Our permanent exhibitions
There are various ways to explore our museum. At each station, you will learn fascinating facts about iron production, as well as about nature, which has reclaimed the industrial wasteland over time.
Our video tours on YouTube take you on a 16-stage journey through the hut grounds.
Permanent exhibitions
100 life in a hut
On 23 April 1987, Hattingen protested against the closure of the Henrichshütte steelworks by forming a human chain. Exactly 30 years later to the day, the text and image collage ‘100 Hüttenleben’ (100 Lives at the Steelworks) was unveiled: Solingen-based photographer Astrid Kirschey and the Friends of the LWL Industrial Museum Henrichshütte photographed and interviewed former employees of the Henrichshütte. Life-size portraits and quotes, installed on the outer fence of the site, once again form a ‘human chain’ around the Henrichshütte. The accompanying book includes a DVD with the video interviews.
Iron and steel
On the Iron Trail, you follow the flow of materials from ore, coke and lime to molten pig iron. The tour takes you through ore pockets and up to the blast furnace in a lift. From there, you descend staircase by staircase to the casting hall, the heart of the blast furnace plant, where the 1,400-degree-hot iron was tapped. What makes this tour special is that in many places you will encounter photos, films and interviews with the people who worked here.
The green path
After the closure, nature reclaimed the industrial wasteland according to its own rules. The green trail shows you where wild marjoram, stinking geranium, tree of heaven, kestrels and butterflies are at home, which exotic species arrived in Hattingen as stowaways with raw materials from all over the world, and what special conditions they find on the grounds of the Henrichshütte.
The Way of the Rat
No one knows the smelter site as well as the blue rat. Our museum mascot not only introduces children to the secrets of steel and iron on the Rat Trail. What goes into the blast furnace, and what comes out? Wherever you see the sign with the blue rat, there is something for children and young people to discover.
