Background

In 2010, Essen, major city of the metropolitan Ruhr Area, is European Capital of Culture (ECC). Essen and the Ruhr Area, once the most booming and affluent of Germany’s regions for its coal mining and heavy industry, experienced a severe economic decline in the last decades of the 20^th century and is now in the middle of a fascinating process of reinventing itself as one of the most creative, original and aspiring places in Germany. Whilst many of the Ruhr cities are struggling hard with current economic backlash and financial deficits verging on bankruptcy, no other German region has so much potential: no other has such a large population (over 5m), more higher education institutions, theaters, opera houses or headquarters of DAX-listed corporations, and no other has as rich and diverse a history of immigration – from Catholic Polish miners in the 19^th century to Turkish industrial workers in the 20^th to a cosmopolitan elite of High-Tech scientists and managers today. And whilst Essen/Ruhr seems to be hardly known or noticed abroad, in Germany the region is increasingly challenging Berlin as “the place to be” – rough and raucous, but real! It’s certainly a place that will soon put itself on the agenda of Europe’s leaders