Niederberg mining colonies: brick vernacular and cottage style

The present-day Plattenkolonie comprises of English inspired buildings in a so-called cottage style. These houses are alternately 1 or 2 floors with a hipped roof. The buildings are connected via low side extensions.

Part of the wall around the Niederberg colliery still remains, the ornate brick piers fit in with the style of architecture utilized in the Alte Kolonie. The Plattenkolonie east of the Hindenburgplatz, here on the Waldstraße, looks like it was once planned to be much bigger. It now comprises of three rows of buildings that form a U-shape next to the rather desolate public space of the HIndenburgplatz.

Another example of the cottage style used for the Plattenkolonie. The rendering on the walls contrasts greatly with the brick facades used in all the other mining colonies of the Niederberg colliery.

These old coal wagons (Förderwagen) can be found in several places in Neukirchen as a reminder to the mining past at the Niederberg colliery. This one stands opposite the Glück Auf Siedlung. The  Glück Auf Siedlung was named after the miners' greeting "Glück Auf" which is short for: "Ich wünsche Dir Glück, tu einen neuen Gang auf". It originated in the German Ore Mountains of Saxony in the 16th century and was later used as a wish to emerge from the pit safely.

The Glück Auf Siedlung was built after WW2 and consists of both short and long simple brick buildings that

Next to the Hindenburgplatz the old entrance to the mining colony was accentuated by this small public space at the beginning of the Laukenstraße from which the long residential streets run towards the old route (now the Ernzt Moritz Arndtstraße).

The brick buildings are mostly two floors with a hipped roof. Originally wooden window shutters adorned every building. These referred to  window shutters prevalent in the vernacular architecture of the Rhineland.

Low buildings of only a single floor with a hipped roof are also used in the Alte Kolonie. These short terraces refer to both the historical farm type and the reworking of the cottage into terraced housing within the English garden city movement.

In the second building phase, with the Weddigenplatz at its heart, the low cottage-like terraces are enlarged both in length as well as in height to create larger living accommodation. The ornamental use of round arches to indicate the entrance is a feature of the buildings of this phase and can be clearly seen on these houses on the Weddingenplatz.

The contrast between the second building phase (left) and the first is clear in the architectural treatment of the block and the details. The second phase is best characterized as a more picturesque example of brick vernacular architecture.

The Neue Kolonie consists only of apartment blocks. These brown blocks in brick are situated along the streets in an ordered fashion. The loft space beneath hipped roofs is part of the living accommodation.

The apartment blocks have the entrances on the inside along the communal garden. Each entrance has an ornamental brick surround. The architecture is austere but also ornate with  for instance protruding bricks that emulate a classical corner lesene.  

All apartment blocks are situated around communal gardens that are still in use as such. These green spaces are open to everyone, not just residents. All entrances are located along the communal garden space.

The Etzoldplatz is the main focal point of the mining colony. The high Dutch gables refer to older brick architecture from the Rhineland and are utilized here to great effect. The apartment blocks are arranged in a stepped fashion emphasizing the entrance and maximizing the visual impact of the gable ends.

This ornate baroque-inspired brick architecture is used to maximum effect around the Etzoldplat. From the Etzoldstraße at the back the end gables with their ornate curls indicate the formal entrance to the Neue Kolonie. The adjoining blocks are of the standard type with a hipped roof.

The old stables (left) are now used as outbuildings for storage, although some are in use as a dovecot thus staying true to their original intended use. Standing in the middle of the northeastern communal garden the old pit tower of the Niederberg colliery can be clearly seen framed by the brick piers of an ornamental gate.

Mining colonies: Neue Kolonie Niederberg, Neukirchen

Directly south of the Zeche Niederberg on land hemmed in by preexisting roads the new mining colony was developed between 1926 and 1930 on the fields of the Fürmannshof farm. From this moment on the Kolonie Niederberg would be known as Alte Kolonie (old colony) and the new colony as such: Neue Kolonie. The model of row houses in their own gardens was not applied for this new colony. It therefore differs greatly from the other mining colonies in Neukirchen.

