Landscape Park Duisburg-Nord

A symbol of structural change and a fascinating urban oasis - that is the landscape park Duisburg-Nord around the closed Meiderich iron and steel works. Climbing in ore bunkers, diving in the gasometer, balancing on the tightrope in Gießhalle 2 - all this is possible in the Landscape Park Duisburg-Nord. The once "forbidden city" around the Thyssen blast furnace works in Duisburg-Meiderich today combines industrial history and nature as an extraordinary park landscape. The park offers visitors the unique opportunity to get to know pig iron production at original locations. The former smelting works, the heart of the 180-hectare area and a long-established cultural venue, has been livelier than ever since it closed in 1985.

August Thyssen reacted strategically to the shortage of pig iron and the growing demand for steel from the USA when, in 1901, he began to have a smelting works built directly on the coalfields of the Thyssen property, which was then still called the Union of German Emperors. A connection via the Emscher Valley Railway to the Cologne-Minden Railway and access to the Emscher were key location advantages. In 1903, blast furnace 1 was fired up; In 1908 all five blast furnaces were completed. Until it was shut down in 1985, the plant produced pig iron as a preliminary product for Thyssen'sche Stahlwerke - mainly special alloys, which earned the smelter the nickname "pharmacy of the Ruhr area" in specialist circles. However, overcapacities on the European steel market finally heralded the end of the smelter.

Citizen protests prevented the demolition of the iron and steel works, which was transformed into a leisure area as part of the International Building Exhibition (IBA) Emscher Park. The landscape architect Peter Latz carefully designed the new green area as a place of mediation between industrial past and new purpose. A new type of park was created on the more than 200 hectare industrial wasteland, which combines wild vegetation and industrial buildings.

Industrial history, culture, nature, sport: In its role as a leisure and event location, the Landscape Park Duisburg-Nord was particularly impressive from the start because of its diversity. Exciting and unusual guided tours of the smelting past and industrial nature are just as much a part of the program as open-air cinema events, sporting competitions and renowned cultural festivals such as the Ruhrtriennale. And last but not least, it is the successful mixture of industrial monument and nature experience that inspires an average of around one million visitors per year. In addition, the landscape park is a popular photo motif - especially in the evening, when the installation by the light artist Jonathan Park sets the scene for the complex in a colorful way.