Bochum was granted a town charter way back in the year 1321. But it was not until the great coal and steel boom in the 19th century that the town achieved more than regional significance.

    Hundreds of thousands of people from the poorer German provinces and from Eastern Europe flocked to the Ruhr Valley in search of work, so that in Bochum alone the population increased tenfold from the middle of the century until about 1890. Coal mines and factories sprang up like mushrooms in the town's fields and meadows.

    Bochum's last colliery closed down some 30 years ago, and steel production is no longer as important as it was. New industries took their place, and companies like Opel and Nokia set up manufacturing facilities in the city. When the ongoing process of restructuring in Bochum and in the Ruhr area is complete, they too will have lost their major role to the service sector. Already, insurance companies and public adminstration, educational and cultural institutions employ more people in the town than the manufacturing sector.

    Increasingly, the universities and the technology centres which evolve around them, are putting their stamp on the location. And where once the working-men's clubs used to have a monopoly on communication, students, actors and all kinds of innovators now meet in rock-cafés, bistros and discos. Sweat is more or less "out" and brain power is "in".

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