This is (not) Detroit: projecting the future of Germany’s Ruhr region

Abstract

Using the example of Germany’s Ruhr region, this chapter discusses Detroit’s relevance outside of the United States. Like Detroit, the Ruhr has gone through a massive process of economic transformation and de-industrialization. While the role of the state in this process is significantly different in Germany when compared to the United States, the Ruhr’s decline in public discourse often gets connected and compared to Detroit, all the way to using ‘Detroit’ as a threatening example of what could potentially happen to the Ruhr. The chapter addresses the Ruhr’s history of urban and cultural transformation due to de-industrialization and analyzes in detail two projects that build on the idea of ‘Detroit’, helping to point out both, significant tensions in the population and the idea that the future for this region is not fixed as of yet.

Comparisons

“…While this statement can potentially serve a motivating purpose and invite people to think about the future of their city, the comparison with Detroit also points to the perceived superiority of those who -supposedly in opposition to Detroiters -participate in a process of reinvention. The project does not ask, for example, how postindustrial cities may learn from each other when faced with the closing of factories (Sattler 2017).…”