The whole of the Neue Kolonie consists of rental blocks with apartments (Mietshäuser). Every apartment block is two floors high topped by a hipped roof with room for bedrooms in the loft space. The entrances are not on the side of the street but at the back, where the communal gardens are situated. Thus the whole is a radical translation of the garden city ideal along the lines of earlier German examples (the so-called Gartenhöfe). Within the communal garden rows of small sheds are located. These used to be stables for small livestock (chickens, goats or pigs) to be kept by the residents. To the side, also along a stream (the Ophülsgraben) there are allotments (A) for the resident to grow their own food.

Not just the type of building in this mining colony is urban rather than suburban, the same is true of the architecture and the layout. The buildings are distributed along a few straight streets. The building line is the same along the streets, except for the front of the colony on the Bendschenweg where two blocks are set back with two pillars to form a formal double gatehouse ensemble. In the axis of this ensemble the Holtmannstraße was built. Also around the main entrance to the colony from the Bendschenweg the Etzoldstraße widens into the Etzoldplatz (E) along which a formal  ensemble of staggered buildings reinforce the tapering shape of the public space (and entrance). The apartment blocks have been designed as stern blocks with some decoration in brick and decorative gables at the entrance facing the colliery on either side of the Etzoldplatz. These brick blocks, like the blocks built in the Siedlung Repelen in Moers-Rheinkamp are examples of the revival of the old brick architecture of the Rhineland. Directly south a Wäscherei (W) was built. In this building the communal laundry service was housed, it has now been converted into a Turkish social club.

 

The area within the red outline is the Alte Kolonie. A portion of the apartment blocks ((hatched) were rebuilt after WW2 as they had been completely destroyed. To the west of the colony some shops were built during the 1920s. There had been no provisions made for shops or other commercial space within the mining colony. Especially in the post-war decades family houses and more commercial properties were built on this side. To the south the colony was extended twice. The first extension is an ordered neigbourhood (Siedlung) -shown crosshatched- comprising of apartment blocks in communal gardens that was completed in the 1960s. The 1980s neighbourhood (not shown) comprises of apartment blocks, maisonettes and row houses and doesn't follow the typology of the Alte Kolonie.. 

Mining colonies: Kolonie Möllenbruckshof, Neukirchen

Around the same time that the Alte Kolonie was built, another mining colony was built on the other side of the railway. This Kolonie Möllenbruckshof was developed between 1919 and 1925 along the Haubtstraße (main street) on land belonging to the Möllenbruckshof farm. This "main street" was constructed around 1846 to link Moers with Schaephuysen. It is a so-called artificial road (Kunstweg) that was commonly known under its French name as chaussée. Where once the Mühlenbruchhof stood (indicated by M on the sketch) this chausée connects to an older road. The old name of the farmstead explains its meaning: the farm on the mill brook*. On the other side of the stream stood the Londong Hof farm. This land was also developed for housing. The old Höfken farm (h) on the Larfeldgraben still stands here today.

The Kolonie Möllenbruckshof was laid out around a central public garden (Buchenplatz - B) with curved streets running of it towards the dirt road that's now called Jahnstraße. This more or less straight road connected the Hugenhof farm to the village of Neukirchen via the Klein Hugenhof farm (K) located on the crossing of the Hugengraben. The mining colony Möllenbruckshof does follow English garden city inspired neighbourhoods. It is the only one of the Niederberg mining colonies to do so! The colony is connected to the Plattenkolonie by a road crossing the railway east of the now decommissioned station (s). Between this road and the station the town hall (T) was built after WW2.

The layout of this mining colony differs from the other colonies of the Niederberg colliery. The curved streets all connect existing roads to a central public space. The houses are built in short rows of 4 or 5. In some places semidetached houses are built as well as detached houses and short rows of 3 houses. The semidetached and detached houses are concentrated in the south of the neighbourhood. The later additions of the Jahnsiedlung are shown as hatched blocks. This neighbourhoud differs in architecture, the roofs (the older buildings have hipped and half-hipped roofs) and the increased length of the terraces.

The placement of houses along the streets doesn't follow Unwinesk principles, as there is little variation in the building line and corner buildings don't swerve in or out, nor are they placed at a 45° angle (exept for 1). Also there is no emphasis at the centre with a larger building or a special function like a school or lodgings house. Furthermore closes aren't used. All in all this mining colony is best characterized as a simplified garden city inspired neighbourhood.

