Where gas was once stored, there is now a panoramic elevator: great views from a height of 117 meters and fascinating exhibitions inspire visitors to the Gasometer Oberhausen.
The astonished murmurs of visitors in the panoramic elevator on the ride up to the dome are part of everyday life here: the gasometer is a monumental witness to heavy industry and at the same time an inspiring space for artistic exploration.
But the Gasometer Oberhausen not only inspires its visitors with an incomparable spatial experience inside the 117-metre-high former gas storage facility and with the view from its viewing platform in all directions over the western Ruhr region, it also has much more to offer.
Gasometer as an art space
The outer wall of the gasometer has twenty-four corners, but from the inside and outside the room looks like a round cylinder. This mighty emptiness repeatedly attracts artists and exhibition organizers of international standing to Oberhausen.
Concerts that make use of the unusual acoustics and exhibition objects such as Christo's colorful barrels stacked in the air, a room-filling model of the moon, a jungle tree over 40 m high, a floating globe or an upside-down Matterhorn bear witness to the changeability of the industrial monument.
Fascinating exhibitions
The exhibition "The mountain is calling" presented the diversity and fascination of the mountains. Legendary first ascents, dramatic defeats and places of religious worship were on display. In 2018 and 2019, a monumental replica of the Matterhorn floated in the 100-metre-high airspace, which was staged using a 3D projection in the changing times of day and seasons. The "Wonders of Nature" exhibition, on the other hand, showed the life of animals and plants on our planet in a visually stunning way. The highlight was a 20-metre globe in the interior of the gasometer, onto which high-resolution satellite images were projected. This world installation could be seen again in the exhibition "The Fragile Paradise" - but completely revised, with new content and state-of-the-art technology. Guests can also discover large-format photographs and film clips of the animal kingdom, the plant world and the human-influenced ecosystem in the show, which is dedicated entirely to the climate history of our planet.
A building with a past
The gasometer, which was built at the end of the 1920s as Europe's largest disc gas holder, was once used for the temporary storage of gases produced in the coking plants and ironworks and used to fire the rolling mills. Floating on top of the gas was a massive disc, which today separates the first exhibition level from the large interior space at a height of four and a half meters.
The gasometer was decommissioned in 1988 after the Osterfeld coking plant was closed. Despite numerous ideas for a subsequent use, it was only a narrow council decision by the city of Oberhausen that led to the decision to preserve it and convert it into a cultural space, which was implemented as part of the International Building Exhibition Emscherpark until 1994 and is now considered exemplary for the transformation of unusual industrial facilities.
Even more industrial culture
As an anchor point on the Route of Industrial Heritage, the Oberhausen Gasometer is part of the outstanding and often listed industrial heritage sites in the Ruhr region. Oberhausen's location makes it an ideal starting point for further visits to other industrial monuments.
The Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park, the Unesco World Heritage Site Zeche Zollverein in Essen or the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum are easy to reach by car or public transport. For guests who prefer to walk, a trip to the Ludwig Galerie, which shows changing exhibitions in Oberhausen Castle, is a good idea.
The area around the large Westfield Centro shopping center is also in the immediate vicinity. Here, visitors can not only store, but also go on excursions to the Sealife Aquarium, the Aquapark swimming pool or the Legoland Discovery Center.
