The history of the RUHR.2010 application
Wrapped business location of Evonik Industries (at that time RAG) during the application of the Ruhr area for the European Capital of Culture.
Photo: RUHR.2010/Mike Henning
The application for the title of European Capital of Culture goes back to efforts to promote the structure of cultural development in the Ruhrgebiet in the 1990s. This was triggered off by the Emscher Park International Building Exhibition (1989-1999), which consisted of 120 projects to increase the quality of life in the Emscher region and the north of the Ruhrgebiet, and implement the foundations for an economic transformation. In this process cultural aspects of regional development were given a high priority.
The structural transformation of the Ruhrgebiet demanded a high level of commitment from both the residents and businesses in the 53 local authorities. This soon resulted in highly important successes in the area of culture, like the Ruhr Piano Festival and the RuhrTriennale. However, the feature that was missing from the process of strengthening regional cooperation was a sustainable impulse to give the area as a whole a cultural profile and support the Ruhrgebiet as a metropolis in the making.
This was the motivation behind a conference of cultural deputies from the Ruhr Regional Association, who decided in 2001 to apply for the title of European Capital of Culture. From the very start they were unanimous that the application should not be made by a single town or city, because a joint application would strengthen the internal structures of the region as a whole.
The concrete phase of application lasted almost three years, and even at that time its slogan was "Transformation through Culture – Culture through Transformation". Because of the wording in the rules for the application, the city of Essen was chosen to be the standard bearer for the 53 local authorities in the Ruhrgebiet. During a preliminary knockout competition within the state of North Rhine Westphalia, the concept put forward by the Ruhrgebiet succeeded against rival applications from Cologne and Münster. In May 2004 the NRW jury decided that "Essen for the Ruhrgebiet" should pursue its application at national level.
During the national knockout competition "Essen for the Ruhrgebiet" competed against nine other towns and cities including Bremen, Lübeck, Potsdam, Görlitz and Regensburg. In March 2005 the national jury decided that Germany should be represented in the competition of the European Union either by the Saxon town of Görlitz or the city of Essen. Essen's application was then handed into the EU commission in January 2006 by the Lord Mayor of Essen, Dr. Wolfgang Reiniger and his cultural deputy Prof. Dr. Oliver Scheytt, along with the then Minister for National, European and International affairs, Michael Breuer. On the 13th of November 2006 the jury selected by the EU committee announced their official decision that "Essen for the Ruhrgebiet" should be awarded the title of European Capital of Culture 2010. In giving the reasons for its decision the jury particularly emphasised that the application thematised the challenges of structural transformation, and provided evidence of successful efforts to solve these challenges by means of art and culture. The cultural transformation of the Ruhrgebiet would therefore be of international relevance for similar debates taking place all over Europe.
The process of application and its eventual success have triggered off many new impulses and synergies in the whole of the Ruhr metropolitan area. New initiatives and networks are being created all over the region. The number of cooperative projects between the towns and cities has risen considerably, and the communication between local authorities, their cultural facilities and many other institutions is growing more intense from day to day. This networking is an important support in the transformation of the Ruhrgebiet to the Ruhr metropolitan area, and this is symbolically reflected in the name chosen for the European Capital of Culture, RUHR.2010.
In order to package and direct all these potentials a company entitled RUHR.2010 GmbH was created in December 2006 in Essen. Since then, RUHR.2010 GmbH has been preparing to implement the Capital of Culture programme in 2010.