90 meters long, seven storeys. 1,000 tons of steel encased in solid brickwork: in 1920, the industrial designer and architect Peter Behrens was commissioned by the Gutehoffnungshütte Group (GHH) to design a building that today bears his name and is one of the icons of Bauhaus architecture in the Ruhr region. Since 1998, the Peter Behrens Building in Oberhausen has been the central depot of the LVR Industrial Museum. A permanent exhibition on the fifth floor, which is open to the public, provides an overview of the artistic work of one of the most important German architects and pioneers of modern design. In addition, there are regularly changing special exhibitions.
At first glance, not much has changed: Hundreds of boxes and drawers are lined up in the long aisles of shelves, neatly cataloged and ready to hand. It has been like this since the mid-1920s, when the GHH Group used the building on Essener Straße to store all the spare parts and consumables needed for operations, from screws and bicycle inner tubes to writing paper. Today, evidence of Rhenish industrial and social history from the late 18th century to the present day is kept here. From the steelworkers' protective coats to crease-free men's suits and from friendship cards to mangles.
Extensive collection
A total of 350,000 objects are stored in the imposing industrial monument, the design of which Behrens strictly followed the formal language of Bauhaus and New Objectivity. The collection is divided into six categories. The textile collection focuses on everyday clothing. Some pieces, such as cotton dresses from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, are very rare today. In contrast, there are dazzling evening dresses, which are also kept in the depot. "Of bills and love letters" is the title of the LVR Industrial Museum's paper collection. The objects in the collection - from simple writing paper to pasta packaging - clearly show how the uses of paper changed with the start of industrial production. The plastics collection, which the Kunststoff-Museums-Verein has made available to the LVR-Industriemuseum on permanent loan, has now grown to 20,000 objects and includes design classics such as the "Bobby Car" and the so-called Panton Chair by Danish designer Verner Panton.
In addition, the Peter Behrens Building, which is located in the immediate vicinity of Europe's largest shopping center, the Westfield Centro, the Gasometer industrial monument and the Ludwiggalerie Schloss Oberhausen, houses the "Metalware and Machines" collection with objects from the cutlery and coal and steel industry and - for the nostalgic - the "Everyday Culture" collection. "Young projects and old treasures" are juxtaposed in the photo collection. One collection within this collection also relates to the place where it is stored: Thanks to a find in the inventory of the residential and office building of St. Antony-Hütte in Oberhausen-Osterfeld, which was the nucleus of the steel industry in the region, the LVR-Industriemuseum has been in possession of the negative archive of the Gutehoffnungshütte's factory photography department for almost 20 years. It includes around 15,700 glass negatives from the period between 1880 and around 1960.
