Bauhaus in a coal mine
Exposed steel frames, strict symmetry and pure function without ornament.
Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de โ CC BY-SA 3.0 de ยท Helfmann โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท Spyrosdrakopoulos โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Spyrosdrakopoulos โ CC BY-SA 4.0
Germany's largest urban agglomeration, taking in Essen, Dortmund, Bochum, Duisburg and others, with more than five million inhabitants. The region was built on coal and steel from the nineteenth century and was the heart of German industry. Between the 1970s and 1990s the mines and works closed one by one, and Germany's last coal mine shut in 2018. What followed was a vast programme of converting industrial sites into museums, parks and venues.
A train to Essen in about an hour, then a tram or bus to the site in around fifteen minutes. By car it is about an hour with ample parking. The area is large so wear comfortable shoes, and start with the Ruhr Museum for context before walking the complex.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet โ be the first.
A coal mine and coking plant in Essen, closed in 1986, and inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 2001. Shaft twelve โ the famous one โ opened in 1932 and was the largest and most productive coal mine in the world. It was designed by the architects Fritz Schupp and Martin Kremmer on Bauhaus principles: exposed steel frames, strict symmetry, and pure function without ornament. It was called the most beautiful coal mine in the world, an odd description for an industrial plant but an accurate one. What makes the site important today is what it became: instead of demolition, the whole complex was turned into a cultural centre โ the Ruhr Museum in the coal washery, the Red Dot Design Museum, exhibition halls, a swimming pool in summer and a skating rink on an old channel in winter. This is the model for the whole Ruhr's structural change: an industrial region that lost its industry and reinvented itself through culture. The site is open and free to walk; the museums are ticketed. Allow at least half a day.
Exposed steel frames, strict symmetry and pure function without ornament.
In the coal washery, entered by a vast orange escalator.
The model of the shift from industry to culture across the whole Ruhr.
Northern Essen, the Ruhr region