You only see what you know (Goethe)
In earlier times German miners used to have a small garden for vegetable and animals behind their homes. While strolling around a mining settlement next to the colliery Zeche Zollern I came across this special breed of chickens. In German they are called Sundheimer.
A fascinating building at the colliery Zeche Zollern: The Lohnhalle. It is shaped like a station hall with some cashier’s desks inside. Here, the miners got paid their wages.
A fascinating detail of the Zeche Zollern, a colliery in Dortmund: The door at the machine hall is built in the style of Jugendstil (Art Nouveau). Unfortunately, it was closed for renovation during my visit.
While walking through the Jahrhunderthalle in Bochum, I came across the bleachers for the Ruhrtriennale Festival. The Ruhrtriennale is an annual music and arts festival in the Ruhr area. Its most famous venues are the Jahrhunderthalle, the Zeche Zollverein, and the Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord.
The Jahrhunderthalle is a venue for such famous events as the Ruhrtriennale. Interesting detail: The hall stands on top of an existing plant. After raising the soil to the level of the new building, the first plant became part of the basement.
You find the Red Dot Design Museum in the former boiler house of shaft 12 at the Zeche Zollverein. That is a good place for a design museum as the former industrial plant looks pretty ‘designed’ in its Bauhaus style.
The former coal preparation plant of the Zeche Zollverein – a coal mine inscribed as a World Heritage Site now – houses the Ruhr Museum. This museum tells about the history of the Zeche and the Ruhr area.
Every year another interesting art project takes place at the Gasometer (a former gas holder) in Oberhausen. In 2013, I visited the ‘Big Air Package’ created by Christo. This time the artist, who is generally known for wrapping huge objects, produced a balloon filling the gas holder.
The Gasometer in Oberhausen is the largest disc-type gasholder in Europe. Today, it serves as an exhibition hall. Visitors enjoy an excellent view after reaching the top by an elevator or a staircase outside the building.
On my night stroll through the Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, an industrial heritage park in the Ruhr area, I came across this torpedo car. These cars are used for hauling molten pig iron from the blast furnace to the next processing unit.
The Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord is actually the area of a former ironworks. It is open to the public and people are allowed to walk on the grounds of the ironworks all day long. Even at night!
The restaurant Hauptschalthaus is located in the former control centre of an ironworks in Duisburg. Its main attraction is the dining area in front of some huge insulators. Through the big windows, one also has a good view of the ironworks situated at the Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord.