Most people, both inside and outside Germany, think of the Ruhr as an area dominated by heavy industry, covered in ugly coal mines and steel works with noisy blast furnaces and tall chimneys belching out smoke and pollution.
In fact it is now becoming much better known for its wealth of museums, art galleries, theatres, opera houses and concert halls. And it was selected to be European Capital of Culture - Ruhr 2010.
River Ruhr and 53 Towns and Cities
Named after the Ruhr river which runs through it, often bordered by peaceful rolling farmland with not a mine or factory in sight, the area developed rapidly in the early 20th century to become the third largest conurbation in Europe (after London and Paris) with 53 towns and cities populated by over five million people.
But it was a grim area place to live and work, with 125 coal mines at its peak. Until the 1960s it did not even have a university but now it has five, as well as ten polytechnics.
Imaginative New Uses for Old Industrial Sites in Ruhr
Now following the decline of manufacturing industry in Europe, many of the industrial sites have been demolished but others have been converted into museums or imaginatively converted for exciting new purposes.
At Oberhausen for example, Europe’s tallest gasometer - now disused - has been imaginatively transformed into an exhibition centre as well as offering dramatic views from its roof, 128 feet high. Other redundant industrial buildings nearby have been turned into a huge shopping centre, the CentrO.
Duisburg's Marina and Landschaftspark
Once Duisburg was Europe’s biggest inland port. Now part of it has become an attractive marina for leisure craft with a waterside amphitheatre and a row of lively bars and restaurants.
On the edge of the city, the Landschaftspark is a former open-air foundry surrounded by parkland with footpaths and cycling trails. The public can now walk around its old machinery, climb to the top for distant views and see it spectacularly illuminated at night. Its former ore storage bunkers are now used as climbing walls while the plant’s gasometer has been filled with water to create a diving tank complete with artificial reef and sunken ship at the bottom.
UNESCO World Heritage Site and Mining Museums
For those who want to find out more about the area’s industrial past, the former Zollverein coal washing plant, now a museum, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and there are also mining museums.
The emphasis at the one in the 100-year old former Zollern colliery near Dortmund is on social history, showing what a miner’s life used to be like, while Bochum’sfeatures a mock-up of mine workings.
Art Collections in Dortmund’s ‘U’ and Essen’s Folkwang Museum and Minster
In Dortmund the distinctive ‘U’ building, formerly the Union Brewery warehouse, has been converted to house the city’s Museum Am Ostwall, famous for its collection of 20th-century art.
The Folkwang Museum in Essen also has a superb art collection, particularly of 19th-century Impressionist paintings while Essen’s Minster church has one of the most valuable collections of religious treasures in the world on display including a 10th-century golden madonna.
Walking and Music in the Ruhr
Other visitor attractions in the Ruhr range from the opulent 220-room mansion that was once the home of the Krupp family to a 145-mile walking/cycling trail beside the Ruhr river. Music-lovers are well catered for too, as most towns have a concert hall and several have opera houses.
So altogether the Ruhr is now definitely a place worth visiting, rather than somewhere to avoid at all costs.
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