Day 3: Duisburg and the Ruhr Region, The Duisburg-Marxloh Mosque

"Structural Change in the Ruhr Region"
After a swift breakfast at our Hotel Hopper in Köln, we boarded a chartered bus and drove an hour through the rainy and gray Ruhr region to Duisburg. Duisburg on the Rhine River, the largest inland harbor in Europe, looked to me alot like Newark or Port Elizabeth in New Jersey! Upon arrival, we were received by the head of the Strategic City Planning for Duisburg and entered the City Hall. Another Patre Nostre elevator! These unique elevators never fail to entertain! The presentation by the city planner focused on how the industrial city of Duisburg redefining itself by redoing its infrastructure and urban planning.

Why was all this necessary for Duisburg? Duisburg's city planning after WWII was fraught with bad decisions: clearing city areas to make space for wide roads (to accomodate the boom in auto ownership, reflecting the "freie Fahrt, freie Bürger" mentality), building a major road that cuts through the historic downtown, scaring off investors by backing out of a retail zone project at the last minute, spending lots of money building a U-Bahn that is not used, building pedestrian paths too wide, building too many surface parking lots, etc. These issues were to be dealt with by awarding the city planning contract, Innenhafen Rebuilding & Development, to Foster & Partner, a British firm.

The solution? A master plan from this world-renowned firm that would regain investor trust and give the project political support and momentum. The speaker gave us Foster's presentation which went into great detail and supported its ideas with interesting research and data. Some suggestions include rebuilding the pedestrian Innenstadt (core part of town), developing the waterfront property, diverting commuter traffic, promoting multifunctional services, attracting artists, and focusing recreation and resources to the waterfront.


Duisburg on the Rhein River


Patre Nostra: these elevators are constantly moving and you have to jump on and off them. Nothing like a little risk dimension to a workplace!


Getting seated: our group is getting assembled in the conference room where we will learn about the city planning project in Duisburg. Notice the large map on the back wall. Much of the area is covered with steel processing and other industrial business.


the Alte Rathaus: we toured this beautiful municipal building after the presentation.


Walking tour: on this tour we saw first hand how the city is in the process of getting a face lift. Here we are in the mall and noticing its unique construction.


The "core competency": the Duisburg waterfront was identified as the key unique selling point of the city and thus became the destination for investment.


Looks like New Jersey!: here cars are awaiting further transport to dealerships.


Realwirtschaft: here we see the "real economy" in action. This Ruhr region is home to steel manufacturers such as Thyssen-Krupp and many logistics firms. Mr Thyssen built his empire on grand visions of capitalist value-added and some of the world's largest smelters and steel ovens.


Forlorn: mothballed mansions of the industrial elite of the days gone by. The tour guide on the bus told us these homes are on sale for cheap. Anyone interested in industry-front property?


"Coexistence of faiths - the DiTiB Mosque and religious meeting place in Duisburg-Marxloh"

Spectacular: the interior artwork of the mosque dome.

Following the tour of the industry parks of Duisburg, we bussed to a quiet residential part of town where Germany's largest mosque was just completed on October 2008. On first impression, the mosque did not seem that large at all. Once inside, we discussed the role of a mosque in the Muslim faith and how this mosque was a model institution for religious tolerance. The mosque, in addition to being a traditional prayer house and meeting place, extended beyond its religion and embraced Jewish and Catholic citizens in dialogue. The scholar showing us around was very informative and even showed us where the prayers took place. Amazing!


The mosque sign.


The mosque exterior.


Sitting in the prayer room: here we sat and learned about the religion and how its members integrate into the Western-European societies. The highlight was when he sang us a prayer and it revereberated beautifully in the dome.

Day 2: Köln as media location and RTL Studios

"Köln - Der Medienstandort in Profil"
Köln (Cologne) can be considered the most important media cluster in Germany. Interconnections between IT software and services, telecommunications, and media are built on the foundation of qualified labor, presence of leading companies, and a favorable growth climate in this region of Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Fueled by increasing demand and financed by mandatory fees from German television viewers (as well as advertising revenues), the German public television system began to emerge after WWII. In 1954, regional stations came together to form ARD, a supra-regional cooperation where programming could be shared and coordinated. Nine years later, after criticism that ARD was too fragmented and not all that government-friendly to the policies coming from Bonn, ZDF ("Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen") was broadcast to provide a conservative counterpart to the liberal ARD. Private television station like RTL and SAT-1 emerged in the 1980's. Along with the rapid increase in TV stations came debate and legislation about how much advertising is allowed per hour, mandatory TV fees, and private vs. public television. Needless to say, the combination of public (well-financed with fees) TV and private (advertising revenue-based) TV in Germany is not without its issues.

