Aachener Steinkohlrevier, mining in Limburg

The Aachener Steinkohlrevier connects to the coal reserves of the Sillon Industriel, the Walloon industrial heartland. This reserve of coal stretches from the city of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) through the Netherlands into the Belgian Campine. The coal deposits around Aix-la-Chapelle consist of both black coal and brown coal (or lignite). Lignite is still mined north of the city in large surface mining pits of many square kilometres.

Mining of coal in near-surface deposits had been practiced from 1200 onwards (in Kerkrade) by the local monastery. Mining in this area started in earnest around 1800 around Aachen, then part of Prussia. In 1810 Walloon engineers preformed deep probing, but found little of interest.André Dumont was convinced that the coal found around Aix-la-Chapelle would stretch further westward, possibly as far as Antwerp below the hills of Limburg and undulating landscape of the Campine. So in 1891 he starts a program of methodical probing for coal in South Limburg, the Limburgian Campine and the Antwerp Campine. Save for the latter area, his probing was successful so concessions were obtained around 1900 from the Belgian and Dutch authorities to start mining. Not only coal was discovered, lignite was also found between Brunssum and Heerlen (Carisborg, Braunhilde and Energie), near Geleen (Louisagroeve) and north of Kerkrade (Herman and Anna). Salt and sand for glass manufacturing were also discovered.

Mining in the Limburgian Campine has been discussed earlier. In the adjacent area of South Limburg -part of the Netherlands- mining for coal and stone quarries had existed for many centuries but never at a large scale. The first concession for scaled-up mining was granted to the Rolduc Abbey in 1766. The first mines to follow the successful probing by Walloon engineers were German industrialists from the city of Aix-la-Chapelle. Belgian Henri Sarolea was granted the concession for the Oranje-Nassau Mines in 1893. German Anton Wackers received his concession Laura in 1899 and the concession for Julia in 1900. In 1899 the Dutch government had appointed the State Commission on Mining who advised against granting further concessions to foreign companies, but to exploit the reserves in a state-lead company: Domanial and State Mines (now DSM). In total 5 mining concession were granted: Wilhelmina (1906), Emma (1911), Hendrik (1915), Maurits (1926) and Beatrix (1954). The last concession was never exploited, so there were 4 state mines in Limburg.

The mines of South Limburg are all located in the south of the Dutch Province of Limburg, between the cities of Aix-la-Chapelle (A), Maastricht (M), Liège (L), Genk (G) and Roermond (R). Unexploited deposits extend northward under the Peel Region between the cities of Eindhoven (E) and Venlo (V).The private mines were located in Kerkrade (Domanial Mine - D), in Eygelshoven (Laura & Julia Mines - L), in Spekholzerheide (Willem-Sophia Mine - WS), and in Heerlen, Heerlerheide and Schaesberg (Orange Nassau Mines 1-4 - ON). The state mines were located further north in Terwinselen (State Mine Wilhelmina - W), in Brunssum (State Mine Hendrik - H), in Treebeek (State Mine Emma - E), in Geleen (State Mine Maurits - M), and the never exploited concession in Herkenbosch (State Mine Beatrix - B).

Mining in the Netherlands would last until 1974. State Mine Maurits in Geleen closed first. The other mines followed suit and the last mine to close was Oranje-Nassau I that had opened in 1899 and was one of the oldest and deepest mines in operation. The evidence of mining was quickly wiped out, spoil heaps were levelled, apart from a few that were to polluted, all the buildings and rail tracks were demolished and broken up. The sites of the mines were developed for housing or for industrial use. In some cases even the old mining colonies were torn down in an effort to mitigate the loss -as seen from a political vantage point far away in The Hague. Unlike the situation in the adjoining Limburgian Campine in Belgium where many remnants remain, only a few mining colonies, collieries, spoil heaps and train tracks remain. State imposed job-creation proved short-term and of little help to the miners that had been laid off, so to this day former mining districts in the towns of Geleen, Brunssum, Heerlen, Kerkrade and Landgraaf remain pockets of high unemployment, low skill levels and little prospects.

My Money Tree

Crassula ovata, commonly known as the Jade plant or Money tree, is a succulent in the Crassulaceae family. It's a native of South Africa, but is widely grown as a houseplant. It was first described by Philip Miller in 1768 as Cotyledon ovata, but was -rightly- moved to the genus Crassula in 1917 by George Claridge Druce. Although not frost-hardy, with sufficient cold the plant produces small clusters of star-like flowers that start of pink and quickly turn white.

My Money tree flowers most years, but this year it is doing very well, probably because I forgot to water the plant during the festive season...

