34 Destinations Omnibus 3·<strong>2010</strong> A mining town rejuvenated Essen is the designated European Capital of Culture <strong>2010</strong>. Essen? Yes, that’s right. In fact, this location in the heart of the industrial Ruhr region has more charms than many people might suspect. A visit to a changing and hugely interesting city.
Omnibus 3·<strong>2010</strong> Destinations 35 ESSEN: A CITY characterised by coal and steel; by hard work and solidarity. And nevertheless, it has been awarded the title of European Capital of Culture <strong>2010</strong>. The honour is all down to the efforts of the Ruhr regional authorities. It was they who elected to throw Essen’s hat into the ring. In a region comprising 53 towns and cities, with a population of 5.3 million people, it was not an automatic choice. The North Rhine-Westphalia cities of Cologne and Münster had also expressed interest in bidding for the title. To resolve the issue, the state’s Minister of Culture, Michael Vesper, set up a commission to visit all three cities and check out their cultural highlights. Their votes came out clearly in favour of Essen. There then followed a battle at national level within Germany. In that contest, too, Essen swept aside a number of leading cities, including such cultural hotspots as Potsdam, Karlsruhe, Regensburg, Bremen and Lübeck – cities which could easily have taken on the mantle, and indeed would have merited it. Yet once again, the decision was clear. “We were complete outsiders,” recalls Ulrike Vetter, Essen’s Press and Public Relations officer. “Initially the national media totally ignored us. Later the reaction was one of disdain.” Indeed, few could imagine a city of such industrial grime being awarded such a prestigious cultural honour. Even jury member Adolf Muschg, president of the Academy of Arts in Berlin in 2006 and a highranking cultural ambassador, subsequently apologised publicly for his reservations concerning Essen by way of a lengthy article in the weekly “Die Zeit”. He had at one point given the Ruhr no chance, and his team of experts had been in no doubt that such a dirty industrial heartland could never become a capital of culture. Today Muschg says: “The former coalfield is no longer coughing up dust; it is breathing the future.” It really is the case that Essen’s problem is one of image rather than of substance. So from 2007 through to the end of 2009 that image had to be reshaped and burnished. After all, Essen was once a centre of the iron and steel industry in Germany. Essen was long ruled by noble women Like many other towns and cities in the Ruhr, Essen is undergoing a difficult and bitter process of structural change. The heavy industries which still dominate the consciousness of everyone living in Essen were actually a feature of the city for “just” 150 years of its history. The structural character of the city began to change after the Second World War. The famous Alfred Krupp steelworks had been partially destroyed in the war, and the rest was subsequently dismantled. In place of steel, coal became king, as a major fuel for Germany’s post-war reconstruction. The gradual ending of that reconstruction phase in the late 1950s saw the first pits close down. Global trade was slowly but surely getting back into gear, and imported coal was becoming cheaper. The last Essen coal mine to close was the “Zollverein” pit in 1986. Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is solely the dewatering system which keeps the wheels above the pit in motion. The reason is that former operator Ruhrkohle AG – today partially embodied in successor companies Evonik and RAG – has an ongoing obligation, for all time, to ensure that no water incursion occurs and to keep pumping water out of the pits. Any such incursion might destabilise the huge underground “mole tunnels” and cause land and buildings to subside. Appropriately, the costs of this operation are designated “eternity costs”. The coking plant shut down in 1993. There was no longer a need for its coke – processed from coal – as a fuel for steel production. Essen’s foundations stretch far back. The present city was established in 852 as a nunnery, and for some 1,000 years the place was ruled by women – to be precise, by nuns, raised up to nobility and designated as Princess-Abbesses. Their influence, power and wealth has meant that Essen still today has some of the most significant ecclesiastical treasures in Europe. Essen’s Minster includes what is the oldest fully sculptural Madonna figure in the western world. It is a real treasure trove for anyone interested in church heritage. ü
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