Aid association will take part in building the bridge

The LVR-Industriemuseum, Hansastraße, view from the central station, Foto: LVR-Industriemuseum, Hoffmann


The museum´s aid association will invite Katie and a teacher to take part in the general meeting in March. There the members will be informed about the activities of the museum and especially about the project Transatlantic Bridge. The members are eager to get more information concening the transatlantic activities of the LVR-Industriemuseum. This way the bridge will get a new platform and a wider audience!

Born of Fire-Boxes arrived at the schools

Oberhausen wants to say "Thank you"!
Unexpectedly, our Museum received a notice from the custom office in Duisburg. A large package sent by Westmoreland had arrived in Germany. Me and my colleague Kevin picked it up and soon after that our partner schools got the boxes that contained a book and a DVD. The boxes are a present from Westmoreland! Thank you!

Born of Fire: A Multi-Media Celebration of Pittsburgh's Steel Heritage is a boxed set that contains the book Born of Fire: The Valley of Work, the CD Born of Fire: Songs of Steel and Industry, and the DVD Born of Fire: How Pittsburgh Built a Nation. The set tells the story of steel as told through art, song and history. This premiere package provides an intriguing in-depth examination of the Big Steel Era.

Ruhr 2010

Ruhr 2010 - read about what's happening!

Germany combats foreign competition with culture

This article is a follow-up to the one posted January 12 about the Ruhr's selection as the European Union's cultural capital for 2010.

Read the article.

Credit: on the lower level of 384-feet Oberhausen Gasometer, visitors walk through a model of the solar system. Once a storage tank for blast furnace waste gas, the tank has been converted into Europe's largest exhibition space. Mike Wereschagin/Tribune-Review

Art Exhibition

The Greensburg Salem Advanced Art students had an exhibition of their work at the museum last night. The students have some amazing talent! A few visitors even asked if the work was for sale! I took photos and made some videos. Enjoy!

European focal point parallels Pittsburgh

This article appeared on the front page of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, our local newspaper on January 10, 2010.
Read the article.

Inauguration of the Ruhr2010 event

European Capital of Culture Ruhr 2010 magnificently opened

The ringing of bells started already on Friday, January 8th, 6 p.m. Although there had been stressing discussions whether to postpone the opening ceremony at Essen Zollverein, because storm Daisy put down her white and frosty coat all over Germany, the persons responsible appealed to old behaviours and virtues of the former steel-workers and miners in the Ruhr Area: "Take a hip flask, if needs be"; "Don´t be a wimp, a wet blanket"; "We are not in Siberia". The brusque slogans seemed to be effective. Nearly punctually the official ceremony started on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Essen at "Zollverein", the world cultural heritage site of the industrial age. The President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr. Köhler, as well as the President of the European Commission, Mr. Barroso and the minister-president of North Rhine-Westphalia, Mr. Rüttgers, gave courageously their speeches in the middle of a square arena, filled with 1.200 hand-picked guests of politics and culture. I took the chance to notice the spectacle and to become a part of it.

The backdrop was as impressing as winning enough with giant sets of machines and the rusty buildings of the former coking plant. Soon the singers and dancers entered the stage and made their chants and figures, only interrupted by the busy caretaker, scattering permanently salt on the floor, and the young teams, untiring scrubbing away the puddles of water supplied by smelting snow. From time to time and out of the blue jets of fire were spitting into the covered sky, launched out of small shafts in the platform. Sometimes, the snowflakes complicated the view, but the temperature continued cooling backs and feed persistently. But one could easily keep fingers warm by all the given opportunities for applauding. Additionally everyone has been protected by a so called survival kit the organizers had sufficiently distributed: a warm blanket for the knees, a tin foil for the backside and a plastic raincoat. With these red, green, yellow and blue coloured coats, the audience formed the Logo of the 2010 event by themselves and all the time.

The German Pop star Herbert Grönemeyer finally bawled out the new hymn of the Ruhr: "Come to the Ruhr!" In German ears that sounds a little bit like "Settle down at last!" But no one could actually settle down. In spite of snow the show must go on: with the opening of the new RuhrMuseum at about 5 p.m. and with all the artists delivered all over the terrain of the already famous Zeche Zollverein. One impressive example to me was a singer in a white baroque costume, accompanied by the clear chords of an electro piano. Taking a stand on a brown scaffold between the old boilers, the machines and listed buildings of the former works, she was cheering heavenly melodies into the darkening cold sky of former Coal City. Daisy was a visitor, not too cruel, but creating all the more a mood of extraordinary festivity and unforgettable community. Daisy was a conveniently promoting partner for the inauguration of that cultural year. And you really didn´t need a hip flask, after Köhler, Barroso and Rütters long since had abandoned the scene.

Interview with Katie in Oberhausen

A student of the Heinrich-Böll-Gesamtschule interviews Katie.

The head of school, Mr. Henn, takes a look on the journals.