A Busy River: The Heart of Industrial Rhine

Straight through the heart of the industrial Rhine. We continue downstream from the Cathedral of Cologne, past chemical plants and power stations, via Düsseldorf, the provincial capital, to the city of Duisburg. The industrial park at Wesserling, between Bonn and Cologne. Chemical industry conveniently located on the banks of the Rhine. Here the Rhine is a wide transport route, a flowing motorway for the packhorses, the many barges on the river. Time is money on this section of the Rhine between Cologne and Duisburg. In the south of Cologne, there's a man who braves the hectic river every day. His small ferry is no more than a nutshell and crosses the mighty Rhine just outside the city of Cologne. Every day the Crocolino ferry shuttles back and forth. In summer it carries cyclists and pedestrians across the Rhine at 20-minute intervals. At the wheel, ferryman Heiko Dietrich. Originally I was supposed to only go out at the weekends, from March to October. But after I'd been doing it for two weekends, people asked me, I need to get to work in the mornings, are you going then? And on weekdays? Aren't you sailing at all today? So I thought, there's nothing for it, I'll just have to go out every day. So that's what I did. And he has kept it up for the past 30 years. Ferryman Heiko is something of an institution in Cologne. Three ferries belong to his fleet, all designed and constructed by himself. A one-way ticket costs two euros. The adrenaline rush is thrown in for free. It's like a ballet performance with the other ships left and right that don't stop because they can't. I have to somehow weave my way through. When there's time, I go around the back. Sometimes I have to push my way through if there's a lot of traffic. For Heiko Dittrich, his job is a lifelong mission. He even makes the crossing for a single passenger, and passes the time by chatting with the customers. In his eventful life, Heiko has seen a lot of the world. He finally cast anchor in the south of Cologne. Next to the ferry terminal lies the Main Tiene. The Rhine sailboat, built in 1886, serves as both his living room and workshop. The ferryman only rarely has his feet firmly on firm ground. He keeps visits to the shore to a minimum. I spend every part of my life on the Rhine. I sway, move and listen to the sounds of the Rhine, and perceive it very differently from people who live on dry land. And I've got to say that after 40 years of living on water, that it's not really my world anymore. The district of Weiss is only a few kilometres away from Cologne's city centre. Cologne lies on the southern edge of the lower Rhine basin, at Rhine kilometre 688. Founded by the Romans, the city quickly developed into an important trade centre. The shape of the new crane houses on the banks of Rhineau harbour bears witness to the former use as a transfer point of goods. Cologne's landmark is the cathedral that towers over the entire city. Nothing around is to be built higher than its spires. In 1248 the construction of the cathedral began with material from the quarries in the nearby Seven Hills. In 1880 it was finally completed, after 600 years. Completed? When the cathedral is finished, the world will end, goes a saying in Cologne. The experts at Cologne's cathedral building workshop have been battling its decay for decades. Right next to the cathedral is Hohenzollern Bridge. It leads directly to Cologne's main station. When, opposite the cathedral on the right riverbank, a small food truck is set up under Deutzer Bridge, locals know what's about to happen. Filming. The truck is a regular prop in Germany's most popular crime series. It belongs to the fast food empire of the Vosen family. Eva Vosen comes from a long line of showmen. Ralf Jäger is her lifelong travelling companion. Chips, bratwurst, currywurst. Our specialty are potato pancakes or kidney skewers. You can hardly get those anywhere these days. We make the sauces ourselves, except mayonnaise and ketchup. Our sauce has a bit of everything in it. It's sweet and spicy, it's hot and it's never the same. You can't take a pot and say, 100 grams of this, 100 grams of that. You have to use your instinct, and that's why it tastes different every time. In addition to his job in the van, Ralf enjoys his regular appearances in the TV show, even if it does make life slightly complicated. They do call when filming is due to start, but they only let you know the exact time a day in advance, at the most. So you have to be flexible. Then we drive over to Deutz, whatever the time of day, depending on when the filming is. We set up, and depending on how many scenes we're filming, it can take 10, 12 or even 14 hours for the few seconds you see on the television. So when things are all set up and the truck is ready, I've connected the gas and the chip pans are hot. One of the main characters usually arrives and wants a currywurst. Or he nicks a few chips. Dietmar Baer, the actor, has now switched to turkey sausages, which we bring along especially for him. Food truck owner and extra. Luckily, Ralf can do what he does best in both jobs, frying sausages. I'm usually in the van myself during filming. At