Schimanski, Kumpel, Currywurst?

Beyond the clichés of Schimanski, the buddy, and fries with currywurst, the identity of the Ruhr area and its inhabitants remains strangely pale. The contributions of this interdisciplinary volume reveal that there is a plurality of both overtly visible and hidden identities, from the perspectives of history and political science, cultural studies, and theology. In the period following the boom of the 1950s and 1960s, the thesis posits that around the core identity of the hard-working miner underground, sub-identities emerged that, while still closely intertwined with mining and the steel industry at their core, manifested themselves in subcultures such as sports, music, art, or religion. The time of emergence for these identities was the 1970s: a period during which the deindustrialization of the Ruhr area had been ongoing for several years, but now far-reaching transformations—such as increased unemployment or the oil price shock—added new challenges for the Ruhr area, once the most important mining region in Europe.