the
driving and use the train? With a German Rail Pass from
Rail Europe, you can choose the days you travel, supplementing
your city-to-city trips with easy journeys on local
transport to the various sites.
THE CULTURE OF INDUSTRY
As interesting as some of the cities are, it’s
what lies between them that creates the unique fascination
of the Ruhr. Here you’ll find a series of industrial
sites transformed into cultural landmarks that present
an intriguing combination of arts, leisure, and industry.
I love the Gasometer, located outside Oberhausen
(a smaller town northwest of Essen) a former storage
tank for the gas that ran the area’s factories,
and now a spectacular exhibit space. “Out of this
World,” a celebration of the history and future
of the solar system, was scheduled to run through January,
but has been so successful that it was extended through
2010. Enter to see a large sun hanging at the center
of the round structure, perfectly echoing its curved
form. Planets hang all around, and the ground floor
is filled with astounding photographs of the solar system.
The world’s largest model of the moon hangs from
the ceiling on the second floor, and the level is filled
with exhibits detailing the history of astronomy. The
real fascination is the remarkable locale itself, so
big that the famous dome of Berlin’s Reichstag
could fit inside several times. As I look around at
the rounded walls covered in dried tar and oil, I’m
astounded at the beauty of this industrial structure:
the metal girders, the domed ceiling, the massive forms.
Taking the newly added elevator to the roof, I walk
along metal walkways looking out at an incredible view
of the surrounding landscape, which (like the Gasometer
itself) melds industrial architecture and beauty in
a perfect Ruhr way.
You’ll find similar structures
all over the region. In Müllheim (between
Duisburg and Essen), the 1904 water tower that once
provided steam for a railway depot now houses a museum
of antique film techniques and, on the top floor, the
world’s largest, walk-in, Camera Obscura, a series
of mirrors and lenses on the roof projecting images
from the surrounding countryside onto a disk. Stand
in the darkened room and gasp at crystal-clear images
of distant buildings, from the Gasometer to office edifices,
and people walking down streets a good ten miles away.
It’s absolutely amazing to think that with nothing
but a mirror and a few lenses, we’re actually seeing
what’s happening at such a distance. This marvel
of technology is perfectly housed in the curving confines
of the former water tower, and it’s a sight to
behold. In the Ruhr’s world of converting industrial
buildings into fascinating new uses, it’s one of
the highlights.
Continued
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