When the Vereinigte Elektrizitätswerke Westfalen commissioned the Recklinghausen substation in February 1928, no one suspected that this would once be the location of an unusual combination of industrial monument, modern factory and a museum.
Located at the edge of the city on the banks of the Emscher and the Rhine-Herne canal, the plant comprised five buildings at the time: a 110,000 volt and 10,000 volt switchyard, a control room, a residential building for employees and a transformer house.
After various renovations in the following decades, the substation was finally, between 1991 and 1994, restored as part of a project of the International Building Exhibition Emscherpark and technically modernized.
Since December 2000, the "Museum Strom und Leben", Germany's largest electricity museum, takes its visitors on an exhibition space of 2,500 square meters on a journey through the history of electrification.
A special feature of the house are its many tangible objects. The spectrum ranges from the largest plasma balls in Europe, the walk-in tram to old household appliances and the already "historic" video games "Ping" and "Tetris". You and many other small and large objects more, invite you to try out, be amazed and linger.