Abstract
In several phases from the 1840s to the 1960s, the Ruhr developed into Europe’s largest industrial conurbation, whereby the intensity of the industrial impact varied from phase to phase, resulting in different socio-economic and spatial structures. Since the 1960s, as a reaction to the deindustrialization of the coal mining and the iron and steel industries, new industrial allocations and comprehensive forms of regional and urban planning created new economic foundations, eliminated urban deficits and caused an overall structural change. Nevertheless, the basic spatial structures of the Ruhr still prove that this cultural landscape has in large parts been developed exclusively to the locational requirements of the coal and steel industries. Due to its global uniqueness, however, “industrial cultural landscape Ruhrgebiet” has also became an identity-forming term with a positive external impact, especially on tourism.
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Notes
- 1.
Hans-Werner Wehling, Zollverein and the Industrial Cultural Landscape Ruhr. Report on its Theoretical/Conceptional Foundation and its Spatial Operationalization (Essen: Klartext, 2015); Ursula Mehrfeld and Marita Pfeiffer, ‘Das Welterbe-Projekt „Industrielle Kulturlandschaft Ruhrgebiet”’, in Industrielle Kulturlandschaft, Forum Geschichtskultur Ruhr 2 (2015), pp. 15–22; Stiftung Industriedenkmalpflege und Geschichtskultur (SIG)/Foundation for the Preservation of Industrial Monuments and Historical Culture, Ruhrgebiet Industrial Cultural Landscape. Draft Statement of Outstanding Universal Value. Proposal for an Update of the German Tentative List for UNESCO World Heritage (Dortmund: The Foundation for the Preservation of Industrial Monuments and Historical Culture (SIG), 2017).
- 2.
Paul Wiel, Das Ruhrgebiet in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart (Essen: Scharioth, 1963), p. 24.
References
Mehrfeld, Ursula and Pfeiffer, Marita, ‘Das Welterbe-Projekt “Industrielle Kulturlandschaft Ruhrgebiet”’, in Industrielle Kulturlandschaft, Forum Geschichtskultur Ruhr 2 (2015), pp. 15–22.
Stiftung Industriedenkmalpflege und Geschichtskultur (SIG)/Foundation for the Preservation of Industrial Moments and Historical Culture, Ruhrgebiet Industrial Cultural Landscape. Draft Statement of Outstanding Universal Value. Proposal for an Update of the German Tentative List for UNESCO Worlds Heritage (Dortmund: The Foundation for the Preservation of Industrial Monuments and Historical Culture (SIG), 2017).
Wehling, Hans-Werner, Zollverein and the Industrial Cultural Landscape Ruhr. Report on Its Theoretical/Conceptional Foundation and Its Spatial Operationalization (Essen: Klartext, 2015).
Wiel, Paul, Das Ruhrgebiet in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart (Essen: Scharioth, 1963).
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Wehling, HW. (2022). The Industrial Cultural Landscape of the Ruhr: Its Structures and Perspectives. In: Berger, S., Musso, S., Wicke, C. (eds) Deindustrialisation in Twentieth-Century Europe. Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89631-7_2
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