Around Easter 2024 we decided to have a 3 day cultural trip within Germany to what was once the largest black coal mines in the world. After the end of its operation in 2018 it is now a UNSECO world heritage place. A site of around one square kilometer that shows by the original buildings and equipment what was a core of the Ruhr areas identification in a great part of the 20th century: A massive industrial site extracting around 12.000 tons of coal every day. This doesn’t include the other 12.000 tons of stone that came with it. On-site, coal and stone was separated (washed) and processed to coke that was used mainly for smelting of steel.
For details on the site, please visit www.zollverein.de. I found the site a great place to get a glimpse of the social, technological and architectural conditions of 1920 where the (largest and latest) shaft XII was built until the 1960 where automation was on the rise and at the same time coal was challenged by oil as a carburant. Most of their web page is in German only, either let your browser translate (if it does) or take it as a motive to visit the site yourself.
I enjoyed seeing some places through the lens of my camera. This point of view I share with you in the following. It does not necessarily show some item of importance, rather I wanted to create images that can stand for themselves.
