Inside Germany’s Most Depressing City, Gelsenkirchen 🇩🇪

Inside Germany’s Most Depressing City, Gelsenkirchen 🇩🇪

when you think of Germany you think of World War 
II and what an incredible comeback the country   made after being completely destroyed 
in the Second World War much of that   incredible comeback was driven through 
industrialization and the manufacturing   of worldclass products car brands such as 
Mercedes Audi and BMW just to name a few   and all of this industrialization was built 
upon the foundation of coal and steel coming   from mines like the one we have just behind me 
here these mines provided economic growth for   Germany and for the region of the war valley they 
provided jobs in the thousands but nowadays these   jobs have left leaving this region that used to 
be the driver of the German economic miracle to   become Germany’s poorest area so today we’re 
going to go and explore this forgotten part of   Germany a region that can only be described 
as Germany’s rust belt let’s go explore no entry it’s supposed to be museum what’s this sunday sundays old minor yeah yeah come see you speak English it’s not possible to see inside 
i’m making a video for YouTube about Gin Kishin   and the history yeah okay come in that’s another 
Thank you so we managed to get inside what is your   name manfred manfred you i’m Sebastian manfred is 
going to show us a little bit of this old mine so   what was this uh steam machine steam machine so 
this was the engine of the mine engineer with   steel for oh conne for the the the peopleles and 
the the carbon go up and down and up and the pumps   yes up no no pump the door closed and you go up ah 
elevator elevator this is elevator for the for the   mining this go 1 kilometer 1,000 m Mhm up and in 
in this make this machine so this one here Yes was   the elevator escalator for the for the mine this 
mine used to produce about 3 million tons of coal   is that correct more more so this mine played 
a big role in the industrialization of Germany   the biggest the biggest in Gen mhm 8,500 people’s 
working here and did you used to work in the mine   as well no I know you’re just uh administrator of 
the museum no no i I came from machine machines   and uh Yeah yeah yeah taking care of the 
machines and building machines and Okay like   uh engineering kind of thing I guess german 
german bakok okay and how is Ging nowadays after all the closing of the mines there 
problems and now also no problems no   factories no loistic or no factories no bigot 
factory no so there’s not so many jobs in ging Okay maximum yeah unemployment people have not in this 
is problematic and also this inside in EU   mhm they came from Bulgarian here and 
from Mhm and to work in the mines in   the mines is No no no from Bulgaria 
to American mines I think closed okay   the mines here in in in this area 
how do you feel about this today air to to go high it needs to be It can No it 
go down it go in on such okay it can only go   up only yes okay up down so this is the escalator 
there and you just go go up that’s the escalator   elevator elevator yeah this one here this uh 
this is it what’s in it yeah um floors floors   yes this is three floors this machinery have 
five floors five floors three other machine so   the black thing there the black thing there is the 
elevator this go up and down up and down look here   okay so that’s the demonstration of it so this 
would be the elevator here see okay yeah yeah yeah this one okay so this wheel Yes is supposed 
to be this wheel over there okay go here and up   and and everything is go up and down and up and 
down so you’re hopeful about the future of Genesis i think so the is better we have a new new 
counselor mhm and you like him a little bit   right yeah you like him you think he’s going 
to produce a better future for Genesis maybe   that is a beautiful machine though machine is in 
fun it functions still yes not steam in function   with air pressure air pressure today okay well 
how lucky was that what a legend manfred and his   other friend there showing me around inside the 
old control tower of the elevator of the mine and   as he was saying this mine here isn’t just any 
mine of Gingishian it is the biggest mine or it   was the biggest mine of the whole city producing 
more than 3 million tons of coal every year and   employing 8,500 people the other reason why this 
mine and perhaps the most important reason why   this mine is the most important mine of Gishin 
Kishin is because back in 1904 a group of lads   working here in the mine decided that they 
would go over to a park on the other side   over here for a little kickabout of football 
on every Sunday morning this turned in to a   little thing known as Shalke Nulfia so it was on 
this very pitch right here in front of us that   Shalenia was founded 10 lads as I said from the 
mine would come here on Sunday afternoons for a   kick about and quickly people from the area here 
started taking a liking to those 10 lads playing   football in the park every Sunday and thus in 
1904 Vestfallia Shalke as the club was first   named was founded and later in 1924 the club 
took on the name that it has today of Shalke Nulia this is the metro system here and there 
is a cold chilly air coming up from down there   got leaves on the ground on the on the stairs 
here on the escalator and it doesn’t even work   it has you wondering is there even going to be 
a train down here check it out mirrors proper   old school gives sort of a East Germany 
vibe looks like a almost like a comml   very eerie East German communist type of feel but 
it’s in the blue colors and there are other people   down here so there must be a train coming soon 
i’m going towards this and bua that’s the way   we’re headed that’s where the stadium is supposed 