Mining colonies of the Ruhrrevier

During the 19th century the population of the Ruhr Area grew rapidly as a result of industrialisation. Towns and cities with a few thousand inhabitant grew within 75 years to large conurbations of over 100.000 residents. The early growth in industries (factories and mines) was realised by recruiting from the region. From 1860 onwards large-scale migration from (present-day) Poland -Silesia, Pomerania, East Prussia and Posen- was needed to supply the workforce needed for the growth of industries in the Ruhr Area. The German-speaking migrants were quickly absorbed into their new homeland, the Polish-speaking migrants, however, were treated as second-class citizens. This would eventually result in strikes and the foundation in 1899 of a Workers' Union.

Skilled workers were often housed in so-called mining colonies. These housing estates were built by the mining firms to provide accommodation for the miners and their families. By 1870 3 million people were living in the Ruhr Area, making it the largest industrial region of Europe. Special cottages set aside for miners had already been built during medieval times and in the following centuries. But these stayed small-scale in accordance with the small-scale industrial activities. Some mines only had 6 miners for instance. Most of the influx of migrant workers were housed in converted sheds and purpose-built housing that was often rented per room.

The first planned housing provision was created in 1844 when the Gutehoffnungshütte (an ore mine) located in Oberhausen built a number of houses for married foremen and overseers in the Colony Eisenheim. This colony exists to this day. The name translates as "home of iron" and is very apt for housing worker of an iron and zinc mine. Each building was two storeys high and comprised of two dwellings. The houses were arranged in long rows along a street. After several extensions were completed this miners colony housed some 1200 people in 51 buildings. That is an average of 10 per dwelling! Often housing types were copied; e.g. the Siedlung Stemmersberg shows exactly the same houses as Eisenheim.

The Siedlung Eisenheim developed from a small number of double houses (9) an a short terrace of 4 dwellings built in 1844-45 into a rather incidental collection of 42 dwellings in 20 buildings along pre-existing roads in 1872. In 1903 we see a true colony with new streets connecting older streets that were built on, on both sides. Although not a garden village as such, this mining colony is a good example of a rural inspired suburban purpose-built housing estate.[Image based on images by NordNordWest - Creative Commons]

Apart from the low building type that was inspired by rural dwellings built for farm workers, a second more urban type of two storeys were often built before 1860. The need for more housing had become so acute that newly opened mines could only be exploited by providing housing for skilled workers with a family. For the single young men that also flocked to the Ruhr Area special boarding houses were erected. These were often called "Hotel" although they were more like hostels.

Another popular type of housing was the MulhouseQuadrangle. These houses were first shown at the 1855 Paris Exhibition as model housing pioneered in the Alsace for the workers in a Potassium mine. The 4 dwellings combined in a single building were first built in 1858 in Bochum as the Colony Stahlhausen (literally: houses of steel) for the Gussstahlfabrik Mayer. Colonies with Mulhouse Quadrangles can be easily recognised on maps and city plans as rows of housing between two -often narrow- streets. This type was built in many mining colonies around the Ruhr Area. This was also very necessary as after 1871 win over France the Prussian economy boomed and no less than 700.000 people migrated to the region.

The miners' colonies could hardly cope with the amount of people needing housing. So many families shared a dwelling or took in a lodger or rented a bedroom to shift workers to sleep during the day. The shift workers and single men in hostels relied on communal kitchens and laundries. They could shower at their workplace. Many of the housing built between 1975 and 1899 reflected these arrangements by providing a central living kitchen where people could eat and that was accessed via stairs or a corridor directly from all the bedrooms, so the family room would not have to be entered by the lodger or bed renter. After 1885 subletting of rooms and even outbuildings was seen as a big health and social problem. So inspectors started to be employed to visit the houses in the mining colonies. At the same time apartment blocks with a communal entrance hall with an overseer were being pioneered as another solution to housing the ever-growing influx of labourers.

Every mine had at least one, but often several colonies. These were often situated near the collieries. Where they survive they are very distinctive enclaves within the urban sprawl of the present Ruhr Area. Near cokes plants, glass and steel plants the colonies were located upwind. Some colonies provided sheds for small animals such as chickens, geese or the occasional goat or pig. After 1900 this factory housing changed in character, either going down the route of urban super blocks (Gartenhof) or suburban, rural-inspired, low-density housing in garden villages (Gartenstadt). Well-known examples of garden villages in the Ruhr Area are: Margarethenhöhe (Essen), Dahlhauser Heide (Bochum), Gartenstadt Hüttenau (Welper), Margarethensiedlung (Duisburg-Rheinhausen), Gartenstadt Welheim (Bottrop), Siedlung Teutoburgia (Herne), Alt Siedlung (Kamp-Lintfort), Gartenstadt Hassel (Gelsenkirchen), Kolonie Maximilian (Hamm), Siedlung Zweckel I, II & II (Gladbeck) and Alte Kolonie - Siedlung Lindenhorst (Dortmund-Eving). These are all part of the Route of Industrial Culture.