At the city hall in Köln, we discussed this and other topics that the city and region was facing. Köln's strategy for the future of its media-dominance is based on retaining quality talent from its University and other places of higher learning, tap into the potentials arising from its diverse population (up to 30% of people living in Köln are foreign), provide fast-track communication with current and potential investors, and continue creating a favorable regulatory and infrastructure climte for businesses.


The crest of Köln: this emblem of the city hangs in the city hall building. If you look closely, you'll see three crowns over 11 tear drops. The three crowns represent the 3 Magi (Three Kings) whose remains are resting in the Cathedral. "The eleven tears are a reminder of Cologne's patron, Saint Ursula, a Britannic princess, and her legendary 11,000 virgin companions who were supposedly martyred by Attila the Hun at Cologne for their Christian faith in 383. The entourage of Ursula and the number of victims was significantly smaller; according to one source, the original legend referred to only eleven companions and the number was later inflated by relic traders"(Wikipedia).


Surveying a model of Köln: here city officials showed us of new and upcoming development projects for the city.


Arrival at RTL Television GmbH, located a bit away from the city center at Aachenerstrasse.


Approaching the RTL compound: here we entered the RTL building and were ushered to a room where we spent an hour speaking with Peter Kloeppel, one of Germany's most famous journalists and chief editor of RTL Television. 2009 is RTL's 25th anniversary year and he gave a fantastic presentation about his station's market share dominance, genre and content management, production cycle of shows, RTL's multimedia platforms, and quality of news. RTL has a 32.9% market share and caters to a considerably younger audience than the public stations.


Scott and I in the studio: following the presentation, we took a walking tour of the studios. Here we are sitting at a studio desk in front of a green screen. Cool!


Learning the ins and outs of the studio: here a broadcast worker is showing us how a studio works. The desk seemed a little shabby and cluttered to me. Apparently, as we were told, with the emergence of High Definition TV, studios need to be updated and cleaned up because all little imperfections will be visible to viewers!


Funny guy: the studio worker showing us around was mixing in english to his tour and making us laugh. He is holding a green-colored tie to show us what would happen if a reporter wears green: the green would show the background and it would appear that the reporter has a hole in him/her!


A real teleprompter: the speed at which the text flows can be adjusted by the reader with a foot pedal hidden under the desk.

Day 1: Arriving in Köln and hitting the ground running

On January 11, the Bosch Fellows traveled from all corners of the world to meet in Köln (Cologne) for the first day of Seminar II. After a scenic and sunny, nearly 5-hour train ride from Berlin, I arrived along with some other Boschies in the city of Cologne and we immediately headed to the hotel. The Hotel Hopper et cetera was a converted Monastery with many fun details and interesting facets. From there we headed to the famous Kölner Dom (Cathedral) for a guided tour. The Cathedral is nothing short of breathtaking! It was built starting in 1248 to house the sarcophagus containing the highly valuable relics (bones and remains) of the Three Kings. Construction of this gothic monstrosity took over 600 years to complete! Following the tour, we ambled through the bitterly cold winter evening to the Brauhaus Früh, where we were greeted with a glass of Kölsch beer and were seated for dinner. After an introduction by our coodinator, we enjoyed an evening of fine food and drink. Then we spent the night exploring Köln.


Awe-inspiring: the Cathedral


The Cathedral: was once the world's tallest building until the Washington Monument was built.


"Halt die Klappe" - this common phrase in German, translated literally as "hold your trap" (meaning, "shut up"), has its origins from these church chairs! Each seat has a little compartment underneath that can be accessed by lifting up the seat bottom. When the priests would stand up quickly, this trap door would slam and make quite a racket in the church. They were then advised to "halt die Klappe".


The focal point: This gold sarcophagus holds the relics of the Three Kings. The presence of these holy objects ensured prosperity for Köln over centuries because it attracted thousands of pilgrims.


Brauhaus Früh: Here we warmed up and enjoyed some fine Kölsch food and drink.


Mittelstrasse in Köln: this city is very nice and walkable.

Seminar II with the Fellowship Program

Seminar II of the fellowship year stretched from January 11 to January 23, 2009 and focused on the issue of federalism in Germany. In this Seminar II, we visited the cities (states) of Cologne (Nordrhein-Westfalen), Duisburg in the Ruhrgebiet region(Nordrhein-Westfalen), Wiesbaden (Hessen), Frankfurt (Hessen), Munich and surrounding region (Bayern), and the city-state of Hamburg. In these cities, we learned of the diversity of identities within Germany, especially in the context of economic development and structural change. In the following postings, I will try to give you a good idea of these two weeks.


Refreshments before a presentation at FraPort: For me, this photo sums up these meetings at the various locations because these types of refreshments were the constant.