BLUE SUNDAY: Five days of industrial heritage, starting on 30 August in North Hesse, Germany
It's now 15 years since "Blue Sunday" began celebrating the industrial heritage of North Hesse. The event covers more than just the region's technological history. This year's main topic, "Accepting challenges!", embraces all aspects of working and everyday life in a world shaped by machines: architecture, monument conservation, landscape development, digitalisation, sustainability and the transformation of labour and life, education and communication.
Dozens of North Hessian museums, associations, initiatives and companies are involved. With guided tours, factory visits, exhibitions, hikes, experiments and open days, they breathe life into North Hessen's industrial heritage. As always, the factory tours of operating companies are well booked. What is the process for getting mineral water from the well into the bottle and beer from Hessen's first organic brewery from the brewhouse into the glass? How does a global leader produce its high-precision and cutting-edge grinding tools? And how do you drive the light electric car Twike, which has been manufactured in Rosenthal, Hesse, since 1998, offering space for two people plus luggage and weighing less than 600 kilograms?
Three ERIH sites also feature in the Industrial Heritage Days of Northern Hesse. The Immenhausen Glass Museum is holding a glass and porcelain flea market and is also hosting its current exhibition "Glass Art from Bohemia". At the Hessian Brown Coal Mining Museum in Borken, guided tours below and above ground provide an insight into the everyday working lives of miners and power station workers who began using Hesse's largest lignite deposit to generate electrical energy exactly 100 years ago. The Thonet Museum in Frankenberg, which documents the transition from craftsmanship to industrial mass production in the 19th century, draws visitors to its factory outlet with a large selection of Thonet furniture at attractive prices.