Help, an introduction to the German city Essen

It’s Essen

Essen, with a population of 630,000, is the sixth largest city in Germany. It is the center of the Ruhr area, Germany’s industrial center. In fact, the entire The large and medium-sized cities in the Ruhr area are almost completely connected together. If you are not driving on the highway, but want to walk on the "small roads", you may not see the "small roads" at all, Mulheim, Du Isburg, Gelsenkirchen, Essen, Dortmund, from one city to another, you are just walking in the city. If you are not paying attention, you will not know that you have entered another city. Germans may especially like " "Confederation", urban groups like this have long been merged into one in China, but the Germans do not seem to have considered merging them into one city - a huge city with a vast area and a population of more than 7 million.

With the decline of sunset industry, great changes have taken place in the Essen area and the Ruhr area. For decades, German industry has been in transition. Most of the coal mines at that time have been closed, and those coal mining areas have been renovated. It has become a scenic spot with mountains and lakes. Even the large companies located in Essen, the things they produce are completely different from those 20 years ago.

As an industrial center, Essen is not It's not ugly, it also has lakes, mountains, forests, and the city is very clean and modern. Industry and nature often combine well. Germany's veteran industrial family-Krupp is a typical example. The Krupp family originally The villa (Villa Huegel) where I live is a major sight in Essen. It is as grand as a generation of monarchs, symbolizing Germany's transition from the era of feudal aristocracy to the era of capital rule. Among the photos displayed in the villa, there are two special ones. Interestingly, one picture shows Li Hongzhang visiting Krupp’s house in that year, and the other picture shows Krupp visiting Premier Zhou Enlai in the 1960s.

There used to be no university in the Ruhr area. Since the 1960s, the German government has been here A lot of human and financial resources have been invested to build a series of institutions of higher learning. Essen University, Essen College, etc. are all products of that era. Maybe you will not make a special trip to Essen, but if you go there to negotiate For business issues, or go to school, you will find that this city is quite good.

In the past, it was the largest industrial city in Germany. However, Essen is not a well-known city in Germany, but a famous city in Germany in the past. Gathering place; the name of the city Essen is the same as the German Essen (food, eating). Many people will curiously ask: "Why is Essen called Essen (eating) instead of Trinken (drinking) )? "According to the local grandmother, this Essen is actually not the other Essen (food). This Essen evolved from the plural Essen of die Esse (chimney). In the past, because Essen had many factories, it naturally also had many chimneys. Therefore, Essen means chimney; so next time, don’t think that Essen is called Essen because it has a lot of food!

During World War II, Essen suffered intensive bombing, so there were not many surviving monuments, and the Essener Dom, which has a history of more than 1150 years, is one of them. Also known as Münsterkirche, (Note: Generally a church with a cardinal stationed can be called a Dom). According to the system and order of the Holy See, it is: Pope (Papst), Kardinal (Cardinal), Bischof (Cardinal), Pastur (Priest) ), Kaplan = Priester (priest), and those in monasteries are called monks. The Catholic tradition is that after the death of all priests, they are buried in the atrium garden of Kreuzgang in the cathedral. The tombstones are all engraved with the Latin "Vivas in" at the end. deo", the German meaning is "Leben in Gott" (living in the Lord), and the bishop and above are placed in a coffin and sealed in the stone wall of the crypt (Krypta) of the cathedral. Essen Cathedral was founded in 852 AD. It has been expanded and restored many times. The architectural style has also evolved from early Romanesque style to early Gothic and Baroque. Finally, it became colorful due to late Gothic. Statues of Jesus crucified can be seen everywhere in the cathedral. On them are written in Jewish: IN RI, which means King of the Jews. Domschatzkammer has many hand-painted Bible manuscripts (Evangeliar), the oldest dating back to 800 AD, and many various treasures, such as a gem-encrusted cross with the words: Rex, Pax, Lux, Lex on the top, bottom, and left. , all in Latin, their meanings are: K?nig (King), Frieden (Peace), Licht (Light) and Gesetz (Law). Website:

The development of the city of Essen is closely related to the Krupp family. It can be said that without the Krupp family, Essen would not be what it is today.