More winter colour

A few cold nights haven't deterred some plants from flowering, although blooms are much less now than before. The lower temperatures have had another effect. Many leaves have tinged red as a way of preventing frost damage, adding another dimension to the winter garden.

Heuchera holds on to its leaves in mild winters. These lovely red tinged leaves with silver markings (on the left) belong to the cultivar Silver Scrolls. Helleborus orientalis normally flowers in early spring but is still going strong in my sheltered urban garden. The leaves of Bergenia (right) take on shades of red, purple and maroon after a few cold nights.

Collieries of the Ruhrrevier

Mining in the Ruhr Area started in the middle ages but really took off from 1700 when the use of explosives made it possible to create deeper pits accessing deeper coal seams. These earliest collieries were often small in scale with only a few dozen to a hundred miners working a single pit. Most of these older collieries were located south of the river Ruhr. As technical advanced made it possible to exploit more difficult reserves of coal, salt, ores and sand (for glass) the mining industry quickly grew and many new mining concessions were granted within the Ruhrrevier. In 1828 the first horse-drawn railways are built, followed in 1846 by the first railway proper. By this time hundreds of mines were in operation, and some had already been closed due to lack of reserves or technical difficulties (gas, water, gallery collapse and sinking).

The mining activities around Mülheim a/d Ruhr and Essen lead to infrastructure projects to connect these mines with the Harbour on the Ruhr. So in 1839 the Aktienstrasse (Shares Street) was opened connecting the two cities funded by industrialists buying a stake in the road company. At the same time several horse-drawn railways were in operation between the scattered mines and the harbour or to the Aktienstrasse.

Coal mines and related heavy industries such as blast furnaces, steel works and glass factories were spread throughout the Ruhrrevier, with a concentration between the rivers Ruhr and Emscher. Most mines were located in Bochum, Essen, Witten, Dortmund and Hattingen. Outlying places along the river Lippe or on the left bank of the Rhine had fewer mines in operation. In Kamp-Lintfort, for instance, only three mines were exploited, whilst Moers had 4 mines, Eneppe had 3, Neukirchen-Vluyn had 1 and Hamm had 6. Most mines had more than one pit. A number of 3 or 4 pits was most common with some mines having up to 7 pits per concession. These pits could be around the same town or village, but also be spread across several Ortschaften.

Tiefbau (mining coal below groundwater layers) quickly developed from about 1840 onwards as the possibilities to secure pits deeper than 50 metres became available with concrete tubing and freeze sinking. Franz Haniel had already experimented with Tiefbau in 1808 with the 46 metres vertical pit "Victoria" at Zeche Vollmond in Werne (now part of Bochum). In mining breaking groundwater layers caused major problems as the pit or the galleries would flood  with groundwater. For this a special system was used with a parallel pit where the water collected to be pumped out. In 1883  engineer Friedrich Hermann Poetsch is the first to sink a pit by freezing the subsoil, a method pioneered in Wales in the 1860s. In combination with concrete tubing securing the pit walls, this method made pits at depths of 70 and even over 100 metres possible.  In total almost 1300 mines were once in operation within the Ruhrrevier.

A total number of 1297 mines spread over 21 cities and rural districts made up the Ruhrrevier. Not all of these mines were in operation simultaneously. Some were closed before the mining boom of the second half of the 19th century. Most were shut down and dismantled between 1955 and 1985.

These mines were named after their concession or were given a fanciful name. The concession took the name of a local area, for instance a small hamlet, village or town. Names of farms or fieldnames were also used. Thus these concessions could me easily located on the maps made by the Bergbeamte (governmental Mining Official). Examples are Bruchstrasse, Cleverbank, Hasenwinkel, Herzkamp, Osterfeld and Westerholt. Other mines were given an aspirational name e.g. Bergmannsglück, Glück Auf, Gute Hoffnung, Freiheit, Geduld, Wohlgemut and Vereinigte Brüderschaft. Most mines, however, were named for people. These could be the original noble landowner or a member of the ruling elite (Prosper, Prinz Regent, Friedrich, Deutscher Kaiser, Maximillian, Graf Wittekind, Wilhelm II), saints and gods (Donar, Wodan, Sanct Peter, Sanct Paul, Bonifacius, Venus, Victoria, Fortuna), animals (Schwarzte Rabe, Haase), places (Java, Hibernia, Westphalia, Deutschland, Schleswig, Tremonia, Borussia), plants (Feigenbaum, Pfingstblume, Kirschbaum), politicians (Minister Stein, Fürst Hardenberg, Präsident), industrialists and bankers (Adolph von Hansemann, Franz Haniel, Carl Funke) and wives and children of company directors (Sophia, Margarethe, Helena, Eleonore, Charlotte and many, many more).