BOTTROP, GERMANY: Germany will close its last black coal mine on Friday, a milestone marking the end of a 200-year-old industry that once fuelled the country’s economic growth but lost the battle against cheaper foreign competitors.
The remaining 1,500 workers of the Prosper-Haniel mine in Bottrop will make their final descent into the pit’s belly, greeting each other one more time with the traditional “Glueck auf, Kumpel”, or “Good luck, buddy”.
“We owe so much to generations of miners: warmth, prosperity, security,” Economy Minister Peter Altmaier tweeted. “Thank you!”
The miners will end their shift by handing a symbolic last chunk of “black gold” to President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in a ceremony also to be attended by European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker.
A mining choir will sing the miners’ anthem “Steigerlied” and local churches will hold special services in what promises to be a poignant farewell to a historic era in western Germany’s industrial Ruhr heartland.
The 150-year-old deep-shaft colliery will then be sealed up for good.
“There’s a deep sadness now that it’s all going to be over soon,” miner Thomas Echtermeyer, 47, told Bild daily.
