Westphalia colliery

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Westphalia colliery
General information about the mine
Westphalia Colliery 1.jpg

Westphalia Colliery 2006
Information about the mining company
Start of operation 1913
End of operation 2000
Successor use Commercial space and venue
Funded raw materials
Degradation of Hard coal
Geographical location
Coordinates 51 ° 45 ′ 0 ″  N , 7 ° 55 ′ 0 ″  E Coordinates: 51 ° 45 ′ 0 ″  N , 7 ° 55 ′ 0 ″  E
Colliery Westphalia (Ruhr Regional Association)
Westphalia colliery
Location coal mine Westphalia
Location Awls
local community Awls
District ( NUTS3 ) Warendorf
country State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Country Germany
District Ruhr area

Colliery Westphalia 1959 with the headframes Wilhelm I and Wilhelm II
Headframe

The Westfalen colliery was a coal - mine in Ahlen .

history

1900-1910

The Westphalia colliery in Ahlen was founded at the beginning of the 20th century on the initiative of some local manufacturers who had come together to form an interest group. After 1901 in the Bauer shaft Rosendahl in mineral exploration coal reserves have been discovered, was led through 33 to 1907, more deep boreholes. On February 1, 1909, the sinking of shafts 1 and 2 began. At the same time, the necessary infrastructure (road connections, colliery , mine-owned brickworks ) was created.

1911-1920

In 1911, shaft 1 reached a depth of 1,087 meters and a little later, shaft 2 reached a depth of 1,052 meters. Nine coal seams with thicknesses from 0.7 to 1.75 meters was intersected. At that time there was no other mine with deeper shafts. The first coal was mined on March 5, 1913. In January 1914 the "Westfalen" coking plant was put into operation.

On November 16, 1920 , the hauling rope from shaft 2 broke. 14 miners died in the worst mine accident at the “Westfalen” colliery.

1921-1945

In 1935, the mine’s own port on the Datteln-Hamm Canal and the connecting railway there were completed. Shaft 3 was sunk a year later. In December 1940, the sinking of shaft 4 began, which in 1943 reached the final depth of 855 meters. The shaft was put into operation in October 1944.

During the Second World War foreign workers and prisoners of war were used on "Westphalia". On March 23, 1944, during an Allied air raid, 1,000 bombs were dropped on the colliery and the adjacent colliery colony , large parts of the "Westfalen" colliery were destroyed, but headframes and hoisting machines were largely preserved. The extraction and sale of the raw coal could continue. 193 people were killed and 250 injured in the attack, and around 600 lost their homes. On March 31, 1945, American troops occupied the city of Ahlen and with it the “Westphalia” mine. Funding was temporarily suspended, but resumed at the end of April.

1946-1960

In 1951, Wilhelm Wilmerstadt, a graduate in business administration and trade teacher, was appointed director. In October 1953, work began on shaft 5. From April 1956, shaft 2 was sunk deeper. The re-dig work was completed in May 1957 at a depth of 1233.6 meters.

1961-1980

While numerous mines in the Ruhr area were already shut down, the sinking of shaft 6 began in September 1962. This was intended to advance the development of further coal fields. The shaft was put into operation in May 1966.

Ruhrkohle AG (RAG) was founded on November 27, 1968 . RAG became the owner of the majority of all Ruhr area mines. The coal mine Westfalen but sold the coal mine "Westphalia" at the Eschweiler mine association (EBV). In this way, the Luxembourg steel group ARBED secured the supply of its blast furnaces with coke.

In August 1979, the sinking work was completed at shaft 7 at a depth of 1,330 meters.

1981-1990

Shaft 7 in January 2009

Shaft 7 in Heessen was put into operation in 1983 as a material and cableway shaft .

In 1986 shaft 3 and shaft 5 were shut down, in whose pit fields only limited mining was carried out due to high water inflow and other geological difficulties .

On January 2, 1989, RAG took over the management of the "Westfalen" mine , initially in personal union with the factory management of the Radbod colliery. On the same day it was decided to close the coking plant on March 31, 1989.

1991-2001

In November 1991, RAG officially announced the closure of the "Westfalen" mine for 1999. On July 1, 1993, the entire mine officially became the property of RAG. By 1994, the daytime facilities of shafts 3, 4 and 5, which had already been closed, were demolished. On June 30, 2000, production at the "Westfalen" mine was stopped.

