The Westphalian Industrial Museum - WIM - brings history to life at eight original locations. The tales of the working lives of past generations are told here by characteristic industrial monuments. The following pages offer information about the WIM and its eight locations.

Shortly after 1900 the Zollern Colliery in Dortmund was considered a model-mine. Only sixty years later it seemed to stand in the way of emergent structural change. A magnificent art-nouveau portal saved the machine house from demolition at the last minute. In 1969 the building became the first of its kind to be classified as an historical monument and as such was a pioneer in the preservation of industrial buildings in Germany. Today Zollern houses the central office of the WIM. As Landesmuseum for Industrial Culture the WIM brings history to life at eight original sites.

In 1979 the local regional authority - Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL) - initiated the project aiming to tell the tales of the working lives of past generations at characteristic industrial monuments. Three mines, in Witten, Bochum and Dortmund; the Henrichenburg ship lift-lock at Waltrop; the Henrichshütte iron and steel works in Hattingen; the Gernheim glassworks in Petershagen and the Lage brickworks were, and are still being, extensively restored and converted into museums. In the mill town Bocholt a textile museum is at work using the methods and machinery of 1900.

Together with the six locations of the Rhineland Industrial Museum, a total of fourteen historical sites between the Rhine and the Weser has resulted. This museum network of industrial culture is unique in Germany.

A commonly accepted concept unites the WIM locations: they present the effects of industrialization on individual people. How did technological innovations ease the workload? Were wages high enough to make ends meet? How did new products such as factory made glass change everyday life? What were the effects of the factory on the environment? WIM visitors track down both hard work and hard workers.

WIM museums are lively places with parties, concerts, lectures, actiondays, guided tours and a variety of special events, for example for the disabled. The range of educational programmes for children and school classes is especially wide. Girls and boys can really get to grips with history, handle coal or iron ore, scrub a boatdeck or mould a brick. Even without a booked programme WIM museums are exciting places for young visitors; their own “guides” help them to enjoy their trip to the past. For example, “die Ratte” (a friendly rat) explains the secrets of the blast furnace to boys and girls at the Henrichshütte iron and steel works in Hattingen.