In the heart of the coalfield.

When it rains rather than snows and no longer wants to be hell - why not go underground? In the German Mining Museum at Bochum leads an elevator for more than 15 meters in depth and monstrous devices past the pit.
  Bochum - The best is the view of Bochum on the platform of the scaffolding support from Germania: The bell towers, chimneys and power stations in the city are here in the 62 meters in height just to see how the stadium from VfL - in good weather and visibility ranges up to Villa Hill after dinner. But the view from the top most interested visitors only on the fringes. The headframe Germania heard since 1973, the German Mining Museum (DBM). And that deals primarily with the world in days.

It is considered the largest mining museum in the world and has around 400,000 visitors to one of the most popular museums in Germany. As elsewhere, many city fathers did not imagine was that industrial culture in a museum space could have decided the city of Bochum, the Westphalian mountain Checkout unions and several mining companies, even a group. That was 1930. Since 1976, states that German Mining Museum - which is an indication that there is not only regional history will tell.
And so is not only about the removal of coal in the Ruhr region, but the techniques in the mining industry as a whole, regardless of whether Feuerstein, salt, iron or other metal ores to be won. What the charm of the museum represents, is also a showcase mine, in which the visitors arrive by the elevator with 15.40 meters deep drive. This is ridiculous compared to what the buddies on their way to work in the tunnel had to take. But it is exciting and vivid.
80 tons of heavy tunnel cutters
Mining history is history of technology. Because of the difficult conditions deep under ground engineers had always something else. And so in Bochum are a whole series of unusual machines to see. Some of them are non-miners like science fiction from a neighboring galaxy.
There are already many museum: A tunnel cutters Year of construction 1967 belongs to a more than 14-meter-long monster part, 80 tonnes of heavy, designed to be adamant about cutting through the rock.
Centimeter for centimeter, it works itself forward. Just five meters in the hour creates the gigantic trencher. Hundreds of meters below the ground level but is much more complicated and dangerous. Sometimes even louder - for the drill and drill, built in 1955, applies for example: If he starts, he comes to the noise level of a jet fighter. Even a brief demonstration shows convincingly why miners in such a device better wore ear protection.
Pneumatic hammers were used in 1920 - deafness was at the miners are not uncommon. To get it to protect the miners schoben with fat eingeschmierte sheep wool in the ears - a lot has not helped.
Tobias horse went into retirement with 17
A job as Kohlhauer was also in other respects no pleasure. The work was physically hard, the daily requirement stood at 7,000 calories. And work with pneumatic hammers made much easier while, was but a huge burden, often health damage had.
OSH played in earlier centuries, a much smaller role than today. Sometimes it went underground, the animals better than humans: there were horses there for a long time, especially for pulling the tram. The last pit horse in Bochum said Tobias. It was 17 years old when it went in 1966 in retirement - after a life underground in the heart of the coalfield.

German Mining Museum, Museum of Mining On 28, 44791 Bochum. Phone: 01805/87 72 34, Internet: www.bergbaumuseum.de