* the old German word broich means waterlogged soil or swampland, it later developed into brook in English meaning stream or into bruch/bruck in modern German and brug/broek in Dutch meaning pasture by a stream or low lying meadow.

Mining colonies: Alte Kolonie Niederberg, Neukirchen

In 1911 the owners of several mining concessions in Neukirchen, Vluyn, Niephauserfeld, Kapellen and Moers that had been united as the Grubenfeld Verein in 1857 founded the Lower Rhine Mining Company (Niederrheinische Bergwerk AG) based in Moers. Later the company headquarters moved to Neukirchen.

The first pit to be sunk was situated on the Dickscheheide between the villages of Neukirchen and Vluyn. The site was known as Niederberg (literally the lower hill) after a distinct elevation on the edge of the heath. The colliery was developed on both sides of the railway with the area to the north initially meant as a slag heap. The colliery is located on the site of the Hugen Hof farm (northern part) and the Kamphausen farm. The Bendschenhof farm still exists today and stands just outside of the colliery enclosure along the Ophülsgraben and Bendschenweg.

Work on pit Moers 1 started in 1912. Work on the second pit (named Moers 2) was begun in 1913. It was located next to the first pit. This was also the year that building work started south of the colliery site to provide for temporary workers housing.

As a result of the outbreak of WW1 pit construction was halted. Pit Moers1 reached the final depth in 1917. Production started soon after. The second pit wasn't completed until 1919. In 1921 all lifts and conveyors were in place so production from both pits could start.

Because of economic strains the bituminous coal that this mine produced wasn't in great demand. Thus, mining activities were temporarily suspended in 1932. After six months of cessation, mining could be resumed. After that, the production developed steadily. in the same year a briquette factory was opened that operated on the colliery site. After WW2 the focus shifted towards the production of household fuel from high grade anthracite coal (Anthrazit or Glanzkohle) and the production of chemical compounds.

At the same time that the first pit was completed a mining colony was built directly east of the colliery site. This Alte Kolonie (literally the Old Colony) was situated halfway between Neukirchen and Vluyn and was situated next to the older Plattenkolonie (1915-'16) consisting of wooden barracks between the railway and the Waldstraße. The Alte Kolonie - initially called Kolonie Bergwerk Niederberg - was developed between 1917 and 1925 and consists mainly of terraced houses for mine workers, some semidetached houses for middle management and a few detached villas for upper management. Along the Laukenstraße and Waldstraße semidetached and short terraced rows of three dwellings were erected between 1918 and 1919. These English inspired buildings are now part of the Plattenkolonie. The red wooden barracks were torn down in the 1960s. After WW2 the Glück Auf Siedlung was developed east of the Plattenkolonie. It is now part of Neukirchen South. The Alte Kolonie and Neukirchen South are separated by allotments along a stream (Lorfeldgraben).

The Alte Kolonie (A) has the Weddigerplatz (W) at its heart and is connected to the neighbouring Plattensiedlung (P) by the Hindenburgplatz (H) and a strip of allotment gardens (G) along the Larfeldgraben. Along the railway a row of barracks (B) used to stand. The outbuildings of the former Dickesche Hof farm were transformed into a Casino (community hall). Both farm and Casino no longer exist. The Höfken farm (h) next to the railway still stands. The Londongshof farm was transformed into a small colony: the Londong Kolonie (L). It was replaced by flats in the 1960s. After WW2 the Glück Auf Siedlung was built. This lead to the foundation of a school (S) and a new church (C) that replaced the wooden school buildings and provisionary church building (Notkirche) that stood behind the Dickesche Hof.

The Alte Kolonie fits with the German ideas on social housing. It doesn't follow the garden city principles on layout but shows a more formal distribution of dwellings along long streets with a green open space at its heart and  allotment gardens on the edge. The housing is not socially mixed but separated with the larger semidetached and detached properties in the southern part of the mining colony. The post-war extension (Glück Auf Siedlung) follows the pattern, but the buildings are much less detailed in style and do not reference vernacular architecture (Alte Kolonie) or the cottage style (Plattensiedlung).