first it was quite difficult. It's repeated so many times over and there are so many things to remember. It's not easy if you're not used to it. You have to do this when such and such a word is said, and then turn around, walk up and down. But they do tell you exactly what to do. The Vosen family's food truck has become iconic in Cologne, just like the crime series Detectives. I personally have a currywurst a day, sometimes with chips, sometimes with rolls, sometimes on its own. I also occasionally eat a normal sausage with mustard, but I'm not so keen on those. Because of the crime series, the food truck now has its own fan base. The specialty on the menu is the detective platter. The cableway at the Zoo Bridge was the attraction at the National Garden Show in 1957, ever since it's crossed the Rhine without accident, making it Cologne's safest mode of transport. Further downriver, industrial plants dominate the banks of the Rhine. Leverkusen Chemical Park, a factory for pharmaceuticals, plastics and pesticides. Opposite, on the right bank, is a football stadium, the home stadium of Bayer Leverkusen, owned by the Bayer Chemical and Pharmaceutical Company. This stretch of the Rhine is densely populated. The people, and of course the local industry, all crave energy. As there is a constant demand, the lignite power plant in Neurath has been expanded. It's now the most modern in Europe, producing electricity for up to 20 million people, entirely from local lignite deposits. It's mined close by in the coal fields of the Rhine. Principal supplier is the surface mine in Gartsweiler. To extract the coal, huge amounts of sand, gravel and loess sediment have to be moved. If the waste is ten times the amount of lignite, mining is no longer viable. The giant excavators are at it 24 hours a day. Each of them requires a four-man crew, including at Christmas and New Year. These machines handle 300,000 cubic metres per day. In the Gartsweiler mine, the deepest coal beds contain the highest quality. Lignite is actually compressed peat, remnants of vegetation that flourished in the lower Rhine Bay 18 million years ago. Germany possesses 14% of the world's exploitable lignite deposits. The plan is to mine Gartsweiler till the year 2045. Then, in the course of 40 years, the basin will gradually fill up with water from the Rhine, creating a lake the size of the Bavarian Königsee. The price for Germany's most extensive landscaping project was paid by the inhabitants, who abandoned their villages and were relocated because of the mine. Almost 25 kilometres further north, the Rhine completely changes its appearance. Here, time seems to have stood still. Like in Sonz, a toll fortress established in the 14th century, the medieval outlines have been almost completely preserved. Archaeological findings show that the Romans settled near the modern city. The old town walls still surround the city today. There was once a fortified tower in every corner. In the Middle Ages, one of them was converted into a mill. Opposite the city of Sonz lies the nature reserve Ordenbacher Kemper. A few kilometres downriver on the left side of the Rhine near Neuss, a small river flows into the Rhine. The river Erft, which has its source in the Eifel. The seemingly harmless tributary holds some surprises. Thanks to a few rapids, the Erft is a popular river with rafters. The tours lead all the way to the Rhine. Uwe Freiberg is a rafting guide here. Taking on a really cool rapid is pure adrenaline. You have to make split-second decisions, and you're on an adrenaline rush all the time. And that's what it's all about. It's great fun. For about two and a half kilometres, the otherwise tranquil Erft turns into a fast wild water river. You don't need previous experience to go rafting here. The rafting guide in the boat is responsible for people's safety. To become a rafting guide, you don't necessarily have to be particularly athletic. You just have to enjoy being active. I'm not that slim myself, so why shouldn't other people with a few extra pounds enjoy it too? Uwe Freiberg is always in search of a challenge. His main job is running a bar. His passions? Motorcycle riding and rafting. All over the world. The rafters are eager for their adventure to begin. But first, Uwe needs to teach them the basics. This is what you're going to be using. It's called a paddle, and what we do is called paddling. This is the blade, that's the shaft, and there's this T-shaped crank on top. All legs have to be inside the boat. A lot of our customers are quite nervous before we set off, and it's my job to make them feel at ease. I just tell them that we're not going to capsize, and that the Erft might be a wild water river, but also a very friendly and gentle one. A few rapids later, the rafting crew reaches the entrance to the Rhine. It's often the highlight of the tour. It's always an exciting moment for people when they first see the Rhine and realize how broad it is. And then there are all the big ships, and that's pretty impressive. They pass us at a distance of 10, 20 meters, and they really are huge. Düsseldorf, at Rhine Kilometer 744, is the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia. Its