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HIDDEN WAR FACTORIES
THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO SEE
And the ones they do - Krupp Works of Essen

Shopping for furniture for your livingroom. A new coffee-maker for your kitchen. Take a sojurn to Essen. Stop in at Ikea across from the rail station. The parking structure for the bedroom set maker is the former steel stamping mill that made tank parts for the Third Reich's Wehrmacht (see MUNICH WALKING TOURS - Hitler’s Bavaria. Alfred Krupp developed the Bessemer iron working process to a heightened art in the 19th century and forged the largest cannons the world had seen to that day. His Big Berta could launch a shell six miles into the air in WWI.

The Krupp works and other manufacturers populated Germany's Ruhr Valley, factories stretching across the landscape like onion fields of brick and steel and Essen was the center of German industrial might before it was mostly destroyed by allied carpet bombing in the later half of WWII. There are still some of the old factories left, converted to other use. In Essen you can take a tour of the remaining ornate houses of the Krups and a few of the remaining works buildings, like a stations of the cross walking tour through the industrial revolution.

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But some of the old painful past, the now respectable modern companies would rather just forget. Krupp has merged with rival Thyssen. And a trip along the A40 autobahn north of town brings you past one of Thyssen-Krupp's modern plants. There are no signs for tourists, just the visible water tower, and they'd probably just rather you didn't stop in. But take a drive past the main guard-gated employee entrance and around thecorner along quiet neighborhoodstreets in the rear of the plant property. There you can discover among the overgrowth of 50 years of dark history the remains of the old armor assembly works. Like an embarrassing old alcoholic grandfather, no placards, no guide books or post cards. Just a history preferred forgotten. (See Luftwaffe Memories: A Stroll Down Heinkel Lane). © Bargain Travel Europe

More Info about the industrial history of the Ruhr Valley: Ruhr Industrial Heritage

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