Gelsenkirchen - Karolinenstraße/Kurfürstenstraße

            Gelsenkirchen

The Karolinenstraße in the Gelsenkirchener district of Feldmark is one of the better kept streets in Gelsenkirchen. Most houses were built between 1905 and 1908. The urban decay is clearly visible through the dumped mattresses on the sidewalk and the graffiti on the walls.
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Gelsenkirchen is the 25th largest city in Germany and the fourth largest in the Ruhr region with a population of 260,000. Gelsenkirchen remained a small settlement until the nineteenth century, when the industrial revolution led to a rapid population increase. It became an independent city in 1896. The city used to have many torches due to the excess of coke oven gas from the coking plants, which gave Gelsenkirchen its nickname Stadt der 1000 Feuer (City of 1000 Fires). Gelsenkirchen is primarily known for its football club: Schalke 04, which is named after the Gelsenkirchener district Schalke.

Gelsenkirchen suffers from problems including high unemployment due to its former reliance on the coal and steel industry, high crime rates and a large amount of vacant houses caused by population decline. The population reached an all-time high in 1959 with 391,745 inhabitants; the forecast for 2025 lies at only 226,100 inhabitants, making it one of the fastest shrinking cities in Germany. Gelsenkirchen now tries to turn around things by expanding its service sector and positioning itself as a hub for solar technology.

Even though 75% of the city was destroyed during World War II, there are still plenty of remains of the architectural past.
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After visiting the Ruhr area three years ago, I did a revisit, since there was still so much to see. In less than six days I visited six cities, two museums, and I did some extensive car spotting by bicycle. I have hundreds of car spots to share and took photos of the historic or interesting buildings.

The Ruhr area ('Ruhrgebiet') is named after the river that borders it to the south and is the largest urban area in Germany with over five million people. It is mostly known as a densely-populated industrial area. By 1850 there were almost 300 coal mines in operation in the Ruhr area. The coal was exported or processed in coking ovens into coke, used in blast furnaces, producing iron and steel. Because of the industrial significance, it had been a target from the start of the war, yet "the organized defences and the large amount of industrial pollutants produced a semi-permanent smog or industrial haze that hampered accurate bombing". During World War II, the industry and cities in the Ruhr area were heavily bombed. The combination of the lack of historic city centres, which were burned to ashes, (air) pollution, and urban decay has given the area and the cities a bad reputation.

Source: Wikipedia

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Taken on: September 6, 2023

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Karolinenstraße

Gelsenkirchen

Duitsland

Germany

Allemagne

Ruhr

Ruhrgebiet

Roergebied

Kurfürstenstraße « less

Sets appears in: • Germany 2023 & 2020: Ruhr area • Travel photos

Groups appears in: • Germany • Ruhrpott more » • NRW • Deutschland • Germany Architecture • We love Deutschland! • Architecture in Europe • Gelsenkirchen • YES, GERMANY! DEUTSCHLAND! • GERMANY COMMUNITY • Streets Of Germany • Ruhrgebiet Unplugged • ♥ GERMANY »Ⓓ« DEUTSCHLAND ♥ • Germany - Pictures (No 30/60 limit) • Metropolregion Rhein-Ruhr « less

Camera: Canon PowerShot G10, f/4.0, 1/250 sec, 6.1mm, ISO 80 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon PowerShot G10
Aperture:	f/4.0
Exposure Time:	0.004 sec (1/250)
Focal Length:	6.1mm
ISO:	80
Exposure Bias:	+1/3 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Manual
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	darktable 3.6.1
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