central location in the conurbation of Rhine-Ruhr is a strategic advantage for the city. Though Düsseldorf itself has only just over half a million inhabitants, its perimeter has around nine million. Düsseldorf is a city of commercials, of media and creative people par excellence. In the so-called media port, modern architecture has replaced the old port buildings. The office buildings, designed by American star architect Frank Gehry, were first ridiculed as tin cans. Meanwhile, they've come to stand for a new and modern Düsseldorf. Close to Düsseldorf's main shopping street, the Königsallee, there is an elliptical office tower. Over 3,000 windows have to be cleaned and maintained. From the television tower's rotating restaurant, the guests enjoy a spectacular view over the city and the Rhine. There's a lot of traffic on this part of the Rhine. Barges are an environmentally friendly and inexpensive way of transporting goods, especially bulk freight like ore, grain or coal. Navigating barges is a job with a future. For Sarah Rusbelt, it's the job of her dreams. I always wanted to do something with boats, and I was always fascinated by water. When I was a kid, I actually wanted to become a pirate, and somehow that stuck in my head, so nothing else could compete. After finishing school, Sarah applied to a shipping company in Duisburg. She was the first woman ever to apply for work on the barges here, and her future employers were so impressed with her that Sarah was offered an apprenticeship. When I first started working on the boat, it wasn't easy being the only girl. It can take a while for women to be accepted in a profession that's so male-dominated. You really have to prove your worth, and show them that you've got brains too, and that you're a match for them. But then you become part of the team, because it's important to be able to rely on each other in this job. So the boys just have to accept that I'm here. Duisburg is the home port of the Schwellgang, Sarah's training boat. Before her shift begins, she reports to the ship's master. Oh, hi, Sarah. Did you have a nice break? Hello, yes. Did you manage to relax? Yeah, a little bit. Oh, that's good. You can get changed, get ready, check the engine, and then we can get started. Okay, right, okay. Understanding how engines work is a basic requirement for the job. You have to know a lot about what goes on in the engine room, how the machines function. It's like knowing how a car engine works. After a while, you learn how to work the machines by watching, and by constant repetition. And then at some point, you know by yourself. You understand how everything works. You really get to know your boat. The barge crew work in shifts. They're on board for 14 days at a stretch. After two weeks, their colleagues take over. When on board, the crew hardly ever sets foot on dry land. Therefore, cooking is also on the curriculum. The crew have to cater for themselves. In the course of her three-year apprenticeship, Sarah is trained in everything a barge captain needs. On occasion, she's already allowed to take the helm. Always a highlight of the day. The thing I enjoy doing most on the boat is, of course, steering. It's just such a great feeling when you sit up there, and you're steering a 110-meter-long boat, and you can actually do it. You're totally in command. It's great to be able to say, I'm the captain, and I'm at the helm, and I work on a boat. I feel really proud being able to say that. After her apprenticeship, Sarah has a good chance of finding employment on the Rhine. Many of her colleagues are due to retire, and there's a big demand for new recruits. And by then, Sarah will know the Rhine like the back of her hand. The close vicinity to the river, ensuring the fast transport of goods by ship, is one of the main assets for industrial settlements along the Rhine. The Krupp-Mannesmann smelting works are in the south of Duisburg. Here, raw steel is produced. At the infernal heat of 1,500 degrees, slag pours into a cooling basin. Slag is a valuable by-product used for road building and cement production. Steel production is still of tremendous importance for the business location Duisburg. The steelworks turn out around 5 million tons of steel each year, amounting to 12% of crude steel produced in the whole of Germany. A gigantic ball crushes the hardened slag. The coking plant's new smokestack is 148 metres high and was constructed within only 30 days. It's fascinating to see gigantic industrial plants and seemingly untouched idyllic wetlands of the Rhine exist side by side. Many of the areas are nature reserves, or they're used for agriculture. These animals are quite uncommon for the Rhine area. In the pastures south of Duisburg, Austrian Elizabeth Nieskins breeds llamas and alpacas. The South American camel breed appears a little out of place by the lower Rhine, but they seem to feel at home here. The daily walk gets the animals accustomed to the lead. The main characteristics of llamas are their curiosity and pride. They tend to appear slightly snobbish, but actually they're just very classy. Those large eyes, the aura they have, and they're only too aware of their charm. By taking