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In Bottrop you stroll through a city center from which the large perfumery and jewelry chains have already withdrawn.
The fashion chain H&M also plans to close soon.
In the once lively pedestrian zone, vacancies are lined up.
In times of a pandemic, the streets are deserted, even on a sunny afternoon.
But master furrier Thomas Albrecht has just opened a shop for decor.
There he offers fur objects from his Gladbeck factory that go well with modern interiors.
"I am a local patriot"
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“I've seen the city go to the dogs, and I wanted to do something about that,” says Albrecht, who otherwise supplies interior designers and furniture dealers all over the world. His products go as far as the USA and Japan.
“I am a local patriot,” says the Bottrop.
But local patriotism alone cannot save many of the increasingly deserted inner cities.
In the corona pandemic, many traders are forced to close their shops due to ever new lockdowns.
Because nobody is currently sitting in the cafés, strolling through the pedestrian zones or going out to eat or drink a beer after going to the theater.
The heart, the center of every city, has stopped beating in many places.
The state government therefore wants to actively accompany the change in retail with an "immediate downtown program", up to 70 million euros are available for this.
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More than 100 cities are already participating in the program, from Mönchengladbach-Rheydt to Bochum.
Local minister Ina Scharrenbach (CDU) wants to use the initiative to not only help local authorities to cushion the consequences of the corona pandemic.
The inner cities should become “experimental fields for trade, living, production and gastronomy,” says Scharrenbach.
Wine in front of the shop
The times when the department stores in Karstadt, Kaufhof and Hertie were purchasing power magnets are long ago, more and more chain stores are withdrawing from the cities.
This is where the state's program is supposed to help: If you have a good idea, you can rent an orphaned shop at a lower price thanks to grants.
To do this, the landlord should reduce his claim by 30 percent, the tenant pays 20 percent of the old rent - the rest is borne by the city and the country.
And the interest is great, numerous projects were deemed worthy of funding by a jury.
Dare to leap into retail
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One of them is that of the Bottrop furrier.
A friend offered Albrecht a shop.
With the subsidy from the land and the landlord's waiver of the full rent, he has now dared to make the leap into retail.
Albrecht relies on Bottropers who have taste and the necessary money: "There are enough of them, I meet people at the market every Sunday."
There is also wine in his shop, which should be able to be drunk outside soon after the lockdown.
He will make up for the really big opening: "That will only go after Corona, but then we will really celebrate."
But entrepreneurs from Bottrop have also become active independently of the state's initiative.
An association of interest groups wants to build on old Bottrop traditions in the design of the inner city.
Bottrop as a role model for other cities
"Bottrop used to be a city of markets, and it has to be again in the future," says David Schraven.
The journalist and entrepreneur wants to attract people with culinary and cultural offers.
Together with partners, he wants to establish the “black market” on Mensingplatz.
"Bottrop has a long mining tradition, we had the last colliery in Germany here." In addition to colliery soap and miner's towels, mining lamps could perhaps also be sold on the square.
New initiatives from the country can also have risks
“In addition, good coffee, the new Bottrop beer and delicacies.” The “black market” is supposed to lure shoppers into the still dead corner of the city on Saturday.
"Once there are buyers here again, new companies will move into the empty shops."
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Schraven also sees risks in the state's project: "If a boutique opens in subsidized rooms with almost no rental costs, that can be a danger for existing people who do not enjoy such advantages."
A project that Schraven is already running with his wife Sonja and friends is the market district kiosk next to the St. Cyriakus Church.
Started at the end of last year in the middle of the Corona crisis, the kiosk is still open: “We are currently not allowed to use our coffee trolley, which we were always on the market with, but the kiosk is a food retailer,” says co-owner Denise Franke.
In addition to coffee, the 17 square meter shop also sells groceries from the region.
Franke and her colleagues, however, are interested in more than just selling specialties: “First and foremost, we want to revitalize the city center.
The time of chains is over, new ideas and other concepts are needed. ”The city center should become a meeting place again, not just for trade.
A lot is still blocked by Corona, the requirements limit the implementation of ideas, but there are: open-air cinema, concerts by bands on the "black market", better childcare.
Still money in the funding pot
Not only medium-sized cities like Bottrop and Mönchengladbach rely on the state's program.
Düsseldorf, one of the strongest shopping cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, also has problems with vacancies.
Not on Königsallee, but not far from it, on Graf-Adolf-Straße.
It is one of three local shopping districts that the city believes need to be supported.
250,000 euros come from the state, Düsseldorf is adding another 277,000 euros.
According to a spokesman, the three shopping streets were selected because of the increase in vacancy that was observed there.
One would like the new tenants to stay after the end of the subsidy and to fill the current vacancies with new offers in the long term.
Minister Scharrenbach has meanwhile extended the application deadline for funding applications to April 30, 2021 in order to take into account the good response, as it is said.
Almost all submitted applications could be considered in the approval, the CDU politician recruits for even more applicants with good ideas for the NRW cities.