Foreign(ers) in the Ruhr
Bochum's pulsating city centre around 1904 / Photo: City of Bochum Publicity Office
Since the 19th century, the Ruhr has been a European ideal for global networking. The people's reasons for coming to the coal fields were as varied as their cultures - they came as entrepreneurs, as industrial pioneers and as workers, but also as forced labourers and at the command of occupying powers.
The collections forming the Archive of the Ruhr Metropolis will contribute to a joint exhibition project that examines the various aspects of migration: what are the truths, clichés and myths behind this seemingly harmonious coexistence? How were the foreigners viewed by the locals and how did the migrants perceive the region and its people?
Answers have already been provided by exhibitions during the first half of 2010: "Belief, Work, Freedom - Foreigners in Wesel, 1543–1815" and "Arrived in Vest!?" in Marl. "Bochum - Foreign and Local" examines how what is foreign becomes one’s own and vice versa. One focus of the exhibition is the time of intense industrialisation, when people flocked to Bochum in their masses. The city underwent rapid change, becoming a foreign place to its original inhabitants. During the Nazi era, rejection of those considered "foreign" culminated in exclusion and death.
from April 2010:
April 5, 2010 - March 31, 2011:
Bochum - foreign and local, Bochum Historical Centre
May 5 - July 11, 2010:
The French in Bottrop and the Emscher and Lippe regions from the 17th to the 21st century, August Everding Cultural Centre, Museum Quadrat, Bottrop
May 9 - June 20, 2010:
Belief, work, freedom - Foreigners in Wesel, 1543 - 1815, Municipal Museum, Galerie im Centrum, Wesel
from May 22, 2010:
Arrived in "Vest"? Winding engine hall in shaft 1/2 of the Auguste Viktoria Mine, Marl
from June 2010:
The Ruhr occupation 1923 to 1925 as portrayed by posters and caricatures, Essen History Centre/City Archives
from June 2010:
"Bergfremd(e)" - Foreigners in Ruhr Mining, Science Park Arcades, Gelsenkirchen
September 16 - October 8, 2010:
The forgotten women - Female immigrant workers of the first generation in the Ruhr region, Museum Voswinckelshof, Dinslaken
from September 18, 2010:
Hunting for clues - The (urban) history of immigration into Mülheim from the early days until today, Mülheim an der Ruhr City Archives
September 19 - December 5, 2010:
Living and working as a "foreigner" in the coal-mining district. Hochlarmark as the epicentre of Recklinghausen's history of migration, Miner's dwelling in the protected "Dreieckssiedlung" in Recklinghausen
Summer/autumn 2010:
Aspects of integration in companies, 1850 - 1955, Essen Chamber of Industry and Trade