Likewise, steel production rose from a mere 11,500 tons per year to 8 million during the same period.
View over the Ruhr Area from the Mottbruchhalde, in Gladbeck.
Photo:Berndbrueggemann / Dreamstime.com
Ruhrs exponential industrial growth drove massive urbanization across North Rhine-Westphalia.
Ruhrs coal industry began to decline starting from the mid-20th century.
By the 1970s, Germany had exhausted the easy-to-reach coals and mining the Ruhr valley was no longer competitive.
An amphitheater in a former slag heap, Halde Haniel in Bottrop.
It is one of the highest Slag Heaps in the Ruhr area with a height of 159 meters.
These are called halde in German, or pit heaps.
Many of these have been reclaimed with vegetation and landscaping and transformed into parks and lookout points.
Others have become home to public artworks and installation.
This is what the Ruhr area would look like if the pumps were to stand still.
The first pumping station went into operation in 1914 on the Alte Emscher in Duisburg.
Keeping these pumps running is a perpetual cost running into millions that is borne by the coal mining corporations.
An art installation on Halde Haniel in Bottrop.
Photo:Rab Lawrence/Flickr
What if the pumps stopped working?
Some believe that the pumps, at least some of them, should be switched off.
