Germany’s Most Unexpected Weekender

For a region once dismissed as Europe’s smokestack, Germany’s Ruhrgebiet has become surprisingly good at having fun with its past.

The numbers alone are absurd. Stretching across dozens of cities and home to more than five million people, the Ruhr was built on coal, steel and heavy industry. For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, its mines, coking plants and blast furnaces powered Germany’s economic rise. Then the coal industry collapsed. Mines closed, furnaces fell silent and the region faced an uncomfortable question

What exactly do you do with a landscape full of fallen industrial giants?

The answer, it turns out, is not to demolish them. Instead, the Ruhr has spent decades turning former industrial infrastructure into some of Germany’s most unusual visitor attractions. 

On the surface, it seems a hard sell. Most visitors have never ventured beyond Cologne’s cathedral and Christmas markets and do they want to substitute this for slap heap hills and coking plant gangways?

Well, they should.  There’s only a certain number of picture-postcard market squares before they all feel a bit, well, samey.  As a weekend break, this is altogether more unique, and yet easily accessible.

Life’s A Gas

Oberhausen offers perhaps the best introduction.

The skyline is dominated by the enormous Gasometer Oberhausen (Tuesday – Sunday 10.00 – 18.00), a former gas storage tank standing 117 metres high. Once used to regulate gas supplies for the surrounding steel industry, it is now one of Europe’s most dramatic exhibition spaces.   Currently focused on ‘Mythos Wald’ - forest ecosystems across Europe, it combines stunning photography exhibitions with immersive exhibits.  The experience of lying on life-size cushions watching an 80ft neon tree is one of my more cathartic experiences. 

Take a lift to a rooftop viewing platform where the panorama stretches in all directions across a landscape that has reinvented itself without erasing its past. 

A short walk away is the delightfully eccentric Slinky Springs to Fame. Part bridge, part public artwork, it coils across the Rhine-Herne Canal like a giant rainbow-coloured spring that escaped from a toy shop.  Designed by artist Tobias Rehberger, the 406-metre structure consists of hundreds of aluminium hoops that transform a simple canal crossing into something resembling a surrealist obstacle course.   It’s silly, unexpected and irresistible all in one

The Ruhr’s relationship with playful design and public art continues nearby at the The Sorcerer's Apprentice, a giant electricity pylon twisted into the shape of a dancing figure. Looking as though it has wandered off from Glastonbury, it perfectly captures the region’s willingness to inject humour into industrial landscapes, as well as being an inevitable photo-stop.

Round off your industrial heritage crash-course with the Tetraeder. This steel pyramid atop a hill just outside nearby Bottrop offers one of the Ruhr’s great viewpoints. The climb is not especially difficult, though the exposed staircases and viewing platforms will test your fear of heights rather strongly.  From the top, the Ruhr spreads out beneath you: forests, canals, industrial monuments and modern cities occupying territory once dominated by mines.  But this isn’t a natural geographical feature dating back millions of years.  It’s a former spoil heap from the nearby mines that has been repurposed as a tourist attraction.  Get there by bus 260 or 263 from Oberhausen city centre.

Black Gold

If Oberhausen showcases the Ruhr’s creativity, Dortmund demonstrates its ambition.  Yep, there’s more than just football on offer.

The vast Kokerei Hansa (10.00 – 16.00, Tuesday – Sunday) is one of the best-preserved coking plants in Europe. Coal once arrived here by the trainload before being transformed into coke for the steel industry. Today visitors can explore towering machinery, pipes and conveyor systems that resemble the set of an especially expensive science-fiction film. Guided tours bring the machinery to life, while nature has quietly reclaimed parts of the site, softening the steel with wildflowers and greenery.  

Keep an eye out for this trend to accelerate as the site has been selected as a site for 2027’s International Garden Exhibition, which will transform the whole region with long-lasting greenery.

At the same site, the worker’s canteen has been transformed into Michelin-Starred dining. SchwarzGold (open Weds – Saturday, 18.30 – 23.30) offers a sensational tribute to local produce – you’ll never look at a Currywurst in the same way again – served in clever and playful style.  The Candyshop-Kiosk at the end is uniquely German and yet universally endearing.  Prices reflect the standard of dining but if you’re celebrating or just looking for a stand-out meal, this is your spot.  Book in advance.

Rise Like A Phoenix

A few kilometres away lies one of the Ruhr’s most remarkable transformations.  Whilst it may resemble an urban lake from anywhere, Phoenix-See stands where blast furnaces once dominated the skyline.  It’s a calm respite from the city, lined with promenades, cafés and sailing boats, built literally on top of (thoroughly cleansed) industrial wasteland – the original plant was disassembled and sent to China. Local residents stroll along the waterfront where molten steel was once produced and the contrast is striking enough to feel faintly improbable. It’s a good place to stroll, bike or kayak to burn off some calories from the excesses the previous night.

The industrial story remains more visible at nearby Phoenix-West. Here, preserved blast furnaces and elevated walkways (a nerve-tingling 200 feet above ground) allow visitors to explore the remains of the former steelworks. Standing among the rusting structures, it becomes easier to appreciate the scale of the industry that once defined the region…and the efforts required to create the Phoenix See lake.  Inside, the rooms are given over to immersive displays of art and music – it’s quite the sensation to see Monet’s Bridge at Givency suddenly appear on a set of industrial chimneys.

Elegance Down T’Pit

The most surprising site of all may be the one you least expect. 

Collieries are not generally associated with elegance.  Yet, Zeche Zollern (45 mins from Phoenix-West by U-Bahn), opened in 1898, features elaborate brickwork, decorative ironwork and a spectacular Art Nouveau machine hall. Built partly as a ‘castle of labour’ showpiece, it operates today as a museum documenting the lives of the workers who built the Ruhr. 

The exhibitions provide enough historical context to understand the region without feeling like you’re being lectured to, with every facet of mining life brought to life with interactive exhibits and knowledgeable guides.  The architecture itself is reason enough to visit and the beer garden is a very welcome spot for an afternoon Halbliter.

The balance between preserving heritage and modernising usage perhaps explains why the Ruhr works so well as a destination.  The region hasn’t let its heritage rust to ruin or polished it to a generic visitor experience without any nod to the past. The blast furnaces still look like blast furnaces. The gas tanks still look like gas tanks. The spoil heaps are still spoil heaps. They’ve just been adapted to offer exceptional dining, immersive exhibitions and some surprisingly attractive vistas.

So next time you’re planning a Euroweekender, you could do a lot worse than head to the factory.

How To Do It

Another plus for this weekend is how easy it is to get to.  The Ruhr is easily reached from the UK via direct flights to Dortmund Airport (cheaper) or Düsseldorf (more convenient) Airport. 

The Ruhr’s excellent public transport network means a car is largely unnecessary. The VRR integrated ticket system covers local trains, U-Bahn, trams and buses throughout the metropolitan area. Fast regional trains connect Dortmund, Oberhausen (plus Essen and Duisburg) in under 30 minutes, while most attractions are accessible by local transport and short walks.   Tickets of 4 journeys start at €15.20.

Allow two to three days to comfortably explore the sites featured here.

Phil Thomas is a travel journalist based in Cambridge, UK.  You can follow his adventures on his blog Someone Else’s Country and on Instagram (@exploresomeoneelsescountry).  Phil was supported on his visit by Visit Germany.