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North Duisburg Landscape Park

The Meiderich ironworks are the main feature in the North Duisburg Landscape Park, which was carefully designed by the landscape architect Peter Latz to combine the industrial past with new facilities. The site with its three very tall blast furnaces went into operation in 1902 and closed down in 1985, when it was a part of the Thyssen works. The blast furnaces were constructed on rational economic grounds and on the grounds of their functionality. Now the industrial relics exude an aura of a past age which gives them a slightly romanticised overall effect. Visitors to the park can climb to the top of the blast furnace by day and night and enjoy an incredible view of the surrounding countryside, or walk through the bizarre network of steel pipes, profiles, pillars and boilers as if they were in a labyrinth.

After heavy protests from the local inhabitants the ironworks were saved from demolition and handed over to the Emscher Park International Building Exhibition to be converted into a recreational area. The park is accessible to the general public by day and night throughout the year. Visitors can climb to the top platform of the blast furnace, take part in guided tours of the industrial plant and the natural surroundings, relax in the beer garden next to the old warehouse in the shadow of the gasometer, or visit one of the countless shows and events on the site.

The old industrial buildings present outstanding cultural events throughout the year, ranging from major exhibitions to jazz (and other) concerts, international dance festivals to opera performances. In summer the casting house belonging to blast furnace no. 1 is turned into an open-air cinema and from time to time the site is used as a setting for festivities and sporting events.

The ironworks were built by August Thyssen in 1901 directly next to the Deutscher Kaiser coalfields which were also owned by Thyssen. The two sides were connected to the Cologne to Minden railway line and the River Emscher by the Emscher Valley Railway. By 1908 all five blast premises had been completed. Until the works were closed down because of overcapacity on the European market, they mainly produced mainly pig iron and special alloys for the Thyssen steelworks.

Because of the radical changes in the global market in the 1950s, major parts of the Deutscher Kaiser coalfields (later known as the August Thyssen colliery) were closed down. In 1960 shaft 4/8 ceased operations and its buildings were demolished. After that it was overgrown by a jungle of bushes, trees and meadows. Now a Swedish furniture company has opened on the huge site. Shaft 3, by contrast, has been turned into a network of allotments and a recreational area for the local inhabitants.

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