Even today blast furnaces, gasometers and pithead towers continue to give the Ruhrgebiet its own unique features. They are important witnesses to 150 years of industrial history in the region, and also to the process of structural transformation which has been taking place here for several decades. The disused factory sites are not sites of nostalgia and regret.
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The slate hillsides of the Rhineland do not resemble an industrial area in the slightest. That said, it is indeed an industrial area whose economic roots can be traced back into the distant past. This was one of the first regions to make charcoal from timber, manufacture iron from ore and harness water for power.
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The three-nation region around Liège, Maastricht and Aachen, known as the Euregio Maas-Rhine, has often been described as „Europe on a small scale". It comprises three countries, three languages and five regions – (the Belgians contribute one Walloon and one Flemish province, as a well as a German-speaking community) – and its rich multiplicity, huge potential and small problems mirror ...
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For centuries the region along the Saar, Lorraine and Luxembourg has been deeply influenced by the borders between them. Nonetheless without the "Minette" from Lorraine it was impossible to make steel in the Saar because there were no borders underground.
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In the early 20th century the area now known as Saxony-Anhalt rose to become one of the most important industrial regions in Europe. The invention of artificial manure in Piesteritz, the innovative aircraft construction industry in the Junkers works in Dessau, and many other trailblazing technological achievements soon found international recognition.
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Lusatia is swimming in a sea of lignite. Over decades the area between the Elster, Spree und Neisse rivers was transformed into a centre for the power industry by opencast pits, briquette factories and power stations. Visitors were few and far between. Today, however, they are streaming in – on the trail of an industrial past which, in many places, is now a living present.
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The Route of Industrial Heritage Rhine-Main links the most important sites of the region's industrial history from Aschaffenburg on the Main to Bingen on the Rhine.
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