No easy years
Work and leisure in the area
Since the 1920s, there has been a structured training programme in the Ruhr mining industry. It was part of a new corporate social policy introduced by employers: young miners were to be systematically trained and, through attractive leisure activities, retained at the colliery after work and integrated into the ‘work community’.
The exhibition ‘Keine Herrenjahre’ (No easy Years) reconstructs the stages of training with original exhibits from the training workshop, the vocational school and the training area, among other places.
It focuses on the everyday working life of young career starters, their living conditions in the colony, in the apprentice hostel and in the Pestalozzi village, as well as their leisure interests in the context of company social policy, working-class culture and the modern leisure industry. The exhibition also outlines the various educational and cultural influences that the young miners encountered and shows how they dealt with them, where and to what extent they shaped their own culture and history.
Clean and healthy
Hygiene and health care in the Ruhr mining industry
When the Zollern colliery washhouse was built, changing rooms and washrooms for miners had already become standard practice in collieries in the Ruhr area. The bathing basins, which all members of a shift had to climb into if they wanted to wash and which were a hotbed for many infectious diseases, were almost a thing of the past. The facilities at the Zollern pithead baths were in line with the standards of the time: a changing room with a shower area and hooks on which the miners hung their clothes under the ceiling. After the Second World War, the showers were moved to an extension and a new changing room was created, where only street clothes were hung.
The exhibition ‘Clean and Healthy’ traces the history of this facility based on the changing room equipment and embeds it in the general history of hygiene. It uses image and audio documents to introduce the people who worked in the changing room and used it: the changing room attendant, who kept it clean, and the miners, for whom the changing room was also an important place of communication. The miners' wives, who had to wash and maintain the miners' work clothes until 1969, are also included. Medical equipment from the colliery's own health centres is also on display.
Explosion hazard
Mine rescue services and testing facilities
Working in mining involves numerous hazards. In addition to everyday accidents at work, mining accidents occur time and again, claiming a large number of lives. Since the mid-19th century, not only has the amount of coal mined increased, but so has the number of underground explosions. Coal mining releases methane, which becomes explosive when mixed with air in certain concentrations, forming what is known as firedamp. Coal dust is also a potential source of explosion.
The most devastating accidents are caused by combined firedamp and coal dust explosions, which can travel several hundred metres through the mine workings. The exhibition focuses on the specific accident hazards in mining and commemorates the serious mining accidents in the Ruhr area. In a simulated training room, it familiarises visitors with the work of the mine rescue service using training and rescue equipment and pays tribute to their commitment and achievements. Models, experimental setups and test objects from the Tremonia experimental mine in Dortmund and the Derne mining test track also demonstrate the successful efforts to improve mine safety.
I had a comrade
Fatal accidents in mining
This exhibition addresses one of the most difficult chapters in mining history, namely fatal accidents at work, using the example of the Zollern colliery. It documents the 161 fatal accidents at the Zollern II/IV colliery.
The chronological overview of fatal accidents at Zollern shows which accidents were typical, how frequently they occurred and how they changed over time. The exhibition gives visitors a vivid and almost brutal insight into work processes and the history of the mine from a perspective never seen before.
The exhibition space is furnished with only a few objects. This makes it appear sparse and reduced to the essentials. A simple wall stone is mounted on the wall, which was provided on permanent loan by the Bochum Mining Association. The stone, dedicated to ‘the dead’, used to hang in the foyer of the association.