C.O.A.L. Region Ruhr

Seen in geological terms Ruhr – or the “Ruhrgebiet” – belongs to the north-west European coal belt which runs from Silesia via the Ruhrgebiet, Belgium and North France to England. The many different strata of carboniferous coal begin at the edge of the Rhineland slate mountains. They run northwards into the Münsterland descending at an angle of 3° were they are covered with layers of marl, clay and sand. By the time the rock farce covering the strata reaches the river Lippe it has grown to a depth of 1000 metres.

At the start of the 19th century the region was covered in open fields and woodland. The arrival of the industrial revolution changed it irreversibly. Coal mines, steel mills and factories, housing and roads cut across the region and sealed of the landscape. This not only affected the surface of the land. Underground mining also affected the morphological features and changed the region’s water economy. The flat landscape of the Emscher lowlands was suddenly dotted with coal trips. The typical lowland network of meandering rivers was transformed into a walled-in network of canals as a result of mining subsidence. Today this has been re-naturalised at great expense and effort.

Very few landscapes demonstrate the connection between their natural features and the economic and cultural development of their housing areas as clearly as Ruhr. It started 350.000.000 years ago in the carbon era, when coal came into being. This was to be the basis for the later development of Ruhr. But before this valuable raw material found a large-scale market in the 19th century the area had undergone a series of many different cultural and historical influences, traces of which can still been seen today. The region is dotted with moated castles, fortresses, mansions, cloisters and churches as well as the relicts of medieval towns. With the arrival of the Industrial Revolution a rural area of hamlets and towns expanded within a few decades to become Europe’s largest industrial area.

In 1958 the coal-mining crisis began. Collieries began to shut down and there were huge job losses: Up to 1976 the amount of working mines shrank from 148 to 35, the number of people working in the industry from over 400.000 to 150.000, and coal production halved. The world economic crisis in 1974 and 1975 also dealt a heavy blow to the steel industry. Hundreds of thousands of steelworkers also lost their job. The complete framework of heavy industry was transformed. Work on creating a new economic structure began in the early 1960s.

Anyway- when most people think of Ruhr they think of nothing but coal, steel, and smoke. Such clichés have long since disappeared. Nonetheless they are hard to shed. Scarcely any other region in Europe has been so utterly transformed in the last few decades as Ruhr. Most collieries have now closed down and the era of roaring blast furnaces is also coming to an end. Technology, business, culture and service industries are now the economic basis for the future. Many of the old factory sides have been turned into community and professional arts centres, or impressive one-side museums bearing witness to the region’s proud industrial heritage. Today Ruhr is a landscape full of contrasts resulting from the juxtaposition of a tangible industrial past and a vibrant present.   

Birgit Ehses/ Roy Kift
Regionalverband Ruhr
www.rvr-online.de