BERLIN: Germany will shut its last black coal mine on Friday, turning the page on two centuries of mining historical past in the Ruhr region that helped gasoline the rustic's post-war "economic miracle".
Although the top of the Prosper-Haniel colliery near the western the town of Bottrop comes as polluting coal is increasingly more underneath scrutiny, it was less expensive challenging coal from out of the country, not environmental considerations, that sounded the mine's demise knell.
For the remaining 1,500 workers the general shift promises to be an emotional one, culminating in a ceremony to be attended by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and EU Commission leader Jean-Claude Juncker.
After greeting every other one more time with the traditional miners' call of "Glueck Auf!", shorthand for good luck in opening a brand new vein, the workers will deliver up a symbolic last chunk of black coal earlier than the 150-year-old deep-shaft mine is sealed up.
"There's a heavy sadness now that it's all going to be over soon," 47-year-old miner Thomas Echtermeyer told Bild newspaper, dressed in a dusty white general and yellow challenging hat.
Retired pitman Reinhold Adam, 72, who recently visited the mine for a last, nostalgic descent into its abdominal, told Bild it was "the camaraderie that's so special under ground".
With its personal vernacular, songs, football clubs and church services devoted to Saint Barbara, the consumer saint of miners, generations-old mining traditions are deeply woven into the fabric of day-to-day existence in the region.
As the realm's last lively mine bows out, many are mourning not just the top of a once-mighty industry however of a way of life.
Dating again to the 19th century, the coal mines, vegetation and steel generators that once dotted the Ruhr Valley in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia have been long the beating center of Germany's commercial growth, powering its financial restoration after World War II.
"For 150 years, coal was the country's main energy resource and most important raw material," stated historian Franz-Josef Brueggemeier, creator of a find out about at the Ruhr's mining historical past.
The mines also midwived Germany's oldest political celebration, the centre-left Social Democrats, who found a large support base for his or her social struggles among the blue-collar pit workers.
Western Germany's tight grip at the the most important coal and steel sectors inspired France to propose the creation of a European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, a commonplace marketplace between six countries designed to control competition -- and a precursor to the European Union.
But Germany's dominance in the hard- or black-coal marketplace began to wane in the 1960s as overseas competitors made it less expensive to import the "black gold".
Today lots of the challenging coal utilized in German coal-fired energy vegetation hails from Russia, the United States, Australia and Columbia.
The domestic industry, and the tens of 1000's of jobs relying on it, have for years been saved on existence support through authorities subsidies.
In 2017 by myself, the German authorities spent more than a thousand million euros propping up hard-coal mining.
"(Bringing up) a tonne of German hard coal costs 250 euros ($285), but only sells for 80 euros on the market," stated Christof Beike, a spokesman for the RAG Foundation, tasked with managing the Prosper-Haniel web page after its closure and serving to miners navigate the adjustments.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's authorities made up our minds in 2007 to segment out subsidies and shut the last black-coal mine by 2018 — giving the workers of Prosper-Haniel 11 years' realize.
The sluggish farewell has been credited with combating large-scale upheaval and offended protests, dodging the unrest seen in Margaret Thatcher's Britain in the 1980s when colliery closures provoked mass strikes.
But Germany's farewell to black-coal mining is on no account an go out from coal altogether in a country the place the fossil gasoline nonetheless accounts for almost 40 p.c of its power combine — partly on account of Merkel's resolution to ditch nuclear energy.
To the dismay of environmentalists, Germany nonetheless has a large number of open-pit mines that extract lignite or brown coal, which is softer, less expensive and dirtier than black coal.
But it is an industry underneath rising threat as countries all over the world search for tactics to segment out fossil fuels to struggle local weather trade.
In Germany, a government-appointed commission will in February announce a roadmap for exiting coal as a part of efforts to make the rustic carbon-neutral by 2050.
Although the top of the Prosper-Haniel colliery near the western the town of Bottrop comes as polluting coal is increasingly more underneath scrutiny, it was less expensive challenging coal from out of the country, not environmental considerations, that sounded the mine's demise knell.
For the remaining 1,500 workers the general shift promises to be an emotional one, culminating in a ceremony to be attended by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and EU Commission leader Jean-Claude Juncker.
After greeting every other one more time with the traditional miners' call of "Glueck Auf!", shorthand for good luck in opening a brand new vein, the workers will deliver up a symbolic last chunk of black coal earlier than the 150-year-old deep-shaft mine is sealed up.
"There's a heavy sadness now that it's all going to be over soon," 47-year-old miner Thomas Echtermeyer told Bild newspaper, dressed in a dusty white general and yellow challenging hat.
Retired pitman Reinhold Adam, 72, who recently visited the mine for a last, nostalgic descent into its abdominal, told Bild it was "the camaraderie that's so special under ground".
With its personal vernacular, songs, football clubs and church services devoted to Saint Barbara, the consumer saint of miners, generations-old mining traditions are deeply woven into the fabric of day-to-day existence in the region.
As the realm's last lively mine bows out, many are mourning not just the top of a once-mighty industry however of a way of life.
Dating again to the 19th century, the coal mines, vegetation and steel generators that once dotted the Ruhr Valley in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia have been long the beating center of Germany's commercial growth, powering its financial restoration after World War II.
"For 150 years, coal was the country's main energy resource and most important raw material," stated historian Franz-Josef Brueggemeier, creator of a find out about at the Ruhr's mining historical past.
The mines also midwived Germany's oldest political celebration, the centre-left Social Democrats, who found a large support base for his or her social struggles among the blue-collar pit workers.
Western Germany's tight grip at the the most important coal and steel sectors inspired France to propose the creation of a European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, a commonplace marketplace between six countries designed to control competition -- and a precursor to the European Union.
But Germany's dominance in the hard- or black-coal marketplace began to wane in the 1960s as overseas competitors made it less expensive to import the "black gold".
Today lots of the challenging coal utilized in German coal-fired energy vegetation hails from Russia, the United States, Australia and Columbia.
The domestic industry, and the tens of 1000's of jobs relying on it, have for years been saved on existence support through authorities subsidies.
In 2017 by myself, the German authorities spent more than a thousand million euros propping up hard-coal mining.
"(Bringing up) a tonne of German hard coal costs 250 euros ($285), but only sells for 80 euros on the market," stated Christof Beike, a spokesman for the RAG Foundation, tasked with managing the Prosper-Haniel web page after its closure and serving to miners navigate the adjustments.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's authorities made up our minds in 2007 to segment out subsidies and shut the last black-coal mine by 2018 — giving the workers of Prosper-Haniel 11 years' realize.
The sluggish farewell has been credited with combating large-scale upheaval and offended protests, dodging the unrest seen in Margaret Thatcher's Britain in the 1980s when colliery closures provoked mass strikes.
But Germany's farewell to black-coal mining is on no account an go out from coal altogether in a country the place the fossil gasoline nonetheless accounts for almost 40 p.c of its power combine — partly on account of Merkel's resolution to ditch nuclear energy.
To the dismay of environmentalists, Germany nonetheless has a large number of open-pit mines that extract lignite or brown coal, which is softer, less expensive and dirtier than black coal.
But it is an industry underneath rising threat as countries all over the world search for tactics to segment out fossil fuels to struggle local weather trade.
In Germany, a government-appointed commission will in February announce a roadmap for exiting coal as a part of efforts to make the rustic carbon-neutral by 2050.
End of an era as Germany's last black coal mine closes
![End of an era as Germany's last black coal mine closes]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
December 19, 2018
Rating:
