The Hellweg passage.

The A40 in the centre of Essen, Photo: Manfred Vollmer

The A40 is the living expression of the transit movements that have shaped the Ruhr since ancient times, when it was known as part of the “via regis”, as the “Hellweg” (“hell” is an old German word for salt), the trading route between Bruges and Novgorod. Historians maintain that the Hellweg was of constitutional significance for the development of the region and its towns, and played a major part in giving its inhabitants a sense of their own identity. Roads not only link destinations, but carry goods. They connect people, ideas and cultures. The first confrontation with alien cultures took place on the Hellweg. At the start of the industrial age in the 19th century the small mediaeval towns along the route expanded at an explosive rate: villages and hamlets sprung up up around coal pits and coalesced into the major towns and cities of Duisburg, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Essen, Bochum and Dortmund along the Hellweg zone. Different influences and different temperaments. We only have to look back to the turbulent events of the 20th century: booming industries, the “armaments forge” of the German Reich, war, destruction, the “economic miracle”, the crisis in the coal andsteel industries, and Willy Brandt’s promise of “blue skies over the Ruhr”. 40 years ago changes began to happen along the Hellweg, when the first pits began to close and the first universities were set up in Duisburg, Essen, Bochum and Dortmund.