Industrial and other street names in Essen

Photo: (c) Benjamin Vetter, Pixelio
It's Coal Mine Zollverein Pit XII in the northeast of Essen. Zollverein was declared as a world cultural heritage by the UNESCO. The last shift took place on 1 July 1993, then the mine and its coking plant were closed
__________________________________________________

In Katernberg in the northeast of Essen, one street was named by the Coal Mine Zollverein (Zollverein Street). It leads from Altenessen to Katernberg. Of course there are many other streets in Essen which were named by coal shifts, mines, steel industry and so on. Here are some examples:

• Layer Street (Bergeborbeck)
• Coal Street (in Burgaltendorf, running on the city limit between Hattingen and Essen. Until 1979 Burgaltendorf belonged to Hattingen, then it became a part of Essen)
• Street of the 1st shift (Northern part of Altenessen)
• Street of the 2nd shift (Northern part of Altenessen, too)
• Steel Street (Center of Essen - some legal whorehouses are situated there)
• Northern Star Street (Northern part of Altenessen - the area of the former Coal Mine Northern Star range from Essen's neighbour city Gelsenkirchen to Altenessen. The pit frame still stands in Gelsenkirchen and is a part of the park named by the mine)
• Pit Francis Street (in Schoenebeck in the northwest of the city)
• Pit Crown Prince Street (in Schoenebeck, too)
• Levin Street (in Dellwig in the northwest of the party, not far away from the city limit to Bottrop)
• Wolfbench Street and Wolfbench Circle (in Borbeck in the northwest of the city)
• Haniel Street (in Katernberg, not far away from Zollverein)

Other streets are named by first names, fairy tales, planets, birds, trees, weather and of course they can be found in the same quarter. In the following you can read some examples:

• Ueberruhr in the southeast: Neptune Lane, Milky Way, Saturn Street, Pluto Lane and so on
• Dellwig in the northwest: Thunder Street, Thunder Hill, Lightning Street, Rain Lane, Dew Lane. The Rainbow Lane also exists but it is situated in Haarzopf in the southwest of the city!
• Ruettenscheid in the southwest: Alma Street, Manfred Street, Ursula Street, Anna Street, Alexander Street, Gregor Street, Alfred Avenue and some more
• Frohnhausen in the west: Kassel Street, Hamburg Street, Kiel Street, Schwerin Street, Stettin Street, Dresden Street, Lueneburg Street
• Katernberg in the northeast: Wishing Well, In The Magic Forest, Sandman Lane, Sun Road, The Star Talers Lane
• Stadtwald in the south: Blackbird Street, Blackbird Lane, Throstle Meadow, Throstle Street, Throstle Road, Sparrowhawk Street, Buzzard Road, Hawk Street
• Stadtwald, too: Ash Tree Street, Birch Tree Street, Elm Tree Hill, Elm Tree Yard, Maple Street, Maple Arm, Oak Street, Sycamore Tree Road.

In Stadtwald, right in the middle of the forest, there is a restaurant called "Secret Love" (Heimliche Liebe). The parking area is more or less 50 metres away from the restaurant. Especially it is famous for its good look over the Lake Baldeney in the Ruhr Valley from the terrace otside, various vension meals (for example deer roast with dumplings and vegetables, doe roast or rabbit roast) and its own trout breed. Every guest can choose his own trout he wants to eat *urgh*. When I visited the restaurant once and wanted to eat a trout, I asked the waiter to choose a medium trout for me because I cannot eat animals I know in person - the steaks in the supermarket are anonym to me, so I don't have a problem to eat it. The waiter smiled and said that this case is not rare, many guests don't want to choose a fish to be killed.

Though Secret Love is a really expensive, posh restaurant I was disappointed concerning the taste of the steak I had eaten there in the year 1993. In 1993 my boy-friend at that time invited me to Secret Love and I ordered a steak made of pig (!) with french fries and vegetables but the meat I had definetly was not from a pig because my steak tasted like being from a deer or roe! The taste of vension is more acerbic than the one of a pig. Nevertheless the waiter tried to tell me that this steak was made of pig...ha, ha!! In 2008, it was the second time I visited Secret Love together with a friend and though the trout was more delicious than the steak in 1993, it's quite disappointing there. Other restaurants in Essen also offer good meals with a high quality and are more cheap and some waiters at Secret Love are quite arrogant - the name of the restaurant makes more promises than it could keep. The atmosphere is rather snobistic and I don't like that at all though the surrounding landscape is really nice.