Explore Industrial History - The Company Outing 2019
The annual excursion of the Institute for Material Applications in Mechanical Engineering of the RWTH (hereinafter referred to as IWM) in the Ruhr area took place entirely in line with the subject area. Around 60 employees drove to the Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park on 7 October. It offers the history of the place, the vast landscape and opens up new perspectives of an industrial culture that is not so long ago.
Barely divided into four groups, we went by bicycle into the 180-hectare site. Guides fed the interested staff with facts and figures about the disused Meiderich steelworks. Past the factory halls, a gasometer and the ironworks, it became very clear how the workers "malochten" (worked hard) here in the past. The technology and working conditions of the last century were treated expertly.
Old buildings that could be walked on and the blast furnace 5, which was more than 50 metres high, made the experience unique. The magnificent view, which can be reached via a staircase, offers a view of the entire site. From above you can see how nature has made its way back in the last decades. For this reason, the park is also called "Großstadtoase" today.
With 82 years of industrial history in their luggage, the staff made their way home again in the early afternoon. After all, the future of the materials industry does not wait.