Coffee kitchen (pit canteen)

Coffee kitchen is a colloquial term used in Saarland for a canteen for the employees of a pit .

In addition to the supply of food and drinks, the coffee kitchens have often taken on the function of a beer pub and a corner shop . The prices in the coffee kitchens are considered very moderate.

When the pits in Saarland were closed, the associated coffee kitchens were usually closed or used differently. For example, the former Maybach coffee kitchen now houses a discotheque . The coffee kitchen in Velsen is the only coffee kitchen in Saarland that is still used as such. The guests of the coffee kitchen in Velsen are made up not only of (former) mine employees, but also of external employees.

The coffee kitchens in the former Maybach and Velsen pits are now a listed building .

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  Coffee kitchen Velsen

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  Coffee kitchen Velsen (counter)

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  Former coffee kitchen of the former Maybach mine (Friedrichsthal)

History

The first coffee kitchens were set up near the shafts from 1886. They were housed in the dormitories or in specially constructed buildings. In 1904 there were 27 coffee kitchens on the Saar.

Sources and web links

• Günter Hofmann: A quarter of Lyon, a wake-up call and a beer ... Former coffee kitchens in Saarland. 2005, accessed April 10, 2015 . 
• Cathrin Elss-Seringhaus: bar, kiosk, place of worship: the canteen in Velsen. In: Saarbrücker Zeitung. December 31, 2011, accessed August 6, 2015 . 
• Velsen Coffee Kitchen , accessed on August 6, 2015.
• List of the coal mining monuments in Saarland (PDF; 1.4 MB) accessed on April 10, 2015
• Time stands still in the “Kaffeekisch” , Saarbrücker Zeitung, April 10, 2015; P. B1
• A place of encounter in: AUFBRUCH - contemporary witnesses and life pictures from the Saarland coal mining, p. 31f. Special publication by Saarländische Wochenblatt Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Saarbrücken, 2012. Online (PDF, 9.7 MB), accessed on December 29, 2018