The Our Fritz colliery in Herne
Malakowturm, artists' colliery and Cranger fair
They all belonged to the Our Fritz colliery. Nevertheless, three different colliery sites in Herne have developed very differently. In the vicinity of a weather shaft in Alt-Crange, around four million people come to one of the largest folk festivals in Germany every year - the Cranger Kirmes, named after the district. Today, many of them have no idea of the significance of the site. Another site becomes the logistics site, in the middle of which stands the old stone winding tower, which may not fit in with the overall picture. The third area became known as the "Künstlerzeche" and is also a green area with playgrounds directly on the canal, over which a particularly beautiful bridge leads here.
Located in the north-west of Herne, the Unser Fritz colliery consisted of three pits. Coal mining began in 1874 at pit I/IV. It is probably named after the German Emperor Friedrich III. (1831-1888). Only 11 years later, mining began at the II / III mine, about 700 meters to the north. The Rhine-Herne Canal, which was created later, still makes a slight detour around this pit today. In 1923, the Unser Fritz colliery was combined with the nearby Consolidation colliery in Gelsenkirchen and at the same time a ventilation shaft was put into operation in Alt-Crange. At the end of the 1920s, administration and production were taken over by the Consolidation colliery, which was initially shut down and continued to operate under the administration of this mine from 1936. The pits were largely no longer used. The official total decommissioning took place in 1993.
The artist colliery in the culture park and the parrot bridge
We owe today's artists' mine to the fact that a mine was not allowed to have just one shaft. A second pit was built north of the Emscher, which at that time was still flowing naturally in curves. Today the river flows further north and the Rhine-Herne Canal uses its old course. The colliery is located between the two bodies of water on the so-called "Emscher Island". Roughly over the course of today's pedestrian bridge over the canal, a 730 meter long chain railway led between the two shaft systems when it was active. Coal mining at the second pit ended in December 1925, but was resumed a little later until 1982 as the Consolidation pit.