The remaining shafts 1, 2, 6 and 7 were filled in 2001 . The daytime facilities at shaft 6 were demolished. Working groups, project groups and political committees have dealt with the question of the subsequent use of the mine site at the double shaft system 1/2 since the 1990s . Some of the existing facilities, in particular the headframes and the former wages hall and wash house , were classified as worthy of preservation.

Todays use

Shaft 7 being demolished (2010)
Protego hood on shaft 7 of the Westphalia colliery.

Except for the buildings worth preserving, the daytime facilities at shaft 1/2 have been torn down. The demolition of the coal washing plant on November 5, 2003 was particularly spectacular. The site has been used as a commercial area and event location since 2006. Various high-tech companies are based in the new commercial center of the former wages hall and Weißkaue. A climbing wall up to 22 meters high at the BigWall climbing center Ahlen is located in the former Schwarzkaue, as is an indoor high ropes course. Since November 2007 the “Lohnhalle” and “Weißkaue” buildings have also been used as a conference and trade fair venue. The mining tradition association Zeche Westfalen has set up a museum in the premises of the former mine rescue service. Shafts 1 and 2 as well as the friction hall between the two have been a listed building since 2013. The headframe development association receives the headframes and offers groups of visitors guided ascents to shaft 1.

Projektgesellschaft Westfalen mbH is the owner of the new commercial center. Most of the building tracts are now primarily rented to traders and service providers as well as for leisure and sport. The outdoor area was cleared and redesigned under the leadership of LEG and the city of Ahlen. Today there are clear structures and edges in the area under the headframes, which correctly position the historical industrial monuments.

There is nothing left of the shaft 3 apart from a sign above the filled shaft. On the conversion area sees land use plan of the city Ahlen the construction of a photovoltaic ago -Freiflächenanlage renewable energy.

There are no traces of mining left from shaft 4; the area is now green. Shaft 5 is located in the Beckum urban area near Alte Ahlener Straße, about 4.5 km east of the main shaft 1/2. An operating building, the locksmith's shop and the transformer house are still there. These buildings are now privately owned.

The daytime facilities of shaft 6 were completely demolished after the shutdown. The location of the filled shaft is marked today by a Protego hood . A mine gas extraction system for generating electricity and heat is also operated on the former factory site. In the immediate vicinity of the mine, between Dolberger Strasse and Im Holt, is the now closed old miners' pub, where the miners got their beer from shaft 6 after their shift.

For the relatively young buildings of Shaft 7 there was no possibility of subsequent use in recent years, which is why the demolition of the facility began in June 2010. The headframe above the former shaft was blown up on January 29, 2011 at around 11:15 a.m. All buildings will only be demolished at ground level - the foundations will be left in the ground - for which around 12 months are estimated. The site is then to be covered with soil at least two meters high, which will take another 24 months. A forest area is to be created on the heaped up area, as there is no need for any other use of the somewhat remote fallow land.

The former port railway of the Westphalia colliery, which connected the shafts 1/2, 3 and 4 over a length of approx. 8.5 km with the company's own loading port on the Datteln-Hamm Canal, has now been converted into a bicycle and footpath. This is part of the Werseradweg and has been connected to the new Römer-Lippe-Route since 2011 .

literature

  • Wilhelm Hermann, Gertrude Hermann: The old mines on the Ruhr. 6th extended edition, Verlag Karl Robert Langewiesche successor Hans Köster KG, Königstein im Taunus 2008, ISBN 978-3-7845-6994-9 .
  • Glückauf Foundation (Ed.): Zeche Westfalen. A century of hard coal mining in Ahlen. Klartext, Essen 2000, ISBN 3-88474-891-2 .
  • Peter Voss: The mines in Hamm: pictorial chronicle of the mines Heinrich Robert, Maximilian, Radbod, Saxony, Westphalia . Regio-Verl., Werne 1994, ISBN 3-929158-03-5 .
  • Uwe Rennspieß: Beyond the track. History of the Ahlen miners' colony and the Westphalia colliery. Klartext, Essen 1989, ISBN 3-88474-340-6 .

Web links

Commons : Zeche Westfalen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Current tenants of the Zeche Westfalen , on the homepage of the Zeche Westfalen, accessed on February 9, 2019
  2. Detlef Jotzeit: Shaft III: Use the opportunity for photovoltaics. In: The bell (daily newspaper) . December 5, 2012, accessed March 29, 2019 .