End of an era: Germany closes its last black coal mine
Source: Associated Press
End of an era: Germany closes its last black coal mine
By FRANK JORDANS
December 21, 2018
BERLIN (AP) — Straining to hold back tears, their once-white helmets and overalls smeared with dust, seven miners in Germany stepped out of a metal cage Friday bearing the last piece of black coal hauled up from 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) below.
The ceremony marked the end of an industry that laid the foundations for Germany’s industrial revolution and its post-war economic recovery.
The men at the Prosper-Haniel mine symbolically handed the football-sized lump of coal to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier with the words “Glueck Auf.” The ancient miners’ greeting roughly translates as “good luck,” reflecting the uncertainty of a life spent prospecting deep underground.
“A piece of German history is coming to an end here,” Steinmeier told the miners. “Without it, our entire country and its development over the past 200 years would have been unthinkable.”
The Prosper-Haniel mine in the western city of Bottrop and another colliery in Ibbenbueren, 100 kilometers (62 miles) to the north, were the last remnants of an industry that once dominated the region, employing half a million people at its peak in the 1950s. Together, they helped feed the Ruhr valley’s hungry steel mills until imports of cheaper, foreign coal made Germany’s “black gold” lose its sheen.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/38cd90b721934af185b0cfdb99cdb985