people out on llama treks, Elizabeth wants to raise awareness for the unspoilt landscapes along the Rhine. The animals are very undemanding. A meadow and a simple shelter is all they need. Keeping llamas is no problem. They're quite undemanding. All they need is a good place to graze to keep them satisfied. But they want hay, some kind of roughage, in summer as well. It's important for their digestion. Once a year, the animals are shorn. There's a huge demand for the raw wool. There's a difference between llama wool and alpaca wool. I'm lucky because I've got both. Alpaca is that little bit softer, silkier, smoother, and protects you against the rain, but also keeps you warm. What's special about both kinds of wool is that they're so pleasant to wear. It's hard to believe that this idyllic place belongs to the steel city of Duisburg. The field here in the curve of the Rhine is a place where I can really relax and recharge my batteries, and especially if we do the longer walk down to the Rhine. You don't need to do much to make everyone happy. The Rhine really is a wonderful place. Little Geronimo, the only alpaca in the herd, is particularly partial to a dip in the Rhine. I've had Geronimo from the beginning, and even on our first outings I noticed that he would jump into every puddle. Whether it's a small lake or pool, Geronimo will be in there like a shot. In the 19th century, Duisburg started to flourish as an industrial city. The Rhine and the nearby coal mines in the Ruhr area made the city grow. But Duisburg also has a lot more to offer, modern architecture, and more bridges than Venice. 650 in total. To the east of Duisburg, the motorways wind around each other like a ball of string. The interchange of the A3 and the A40 is also called Spaghetti Junction. It's a main thoroughfare. Some 200,000 cars pass through here every day. The city of Duisburg has the largest inland port in Europe. The harbour's origins lie in the district of Ruhrort. This was where the first shipyard was established at the beginning of the 18th century. It's a fascinating world that's best explored by boat. Duisburg's port photographer, Rolf Köppen, is out here in his boat, Oscar. Rolf is interested in the little stories the big harbour has to tell. Quayside graffiti, for example. Ocean vessels come into the port of Duisburg from the North Sea, the Baltic or the Mediterranean, and load or unload their goods. And the seamen are proud of their ships and immortalise themselves on the quay wall. So it's brush at the ready, paint the ship's name, and then off again with a load of steel out of the port. And then the next ship arrives and someone plasters its name over the last one, until the next seaman comes along with another colour. Rolf Köppen grew up in Duisburg. As a freelance photographer, he documents life in the harbour. With his boat, Oscar, he can reach all its nooks and crannies. Oscar was built in the 60s, an all-steel boat. And in the meantime, of course, it's seen a bit of wear and tear. But that makes it much better suited to the port. Because people are working here, you can't look out for your shiny white yacht shoes all the time. You need proper footwear. And the boat occasionally gets scraped along the rusty sheet piling. On his forays through the port of Duisburg, the photographer frequently comes across relics from the days of the Industrial Revolution. Franz Haniel, a notable merchant of the era, was born in Duisburg. He came from a family of grocers and shipping agents, which later developed into an important heavy industry and trade enterprise, still internationally active today. This packhouse dates back to 1862 and is, of course, a listed building. On the façade, you can still see the initials FH, Franz Haniel. The goods were stored there in sacks, waiting to be shipped off. I really enjoy driving around in the boat and then tying up. And stopping for a coffee. I often go out with friends on a little private tour. I enjoy showing people this little gem, as I call it. The port of Duisburg is located at the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr. It's a logistical hub with a total of 21 docks. Over 250 companies have their headquarters here. Around 11% of all jobs in Duisburg are connected with the port. Scrap Island is an artificial spit of land within the port. Here, metal is recycled on a grand scale. Cars, tin cans, ship parts. In a first step, the different types of metal are separated from each other. Working with scrap presses and shredders, it's a true man's playground. But trading in scrap metal is complex and there's an international network. Here, training in industrial business management means learning about all the different types of scrap, as well as wearing a boiler suit. Linda Eisermann is also here to gain practical experience. Most of her friends thought she was working at a waste disposal site. For us, it's not rubbish. Many people think it is. But steel scrap is an important raw material, which many steelworks need to produce new steel. Our apprenticeship is structured so we get to visit the scrapyards. There we can learn all about the different kinds of scrap, the aggregates, how it all works and