THYSSENKRUPP CORPORATE ARCHIVES, DUISBURG

North Duisburg Landscape Park [!]. The closed Meiderich ironworks

The landscape park Duisburg-Nord is a landmark of the Ruhr area. As an anchor point on the Route of Industrial Culture, it bears witness to the region's mining and industrial past and the efforts to preserve its evidence for posterity. The short film “The Landscape Park Duisburg Nord [!]. The closed Meidericher Eisenhütte" from 1990 documents the creation of the landscape park on the site of the former Meidericher Hütte.

Still image from "Landschaftspark Duisburg Nord [!]. The disused Meiderich ironworks”:

Karl Ganser, Managing Director of the IBA Emscher Park, 1990

© thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives

FIMOGRAPHIC DETAILS

Producer: HKW film production, Saarbrücken
Written and directed by Helga Knich-Walter
Client: Planning community landscape park Duisburg-Nord, state development company North Rhine-Westphalia GmbH, Thyssen disposal technology GmbH
Year of production: 1990
Language: German
Runtime: 19 minutes
Format: 16 mm light tone, color
Archive: thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives, Duisburg

 

GO TO CONTENT

In April 1985, the Meidericher Hütte, which had been in operation since 1902, was finally shut down. The International Building Exhibition (IBA) Emscher Park, a future program created by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1989, developed the concept for the Duisburg-Nord landscape park on the 200-hectare factory site from 1990. The 19-minute film by HKW film production from Saarbrücken consists of two parts: the first half of the film examines the development of the Meiderich iron and steel works and its economic importance for Duisburg as an industrial location. The main facilities of the iron and steel works and the respective production processes are shown. The second half of the documentation explains the concept of the landscape park, which aims to preserve the historically important industrial facilities as industrial monuments and at the same time to create new cultural and leisure spaces on the site.

TO FILM PRODUCTION

The film focuses on the industrial plants of the decommissioned iron and steel works in Meiderich. Stylistically it is based on the documentary film genre. Film recordings of the factory premises from 1990 are juxtaposed with historical image material with elaborate musical accompaniment. A narrator's voice leads through the documentation. The initiators and sponsors have their say in short interviews. In addition to a former worker, the city councilor of Duisburg and the park planner, the managing director of the IBA Emscher Park Karl Ganser also speaks about his vision for the project to create the European landscape park.

BACKGROUND OF FILM PRODUCTION

The film commissioned by Thyssen Entsorgungs-Technik GmbH, the Duisburg-Nord landscape park planning community and the North Rhine-Westphalia state development company is a contemporary document of the growing awareness of the importance of industrial plants as historical monuments in the 1980s and 1990s. Using the example of the Meiderich iron and steel works, the film promotes the preservation of industrial monuments by converting disused industrial plants into cultural and leisure areas.