The Kurup family started from scratch around the beginning of the 19th century. The opportunity for their success lies in their accurate vision. When Kurup heard that someone in the UK had just successfully invented a train, he immediately went to the UK to buy the inventor's manufacturing patent rights and won the first prize. This move later made the British angry, so Kurup expanded day by day. Since building trains required a large amount of iron, which had to be imported by sea, Kurup expanded from train manufacturing, steelmaking, and shipbuilding to arms manufacturing. He also often pays attention to new inventions and research, sponsors and then buys patents. In terms of expanding factories, he built many residential areas near the factories and provided employees with free accommodation. As a result, there were more and more factories in Essen, with more than 1,600 at its peak. Chimneys stand everywhere.

Since 1875, Kurup has formulated the company's trademark (Mark), three interlocking rings, symbolizing the division of labor and cooperation between employees, society and the enterprise. Kurup built a family building in Essen Hügel. Villa Hügel. Later, due to World War II, many factories were bombed. The Kurup family signed a severance agreement prohibiting the manufacture of arms and weapons in the future. Later, Kurup successfully became a stock listed company, except for building a hospital. In addition, a foundation has been established to specifically support the development of photography art. However, the Kurup family has been separated due to family struggles. The Kurup family villa (Villa Hügel) has become a museum open to the public. Li Hongzhang once represented the Qing court. Come here to discuss the purchase of arms with the Kurup family, so you can also see photos of Li Hongzhang in the Kurup family villa (Villa Hügel)!

Many museums and theaters in Essen were converted from abandoned factories, even IKEA! The famous North Rhine State Red Dot Design Center is also one of them. Zollverein in Essen was originally the world's largest above-ground coal mine. After the decline of mining, North Rhine State converted the abandoned coal mine into a museum. Including the North Rhine Design Center, the Red Dot Design Museum, the Coal Mine Museum, a casino and an open-air cinema, etc... Among them, the Red Dot Design Center holds the international Red Dot Design Competition every year, divided into industrial design and visual communication design. The project will also publish an authoritative design yearbook, and the winning design works will be exhibited at the Red Dot Design Museum.

In addition, the graduation projects of students from the University of Duisburg-Essen will also be exhibited in the Zollverein. The architectural design of the Red Dot Design Museum is very unique. It combines the slightly rusty and corroded original mining facilities with the newly built exhibition hall. The surrounding walls are covered with air pipes and a huge exposed steel skeleton. The surface is stained with red rust. Under dim light, , I was surprised to see a silver car hanging upside down from the three-story steel skeleton ceiling. It cleverly combined the ancient mining factory with the modern design exhibition hall, which was impressive. In addition to viewing the top contemporary industrial design works at the Red Dot Design Museum, including furniture, kitchenware, and even computers, cars, etc., it is also a fun and special experience to travel through the original space of the old mine. In order to prepare for the 2005 World Conference on Architecture, Zollverein will now add an international design school, a design craft park and an international architecture, design and art laboratory near the original site. The architectural design of the international design school was selected from Tokyo after an international competition. The female architect SANAA of the SANAA Architectural Office is responsible for the architectural shape of the international design school, which is a large dice with many square windows and will be completed in 2005.

In addition, Germany’s largest and oldest cinema: Lichtburg, is in Essen! The Lichtburg Cinema in Essen has 1,302 seats. Its movie screen is also the largest in Europe, with an area of ??150 square meters and a 360-degree movie screen. Lichtburg has been established for about 75 years since its establishment in 1928. It has been owned by the Essen City Government. It is listed as a protected monument and mainly screens art films. Speaking of movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Hollywood movie star who was elected governor of California, also lived in Essen. In 1972, Arnold, who was originally from Austria, won the World Award for the third time at the Essen Saalbau (now the Essen Philharmonic Hall). The Olympic Mr. Bodybuilding champion, Arnold stayed at a friend's house for several months at that time and often attended autograph sessions held in Essen gyms and bookstores. The last time Arnold came to Essen was ten years ago when he was invited by the Essen International Fitness Equipment Show. I don’t know when Arnold will come to Essen again next time. Anyway, Arnold has lived in Essen before! Essen people are very good at making connections!

Café Overbeck, located in the center of Essen, is a famous traditional European coffee shop in Essen. Their fruit cake is very delicious, not only not sweet but also very suitable for Eastern tastes. The consumption of Café Overbeck is not It's too expensive, a pot of coffee (two and a half cups) plus large pieces of fruit cake and cookies costs about 5 euros.

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