comes together. The recycling plant buys some 10 tons of scrap each year in order to process it and then sell it. Their main customers are the steelworks. Scrap is reused in the furnaces to produce steel. Scrap deliveries are weighed and checked on arrival. When a lorry comes in, we first check if what it says on the label corresponds to what is unloaded. Dirt that is mixed in with the scrap is extracted. It's not the material we want, so we don't pay for it. Linda's stepfather also works on Scrap Island. As a child, she was sometimes allowed to accompany him to work. At that time, the island was like a big adventure playground to her. She knew she also wanted to work here one day. Of course, driving a wheel load is just great. It's so enormous. It's totally amazing sitting up there and driving into the mountains of scrap. At first I was a bit scared, but then it was just so much fun going into those heaps of scrap and shifting them about. It's just incredible. Working on Scrap Island. It's sometimes difficult for Linda to explain her job to others. When my friends ask me what I do here, then of course I tell them that I'm proud to be working here and that I'm allowed to drive a wheel loader. It also means I can compete with the men. If they say, I've driven a digger, then I can say, well, I've driven a wheel loader. It still isn't easy to assert oneself in such a male-dominated world. There was a lot of rough banter with the colleagues in the beginning. I really had to get used to it. But then you form a relationship with the people who work here and quickly get to know them. And I also met my boyfriend here. We've been going out for a year now. He's very supportive and I'm happy to be working here. As a true Duisburg native, Linda is very defensive of her hometown. She enjoys living here among rind pastures and the scrap. For me, Duisburg is a very special city. I was born here. So I've been living here for 19 years now. Even if Duisburg doesn't have a great reputation, I still think it's a beautiful place. Further down the river, the city of Duisburg lies sprawled on the banks of the Rhine. The district of Walsum is in the very north. The power plant delivers electricity and district heating to the region around Duisburg. The cooling tower is 181 metres high, 23 metres higher than Cologne Cathedral. Right next to the power plant, a flock of sheep. The nature reserve on the right bank of the Rhine in Walsum grew out of a depression caused by coal mining. The pastures are a breeding and resting area for many endangered bird species. 300 metres below the meadow, there's a mineral spring. For the people of Duisburg, the 500 hectares of the Walsum meadow are a popular destination for day-trippers. The nature reserve is known far and wide, and I've been coming here since my childhood. We used to go on excursions here with the kindergarten and school. It's a wonderful area with brilliant wildlife. It's something you don't get every day, and it's so close by. Today, Markus Heuvel is out here on the meadows on behalf of a mineral water company. The wells where the mineral water is extracted need to be regularly maintained. A heavy, secured cover closes off the shaft to the well chamber. Markus monitors the fountain's efficiency. 30 cubic metres of water can be extracted from these wells in one hour. This water, which ages ago used to be rainwater, took decades and centuries to make its way through the various layers of stone. It gradually got purified and absorbed minerals that are now contained in the mineral water. Markus Heuvel takes a water sample on each inspection round. The test valve is heated to make sure it's sterile, so that we know that the individual sample hasn't been corrupted. Bacteria from the air are eliminated as the burner is running during the whole process. We've got mineral water that's actually quite soft. We don't have a very high mineralisation rate. As a result, the water tastes very pure, and we're actually quite proud of it. There are some mineral waters that have higher mineralisation, but they often have a taste of their own. It's sometimes a bit salty. That's not the case with mineral water from the Rheinfels spring. From the well in the meadow, a three-kilometre pipeline leads directly to the filling plant in the district of Walsum. Two million bottles of mineral water can be filled here per day. The qualified brewer monitors the quality. Mineral water has to be naturally pure. If you were to transport this mineral water somewhere else in tanks, then it would no longer be mineral water, because there are always some contaminators in the tanks. We are lucky that the mineral water we produce can be bottled straight away. All we do is aerate it. The well under the Walsum meadow provides the region with mineral water. Protected by a natural filter of rock layers, the spring water deep below the earth's surface cannot be tainted by what humans do above ground. The Rhine between Cologne and Duisburg. Diversified and exciting. There is plenty going on along the riverbanks. A unique region marked by coal and steel, with banks full of natural beauty, and a river that flows through the heart of the Rhinelands industry.