Mülheim (ruhr)

In Germany's Ruhr Basin, industrialization (mining and the steel industry) has hardly resulted in the formation of large cities with everything attached to it. The municipalities in the area are no more than conglomerates of the villages they once were.
However, with the coming of the 'Wirtschaftswunder', the economic boom in the 1950s and 1960s, the politicians began to feel the need to turn their municipalities into cities. Under the guise of city planning the existing people friendly structures were destroyed and replaced by new, capital friendly ones. This happened in the case of such a typical coal and steel town like Mülheim. In mülheim (Ruhr) Peter Nestler stresses the social contacts which were so typical for the old working class neighbourhoods, contrasting them with the new residential areas and the alienating high rise flats. A traditional pub is warm and human, a newly laid out park lacks any ambience whatsoever. The images have been arranged as if it were a piece of music, complete with motifs and changes in tempo. Partly due to the fact that there is no voice over, the viewer is allowed a free interpretation. Later screenings led to fierce reactions on the part of politicians and viewers in Mülheim, who found that Nestler had damaged the image of 'their' town.