Things to do in Nordrhein-Westfalen

In 1993, the Kokerei Zollverein coking plant was at the end of its rope: the steel crisis of the 1990s caused the demand for coke to melt away.

In the 19th century, the tentacles of the Walloon coal industry in Belgium reached deep into the German Ruhr area.

Three striking headframes from three different eras stand in the German Ewald coal mine, which closed its doors in 2000.

The iron headframe above the Pluto-Wilhelm mine in the German Ruhr area immediately evokes the Zollverein headframe in Essen, which has been declared a World Heritage Site. This counterpart is threatened with demolition.

Years of coal mining in Zeche Hugo in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, have left behind a one-hundred-and-fifteen-meter-high slag heap, the Halde Rungenberg.

The most original form of public transport can be found in the German city of Wuppertal. The Schwebebahn has been floating above the Wupper River for over a hundred years.

In the run-up to the Second World War, Adolf Hitler ordered the construction of a defense line in the west of the country, the so-called West Wall. You will still find hundreds of meters of tank barriers in Aachen, Germany.

Until the eleventh century, Duisburg was located directly on the Rhine, but after the river's course changed, the Hanseatic city lost its most important asset. Traders left, and Duisburg was taken over by farmers and monks.