Now warning lights are flashing down at Quality Control

As I have already mentioned yesterday we had a private guided tour at the Zeche Zollverein. The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex (German Zeche Zollverein) is a large former industrial site in the city of Essen. It has been inscribed into the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

For decades starting in the late 1950s, the two parts of the site, Zollverein Coal Mine and Zollverein Coking Plant (erected 1957−1961, closed on June 30, 1993), ranked among the largest of their kinds in Europe. Shaft 12, built in Bauhaus style, was opened in 1932 and is considered an architectural and technical masterpiece, earning it a reputation as the “most beautiful coal mine in the world”.

Unfortunately the cold snap affected the well planned tour and we were only six people who took part at this guided tour. We waited for almost an hour and then started for the shortened tour version.

I try to summarise what we learned:
In 1928 shaft 12 was constructed designed as a central mining facility. That's the shaft we visited. Pics you find on Picasa.

It was designed by the architects Fritz Schupp and Martin Kremmer and quickly gained notice for its simple, functional Bauhaus design with its mainly cubical buildings made of reinforced concrete and steel trusses. The shaft's characteristic Doppelbock winding tower in the following years did not only become the archetype of many later central mining facilities but became a symbol of the german heavy industry. Whilst this symbol may have slowly been forgotten when the German heavy industry started diminishing in the second half of the 20th century, it was this shaft and especially its characteristic winding tower that were to become a symbol of the Ruhr area's structural change.

There is a huge contrast between the site seen as a beautiful, nice monument and the men working there under extreme conditions. While the shaft was built to impress and to represent the power of the owners, the working men for example were not allowed to show up at the front entrance on pain of penalties such as instant dismissal.

Today the whole complex is a large museum of industry and art. The picture you see on the left side is the entrance to the visitor center. A very steep, impressive, nicely illuminated escalator leads up to the meeting point where all the guided tours start off.

It's funny too often you only go out and visit the already existing nice places in your neighbourhood when you expect friends and want to show them the characteristic sights of your area. What a shame! xxxx