XS Saunaclub Bochum (D)

Bochum

Name origin

boc-hem, boeken, bokum (alt.= Buchenhain)

First documented mention

890 AD

Population

366,000

Area

145.66 km²

Federal state

Nordrhein-Westfalen

Administrative region

Arnsberg

District

/

Vehicle registration

BO, WAT

River

Ruhr

Saunaclub XS is located in Bochum-Gerthe.

"Bochum, ich komm' aus dir, Bochum, ich häng' an dir. Glück auf!", as Herbert Grönemeyer puts it. Which is a bit of a fib, since the popular singer is actually a native of Göttingen - but that hasn't stopped him from dedicating a love hymn to his supposed hometown. The Deutsche Bahn seems to feel no such heartfelt affection, since - unlike the other three Ruhr metropolises Duisburg, Essen and Dortmund - by no means all long-distance trains stop at Bochum's main station.

Anyone who nevertheless manages to get off in Bochum is treated to the Ruhr region in its purest form. A must-see is the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum on the northern edge of the city ring. In the city centre, alongside a bustling shopping mile, you'll find the Bermuda-Dreieck, Bochum's well-known entertainment and strolling district, where food stalls, pubs, bistros and cinemas line up one after another and half of Bochum seems to be out enjoying itself on nice summer evenings. The Bermuda-Dreieck extends along an imaginary northern axis all the way to the red-light district Im Winkel, known as the "Eierberg"; between these two spots, on the Rottstraße, you could find - until 2014 - Germany's last surviving peep show, the Miami Show-Center.

There's certainly more to see in Bochum: opposite the Tierpark and Fossilium is the theatre of Starlight Express, the longest-running musical in the world. A defining figure for another theatre, the Bochumer Schauspielhaus a little way south of the Bermuda-Dreieck, was Tana Schanzara, who came from a family of opera singers and was dubbed the "Ruhrpott-Duse" from the 1950s onward. She was born in Kiel and grew up in neighbouring Dortmund after her parents took up engagements there at the opera house. With her song "Vatter, aufstehen!!" she vividly described to German radio listeners back then what "marital bliss" looks like in the Ruhrpott. Tana Schanzara stayed loyal to Bochum's theatre for more than 50 years. In her honour, the square in front of the Schauspielhaus was renamed "Tana-Schanzara-Platz" and a monument was erected there for her.

An absolute highlight is also the Planetarium, not to be confused with the equally worth-seeing Bochumer Sternwarte. Anyone who's absolutely determined to have fun and has enough spare cash can also start a shopping tour at the Ruhr-Park, one of the largest shopping centres in Germany, right on the A40 between Bochum and Dortmund.

Alongside Essen-Duisburg and Dortmund, Bochum is one of the university cities on the A40 route straight through the Ruhr region. The university is located in the south of the city, in the Querenburg district. It's also worth it for non-academics to venture out in this direction, as far as Burg Blankenstein and the Kemnader See. Here, far from the noise of the city centre, you inevitably get to know a different, quiet, nature-close Bochum, which descends into the Ruhr valley amid a gentle, lush green hilly landscape and tempts you to wander and dream.

Well-known sons and daughters of Bochum include, among others, Peter Scholl-Latour, Otto Schily, Manfred Eigen, Hans Korte, Norbert Lammert, Ingo Naujoks, Thomas Hermanns, Kathy Krause, Britta Steilmann and Bastian Pastewka.