Two Cities

I have spent almost half of my life in Germany and half in Spain. I was born and raised in the German town of Essen, I went to University there as well and now I am living in Linares in the south of Spain and I have lived here for the past 25 years.

What has struck me over this time is that both cities have a fair amount of things in common. It is like the similarity between big and little brothers. The number of inhabitants illustrates this very well. While Essen has around 650.000, Linares is ten times smaller with more or less 65,000 people living here.

INFO: Andrés Segovia Monument in Linares | Andrés Segovia was a virtuoso Spanish classical guitarist from Linares, Spain.

He is regarded as one of the greatest guitarists of all time and the grandfather of the classical guitar.

Fuji XT1 with Fujinon XF 35mm f/1.4 R © 2018 Miguel Witte


To start with, both cities are off the tourist trail. While you can easily find a relaxing weekend trip to Munich or Seville there is nothing like that for Essen or Linares.

That is not to say that there are no interesting things to discover. Both Essen and Linares have been important mining cities and now are trying to showcase their mining history to a wider audience. Essen has achieved that because the “Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex” has been awarded world heritage site status whereas Linares is still working to get proper recognition for its historic sites but important steps have been taken and there is a nice museum as well which introduces the visitor io what was historically a vibrant mining city.

Linares Boulevard

Fuji XT1 with Fujinon XF 35mm f/1.4 R © 2018 Miguel Witte

Essen is famous for steel and iron production under the Krupp family while in the past Linares had a large car factory called Santana producing cars for Suzuki and Land Rover.

After these mining and industrial activities came to an end, both cities have underwent huge transformations. The economy of Essen now relies largely on the service industry and important companies have their headquarters located there. Essen is also an important shopping and university town. Linares too has managed to become more of a shopping town and a University town with its own local campus as a branch of Jaén University specializing in engineering studies. While Essen has more or less successfully undergone a transformation into a shopping and service sector city, Linares is still struggling to attract companies to settle here.

Linares Boulevard

Fuji XT1 with Fujinon XF 35mm f/1.4 R © 2018 Miguel Witte

In terms of football, both cities are clearly unsuccessful. The “Rot-Weiss-Essen” club is in the fourth tier of the German football league whereas the “Linares Club de Futbol” has a similar ranking within the Spanish football league.

The link between both cities is the Aldi-Supermarket in Linares because the internationally operating Aldi chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946 when they took over their mother's store in Essen, which had been in operation since 1913.

The people from Essen and Linares are, overall, pretty down-to-earth and sensible.

With regards to weather, Linares is privileged. For almost the whole year there is splendid sunshine which becomes almost unbearably hot during July and August. Essen is most of the time more or less subject to grey clouds whereas sunny days during the summer months turn it into a beautiful city, sometimes with almost a Spanish flair.

While neither Essen nor Linares are iconic cities, in both places one can discover a good slice of what everyday life is like in Germany or in Spain.

Linares - Plaza Colón Park

Fuji XT20 with Fujinon XF 35mm f/1.4 R © 2018 Miguel Witte


Linares Boulevard

Fuji XT1 with Fujinon XF 35mm f/1.4 R © 2018 Miguel Witte

Linares - Santa Margarita Park

Fuji XT1 with Fujinon XF 35mm f/1.4 R © 2018 Miguel Witte

Miguel Witte