The Hannover Colliery

The bulky Malakoff tower of the Hannover colliery was built in 1857 in the midst of green fields on the boundaries of the city of Bochum. In 1973 the continuing crisis in the coal industry spelt the end for the colliery, despite the fact that shaft II had been rebuilt to become the main mining shaft for all the coal mines in Bochum just seven years previously. Hannover was the last colliery in the city to be closed down.

The Malakoff tower with its engine room and ventilation building has been preserved as an industrial monument and has been accessible to visitors since 1995 as part of a monument trail complete with information boards. The museum concentrates on the industrial, cultural and social history of the region, with special emphasis on immigration. From the 1870s onwards, major industrial plants like the Hannover colliery could only meet the huge demand for workers by systematically advertising throughout the whole of Germany and beyond. Special exhibitions show how the immigrants developed their own ways of life and forms of cultural practices in the new environment, and highlight the cultural traces that still remain amongst the local inhabitants today. Three renovated workers dwellings in the neighbouring housing estate, "Am Rübenkamp", give visitors insights into the everyday lives of the colliers.

Today children can follow their own form of shift work on a sandy playground adjacent to the Malakoff tower. Equipped with a helmet and typical colliery clothing they can learn all about mining procedures in a playful manner at the "Kids Colliery". Just like the real thing, the "Kids Colliery" has its own Malakoff tower, headgear, galleries and a wagon run. There is one exception: gravel is mined here instead of coal. It is brought up to the surface using the Koepe winding principle, a technique that was developed at the Hannover colliery and is still used all over the world in "genuine" mining.