The “New Dortmund” in “Old Hörde”

When, in February 2000, the City of Dortmund announced plans to transform the derelict Phoenix steelworks site in the district of Hörde into a “leisure paradise” centered on an artificial lake, many assumed it was an early April Fool’s joke. In a place where steel was still being produced, people were supposed to be rowing, cycling, and strolling through landscaped parkland within fifteen years? Today, that initial disbelief has itself become part of Dortmund’s narrative of successful postindustrial transformation: “No one wanted to believe it, but we did it—we made the impossible possible.”