The Industrial Heritage Trail (German : Route der Industriekultur) links tourist attractions related to the industrial heritage in the Ruhr area in Germany. [1] It is a part of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. The series of routes were developed between 1989 and 1999, however additions are still being made. [2]
The trail network connects museums and exhibitions that present the industrial revolution during the last 750 years in the Ruhr area. It includes 400 km of road network and about 700 km of bicycle tracks. [3]
There are 52 main attractions on the trail.
Ruhr Industrial Heritage Trail by bike
The Ruhr, also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km2 and a population of over 5 million (2017), it is the largest urban area in Germany. It consists of several large cities bordered by the rivers Ruhr to the south, Rhine to the west, and Lippe to the north. In the southwest it borders the Bergisches Land. It is considered part of the larger Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region of more than 10 million people, which is the third largest in Western Europe, behind only London and Paris.
The Rhine–Herne Canal is a 45.6-kilometre-long (28.3 mi) transportation canal in the Ruhr area of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with five canal locks. The canal was built over a period of eight years and connects the harbour in Duisburg on the Rhine with the Dortmund-Ems Canal near Henrichenburg, following the valley of the Emscher. It was widened in the 1980s. The Rhein-Herne canal ship was designed specifically for this canal; normally of about 1300–1350 ton capacity, it has a maximum draft of 2.50 metres (8.2 ft), a length of approximately 80 metres (260 ft), and maximum beam of 9.50 metres (31.2 ft).
Duisburg Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the city of Duisburg in western Germany. It is situated at the meeting point of many important national and international railway lines in the Northwestern Ruhr valley.
The Eisenbahnmuseum Bochum-Dahlhausen is a railway museum situated south of the city of Bochum in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded by DGEG, the German Railway History Company in 1977 and is based in a locomotive depot that was built between 1916 and 1918 and ceased operation in 1969. Then DGEG took over the whole area of 46,000 square metres and built up the biggest railway museum in Germany. In the middle of the museum, there is an engine shed with fourteen tracks. A preserved turntable, coaling, watering, and sanding facilities are still in operation. This museum is integrated into The Industrial Heritage Trail a route of monuments from the history of the industry.
Witten Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the town of Witten in western Germany. It is situated southwest of the town.
The Ruhrtriennale, also known as Ruhr Triennale, was founded in 2002 and is a music and arts festival in the Ruhr-area of Germany which runs between mid-August and mid-October, and happens in three-year cycles. The topics of the festival focus on contemporary social and global upheavals.
The Innenhafen (Inner Harbour) in Duisburg, Germany, is connected to the Rhine River, encompasses an area of 89 hectares (220 acres). For over a hundred years during the high point of the Industrial Revolution, it was the central harbour and trading point of the town. Since the mid-1960s, the importance of the harbour declined and it lay in a disused condition for 20 years, before plans for renovation were drawn up. This former industrial area has been fundamentally transformed, a process which started as a part of the International Building Exhibition Emscher Park (IBA) which ran from 1989 until 1999.
The Witten/Dortmund, Oberhausen/Duisburg railway is one of the most important railways in Germany. It is the main axis of long distance and regional rail transport on the east–west axis of the Ruhr and is served by Intercity-Express, InterCity, Regional-Express, Regionalbahn and S-Bahn trains.
Duisburg: Town and Harbour is the Theme Route No. 1 of the Industrial Heritage Trail, which passes through Duisburg, the Inner Harbour, Ruhrort, the Duisburg-Ruhrorter harbour and other attractions on the Rhine and Ruhr. These trails were first developed between 1989 and 1999.
The actual boundaries of the Ruhr vary slightly depending on the source, but a good working definition is to define the Lippe and Ruhr as its northern and southern boundaries respectively, the Rhine as its western boundary, and the town of Hamm as the eastern limit.
The Ruhr Valley Railway is a partly abandoned railway line in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, running from Düsseldorf-Rath via Old Kupferdreh station, Bochum-Dahlhausen, Witten-Herbede, Hagen-Vorhalle and Schwerte to Warburg. It was built between 1872 and 1876 by the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company, one of the three major private railway companies in the Ruhr area. The railway tracks that were built along the Ruhr river had a relatively uniform grade that was suitable for railway operations at the time.
The Halde Rheinpreußen is a spoil tip in the German city Moers which lies 70 metres (230 ft) above its ambit. It is part of the category Panoramas of the Ruhr Industrial Heritage Trail.
The Rhein-Emscher-Express is a Regional-Express service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), running from Düsseldorf via Duisburg, Gelsenkirchen and Dortmund to Hamm. It connects with the rest of the regional rail network of NRW in Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Oberhausen, Wanne-Eickel, Dortmund and Hamm. In addition, it connects in Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Oberhausen, Dortmund and Hamm with long-distance services.
Essen-Steele Ost station is located in the district of Essen-Steele in the German city of Essen in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is on the Witten/Dortmund–Oberhausen/Duisburg line and is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 4 station. It is served by Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn lines S 1 and S 3.
Bochum-Dahlhausen station is located in the Dahlhausen district of Bochum in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The station building dates from the time of the First World War.
Bochum-Langendreer station is now a stop on the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn in the district of Langendreer in eastern Bochum in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Langendreer formerly had a 40 hectare marshalling yard, which is now used as a depot, with the location code of EBLA. Until the 1980s, the yard was also the location of a passenger station, which was served by express trains.
Fritz Schupp was a German architect. He was educated from 1914 to 1917 at the Universities of Karlsruhe, München and Stuttgart. Despite mostly working alone, he formed a partnership based in Essen and Berlin with Martin Kremmer. From 1949, Schupp was a lecturer at the Technical University in Hannover. Between 1920 and 1974, he built 69 factories and plants. In the Bergbauarchiv (Bochum), 17500 sketches are at the disposal of researchers. His best-known work was the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001.
Katja Aßmann is a German curator and arts administrator. She is currently the artistic director of Urbane Künste Ruhr.
The Bochum–Essen/Oberhausen railway was built by the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company to the north of its main line through the central Ruhr to tap traffic from mines and factories in the northern Ruhr region, which is now in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
The Internationale Bauausstellung Emscher Park or International Architecture Exhibition Emscher Park was a programme for structural changes in the so-called German Ruhr region from 1989 to 1999 in order to show new concepts in terms of social, cultural and ecologic ideas.
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