Oberhausen is an industrial city in the Ruhr, wedged between Essen and Duisburg. Like its neighbours, it grew rich on coal and steel and spent the late 20th century figuring out what to do after the mines closed. The answer, in Oberhausen's case, was shopping and industrial heritage.
The Westfield CentrO (formerly CentrO) is one of Europe's largest shopping and leisure centres, built on the site of a former steelworks. It draws visitors from across the region. More interesting is the Gasometer Oberhausen, a former gas storage tank converted into an exhibition space. The building itself is extraordinary — 117 metres tall and 68 metres in diameter — and the large-scale installations it hosts use the vast interior to dramatic effect that no conventional gallery could replicate.
The LUDWIGGALERIE Schloss Oberhausen shows rotating contemporary art exhibitions in a moated castle, and the Kaisergarten park around the castle is a pleasant green space. The LVR Industrial Museum occupies the St. Antony ironworks — one of the oldest iron-smelting sites in the Ruhr — for a more historically grounded look at the region's industrial past. Each May, the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen brings the film world to town; the festival's 1962 Manifesto helped launch the New German Cinema movement. Oberhausen is not a destination in itself, but the Gasometer alone justifies a stop if you are exploring the Ruhr's industrial heritage corridor.