The Ruhr region was once Germany’s industrial heartland par excellence. Then, as a result of the coal and steel crises, came what is euphemistically described as “structural change.” Today, the Ruhr region promotes itself as a “region of industrial culture.” In this process, old identities and the region’s former image have been called into question. How exactly are structural change, identity change, and image change interconnected in the Ruhr region? How are not only industrial facilities changing, but also everyday life, self-perception, and public image? The research project “Industrial Culture, Image, and Identity” explored these questions using the Zollverein Coal Mine—Europe’s largest coal mine—as a case study, examining how its transformation into a World Heritage Site is perceived. Approximately 150 interviews conducted in 2003–2004 and 2006 with residents of the surrounding neighborhoods, former employees of the Zollverein coal mine and coking plant, visitors to the World Heritage Site, former migrant workers who stayed even after the jobs had disappeared, visionary new users of the Zollverein site, local politicians, and business owners form the basis of the study. Their opinions, attitudes, wishes, hopes, and fears reflect the shift in the mindsets of the residents of a region undergoing structural change.

In the late 1950s and 1960s, economic restructuring began in the Ruhr region as a result of the coal and steel crisis. Using promotional brochures from various cities in the metropolitan region, this research project examines how these cities sought to counteract the associated industrial and urban decline and find ways out of the crisis. The most important strategy was to attract both new residents and new industries by projecting a positive image. The message conveyed by the cities of the Ruhr region was that, despite its industrial heritage, life in the Ruhr region was just as good as anywhere else. Urban green spaces, municipal infrastructure, and cultural institutions were intended to ensure this. Nevertheless, industry could not be denied in a region that was still seen as more than just a synonym for coal and steel. Sometimes colorful, sometimes gray, always a bit contrived: this is how the brochures from that era often appear. In doing so, they reflect a snapshot of the regional identity amid structural change. Analyzing them brings to life the spirit of the Ruhr region as it transitioned from an industrial region to a region of industrial culture.

South Westphalia is a relatively new subregion within the state of North Rhine-Westphalia: It was not until 2007 that the Märkische Kreis, the Hochsauerlandkreis, and the districts of Olpe, Siegen-Wittgenstein, and Soest began cooperating as a regional entity under this name. However, the merger sparked intense debates about regional identity: since then, notions of belonging have been renegotiated, and historical knowledge and regional concepts have been updated. How does this “mental mapping” manifest among actors in fields of activity that are particularly concerned with the regional image and cultural production? In 2015, the project “Region as a Way of Life? ” surveyed over 70 people—some born in the region and others who moved there later—from the tourism industry, the restaurant sector, the media, nonprofit organizations, and the cultural sector, asking them about their image of the region and its neighboring areas. In narrative interviews, they described their perceptions of regional characteristics, their understanding of home, and their life stories in and with the region. Among other things, this revealed how long the old borders—some of which have become mere phantoms—continue to exert an influence and still shape regional perceptions in South Westphalia, a region that for centuries was divided by political, religious, and even linguistic and dialectal boundaries.

People who were sick or disabled were among those persecuted by the Nazis. During the “Third Reich,” they were stigmatized as a burden on the German “national community” that had to be eliminated. As a result, as early as 1934, up to 400,000 people were sterilized against their will, and during the war years, more than 200,000 people were murdered in mental and nursing institutions. This took place within German society itself, carried out by professionals in psychiatry, neurology, pediatrics, and other disciplines, with the involvement of administrative staff and nursing personnel. An exhibition held in the buildings of the University of Siegen was dedicated to this topic, taking the question of the value of life as its guiding principle. It told the story of exclusion, forced sterilizations, and mass murder; examined the victims, perpetrators, those complicit in the crimes, and opponents; and ultimately explored how these events have been addressed from 1945 to the present. The traveling exhibition, prepared by the German Society for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics, and Neurology with exemplary biographies from Germany, was supplemented for its presentation in Siegen by students from the university’s Department of History with life stories of victims from the South Westphalia region. All of these accounts document a shocking disregard for life on the part of members of professions that had actually made the unconditional protection of life their mission.