Last week I have passed Hagen by train. Just before the entrance to the station a signalred gable attracted my attention and not far ahead I was blinded by the colorful graffiti around the station. WOW! Hagen seemed to be worth a closer look. I came back a few days later and started my walk at the station, followed the track southbound and parallel with the railway. Contrary to my usual practice I didn’t prepare this trip and had no information about Hagen, except that it is a town at the edge of the Ruhr area and so-called „the gateway to the Sauerland“.

Hagen Hbf is an important rail hub for the southeastern Ruhr area. The heavy bombing raids in World War II on Hagen did not destroy it, unlike many other railway stations in the Ruhr region. The building dates back to 1910 and is designed in Baroque revival. A stained-glass window called „The Artist as Teacher of Trade and Industry„ by Johan Thorn Prikker was installed above the entrance in 1911. The building is one of the stations in this area that retain its original station hall. Around the turn of the century Hagen quickly becme an industrial city based steel and metal production.  Hagen main station is a listed building and a part of The Industrial Heritage Trail. It was not easy to leave this station as there was a lot to be seen; not only the details of architcture, the local graffiti cracks have plenty of space to let off steam there. You can find a lot of AINS, THINK, ES58 and others around the tracks. On my way to the trigger of this days walk – you remember the signalred gable? – I had to pass some other extremely distracting attractions. Such as a facade designed by WESTIP at Bergischer Ring / Augustastraße. I have to admit that it was not easy to keep the goal in mind, because this neighbourhood holds many surprises. Just around the corner you can find some pieces of the project „Begegnungen“ (Encounters), which was initiated 2014 by artists to make Hagen Wehringhausen more attractive. To find this 5 pieces you have to make a walk within this walk! Not to forget the spectacular facades of Art Nouveau houses that somehow have survived the bombing campaigns of world war II. After a lot of Art Nouveau and a backyard that turned out to be a private graffiti gallery with a Dalai Lama painted by OVAO, at last I reached my signalred facade, that was station 5 of the project „Begegnungen“. As I was hungry I watched out for a short break and on my way I stumbled over the local Hall of Fame at Minervastraße, which was the reason to forget hunger for a while and take a lot of pictures instead of pasta. Still looking for a short break I made my way back downtown and met another facade before I finally found something edible. Hagen – WOW!

Feel free to have a look of the pictures I have taken there.

.