to be it is clean neat and tidy down here pretty   much except for that little back there in the 
colors Kiklau the royal blue color of Shark   Nulfia let’s get to the Shika Nulfier Stadium 
without further ado let’s jump aboard and get to Shin and we have made it to March meaning with my 
broken German I can decipher this one the market   street so this is one of the high streets of Gen 
this is what it looks like we’ve got a closed   down restaurants over there we’ve got one that’s 
still alive next door looks like it’s a Italian   ice cream shop a flower shop here and further down 
this way is the Velin Arena where Shalenfia plays today look at this building is just falling apart 
there hence why the restaurant has closed in there   let’s go ahead and check out some of the inner 
city and I came across this because down here   seems to be something going on some sort of 
little Saturday get together maybe plow and   vice something about Shanka maybe we can get 
a a beer or something or some food cuz I am   getting hungry there we have it shala Nunfia 
and some sort of game where you can shoot a   goal and probably win some sort of prize 
i see a lad over here who is selling beers   let’s see what we can get hello 
how much is one beer 3 with one fun ah I know the word okay can I have one 
so what’s about to happen here today uh it’s   a celebration about uh for the 150 um year of 
calcification i see very cool there we go and   this is Felin’s beer yes local beer yes the 
sponsor of the stadium stadium yes yes felt   Arena arena that’s your team I suppose and what 
does Shanka mean to the club or to the city of   Kishin sh is very important for the city it’s 
uh it’s a culture it’s a passion passion of the   city mhm and what is it like living in Gish um 
it’s nice to live in Gaz gish is is a big city   but Gishian um Yeah it’s it’s feels like a 
small city because you you know each other   you know all people in Gazian it’s like it’s 
like a really small city let’s try the beer next wood next wood you don’t 
like the beer sour linda sour   linder it’s sour that is just what I need dana ah so you got yourself a beer for you and 
some beer and some beer for the dog yeah yeah   yeah yeah um many Danish players players 
from Denmark yeah the ebisand is the most   famous and Christian pson right pson a very good 
player and how’s the team doing today now shanka   is falling down no I mean in general yeah what 
team now it’s not so good let’s talk about other   Exactly no money not the team today the team 
today yeah it’s It’s terrible it’s how they   play and how they come out on the pitch it’s 
not good did you used to work in the mine and   I was Yes start by the stat yes 40 years for the 
city administration okay okay and your brother’s   your father and your brother was minors yeah 
taking um two taking two shot then go on the   street no to start yelling and what what did 
they do after the mines closed uh what is your   brother doing today yeah my my brother is dead 
he’s dead yeah yes yeah from sorry from working on scalp for the bad air contaminated 
lungs and minor lungs yeah 42 years old   42 years old oh my god that’s 
very young very good English minors miners yeah feel from miners here 
then beer after good and what do you feel   about the the sukun sukun here not good 
not good many people’s no works here that   are cha cha chhat neck not good not good not 
good for me uh I’m 67 years old oh you look   great for 67 you look good yeah in in in the 
next in the next Yes my sound in my sound my   friends feel dead lots of your friends have 
died already when I look here feel again because of mining mining young uh people 
uh here working and then go to next next   uh city or or town found yes okay from here 
now a so the young people they leave young   people yes they leave they leave to dud or 
to orin Hamburg my my son uh working in Bo   in Boh it’s close by yes yes it’s not so far 
away it’s not Hamburg hambo no no no no uh I   were working here no all right so it’s the 150 
year birthday of or anniversary of Gen Kin and   there’s supposed to be some sort of concert 
going on tonight but it’s already kicking   off and we are going to get ourselves a bra or a 
kuri worst let’s go hello hello okay v is bratwa the big one uh we’re going to 
have the big one for sure in yavul so we’re drinking alcohol yeah that is a sausage and a half i 
just put here okay so check this out this is   a sausage and a half a koka koko yeah okay koka 
what’s the name kawakawa kawakawa kakawa kakawa   kakawa you know Kakawa okay and what are you 
eating a steak steak chicken n what is that   here luma steak luma steak what is that what 
is numa steak that’s my shrine shine oh yeah   okay pork let’s give it a go okay mustard on 
one side you can literally just take as much   as you want on our sausage here and ketchup on 
the other side how great is this so the verdict   from the locals is that this is supposed 
to be the best sausage let’s give it a go very good sashun and with a beer it washes down perfect ah could it get more German a 
beer and a sausage and a bread and a   sunny day with people sitting out having 
a nice community day this one was for you   this is for me cheers thank you party go start 
here the party starts lost 2n lost 2-0 oh my   god that is good hospitality thank you you’re 
welcome so Matias has gifted me another beer host party is kicking off we’re going to go ahead 
and see there’s some sort of parade or dance it   seems to be the kids so as you see what they’re 
talking about the community might be hardressed   for opportunity here in Geish but people are a 
community here check it out so we got the kids   what a great hospitality getting 
gifted beers and everything that   is the small time life for you 
