Mining museum

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The Bochum Mining Museum is one of the most important mining museums.

A mining museum is a special museum of technology , which the mining industry is dedicated. The exhibitions often have a local character and are therefore mostly focused on individual raw materials that were extracted in the region (e.g. coal , slate , salt , ore ). In addition to the extraction of raw materials, the living conditions of miners, trade relationships and political conditions are also examined.

Exhibition forms

Mining museum as a local or regional museum

Model of a stamp mill in the Goldmuseum Theuern

The oldest and most common form of a mining museum shows the history of mining in a mining town or region. The museum is sometimes, but not necessarily, located in a building that was previously used for mining. The exhibition typically consists of objects from the world of work such as tools, machines, clothing and those from the mining tradition such as flags and statues of St. Barbara. Other objects in such collections are models of technical systems, maps, newspaper clippings with articles on special events and all kinds of media with relevant content.

Open-air museums and technology parks

Mining Technology Park in Großpösna .

Numerous mining museums display their exhibits in open-air museums and technology parks. This not only makes it possible to exhibit a larger number of exhibits (e.g. mine railways ), but also some exhibits such as B. Conveyor bridges can only be exhibited in this way. In addition, the facilities are shown and made accessible where they were used. That is why such museums are mainly found where raw materials have been mined in open-cast mining (e.g. hard coal , lignite , limestone , slate ).

Klenshyttan blast furnace in the Bergslagen Ekomuseum.

A special form of open-air museums are the Ecomuseen , which have only developed in the last few decades. These prefer a holistic interpretation instead of the exhibition of individual, selected objects. The Bergslagen Ecomuseum with its mining focus is the most important Ecomuseum worldwide. Other eco-museums belonging here can be found mainly in France ( Bruay-la-Buissière , Neufchef and Aumetz ), where the concept was developed.

Hashima

In the United States, several historic mining areas have been placed under protection as National Monument or State Historic Parc. These include various ghost towns with their mines, especially in Colorado, such as areas of the "Lead Belt" in northern Missouri.

In Japan, underwater coal mining was operated from the small island of Hashima from 1887 to 1974. Since 2009 the island with its decaying buildings has been open to visitors again.

Mining museums with show mine

The "museum and visitor mine Rammelsberg " is UNESCO - World Heritage Site

In addition to the museum exhibition, some mining museums also operate a show mine (visitor mine ), which is set up in tunnels and shafts that were formerly used for raw material extraction . The aim here is to convey to the visitor a somewhat more authentic atmosphere of the working conditions underground (darkness, cold, humidity) and the use of technology.

Mining museums with demonstration mine

In the German Mining Museum in Bochum, a 2.5 km long route system was created for illustrative purposes.

Unlike show mines, replicated (artificial) mines were never used for dismantling, but for didactic and tourist purposes. Mining museums that are not attached to a show mine often contain replicas of tunnels up to an "artificial" mine. Other demonstration mines were built by mining colleges or as a pure tourist attraction. Some exhibition mines were built instead of a show mine, as the original tunnels would either have been too difficult to maintain or contain too many toxins. Many exhibition mines date from a time when no exhibition mines were set up in "real", former mines.

Artificial show mines are for example:

  • the Steenkolenmijn Valkenburg , opened in 1916 , a former lime mine that was converted into a coal mine with the latest mining technology for teaching purposes,
  • the mine opened in 1925 in the Deutsches Museum in Munich,
  • and as its American counterpart the Old Ben # 17 mine built in 1933 in the Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago) ,
  • the Upper Harz Mining Museum , founded in 1892, was expanded to include a show mine in 1926, with original mining and processing plants from the 18th and 19th centuries being rebuilt on the site.
  • the exhibition mine of the German Mining Museum Bochum , built from 1930 to around 1960 ,
  • the Musée de la Mine La Louvière , which as the “Castelain gallery” has recreated the nearby “Saint-Joseph” gallery,
  • The Barbarastollen in the University of Cologne, built in 1932, was used to train students, as was the Rolla Experimental Mine of the University of Missouri-Rolla,
  • the show mine of the Siegerland Museum , established from 1938 ,
  • The Weilburg mining museum, opened in 1972, with a more than 200-meter-long replica iron ore mine including fully functional original machines,
  • replica coal tunnels in the Scottish Mining Museum ,
  • the Museo della Miniera Massa Marittima opened in 1980 in Massa Marittima . A visitor mine was set up in tunnels here,
  • the Muzeum Przemyslu i Techni w Walbrzychu,
  • the artificial tunnel opened in 1996 in the North of England Lead Mining Museum , as the original tunnel was not safe enough,
  • The Mercury Mining Museum Parco Minerario del Monte Amiata in Santa Fiora , which opened in 2002, has a reconstruction of a tunnel in a mercury mine, which, unlike the original tunnel, does not pose a health risk to visitors,
  • The German Slate Mine, which opened in 2003, is located in a former air raid shelter next to an active slate mine in Mayen ,
  • and several mining museums in the US and Australia.

Examples

There are mining museums, for example

in Germany :

in Austria :

in Italy :

literature

  • Saarbergwerke (1986): Digging into history. What do mining museums and visitor mines convey to us. Saarbergwerke AG, Saarbrücken, 31 pages (pdf 4.4 MB)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mining and City Museum Weilburg (accessed April 10, 2014)
  2. ↑ http://www.stassfurt.de/de/museen/stadt-und-bergbaumuseum.html