From winding tower to Eiffel Tower (of the ruhr area): The symbolic economy of industrial signs

In the last few decades, the Ruhr Area in Germany has undergone a structural transformation that changed the landscapes of its towns and cities. Nowadays, the remnants of heavy industry are integral parts of urban semiotics articulating the cities’ industrial “soul” and heritage. In this paper, we illustrate how an analysis of residual industrial structures opens up ways of thinking about reinvented spaces that anchor cultural memory, regional identity and nostalgia. Our analytical focus is the Winding Tower of Shaft 12, preserved at Zollverein UNESCO World Heritage Site in Essen – a landmark called the “Eiffel Tower of the Ruhr Area”. Our semiotic landscape study is inspired by the framework of multimodality. We trace the industrial Tower resemiotized and remediated into visuals and material artefacts (e.g. art, logos, objects). We show how the Tower emerges as post-industrial capital which carries on the reinvention ideas and ideals that fabricate the area’s symbolic economy, allowing people to continue consuming its authenticity. Ultimately, we demonstrate how this specific example of resemiotized industrial structures has a key multimodal role in the construction and consumption of the city (image).