Duisburg: Germany’s Detroit

I never planned to visit Duisburg in the first place, but I had to travel there from Amsterdam to put my family on the train to Berlin, leave the car at the parking lot and then travel back by bus for a few extra days. I didn't expect much, because I've heard many industrial cities in Northern Rhine-Westphalia were decimated by the war, rebuilt in a hurry and after the economic shifts started to decline. Duisburg is like that, yes, but it still has good stuff to show.

# Central Station Duisburg

Next to the parking lot, where I left my car, stood the Central Railway Station. This is basically the first thing people see when they arrive in Duisburg. The station was built between 1931 and 1934 as a replacement for it's eariler predecessors from the period when the railway network was still private. Since the main building was erected at the same time as the other stations in Düsseldorf, Königsberg and Oberhausen, they all share the same architectural vibe.

The station is having difficult times, started from when it was temporarily downgraded from a hub into a stop point, and then back. The metallic canopy shows signs of wear, is partially torn down and according to the ongoing renovation plan is to be replaced with a new, modern one.

German Wikipedia says there had to be paintings on the walls of the interior, but they were painted over a long ago, and today there isn't much to look at inside.

An office building was erected on the square in front of the train station.

Despite how strange it seems, the building does not at all conflict visually with the surroundings. I always find it fascinating, how well steel-and-glass structures go together with the historical brick buildings. I think the key factor here is to keep the same lines and proportions, avoid placing round-shaped buildings next to square-shaped ones.

# Ludwigsforum

I took an e-scooter and headed straight to the river bank, because I've heard Duisburg was famous for it. The first thing I saw was the Ludwig Forum - an open-air event venue located where the buildings of Hermann Ludwig Land- und Seetransporte AG company used to stand.

Judging by google maps view the facitily was pretty large. There are still some windowless warehouses left standing by the river, as well as two abruptly looking leftovers that used to hold staircases, and now serving the exhibition purposes.

Large industrial scales left in place give the venue a special charm.

# Duisburg's city harbour

Just in front of the forum stood the harbour with the rails still in place, now part of the pedestrian promenade. Surprisingly, the rails were not dismantled and scraped during the renovation, and now serve as a prominent remnant of the city's industrial past.

Besides the rails, the harbour still preserves a lot of other industrial equipment, such as cranes and warehouses. The cranes stand just next to the modern office buildings, which looks a bit surreal.

The old warehouses were also converted into office buildings and coworking spaces. Some of them bear marks of drastic conversion, while the others look pretty well preserved, at least from the outside.

# Regional archive

The building of the Regional Archive really stands out. Even when I was driving into the city on a highway, I could see it from afar. I thought "What the hell is that? It's the tallest badass silo I've ever seen!"

When I came closer, I've noticed the windows were bricked up and so I assumed it was an unfinished conservated redevelopment of some kind. Only later I've discovered it was done on purpose, to uphold certain conditions inside. Also turned out, the tower erected at the center of the former granary is a modern one, it was built in 2014 to hold different kinds of valuable historical documents, recordings and other materials.

Here's a historical photo of the damaged granary, depicting how it looked like during the Second World War.

Both the tower and the window seals have a subtle brick pattern only visible from the close distance.

It's a nice detail that doesn't let the facade look cheap.

The red waivy building is also a part of the complex, it was supposed to be decorated with bricks as well, but due to lack of funding it was covered with simple plaster and painted red.

I am no expert, but haven't two recent World Wars, that happen to be the most distructive ones so far, taught us, that any building that has vaults full of valuable documents should not protrude above the ground as much as possible? Ideally such a building should be designed as underground facility and preferably located outside of the city?

I guess the city management desperately wanted to put the old granary to good use, and the architects gambled the humanity learned the lesson, that the next mass-scale conflict never happens.

I hope they were right.

# The Rhine

At some point I've figured, that since the region is called Rhine-Westphalia, the Rhine river must be somewhere close. I quickly checked the google maps and found out, that the river is just a few kilometers away. I switched the e-scooter for a bike and decided to take a detour.