people look out for each other here there you go camera i haven’t got a clue what the lady who 
said there other than mentioning something   about my camera but this is beautiful 
this is community for you right here   might be a city where things are tough where 
things are not as great as they once were but   people are certainly looking out for one another 
so you’re from here as well yes and what is Kining   Kirin like for you what is it to live here how 
is it like uh what is life in Kinshin oh very   easy and funny and shinier shinfia everybody 
loves Shalenia here and you’re the dance you   coach the kids in how to dance or Yes is that 
like your work no okay no my work is uh city   education city you work for the for the city 
administration yes so a lot of Germany a lot   of the rest of Europe looks at Gail Kin 
as like almost like Germany forgot about Ging driver of the German economy that’s true 
because of the the mining yeah yeah yeah yeah   yeah and how is it to be young here how is it to 
grow up here it gets education going but because   it’s so the space is so small where so many people 
live basically nice to know in other cities cuz I   spoke with an older guy who was sitting over there 
earlier he said all the young people basically   leave the city because there’s no jobs here is 
that true yeah it’s true so you study or you get   a high education it’s here’s nothing for you you 
leave yeah you you need to in other cities you   get more money because here it’s also low okay 
that the pay is also lower than in cities like   30 minutes from here 30 minutes from here you 
get uh 1k more in a month if you go to diesel   door for something so many people many people end 
up leaving Gingish and going to live in in those   cities a little bit far away like Berlin Hamburg 
as always some people always leave but others are like yeah what a fantastic little random thing 
to walk across the 150 year anniversary of Gates   and Kishin is apparently this year and my god 
are people friendly here times might be tough   but we’re a community here they stick out for 
one another they look out for one another this   is the spirit of these types of smaller towns 
or actually it’s not that small the town here   but this is the spirit of these types of towns 
you might have windows looking like that one up   there with literally just aluminum foil in front 
of the window what’s going on with that that’s   what the the girl was saying in the bar gingerin 
is officially the poorest town of Germany for   eight years running with only an average income 
of €18,000 a year which is as you can imagine not   a lot and as well about 25 to 30% of the people 
that live here in Gerishin live on what Germany   calls buggil which is Germany’s version of the 
welfare states money to people helping people to   live assisting people to live that is the facts 
about Gen Kin that she was talking about in the   bow there now let’s get over to Sarena where the 
Shalke Nulia plays their home games and here we go   shalk velian Serena the home stadium of Shalkia 
where they play their games today the stadium   was built for the 2006 World Cup that was hosted 
here in Germany but what they did do that was so   special is you see the pitch down here that is 
the actual pitch that goes inside the stadium   in there this rolls out on this crane system or 
whatever you want to call it pulley system that   you see at the end down there and at the end 
here it rolls out such that the pitch can sit   in natural sunlight during the days when the teams 
are not playing such that they can host concerts   and conferences etc inside the stadium in here and 
furthermore as I’ve come up to the top here you   can have a view out all over the Gishin area and 
as you can see this is where the nickname of the   thousand fire city comes from coal mine over there 
coal mine over here steel mine over there another   type of steel production over here coal mine coal 
mine mines all over 360 as far as you go little   green i’m not sure how well it comes across from 
this camera here but you can literally see mines   all over you can imagine how it would have looked 
back in the day when all these mines were working   if you stood here on this hill where the stadium 
is placed today on a night the whole sky must   have been lit up by fires and thereby the city of 
the thousand fires and here outside the stadium   instead of a statue of a former player a hero a 
legend of the club the real legend the real hero   of this area of Genesin of Shalke are the miners 
so here we have a little monument a little statue   if you will representing what this area is all 
about the thousand fire city Kixlau in Liban Lang   a long life representing the club the fans and 
the culture that stands behind the Kunix Blau the conglier right so these guys who are making some 
sort of promotional thing I think I think they   work for the club just happened to roll up and 
open the door into the pitch so this is the actual   pitch that I’m standing on we were up there on 
the stairs before and it’s good enough it’s real   enough it is actual grass we’re on a proper 
football pitch shalen’s ground is right there   we’re walking around on the actual par on the 
actual ground here you can imagine how the   pitch just rolls in underneath the stadium 
there that is pretty cool it’s actual walk   around on a proper professional football pitch 
let’s go over to the end before some of them   tells me to get the hell out of here again 
they didn’t seem to bother that I walked in   this is the actual way that it rolls underneath 
into the stadium itself oh there we go yes yes   sorry so here you see how the pitch rolls in 
underneath the stadium i basically stood under   the stadium itself and you see all these little 
