Coal mining was an important part of the industrial revolution in Germany, leading to the « Wirtschaftswunder » after WWII, and contributed largely to the development of today’s key industries. That is now history. Prosper Haniel, the last remaining colliery, closes in 2018.
Coal mining had once attracted countless people from all over Germany, as well as migrant workers form Turkey, Greece and Poland, all with the hope for a better life. They worked hard in dust and dirt, but after work found refuge in their own, lovingly self-created little homely world: Swimming pools in the workers’ housing...