In the mid 90s, I did my PhD in Essen, a city in the Rhine-Ruhr-Area (Germany). Back then, I was working on man made precipitation modifications in urban areas. Honestly, back then I did not know really what an “urban area” looks like, and I thought this conglomerate of smaller towns, growing together to one urban cluster could have impacts on the atmospheric boundary layer that modify rainfall patterns. Actually, it does. But that’s a different topic. Earlier this week, meetings and catching up with old friends brought me back to this place after many years. The Rhine-Ruhr-Area is often stigmatized in Germany, as of its industrial history. What’s true is, that it has a heart of steel, but some of the most friendly people. What is also true, is that it was the military industrial power house for two catastrophic world wars. But again, people are amazing. Once you were down in a coal mine, all that counts, is cooperation and team work. You had to take care of your colleagues and in the many tragic cases, also of their widows and their children as a community. Anybody who worked in mining, knows what I talk about. I am really not a trade union supporter, just the opposite these days, but I completely understand why the roots of the German workers’ movement are here. After discontinuing coal mining and large parts of the steel production capacity, the region went through amazing structural reforms. This has not ended. The previous federal industrial ministry pushed for green steel production using “green hydrogen”. That’s a difficult process, very expensive and the market for it is very small, given high prices and fierce competition and trade barriers. Last but not least, the green hydrogen is not available in the necessary amounts. So, the heart of steel is having a serious cardiovascular problems, while other opportunities are coming up, specifically with the new NATO target of spending 5% GDP on defense. History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.
For two hours I dropped by “Zeche Zollverein”, a museum on the premises of the old coal mine. I had the privilege of chatting with one of the last technical mining apprentices from the 1980s, telling me his life story having seen work down in the mines and how is is now serving as a security staff in a museum of his former workplace. I also learned from one of my PhD colleagues, that my former office mate Ewald Zmarsly passed away already in 2018. I remember Ewald as such a great fellow. He wasn’t social. But he was the only Chemist in the department and he had infinite patience to explain anything chemistry to the rest of us when we needed it. Even he was not communicating much, I remember, he had an amazing talent and patience to explain complicated things to beginners in any science field - always helpful, always friendly, but never smiling. He also co-authored multiple textbooks with Wilhelm Kuttler and others, which are all brilliant books. I don’t know much of Ewald’s history and when his family came to the “Pott”. But for me Ewald was prototype of the people here: knowing what he talks about, without talking much. The world needs more Ewalds. Rest in peace.
