Essen Things to Do

This Design Museum is situated in the old boiler house of the Zeche Zollverein. Fortunately the architects left some of the former design in here. I think they found a good mix with the old architecture and the new Design Exhibits in here.... I want to visit it on my next visit in Essen....

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Essen was the first city in the Ruhr District to have a theatre building. Compared to the old cultural centres, though, this happened rather late. In 1887 the local businessman Friedrich Grillo promised to donate the money to have the theatre built. He died soon after but his widow kept his promise. The best architect for theatres in Germany, Heinrich Seeling from Berlin, was hired to provide the design. The old theatre was a pompous building with a dome, a neoclassical facade and wide stairs.

In World War II the theatre was almost completely destroyed but rebuilt soon. In 1950 the first performances after the war took place. The post-war theatre, now named after the founder, is simpler in its decorum. The side and back facades show the style of historism while the main facade is a plain, modern 1950s architecture. The Grillo-Theater is mostly used for spoken drama aka plays. Opera and ballet are performed in the Aalto-Theater.

Photo 4: During the summer holidays, the front showed this witty advertisement for the next season. It is a pun about the name of the city: "Essen" = "food". It can be understood as: "Don't play with Essen (the city)" or "Don't play with food". The three photos underneath depict a guy with glasses and sholder covers made from bacon slices, a woman with tomatoes in her eyes and mouth, and a person with a wig of spaghetti.

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A jeweller installed the carillon on the facade of their shop. The post-war house has a little tower, four storeys high, that contains the bells and the clockwork and several windows with bronze figures.

The carillon operates almost continuously, you will hear the bells when walking the main shopping street. Stop and look up. The scenery changes. The blinds of the windows open and close, figures start moving.

Location: Kettwiger Straße, about halfway between Dom and train station

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Essen's history begins in the middle of the 9th century, 1000 years before the industrial revolution. Around 850 a convent of canonesses was founded here in a location by the Hellweg, an important trade route that leads along the Ruhr river. The convent owned the surrounding territory until 1803, the Prince Abbess was the head of state. This convent of aristocratic ladies, who were not nuns but canonesses, was one of the most exclusive and most influential in the Holy Roman Empire. Several abbesses were daughters or granddaughters of emperors and kings.

The church we now call the Dom was the church of the convent. Only in the 1950s it became the seat of a bishop when the new Bishopric of the Ruhr was founded, and thus a cathedral.

The oldest parts of the church are the early Romanesque Altfrid crypt, named after the bishop who founded the convent, underneath the choir and the western part of the nave, built in the 10th/11th century. The latter reveals a remarkable architecture and political intention to the trained eye: The nave ends in three sides of an octogon with two rows of arcades and a gallery - a copy of Charlemagne's cathedral in Aachen that was built 200 years earlier. The convent in Essen was closely related to and connected with the Ottonic dynasty who expressed their ambition as rightful successors of Charlemagne on the imperial throne.

"The Dom" actually consists of two churches. The Romanesque and early gothic convent church is accompanied in the same axis by the slightly younger church of St Johann with the big steeple. The two churches are connected by a tiny atrium in between.

Travelogue with photos of the art works within the Dom and the Church of St Johann

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Essen's pre-war synagogue building is about 100 years old. In its times it was the largest synagogue within Germany. It was set on fire in the pogrom night of 1938 and was damaged but not deestroyed. Unlike most of Essen's city centre it was not smashed to ash and rubble in World War II but survived the war remarkably well. However, the small remaining Jewish community in the city established a new, much smaller synagogue after the war. Only recently the ruin has been fully repaired. The Old Synagogue serves as culture and exhibition centre now.

The huge building with the green dome is located close to city hall and cathedral and hard to overlook. Its architecture is a mix of Wilhelminic and Jugendstil/art nouveau. Especiually the decorum inside and the stained glass windows show art nouveau elements. When I visited (late August 2010) a new exhibition about Jewish holidays and Jewish life was in the making. The parts about the Jews in Essen were already accessible while many other showcases were still empty. It should be complete in the meantime.

Entry is free, photography allowed without flash.

More photos here in my travelogue.

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Villa Hügel, the "villa on the hill" above Baldeney Lake, is the world of Hedwig Courths-Mahler's novels come true. It is hard to imagine how incredibly rich that Krupp family must have been. The home they had built for themselves is a palace.
The state rooms of the villa on the ground floor and first floor are accessible to the public. They are furnitured with all splendour money can buy.
I would love to have a desk like the one in Mr. Krupp's office... Approximately 3 metres long and 1,5 metres wide, that's a table with enough space to work on.

The villa is surrounded by a huge park with beautiful old trees and wide English lawns. Go for a walk. It seemed to me that most visitors just see the villa and don't venture further. The park was totally quiet.

An entrance fee of 3 € for the park, the villa, the exhibition and everything is to be paid at the park gate.

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Apart from the abbey church and the treasure chamber, there is a bit more to see in Werden that is worth a little walk.

Old town: Werden's old town is tiny but pleasant for a stroll. The alleys are pedestrianized and full of little shops, cafes and pubs. One street has three cafes with outdoor seating all over, I nicknamed it "Werden's Cappuccino Strip".

Protestant Parish Church: Built around 1900 in the typical neo-Romanesque-gothic mix of those times. Murals and windows are also original. Note the silver crucifix and chandeliers on the altar, a donation by Margarethe Krupp, the founder of Margarethenhöhe. Villa Hügel is close, so the family probably belonged to this parish.
Open 11.00-16.00. Two friendly ladies from the community were eager to show visitors round.

Haus Heck: The castle-like house with the round tower used to be the seat of a local noble family. Located along the street between the protestant church and the Church of St Lucius. Now property of the protestant community.

Church of St Lucius: Catholic parish church of Werden. The church was founded in the 8th century and still shows Carolingian architecture (though rebuilt). Unfortunately I could not get in, it was Saturday and there was a wedding.

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The treasure chamber of Werden Abbey at least equals the one of Essen Cathedral in quality, aage, and uniqueness of exhibits. It shows several pieces that are said to have belonged to Saint Liudger himself, although this has been proved wrong in most cases because the item in question is two or three centuries younger, but still early medieval. The little portable altar, however, is really from the 8th century and might indeed have been his.
The small golden "Chalice of St Liudger" is one of the oldest preserved communion chalices. The earliest known nativity scene in Germany is depicted on an ivory pyxis (container for hosts) dated to the 5th/6th century. The bronze crucifix, early Romanesque, is another important piece of medieval art.

The opening hours are limited - Tuesday to Sunday, 10.00-12.00 and 15.00-17.00. Planning your visit accordingly is herewith recommended, the treasure chamber is worth it.