Film and TV locations in North Rhine-Westphalia
36 places to shoot in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany: 11 industrial and derelict locations, 7 theatres, arenas and venues, 5 offices, schools and public buildings and 13 more. 27 have a photo and 11 carry practical details the location publishes itself.
What is here
- Industrial and derelict locations 11
- Theatres, arenas and venues 7
- Offices, schools and public buildings 5
- Film studios and backlots 3
- Transport and infrastructure 3
- Hotels and interiors 3
- Hospitals, prisons and institutions 2
- Bars, restaurants and shops 1
- Houses and apartments 1
Abtei Brauweiler
Hospital, prison & institution
Former Benedictine abbey near Pulheim later used as a workhouse and detention site, with cell wings, plain institutional corridors, a Romanesque church and courtyards.
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Duesseldorf Airport
Transport & infrastructure
International airport with check in halls, piers, gates, an airside apron and a rail station under the terminal, offering the usual range of travel interiors.
Duisburg Innenhafen
Office, school & public building
A former inland harbour of grain silos and warehouses redeveloped into offices, restaurants and waterside promenades, keeping its industrial brick shells.
Excelsior Hotel Ernst
Hotel & interiors
Grand hotel of 1863 opposite Cologne cathedral, with a marble lobby, panelled salons, a restaurant and banqueting rooms that are hired for events.
Folkwang University of the Arts
Office, school & public building
Arts university in the former abbey buildings at Essen-Werden, with cloisters, rehearsal rooms, studios, lecture halls and a courtyard used for teaching.
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Gasometer Oberhausen
Industrial & derelict
117-metre disused gas holder in Oberhausen converted into an exhibition hall, with a vast cylindrical interior used for large-scale installations.
Henrichshuette Hattingen
Industrial & derelict
Preserved ironworks in the Ruhr valley with a blast furnace, casting house, forge and machine halls, kept as an industrial museum by the regional authority LWL.
Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal
Theatre, arena & venue
Concert and congress building of 1900 on the Johannisberg in Wuppertal, with a galleried great hall, stucco salons, staircases and foyers in period decoration.
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Jahrhunderthalle Bochum
Industrial & derelict
Former gas blowing hall of a Bochum steelworks, now an event venue with a riveted steel nave, brick side halls, overhead cranes and a park on the old works site.
Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord
Industrial & derelict
Disused early twentieth-century ironworks in Duisburg with blast furnaces, gasometers, bunkers and pipe bridges left standing in a public park, floodlit at night and open for climbing and diving.
Lanxess Arena
Theatre, arena & venue
Indoor arena in Cologne's Deutz district with a bowl seating around 20,000, used for concerts, ice hockey, basketball and television productions.
Theatre seating configuration up to 5,300 seats; multiple restaurants (Backstage, Henkelmaennchen) and bar/catering areas on site (own site).
LWL-Industriemuseum Zeche Nachtigall
Industrial & derelict
Early coal mine in the Ruhr valley at Witten with a brick engine house, a brickworks kiln and an accessible tunnel, presented as an LWL industrial museum.
LWL-Museum Schiffshebewerk Henrichenburg
Transport & infrastructure
Boat lift of 1899 on the Dortmund-Ems Canal with towers, machine house, old canal basin and moored inland vessels, run as a museum site of the LWL.
Oberlandesgericht Hamm
Hospital, prison & institution
Higher regional court in Hamm with courtrooms, judges' corridors, a law library and formal entrance halls, listed as a location by the Film Commission NRW.
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Rhein-Ruhr-Zentrum
Bar, restaurant & shop
Covered shopping centre of 1973 in Muelheim an der Ruhr with long indoor malls, shop fronts, food court and multi storey car parks, listed in the NRW catalogue.
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RheinEnergieStadion
Theatre, arena & venue
Football stadium in Cologne with four corner floodlight towers, tiered stands, hospitality levels and back of house corridors, listed in the NRW location catalogue.
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Rheinhotel Dreesen
Hotel & interiors
Riverside hotel of 1894 in Bonn-Bad Godesberg with panelled function rooms, a ballroom, a terrace on the Rhine and period guest floors, hired for events.
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Schauspielhaus Bochum
Theatre, arena & venue
Repertory theatre in Bochum with a 1950s auditorium, stage house and rehearsal spaces, one of Germany's leading state theatres.
Four venues: Schauspielhaus (up to 800 seats), Kammerspiele (400 seats), Oval Office (100 seats) and Theaterrevier (own site).
Schwimmoper Wuppertal
Theatre, arena & venue
A landmark 1950s indoor swimming hall with a sweeping shell roof, built for the 1957 German swimming championships and still in public use.
