Essen. Imagine it’s cultural capital – and everyone goes there. Or cycle. To the largest and most beautiful street theater in the world: the still life on the Ruhrschnellweg. Over three million visitors and residents of the Ruhr Metropolis celebrated happily and peacefully on Sunday (July 18).
“The weather god seems to be a Ruhri,” said RUHR.2010 chairman Fritz Pleitgen, “we have succeeded in an impossible task.” His managing director colleague Oliver Scheytt adds: “The cooperation of all partners has made the effect. Great energy is generated here.” Many guests even asked for a repeat.
At the meeting of nations and generations, the Ruhr area presented itself as colorful and vital. With spectacular projects, but also with social content and artistic elements, the participants on the so-called program track turned the 20,000 tables into a stage for everyday culture. Even on the mobile lane, where everything that didn’t have wheels was allowed, a good third of the total number of visitors rolled: on unicycles and tridems (tandems for three), exercise bikes and rickshaws and Kettcars. The world outside of China is unlikely to have seen more bicycles in one pile, the ADFC estimated. Even more important: the police and fire brigade reported no special incidents despite the large operation. The transport companies registered 100 percent occupancy and reported a largely smooth departure. The media interest was also gratifying. Over 100 international journalists traveled from China to Russia to Japan and the USA to spread a new image of a surprisingly different metropolis around the world. The Capital of Culture event was also the top topic on the Internet: The most tweeted search terms of the day were A40, Still-Leben and RUHR.2010 – in places one to three. Around 12,000 helpers supported the still life.
In the morning Pleitgen and Scheytt opened the still life together with North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hannelore Kraft in Dortmund, a little later the two managing directors continued in Duisburg, accompanied by Transport Minister Harry Kurt Voigtsberger: by bike on the motorway – escorted by hundreds of inline skaters.
A little later, the users of the mobile lane should have a Deja Vu experience: Nothing was going on on the A40 – super jam even for cyclists! At times, the organizers even had to regulate the access to the driveways and exits in order to ease the burden. Here, too, the reaction: understanding. In the evening the visitors not only left the train on time with the official end of the event, they even took their rubbish with them and straightened the tables!
Still-Leben Ruhrschnellweg is supported by the main project sponsors DB Schenker, EDEKA Rhein-Ruhr and Hellweg as well as other partners such as ADFC, ALBA Group, BARMER GEK, DLR, Abfall Dortmund GmbH, Entsorgungsbetriebe Essen GmbH, NOWEDA, Straßen.NRW, THW, Umweltservice Bochum GmbH, VRR and Wirtschaftsbetriebe Duisburg – AöR. The official logistics partner is Schenker Deutschland AG. The neighboring cities of Duisburg, Oberhausen, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Bochum and Dortmund accompany the program along the route. For the support in the planning and implementation of the complex Still-Leben Ruhrschnellweg project, thanks also go to the Ministry of Building and Transport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the Ruhr Regional Association, the police and the fire departments of the cities and the state.
The city of Kamen presented its “Local Heroes” in the area of the Märkische Strasse driveway, kilometers 27.1 and 27.2 in Block 115. In the immediate vicinity of other cities and municipalities in the Unna district, the Kamen program contribution consisted of a “stand up comedy”. The multi-talented artist Bernd Böhne from Kamen was hired for this.
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