The oldest part of the colony is a row of wooden barracks. The second phase fans out from the Hindenburgplatz. The third phase is focused on the Weddigenplatz. The latter is situated along the old route connecting Vluyn with Neukirchen, renamed Ernst Moritz Arndtstraße after the famous poet and patriotic writer. In the third phase The Bendschenweg was extended to the Siebertstraße. In the fourth phase of development the Laukenstraße was extended east and new streets were constructed running of the main route (E.M. Arndt Straße). The Bendschemweg wasn't extended across the Larfeldgraben as the new main route until the second half of the 1960s.This route then became the backbone of further housing developments (Fichte Siedlung).

Neukirchen-Vluyn, how two villages became a mining town

Both the village of Vluyn and the village of Neukirchen are located west of the Rhine on a former flow channel of this river, that has silted up. These former flow channels are recognizable in the landscape as curved depressions with a stream or ditch running through it. The first mention of Vluyn is a deed from 900 AD (as in den Flunen). Neukirchen is as the name (meaning new church) suggests a later settlement, first mentioned in 1230 in a land deed from the Camp Abbey (Abtei Kamp). Both settlements lay on the edge of a large complex of arable fields surrounded by large farmsteads. Along the streams we see meadows. Forrest grows on ridges. The rest of the landscape is communal wasteland, mostly heathland called Heide.

This late medieval landscape persists for many centuries until Franz Haniel successfully drills for coal in 1854 and thus shows the existence of exploitable coal reserves on the left bank of the Rhine. Geological conditions made exploitation of these coal seams impossible until the development of pit sinking by freezing. During the 1870s several mining companies were founded. Exploitation is low to start though. In September 1911 the Niederrheinische Bergwerks-Aktiengesellschaft is founded combining the mining concessions Großherzog von Baden, Ernst Moritz Arndt and Süddeutschland.

The urban landscape of Neukirchen-Vluyn has the former colliery Niederberg at its heart. Close to the colliery several housing estates (so-called colonies) were developed to house the workers (shown in deep red). Around that private housing along preexisting streets and roads (shown in amber). Around the old villages Vluyn (V) and Neukirchen (N) a ring road (shown in red) was constructed. Along these ring roads later housing estates (shown in amber) were built. The undulating watercourses are quite striking. The hamlet of Hochkamer (H) still lies among the fields. Near Vluyn the water castle Schloss Bloemersheim (B) still stands. To the north we find the Halde Norddeutchland (HN) a large slagheap near the northern pit of Bergwerk Niederberg.

A site between Neukirchen and Vluyn adjacent to the railway Moers - Sevelen (1909-'10) was selected as the site of the colliery. Work started here in 1913. Two pits were sunk on the Dickscheheide near the Dickschen Hof farmstead. To house the workers of the mine new houses were developed adjacent to the colliery. This started with wooden barracks on the Waldstraße. This temporary accommodation was followed by the Plattenkolonie (1916-'19), Alte Kolonie (1917-'25), Kolonie Möllenbruckshof (1919-'25), Neue Kolonie (1926-'30), Kolonie Londongshof (1926-'27), Glück Auf Siedlung (1948-'58), Rathhaussiedlung (1955-'60), Jahnsiedlung (1955-'60), Siedlung Roosenstraße (1955-'65), Siedlung Fichtestraße (1960-'65) and Grevensiedlung (1960-'65). The location of the mine between the two villages meant an increase in private residences as well. These where mainly built along existing roads. The combination of these urban developments lead to Neukirchen and Vluyn becoming connected by suburban streets. After WW2 (and especially after 1970) building societies developed new housing estates linked to the new ring roads that were constructed around the historic centres of both Vluyn and Neukirchen. In 1981 the conurbation of Neukirchen-Vluyn was granted town-status. In 2001 the Niederberg colliery closed. The site at the heart of Neukirchen-Vluyn has been cleared and will be developed for housing.

The Niederberg colliery is at the heart of several colonies and housing estates: Plattenkolonie (P), Alte Kolonie (A), Kolonie Möllenbruckshof (M), Neue Kolonie (N), Kolonie Londongshof (L), Glück Auf Siedlung (GA), Rathhaussiedlung (R), Jahnsiedlung (J), Siedlung Roosenstraße (SR), Siedlung Fichtestraße (F) and Grevensiedlung.