Oberhausen

General information:

Area	7703 ha
Largest north-south-extension	14,6 km
Largest east-west-extension	10,7 km

Special sights of Oberhausen:

The CentrO - A great shopping centre, unique in europe.
The 'Gasometer' - An old gas-tower that is used now as an exhibition hall.
The 'Ludwig Galerie Schloss Oberhausen'
The Oberhausen International Short Film Festival
The 'Friedensplatz' in the centre of Oberhausen

The CentrO:

CentrO. , the huge business project in Oberhausen's 'Neue Mitte' complex, was opened on the former location of the Thyssen foundry and rolling mills in September 1996. The British investors comprising Stadium and P & O (the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company) constructed this new shopping and leisure paradise which is unique in Europe, having invested a sum of about 1,6 billion German marks. CentrO. consists of a shopping complex of 70,000 square metres, comprising 200 retail outlets, a park with recreational facilities and between the shopping centre and park there is a 400 metre long promenade with over twenty different types of restaurant and pub. In addition, there is a Warner Brothers multiplex cinema as well as a business park. By 1997 the pilot sales centre for 'smart', the futuristic small car (a joint venture between Mercedes and the Swiss watchmaker SMH-SWATCH), designed for use in and around town, will be completed. CentrO. planning also envisages a musical theatre to complement the already existing Arena, a multi-purpose hall which has a seating capacity of 12,500 and is run by an American corporation - Ogden Entertainment Services. Adjacent to the Arena is the new clubhouse and courts of OTHC Oberhausen who play in the top German tennis league. Planned by American and German concerns for completion in 1999, close to CentrO. on the Rhine-Herne Canal, is a large marine aquarium, a huge showground for prefabricated buildings, a marina, appartments, a hotel, restaurants, bistros and boutiques.

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The Gasometer:

The gasometer on the Rhine-Herne Canal, which is visible from quite a distance, has become not only a landmark of the town but also a symbol of change. When it was erected in 1929, it dwarfed similar constructions in its proportions: 117,5 metres high, 68 metres in diameter with a capacity of 350,000 cubic metres. The interior has been rebuilt so that now it functions as an exhibition centre, the most unusual and imaginative in Europe.
This industrial monument was opened in 1994 and housed the immensely successful and popular exhibition 'Feuer und Flamme' ('Fire and Flame') - 200 years of history in the Ruhr, which 500,000 visitors attended within two years. This was followed in 1996 by the exhibition 'ICH PHOENIX' ('I Phoenix') whose theme was the metamorphosis of an industrial into a media and information society. In 1997 from April to November the gasometer was the scene of an exhibition entitled 'Der Traum vom Sehen' ('The Dream of Vision') which deals with the history of television. Because of the great success the exhibition will be shown again in 1998.
Until its closure in 1988 the gasometer stored gas for the coking plant owned by the Ruhrkohle p.l.c. The principal technological feature was a huge steel disk weighing 1,207 tons which swam on the gas sealing off the upper interior space and supplying the necessary pressure. Now this disk has been lowered to a height of four metres and is held by supports. As a result when visitors walk into the gasometer, they enter a circular room bigger than 3,000 square metres. Inside the gasometer the possibilities are unlimited whether for a concert, sound event, product launch, fashion show, business presentation or all-round cinema. A glass lift takes visitors up to the dome of the building, an external lift goes up to the roof which can also be reached by 592 steps! The fantastic panoramic view from the top encompasses a changing landscape.

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The 'Ludwig Galerie Schloss Oberhausen':

The municipalgallery, based in the manor-house 'Schloß Oberhausen', was oneof the first museums to be founded in the post-war period, to beexact in 1947. Alongside important collections of impressionistand expressionist art by artists from the Rhineland, of thecritical realism of the Seventies, and an internationalcollection of nineteenth and twentieth century graphic art, thereare also cultural, historical and art historical exhibitionswhich have greatly contributed to the museum's reputation. Themuseum gained a significance which stretches beyond the bordersof this region when it took on the 'Ludwig Institute for EastGerman Art'. After a major reconstruction the LudwigGallery at Schloss Oberhausen will open with a 'Museum withChanging Exhibitions', a section for 'Popular Art' and a forumfor a broad spectrum of cultural activities. The re-opening ofthe museum as the 'Ludwig Gallery' creates a new institution inthe wide circle of other museums whose common link is the nameLudwig. As a 'Museum with Changing Exhibitions' it bringstogether old and modern masterpieces from the collection of Ireneand Peter Ludwig in a series of thematically ordered exhibitions.In addition, the 'Gallery for Popular Art' will attempt to relatesignificant works of applied art like caricatures, comics,photography, poster art and video to the so-called higher artform. In the rooms belonging to the small 'Schloß' one can alsofind, apart from the 'Gallery for Popular Art', the studio forregional art, the museum shop and the Oberhausen Registry Office.In this part of the 'Schloß' premises people from Oberhausenhave access to a forum for the plastic and graphic arts. Not onlylocal artists but also art organizations and the 'Artothek' canuse this facility. The 'Artothek' gives members of the public thechance to borrow works of art on a lending system. The museum hasalso got a workshop and its own department responsible foreducational aspects. One of the main targets is encouragementtowards creativity. Next to the 'Ludwig Gallery' there is abuilding with a permanent exhibition dedicated to the 'History ofPersecution and Resistance in Oberhausen during the Nazi Era'.Moreover, in its memorial hall there are exhibitions on a regularbasis dealing with the current themes of peace studies andpolitical education.

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The Oberhausen International Short Film Festival:

This short film festival is the oldest in the world and since its inception in the fifties it has become an important element in the cultural life of the Ruhr region. It has a tradition of over forty years as a forum for discussion about the development of the cinematic arts and media technology. Its biggest asset is not only the world wide network of contacts it has created in the world of film and other media but its ability as a festival to redefine and update its brief to meet the future needs of the art of cinema. This event in the fifties was the place where the West discovered the film world of the East. In the sixties, with the so-called 'Oberhausen Manifesto', the festival was the place of breakthrough for the 'New German Film', a movement which impacted on the international film scene and boosted the artistic significance of the German film per se. Today the annual festival is an international forum for the artistically and technologically advanced talents in this medium. Famous directors like Roman Polanski, David Lynch or George Lucas were discovered here long before they hit the world scene. At the beginning of the nineties, compatible to the changes taking place in the role of the short film, a new stress was put on things like the 'video clip'. There was an international symposium on this in 1991. In 1992 the stress was on commercials and HDTV. The focal points in 1994 were the industrial film and developments in CD-Rom and in 1995 internet presentations were at the centre of interest. Parallel to these themes are the yearly symposia on the international development of the short film genre on television.

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The 'Friedensplatz':

The 'Friedensplatz' was laid out at the turn of the century on an industrial site belonging to the Styrum foundry which had just become bankrupt. This square (its size is 50x180 metres), one of the nicest in the Ruhr, is an important link between the market square, the main railway station and the town hall. It is the ideal location for local festivities like the annual gourmet food weekend or the Christmas market. Two double rows of plane-trees, flower beds and ponds emphasize the spaciousness. The square is bordered by long rows of three-storeyed buildings designed by the civic architect Eduard Jüngerich in the expressionist style. Arcades and other ornate details take in the buildings on the east side (including the Police Headquarters) and the block of buildings opposite housing the 'Landeszentralbank', formerly the 'Reichsbank', in this way forming an architectural unity. The north end of the square is dominated by the local court building which was built between 1904-1907 in an architectural style typical of imperial Germany. The southern end is a modern twin-towered complex containing flats, business premises and a hotel.

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