WORKSHOP SERIES BY YI-TING WANG
WHEN
WHERE
Saarbrücker Schloss
Schloßpl. 1-15,
66119 Saarbrücken
LANGUAGE
DEUTSCH
PROGRAMME
River Walk is a series of on-site explorations along the Saar in June and July 2026, each led by a regional expert. Historian Birgit Metzger walks visitors through living polluted archives at the Rossel–Saar confluence near Völklinger Hütte. Environmental organisation Cleanup Saarland uses citizen-science methods to interpret debris carried downstream as material records of consumption. Historian Susanne Nimmesgern brings to light the forgotten histories of boatwomen, female brewers, and female ironworks directors along the riverbank. Geographer Jochen Kubiniok reads the river’s hundred-million-year geological transformation through canals, meanders, and oxbow lakes. Hydrologist Isabelle Charpentier explores alternative scenarios of flooding, military legacy, renaturation, and aquatic well-being. Together, River Walk offers a situated way of navigating the postindustrial riverscape, and opens a space to reimagine the Saar’s future.
SUNDAY, 28 JUNE, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM:
Frauen und die Saar | Women and the Saar
Workshop with Dr Susanne Nimmesgern, historian and women’s representative for the Saarpfalz district.
Industrialisation brought about profound social change that also transformed women’s lifeworlds. The Saar River was both a lifeline and a workplace. The tour sheds light on women’s diverse roles and illuminates their often-forgotten life stories, situated between hard labour and social progress.
- Meeting point: Saarbrücker Schloss – Pre-industrial decisions involving women; river panorama
- Alte Brücke – Crossing to St Johann
- Saarkran – River trade; female entrepreneurs; the “Erzengel”; boatwomen on the ore barges
- St. Johanner Markt – Trade and commerce; Bruch Brewery and the widow Bruch; Sophie Krämer’s parental homeEisenwerks St. Ingbert
- Endpoint: Saarbrücker Rathaus
IN COOPERATION WITH
FURTHER WORKSHOPS IN THE RIVER WALK SERIES:
SATURDAY, 13 JUNE 2026, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Industrie-Natur | The Nature of De-Industrialisation
Dr. Birgit Metzger
SATURDAY, 27 JUNE, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Was die Saar mit sich trägt | The Saar’s Carried Objects
Cleanup Saarland e.V.
SATURDAY, 4 JULY 2026, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Simulation und Spiel an der Saar | Simulation and Gaming for the Saar
Dr. Isabelle Charpentier
Participation in the workshops is free. You can register for the workshops here.
Conceived and organised by Yi-Ting Wang, River Walk is part of her fellowship at CURE. Her current research project REPAIR (Reparative Environmental Practices: Art and rreparable Riverscapes) investigates how artistic and situated practices engage with post-industrial riverscapes, fostering environmental knowledge from the river, rather than merely about it.
This event is part of the Rivers Beyond Borders project.
Participation in the workshops is free. You can register for the workshops here.