The headframe of the German Mining Museum is being renovated
Renovation work has begun on the headframe of the German Mining Museum in Bochum. Therefore, the viewing platforms will be closed from February 8th and tower tours will no longer be possible until the Christmas holidays. The rest of the museum with its four tours in the permanent exhibition as well as the exhibition mine are still open. After the steel framework was last renovated in 1999/2000, new maintenance measures have now become necessary.
The first visible construction site facility is a 160 t truck crane that was erected on the museum's lawn. The largest exhibition object in the mining museum, measuring around 70m, will be completely scaffolded and covered with a tarpaulin to make it dust-tight and finally re-primed and coated.
From the end of April 2024, the special exhibition “Doppelbock auf Museum” will provide an insight into the methods of restoration work.
The headframe has been rising above the DBM in Bochum since 1973. It had previously stood at the Germania mine in Dortmund-Marten. Designed by the renowned industrial architects Fritz Schupp and Martin Kremmer, the full-walled double trestle scaffolding (also known as double strut headframe) had been built 40 years earlier. With a weight of 650 t, a height of around 70 meters and a diameter of the rope pulleys of 8 m, it was considered the world's largest conveyor frame at the time and was one of the most modern and powerful conveyor systems in the German coal mining industry. After the Germania mine was shut down in 1971, the Doppelbock was dismantled into individual parts and brought to Bochum in special transporters.
(Photo: DBM/Pewny)