German Inland Waterways Museum German Inland Waterways Museum The German Inland Waterways Museum (Museum der Deutschen Binnenschifffahrt) is located in Ruhrort, Duisburg at the nucleus of Duisburg-Ruhrorter ports which today make up the largest European inland harbour complex. The museum was founded in 1974 with purchase of the museum ship "Oscar Huber". In 1998 the museum was moved from the old town hall into the city's former indoor swimming facility, an Art Nouveau landmark which had been built in 1910, closed in 1986, and declared a protected historic site in 1988. The move allowed the museum the space to exhibit complete ships, as well
Ruhr Gelsenkirchen, Bochum, Dortmund and Hamm, were part of Westphalia. The Ruhr area has no administrative center; each city in the area has its own administration, although there exists the supracommunal "Regionalverband Ruhr" institution in Essen. For 2010, the Ruhr region was one of the European Capitals of Culture. The urban landscape of the Ruhr extends from the Lower Rhine Basin east to the Westphalian Plain and south to the hills of the Rhenish Massif. Through the centre of the Ruhr runs a segment of the loess belt that extends across Germany from west to east. Historically, this loess belt has