Rhine Industrial Museum
Since late summer 1997, visitors can feel the steel pulse in the Rhine Industrial Museum of the Rhineland Agricultural Association in Oberhausen. In the rolling hall of the former zinc factory in Altenberg, RIM –employing the latest electronic media – demonstrates the multifaceted history of the iron and steel industry on the Rhine and in the Ruhr. Zinc melting furnaces, casting devices and rolls stand in the museum foyer and pay an authentic testimony to the zinc factory, where zinc used to be fabricated into plate.
The world of iron and steel covers more than 1,500 exhibits including die casts, steam engines, a 50-series steam locomotive from 1942 and an imposing steam hammer of almost 10 meters tall. The working and living conditions of the people in the Ruhr area are also colourfully depicted. Next door, in the former electrical centre of the Altenberg zinc factory, the permanent exhibition in the public works depicts the history of the municipal supply of gas, water and power using Oberhausen as an example. The former boiler house is now used as a children’s workshop, where regular rolling exhibitions and interactive attractions aimed especially at children and youths are held.