Stiftung Mercator

The Ruhr region may be no great beauty, but it is no longer a bleak industrial landscape either. With a population of 5.3 million, this conurbation has made huge strides in recent years and in terms of size is in the same league as Paris and London – though not (yet) in terms of mindset.

The Ruhr region must start to see itself as an entity, as the Ruhr Metropolis. If this happens, and we at Mercator are convinced it will, the Ruhr has the potential to become one of Europe’s leading metropolitan regions on the level of science and culture. Then it will be an attractive centre for creative spirits and the younger generation – a genuine ‘place to be’. The coming year marks a crucial step along the path towards this goal, which is why this issue of 51° is devoted to the European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010.

With 2.8 million euros, Stiftung Mercator is the largest non-commercial private sponsor of the European Capital of Culture. Its projects, which are introduced in this issue, focus on  long-term cooperation and topics of relevance to the future.

Fritz Pleitgen, president of RUHR.2010, talks to Sonja Witt, a pupil from Gelsenkirchen and a participant in pottfiction, and Cornel Zwierlein, a historian and member of the Global Young Faculty, about the region, its people and its importance in the coming year. The sociologist Hans Joas, scientific advisor at our congress ”Our Common Future”, writes about issues that are central to the future of religion, and we talked to the Australian cultural expert Anne Bamford about the importance of cultural education. She is a keynote speaker at our “Arts for Education!” symposium.