LWL Museum Nightingale colliery

The Muttental is considered the "cradle of Ruhr mining". Nowhere else in the Ruhr area can the transition from manual to industrial mining be traced more clearly than at the Nachtigall colliery. The historic buildings have had an eventful history: Nachtigall was not only a colliery, but also a brick factory, sandstone quarry and scrap yard. A site that was threatened with final decay - and which today, as the LWL industrial museum, not only reflects its own past, but also the pioneering days of the coal and steel industry in the region. Among other things, visitors can go directly into a real hard coal seam.

The beginnings of Ruhr mining lie in the south of the Ruhr area: in Witten, the hard coal is found in the Hettberg area just a few meters below ground. Farmers were the first to dig for coal there for their own use. The first request for coal production is recorded for the year 1714. The trade in black gold became a business from 1743: At that time, Freiherr Friedrich von Elverfeldt acquired all shares for the "Hettberger Holtze" area. The hard coal was first mined via tunnels that were driven into the mountain; it was not until 1832 that the first civil engineering shaft was sunk on Nachtigall. Thanks to the merger with other small mines in the region, Nachtigall was already the largest mine in the Ruhr area in 1844; Between 1850 and 1860, 300 to 500 people worked at depths of up to 450 meters at the colliery, which has since been sold to Dutch investors.

A good four decades later, however, the colliery could no longer keep up with the possibilities of modern large shaft systems. Strong water inflows, which were a problem from the start, increasingly caused operational failures; the Witten coal was also not suitable for coking. In 1892 the promotion was stopped. This was followed by: subsequent use as a brickworks from 1897 - and after various "intermediate stations" the decay of the plant.

When the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe took over the Nachtigall colliery in the Westfälisches Industriemuseum (today LWL-Industriemuseum) in 1983, only the machine house with a steam engine, an operating building and the boiler house chimney were preserved. The colliery houses were demolished in 1966. Refurbishment, restoration and conception should last until 2003. Visitor's mine, regular demonstrations of the historic steam hoist, extensive permanent and exciting special exhibitions as well as guided tours and events make the LWL industrial museum Nightingale colliery an exciting place to learn and a popular destination