Neunkirchen, For Sightseeing, Shopping and Dining
Neunkirchen, only a 20-minute drive from Ramstein, is an attractive place. The site of an abandoned steel mill has become the Saarpark Center, the biggest shopping and amusement complex in Southwestern Germany.
A big water tower at the Saarpark houses a four-screen movie theater and a Hooters Restaurant. The latter offers telecasts of American sports and lovely Hooters girls, clad like cheerleaders, who serve beer by the pitcher. The water tower also houses a brewpub, the only one in the Saarland.
Neunkirchen also has a zoo that is allegedly bigger than the famous one in Frankfurt. A former coal and steel community, Neunkirchen is also a monument to the Saarland's industrial past. You can take walks on the HŸttenweg ("Ironworks Path") and the Grubenweg ("Mine Path") to get an idea of how it once forged steel and mined coal.
Water Tower
The big attraction of the Saarpark is the water tower, with a movie theater attracting 2000 people a week. Its four screens are against the tower's circular outer walls, giving the audience a 180-degree multiplex effect. The sound is also unique in this huge metal cylinder.
Other facilities in the tower include a fitness studio and the "Coyote Café," a Tex-Mex establishment with DJ music, a candlelit tapas bar and the vinothek "Destino." Then there is "Stumm's Brauhaus," with copper kettles that produce four different brews on the premises; light, dark, weizen and the pub's own specialty. The name of the pub comes from the Baron von Stumm-Halberg who owned and operated the steel mill.
And the tower also houses the Hooters restaurant, a male attraction if there ever was one. There are TV screens all over the place featuring American sports. It is open till at least 1 a.m., and until 3 on Fridays and Saturdays.
Saarpark Center
Directly across from the Water Tower is the Saarpark Center. This is a shopping mall that is mostly indistinguishable from malls that are found in the USA. There are 121 retail outlets and about 34,000 square meters of shopping space. It is the largest shopping center in Saarland.
Multi-leveled, bright and elegant, shopping there is an incredible experience. Most stores are open until 8 p.m. every day except Sunday. It is very easy to find and includes parking for 2,400 cars.
Visit the Zoo
Neunkirchen's zoo is home to some 1,200 animals of some 180 species. There are Asiatic elephants in the new Elephant House with a big fenced outdoor area where they can roam freely. There is a herd of baboons on the baboon cliffs, and a jungle house with giant snakes, lizards and an array of exotic fish, including piranhas. The beavers have a pond of their own, with a dam. There are giraffes, zebras, ostriches, leopards, camels, bears, kangaroos, emus and seals; eagles and owls in a bird hall, and a playground and petting zoo for the kids.
Steelmaking Tradition
The converted water tower is only one part of the extensive industrial complex that produced steel throughout the 19th and most of the 20th centuries. The visitor can still get a pretty good idea of the plant's industrial importance by walking the three-mile HŸttenweg. A huge floodlighted gas tank there dominates the city at night, and you can climb to the top of a blast furnace for a good view.
Also interesting are the relics of the paternalism that marked German industry in an earlier era. There are worker's houses, schools and churches. The man behind this was Karl Ferdinand Stumm (1836-1901), owner of the mill and the image of a 19th century industrialist. Kaiser Wilhelm II recognized his feats by elevating him to become Karl Ferdinand Freiherr von Stumm-Halberg.
The Grubenweg is another reminder of the city's past importance. It's a three-mile circular hiking path connecting the sites of several one-time coal mines. There are guided tours along it when the weather is good, and tablets to explain things to those who undertake the walk without a guide. Also to be seen along it is Baron von Stumm's riding hall, now a theatrical center, and his chapel.
Neunkirchen, with a population of 50,000, is the second largest city in the Saarland. It was a steelmaking center for a long time because of the presence of coal and iron ore in the area; there is documentary mention of steel production there in 1593. It was in 1806 that Baron von Stumm's grandfather and two of his brothers took over some production facilities. That was the start of a century-long dynasty that ended in 1901 when the baron died without a male heir.
Instead of being a one-industry steel town Neunkirchen is now a diversified center of production and services. It's helped by its favorable location right at the intersection of two major Autobahns; A6 (Mannheim-SaarbrŸcken-Paris) and A8/A1 (Karlsruhe-Trier-Cologne). And the presence of the Saarpark Center has also been important.
Neunkirchen is located about 12 miles northeast of SaarbrŸcken, in an area that Wolfgang von Goethe praised for its picturesqueness.