rails here it pulls in under those shutters   down there into the ground itself and off you go 
playing a football match how great is that system   that is beautiful isn’t it so we’re about to 
get on a train back to Gishin Halpine back   to the city center let’s get back into the city 
and see what else we can find before we end the video so we’ve made it back into more of the 
center of Generin you can see here over on this   house some kind of fan kip i mean think that 
means a fan bar of shal UEFA Champions League   competitors uh Deutsche Mice Pocala like Deutsch 
uh German cup winners German cup winner titles   19372 2001 2002 they haven’t updated it cuz as 
far as I’m aware they won in 2011 as well you   see over here FC Shalen Rufia it is though pretty 
late afternoon at this point and the streets have   calmed really much down it was already pretty 
quiet here on the streets but I just saw this   place and thought this is a good example of 
what Geekish looks like little streets like   this with boarded up stores as you see over here 
another one on the corner there next to this kiosk   that also is a Shala fan here it really stands 
out what life is like here in Shalk or here in   Gelenshin you see here some kind of mural that 
they’ve painted shalke Generin Shalky second i   don’t know what that means but definitely Nulere 
we see there again just a doorway like this that   just seems to lead into a abandoned hallway let’s 
see let’s check out a little bit more of what we   can find we’ve got more here as you see as we 
saw before bordered up windows i imagine there   would have been a shop right there before nothing 
is going on there at this moment in time i mean   this is Germany this is the forgotten part of 
Germany this is the rust belt of Germany here’s   another house representing Gelen Kirshin and the 
state of the city the unfortunate state of the   city today we have a little logo of Shalenfia 
up there in the window and otherwise they’re   just these empty boarded up window with a little 
piece of trash right there in the window a door   here again half broken door paper in the window 
like this another broken door here check this out   for instance this is the door telephoned to bring 
up into this apartment block the only conclusion   must be that this apartment block is probably 
abandoned or empty i don’t know got some paper   laying on the floor here half smoked cigarette got 
just a normal bed sheet hanging out there as sort   of instead of curtains on the window another way 
you can see that this is a less welloff economic   area is the car packet in all of Germany people 
generally drive really really great cars here they   seem to have smashed down a little apartment block 
a little housing block maybe they’re going to   build something new here but yeah as I was saying 
in all of Germany people drive great modern cars   but as you see here not everybody can afford a 
Mercedes like that one which is also getting old   up there most people are driving something like 
this Ford here a Deacia or an old version of a   Mercedes which reminds me of a taxi in a third 
world country this one there ah check this out i   rate that can you see the mask there guy Fox is 
sitting there that is great fun and even though   as we’ve seen today it seems like the area here is 
pretty forgotten about by the rest of Germany it’s   poor they don’t there isn’t much opportunity in 
the area young people have to leave the area to   find that opportunity they’re still sticking 
together they’re sticking up for one another   i have felt super welcome here people have been 
so great to me i will recommend you definitely   come to the RUA area yeah you’re not going to see 
the beautiful architecture and that sort of thing   going on in this part of Germany but what you 
will find is you will find super friendly people   super hospitable people like Matias in the bar 
at that place at the 150 year anniversary party   who shouted me a beer check this out again we’re 
on a high street at this point and it’s just like   boarded up doors like this dirt on the ground man 
come on look at this this is on the high street   just full of rubbish inside boarded up doors oh my 
god look what was in here webcam Chat Film Studios webcam chat film studios some kinky business 
would have gone on in there with this report   from the center of the city from more central 
part of the city the Shalkea area the Shalk   area of Genes i think I will end the video 
here and I will see you when I see you

Gelsenkirchen used to be the driver of the German economic miracle post World War 2, when Germany made an incredible comeback after being completely destroyed. This comeback was build upon the foundation of coal and steel coming from hundreds of mines in Gelsenkirchen and the surrounding area of the Ruhr valley at large. Today Gelsenkirchen is Germany’s poorest city and has largely been forgotten by the rest of Germany. I went to find out what life is really like nowadays in Gelsenkirchen. This is Germany’s Forgotten City – Inside Germany’s Rust Belt thanks for watching.
#ruhrpott #germany #gelsenkirchen #ruhrgebiet #history #travelvlog #exploreeurope #europetravel #europetravelvlog #explore #europe

00:00 – Intro
01:02 – Touring Zeche Consolidation – Gelsenkirchen’s Most Important Coal Mine
07:31 – How Schalke 04 Was Founded
08:10 – Walking Tour of Gelsenkirchen (Part 1)
10:50 – Gelsenkirchen 150 Anniversary Celebration (Part 1)
15:56 – Eating German Krakauer Sausage in Gelsenkirchen
17:58 – Gelsenkirchen 150 Anniversary Celebration (Part 2)
21:41 – Walking Tour of Gelsenkirchen (Part 2)
23:08 – Veltins Arena Schalke 04 Stadium Tour
26:47 – Gelsenkirchen Germany’s Poorest City Walking Tour

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