Siedlung Dahlhauser Heide
House & apartment
Miners' garden estate built from 1907 in Bochum-Hordel, with paired cottages, shutters, front gardens, stables and quiet cobbled streets in a listed layout.
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Stadtbuecherei Muenster
Office, school & public building
City library of 1993 in Muenster, a split building of glass and brick with a reading gallery, open stacks, a bridge over the lane and public counters.
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TextilWerk Bocholt
Industrial & derelict
Working weaving mill and spinning mill in Bocholt with rows of running looms, a boiler house, offices and workers' housing, part of the LWL industrial museum.
Veltins-Arena
Theatre, arena & venue
Covered football stadium in Gelsenkirchen with a retractable roof, a sliding pitch, players' tunnel, dressing rooms and press areas, also used as a concert arena.
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Westfalenhallen
Theatre, arena & venue
Exhibition and event complex in Dortmund with several linked halls, including a large arena hall, built from the 1920s onward and still used for trade fairs, sport and concerts.
Westfalenhalle arena seats up to 16,140; Messe Dortmund exhibition space totals 60,000 sqm, divisible from 1,000 to 10,000 sqm; Kongress Dortmund...
World Conference Center Bonn
Office, school & public building
Conference complex on the former parliamentary quarter in Bonn, combining the old Bundestag plenary chamber with modern halls, lobbies and press rooms.
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Zeche Ewald
Industrial & derelict
Former colliery in Herten with two winding towers, a machine hall and cleared yards, redeveloped as a business and events site with open ground for large units.
Zeche Zollverein
Industrial & derelict
Former coal mine and coking plant in Essen, a UNESCO World Heritage site with Bauhaus-style winding towers, coking ovens, conveyor bridges and vast industrial halls now used for exhibitions and events.
About 18,000 m2 of event space across more than 50 rooms, halls and buildings from 10 location providers on site (including Grand Hall Zollverein,...
Bavaria Studios Cologne
Studio & backlot
Four sound stages from about 760 to 1,560 square metres at Bavaria Studios' Cologne-Bocklemund site, used for film and TV production in the region.
Studio BS1: 1,535 m2, BS2: 758.4 m2, LS1: 1,561 m2, LS2: 953.7 m2.
Eisenbahnmuseum Bochum-Dahlhausen
Transport & infrastructure
A preserved steam-era railway depot with a roundhouse, turntable, workshops and sidings of historic locomotives and carriages.
FTL Filmautobahn
Studio & backlot
A private closed motorway loop of 2,300 metres at an industrial park in Aldenhoven, built as a standing backlot for high-speed car chase and highway filming.
Seen in: Alarm fur Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizei
Two 1,000 metre lanes separated by an 81 cm barrier, with turning loops at both ends for a 2,300 metre total closed circuit; entrance and exit ramps,...
Grandhotel Schloss Bensberg
Hotel & interiors
A former hunting palace above Cologne converted into a hotel, with baroque state rooms, a park and a modern spa wing.
Capacity: 300 · Ballsaal: meeting up to 180, banquet 240, reception 300. Eventhalle: meeting up to 250, reception 300. Bel Etage: reception up to 200. Salon Medici &...
Hugo Junkers Hangar
Industrial & derelict
Aircraft hangar at Moenchengladbach airfield used as an event hall, with a clear span interior, apron access and a historic Ju 52 on site.
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Kokerei Hansa
Industrial & derelict
Former coking plant in Dortmund with intact coke oven batteries, coal towers, pump houses and machine halls preserved as an industrial heritage site.
MMC Studios Cologne (Coloneum)
Studio & backlot
Twenty film and TV studios on a 157,000 square metre former airfield site at MMC's Coloneum in Cologne-Ossendorf, including a daylight studio and set-building workshops.
MMC's own studio factsheet gives dimensions for 19 stages at the Coloneum, Am Coloneum 1, Cologne: Studio 30/31 2,565.00 m2 (scene area 2,117.92 m2)...
Ruhr University Bochum
Office, school & public building
A large 1960s brutalist university campus on a hillside above Bochum, with concrete tower blocks, lecture halls and connecting terraces.
Zeche Zollern
Industrial & derelict
Former colliery in Dortmund with an Art Nouveau machine hall, ornate portal building and preserved pit head machinery, run as part of the Westphalian Industrial Museum.
Capacity: 689 · Magazin/conference hall about 350 m2 total (280 m2 usable), row seating for up to 300, parliamentary seating for 140, with a built-in stage of about...
What Germany pays back
Germany runs the DFFF I / DFFF II / GMPF, worth 30%. Work out the net value on your own spend in the incentive comparison.
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