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Anchor Points major venues to pick up information |
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Arenastr. 11
46047 Oberhausen
Fon 02 08 | 8 50 37 30
www.gasometer.de
Geodaten
51° 29' 39" N, 6° 52' 12" O
RVR-Geodatenserver
Öffnungszeiten
Di - So | Feiertage 10 - 18 Uhr
in den NRW-Ferien auch montags geöffnet
ÖPNV
Von Oberhausen Hbf ab Terminal 1 mit jedem Bus und jeder Straßenbahn bis "Neue Mitte Oberhausen", dann 5 Minuten Fußweg
Führungen
ganzjährig nach Voranmeldung
Aktuelle Veranstaltungen finden Sie in route aktuell.
Hinweise für Besucher mit Behinderung finden Sie hier:
Informationen über die Mietung von Räumlichkeiten finden Sie auf dieser Übersicht.
Improvements in iron smelting were triggered off as early as the mid 18th century by finds of pea ore in the Oberhausen districts of Sterkrade and Osterfeld. At the time carbon and water power were still the main suppliers of energy..
As a result, in 1758 the St. Antony Ironworks in Osterfeld became the first ironworks in the Ruhrgebiet to go into operation. Other works which followed included the New-Essen Mill in Lirich (1781) and the Good Hope Mill in Sterkrade (1782). In 1808 these three merged to become the legendary Good Hope Mill. In 1818 the first sheet steel works was created on today’s Essener Straße from a small oil and corn mill on the then banks of the Emscher. As early as the first half of the 19th century the steel produced here was processed in industrial dimensions into rails, steam engines, cranes and locomotives etc. From 1854 onwards the Oberhausen colliery to the south became an important source of raw material. In 1863 Iron Mill I on the Essener Straße began operations. In 1879 Osterfeld colliery became the second colliery to deliver coal to the mills. The oldest working-class housing estate in the Ruhrgebiet was completed as early as 1890: the Eisenheim Colony had been constructed in three phases since 1844. By this time the St. Antony Ironworks in Osterfeld had been closed for 13 years. The main production sites were now on the Essener Straße.
Iron Mill II was built on the Essener Straße in 1909. In 1913 permission was given to build a social centre for top management: it later became the works’ guest house, and is now the Environment Technology Centre. A management housing estate called Grafenbusch was built between the factory site and Oberhausen Mansion. In 1906 the course of the River Emscher was moved and straightened up to its present position parallel to the Rhine-Herne built in 1914. Today Grafenbusch is still one of the largest quasi-natural landscape areas in the city.
In 1929, following the closer ties between collieries, coking plants, steel mills and cool chemistry, the Oberhausen gasometer was built to store blast furnace and coking gas. It was 117.5 metres high and is still the largest gasometer in Europe. In the 1930s the Good Hope Mill incorporated all the various industrial units from coalmining, via iron and steel production, further processing and mechanical engineering, to transportation. Previously, between 1921 and 1925, the company had constructed a major work by the architect Peter Behrens, the huge storage house on the Essener Straße. Today this is used as the warehouse of the Rhineland Industrial Museum.
The Gasometer was damaged by air raids during the Second World War and after it had been repaired it went into operation once again in 1950. The Good Hope Mill concern was split into smaller units by the Allies and the newly created Hüttenwerke Oberhausen AG took over responsibility for the iron and steel area. In 1963 there were still seven blast furnaces and three steelworks in operation. In 1967 Thyssen took over the works on the Essener Straße. The last blast furnace was blown out in 1979, as were the further processing sites. This was followed in 1988 by the closure of the electric steelworks. Despite the closure of the blast furnaces the Gasometer continued to act as a storage site for cooking gas from the Osterfeld coking plant. But when the coking plant was closed down in 1988 the Gasometer’s function as a gas storage plant finally came to an end.
Shortly afterwards this work began on redeveloping the Gasometer as a gigantic exhibition hall. After it was cleaned up and restored it presented its first exhibition in 1994/95: "Fire and Flame - 200 Year’s History in the Ruhrgebiet" proved a huge success, and now the annual exhibitions offer visitors a unique experience of space and sound. There was a very special exhibition in 1999 on the occasion of the International Building Exhibition (IBA) finale. Christo and Jean-Claude dispensed with their usual coverings and created the Wall. 13,000 coloured oil drums were piled up in several rows to a height of 26 metres dividing the Gasometer into two equal sections: an artistic reflection of the central theme of the IBA, to transform the Ruhrgebiet along ecological, cultural, social and economic lines.