I rode past the industrial area on the south-west side of the city, passing by massive, cyclopian loading bays.

The facitilies looked damn impressive, making me understand why some people love industrial architecture so much. I wonder though, when was the last time the bay doors were used?

After a while I've reached the river. Behold! The Rhine!

Well, it was just another river, pretty calm and not very breathtaking. I've been on Elbe, and now I've seen Rhine, checkmark.

After a short break I've decided to head back to the city.

# City walls

Partially preserved medieval city walls of Duisburg is still a remarkable sight, even after all these years.

According to the schema I found at archaeologie-duisburg.de, the city still has 11 towers of various sizes and degrees of preservation left. One tower even has a restored wooden tiled roof.

As this schema shows, the most intact parts of the fortification are located on the north-east side of the city (marked with bold black lines).

Despite the fact, that not a single city gate remained today, the medieval walls of Duisburg are rumored to be the longest ones still standing in the entire NRW region.

It's clearly seen, that at some point some sections of the city walls were incorporated into the buildings standing close to them. It's a normal practice, this is how the medieval city walls of Berlin survived: they were parts of the buildings only discovered during the rubble demolition after the air raids of the WWII.

Also, by looking at the difference in brick condition it looks like some sort of repairs were carried out not earlier than the 19th century.

However, this is only my speculation, I should probably dig deeper into the history of the city.

In every city where I see the remnants of the medieval past standing next to the modern buildings, I always feel it to be bit bizzare and surreal.

I keep thinking of guardians who used to stand there on the watch, looking into the distance, waiting for the enemy to come. What would they say, if they saw their former post now desolated, half-dismantled, with gunports and embrasures standing face to face with the windows of a modern glass-and-concrete building?

# During the Second World War

Before we continue with sightseeing, I think it makes sense to talk about the modern history of the city.

In the middle of the 19th century the city of Duisburg was a major industrial center. It began as a logistics hub and tobacco/textile manufacturer, but later shifted heavily towards chemicals, coal mining and steel production.

It was a fine, well developed town with good architecture that could compete with cities like Amsterdam or Hamburg.

The success of the city attracted many people from all over the country, and the population grew rapidly.

Of course, all that made Duisburg a major target for air bombing during the Second World War.

The official sources hold records of around 300 air raids on the city, some of them happening on the daily basis. At the beginning the spirit of the city's inhabitants was high, projecting a sense of unity and nationalistic bravado, so common for a nation that just entered the war. People were telling each other "It's okay, we rebuild and we retaliate, crush the enemy together."

Soon enough the harsh reality hit the people. In the end, desparate and hopeless they were left with nothing. "There are ruins everywhere. Another building burned down last night, nobody cares anymore."

# The Karmelites church

It all started with a monastery, that doesn't even exist anymore. But the historical twist around this place is quite interesting.

So, in 1265 The order of Minorites was generously given a place to build their monastery in Duisburg. The monastery had a simple church and a few other buildings. In 1774 on the place of the monastery buildings another curch was erected, a much bigger one, and in 1896 the previous, smaller church was turned into a passage to a new building.

So they stood next to each other: the old and the new church, side by side.

During the WWII the bigger, newer church received massive damage and was demolished shortly after. The smaller one was also badly damaged, so in 1961 a new chruch and a new monastery were erected on it's place by the order of Karmelites, this time. The new church building tried to reuse the remnants of the Minorite's church, such as the western portal, the eastern naive and the crypt.

The Karmelites left their monastery in 2002, and the buildings stood empty for a while. The church was later attached to the the other parish.

Quite complicated and sad, isn't it?

# City Hall

# Former Market square

# Church of Our Saviour

# Center

# Museum of Contemporary Art Küppersmühle

The last stop on the line was the Museum of Contemporary Art Küppersmühle.

# Interiors

# Stairs

# Museum

# Conclusion

Duisburg may not seem like much from the first glance, but it surely has a lot to uncover, should you dare to dig a little bit deeper and wish to see more, than just pretty facades.