Once the "City of Mining" Today "City of Energy, Trade and Services" City of Essen Content Area and population 3 Mix of trades and industry 4 Hard Location Factors - Soft Location Factors 5 University city and Scientific centre 6 Environmental Protection 7 Cultural and leisure activities 9 Imprint 12 2 Essen Area and population The city of Essen, which is located in the city of Herne (3,038 per km2), in the mid- heart of the Ruhr Area, with its approx- dle of the dense industrial zone, has a higher imately 583,000 inhabitants, is next to population density. The predominantly agri- Dortmund (588,000) one of the largest culturally structured district of Wesel, how- municipalities in the Ruhr Area, the fourth ever, has only 441 inhabitants per km2. The largest in North Rhine-Westphalia and the population reached its highest level in 1962 tenth largest in the Federal Republic. with approximately 750,000 inhabitants. Since then, Essen has lost around 167,000 11 % of the district’s population live on just inhabitants, mainly as a result of the general 5 % of the Ruhr Area. With an area of just decline in birth rates. 210 km2, Essen has a population density that is more than twice (2,771 per km2) as that of the entire district (1,152 per km2). Only the Photo credit: Essen Chamber of Commerce Essen 3 Mix of trades and industry Essen’s current economic picture is Essen, of which three are based in the en- composed of a diverse mix of trades ergy, six in the commercial and three in the and industries and an increasingly industrial sectors. small-scale corporate structure. This concentration of large companies is also reflected in gross value added, which, In comparison to the other MEO cities, Essen according to figures published by the Essen still has the highest degree of tertiarisation. Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK), The share of employees subject to social in- was close to € 23 billion in 2018 and € surance increased from 58% (1982) to 83% 67,633 in terms of individual employment. (2019). It is striking that this share of ser- This value exceeded that of the Ruhr Area by vices is significantly higher than in the Ruhr 10%, North Rhine-Westphalia by 3,2 % and Area or in the state of North Rhine-West- that of the federal territory by 0,7 %. phalia. Also when measuring the economic power, the service sector was able to further ex- pand its position. Its gross value added share increased in the period from 1980 to 2018 (more recent figures are not available) from 52 to 79 %. Today, the city of Essen has clearly assumed the role of a tertiary-structured city in the Ruhr Area Economic Region. It is not only a major hub of the German economy, but also the largest service and administrative centre in the region. Today, the former “City of Min- ing" has become the "City of Energy, Trade and Services". According to an analysis by the daily news- paper "Die Welt", 15 of the 500 largest com- panies in the Federal Republic are based in 4 Essen Hard Location Factors - Soft Location Factors In addition to the "hard location fac- up a market of 60 million people within a tors", so-called "soft location factors" radius of 250 km, more than 15% of the such as traffic, education and research EU population. In addition to numerous facilities as well as the environment direct connections to the international and leisure facilities are becoming in- road, rail, waterway and air traffic net- creasingly important. These "soft loca- works, the Ruhr Area has a well developed tion factors" play an increasingly deci- and efficient transport infrastructure sive role in location competition. compared to other metropolitan areas. This also includes the largest transport The city of Essen’s central location in the association for public local transport in core area of the Ruhr Area has gained the Federal Republic of Germany, the additional value with the opening of "Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr”. the markets in Eastern Europe and the associated reactivation of the European West-East corridor. The Ruhr Area opens Photo credit: iStock/YuliaBuchatskaya Essen 5 University city and Scientific centre The scientific landscape of a location Steinbeis Society (NRW Steinbeis Trans- is a central location factor. It attracts fer Institute) and the VWA Group (Ad- scientists, young talents and companies ministrative and Business Academy Es- looking for exchanges with science. The sen) all located in Essen. entire local economic structure benefits through the various forms of knowl- Renowned research facilities include the edge and technology transfer. This in- Institute of Cultural Studies Essen (KWI), creases the competitiveness of compa- the RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic nies in the region. Research, the Centre for Turkish Studies and Integration Research (ZfTI) and the Many local companies are already tak- Essen Gas and Heat Institute e.V. (GWI). ing advantage