Culture

The Rheinmetall companies have a very strong connection to their locations and are therefore involved in cultural projects directly in the area. In the company's Defense department, for example, Rheinmetall Waffe Munition sponsors the Albert-König-Museum in Unterlüß. As part of the promotion of culture, Rheinmetall AG supports development associations of opera houses and museums, the "Old town fall" festival in Düsseldorf and the restoration of memorials.

Video artist Stephan Zirwes brings media art to the company town -
lighthouse now also illuminates from the inside

Art and creativity go hand in hand, especially when they can improve many people's daily working lives. A shining example of this alliance is the Lighthouse in Düsseldorf, actually an office and administrative building but now almost a complete work of art. The architect Thomas Pink from the Petzinka Pink Architekten architecture office in Düsseldorf included light as a branding design element as early as the draft. Video artist Stephan Zirwes has now picked up on this approach and expanded the light concept of the facade with an installation in the Lighthouse foyer.

The new building's facade has been fitted with narrow LED light bands which make the building the eye-catcher in the company town. Color variations and the individually adjustable illuminating power of the bands take control of the facade. The architect Thomas Pink has responded sensitively to the needs of the residents and neighbors and at the same time demonstrated the inspiring work atmosphere for the tenants. In analogy to the facade concept, the video artist and photographer Stephan Zirwes is designing a media wall for the Lighthouse foyer.?Zirwes got his visual ideas for the design of the monitor wall and the art film created for it from the light, color, shape and movement of the facade and transported them into the inside of the building.

The numerous monitors on the media wall remind visitors of "windows" and turn the foyer into a "room with a view." The video installation is also an interesting example of the link between art, creativity and fashion and therefore exemplary for the fashion and creativity location Düsseldorf.

Interactive museum with a "look back"

Since June 2008, the Bavarian town of Waldkraiburg am Inn has had a new attraction in the form of a museum: "Bunker 29." The building selected for this exceptional museum project is from the 1940s and was one of over 400 constructions of the Kraiburg plant of Deutsche Sprengchemie. Powder for munitions was produced here from 1939 to 1945.

"It is one of the only bunkers that is largely still in its original condition. To give the building something special from the outside, the facade of the bunker is divided in two. On one side it is camouflaged and hidden behind plants as would have been the case during the Second World War. The other half shows the building as it looked when displaced persons used it in the period after the war.

It took about two years for the industrial company to develop the extraordinary concept for the interactive museum in Waldkraiburg, Upper Bavaria with help from the Büro für Technikgeschichte (Technical history office) in Munich and to implement it with the design workshop from Augsburg.

The six rooms of the bunker cover periods during and after the war in Waldkraiburg. Other rooms show the peaceful conversion of the bunker after the end of the war. IGW has received several exhibits from local companies and individuals, including from Nitrochemie Aschau GmbH. The museum also takes a look at the special history of industry in Waldkraiburg and Aschau: The previous history at the time of the powder plant, but in particular the special reconstruction by the Waldkraiburg company and the population in the time after the war up to a view of the current economic status of the region.

For example, in the first room, the original function of the building is reconstructed with a heavy duty mixer from powder manufacturing. This was restored by Nitrochemie Aschau GmbH and provided to the museum. A glass cabinet contains further exhibits from the Rheinmetall Defense Group company: Propellant powder, a propellant module, tensile testing frames for silicone hardeners, a silicone cartridge with a test formulation and flasks with chemical intermediates.

122 years of Rheinmetall

The Rheinmetall archive can bear eloquent witness to the development of the Rheinmetall Group over 117 years. The Rheinmetall company, founded by the engineer Heinrich Ehrhardt in Düsseldorf in 1889 is now a modern technology company, active in the areas of Defense and Automotive.

For the interested visitor, the Rheinmetall archive contains numerous archival documents - certificates and contracts, logs, collections of correspondence, leaflets, newspapers, plans and drawings as well as numerous photos and films - from the current and historical company areas of mechanical engineering, automotive technology, electronics and defense technology.

As well as the Group files, numerous documents from current and former subsidiaries are also preserved. Particularly interesting in the Düsseldorf, Neuss and Ratingen area: Jagenberg, Pierburg, Benz & Hilgers, Tornado or Malmedie. These include company names that nobody recognizes anymore today, but which have left their trace. The Rheinmetall archive brings many companies that most people have now forgotten about back to life.

The Rheinmetall archive is open to visitors by appointment for research purposes. Since the archive is owned by a private company, the company files can only be viewed with permission from Rheinmetall AG.