of the potential of Essen, the city of science, with its more than In addition, Essen has the largest univer- 30,000 students, its many research and sity hospital in the Ruhr Area, which is educational institutions and significant centred on a single location, and which foundations. For example, according to not only offers outstanding medical care, the number of students, there are two but also a number of high-performance colleges in the German TOP 20, including research focuses. (Source: EWG) the University of Duisburg-Essen and the FOM University of Economics & Man- agement,. Then there is the Folkwang University of the Arts - one of the most distinguished art colleges in Germany. The fourth and youngest college in Essen - also an art college - is the only one lim- ited to the location Essen: the College of Fine Arts in Kupferdreh. In addition, there are study facilities of the Hamburg Uni- versity of Applied Sciences (study centres for technology and health and care), the 6 Essen Environment Essen is one of the most important phalian state government, aimed to re- European locations in the field of en- store old industrial structures for new vironmental and water management. uses and to restore the landscapes and There is already a long tradition of en- ecological systems destroyed by industri- vironmental protection. The ecological alisation to their original state, including consequences of industrialisation such in Essen. as air pollution, water pollution, deteri- oration of the landscape, waste gener- The technical and economic know-how ation and noise pollution were already required to solve complex steadily in recognised as a central problem of an the city for more than 100 years, is today industrially dense region at the turn marketed worldwide. Therefore, it is only of the 19th and 20th centuries. Even logical that the EU has awarded the city then, the Chambers of Commerce and of Essen the title "European Green Cap- Industry of the Ruhr Area demanded ital 2017". regional and supra-regional solutions beyond the borders of individual cities. It is not only the leading water indus- try associations Emschergenossenschaft, State, municipalities and the industry Lippeverband and Ruhrverband that jus- regulated the water industry even before tify Essen's reputation as Germany's en- the First World War with the founding of vironmental and water metropolis. Many water industry associations. These asso- small and medium-sized enterprises, en- ciations continue to fulfil their environ- gineering firms, institutions and research mental responsibilities and are based in institutes contribute significantly to the Essen. enormous range of services in the indus- try. In addition, Essen is also the most The renaturation of former industrial important location of the NRW State wastelands as well as planned landscape Office for Nature, Environment and Con- management and nature conservation are sumer Protection (LANUV). implemented systematically. The “Inter- The Environment and Water Manage- nationale Bauaustellung Emscherpark" ment located in Essen is embedded in IBA, funded by the North Rhine-West- a network of well-known societies and Essen 7 Environment institutions that stand for research, de- countless innovative companies, make it velopment and education and training in easier to access customers and suppliers the relevant fields. and also provides access to networks and business relations as well as the resulting Competence and performance of insti- synergy effects. (Partial source.: EWG) tutions like the BEW Bildungszentrum für die Ver- und Entsorgungswirtschaft GmbH, DMT GmbH & Co. KG, HdT Haus der Technik e.V. as well as the University Duisburg-Essen, contribute to the quality and success of the Environment and Wa- ter Management in Essen. Being based in Essen means being "in the middle of it"! The optimal location in the heart of the Ruhr metropolis with its Photo credit: iStock/sanjeri 8 Essen Cultural and leisure activities High-quality and varied cultural, sports Theater has been honoured several times or more general recreational facilities as the "Best Ballet in NRW". have become an important location factor for a modern service centre such Essen Cathedral as the city of Essen. The history of another landmark of the Aalto-Theater city goes back even further, more than 1,150 years actually: The Essen Cathe- The Aalto Theater is an architectural dral. One of it’s most important artistic landmark of international renown. The treasures is the Golden Madonna, one of Finn Alvar Aalto, one of the most im- the oldest sculptures of the Middle Ages. portant architects of the 20th century, consistently implemented his concept Museum Folkwang of "human architecture" here. The Aalto Theater, is of course, also one of the high- Essen is home to Museum Folkwang, one lights of the cultural scene. The opera of the most renowned German art muse- house, which attracts over 200,000 visi- ums.