Friedrich Heinrich colliery park in Kamp-Lintfort

In 2021, Friedrich Heinrich colliery was included as the 27th anchor point in the Industrial Heritage Route. The only industrial monument west of the Rhine wonderfully combines nature and industrial culture.

The Friedrich Heinrich mine was the third large mine to be founded on the left bank of the Rhine. In 1906, a French banking group acquired the mining area from the heirs of the industrialist Friedrich Heinrich Freiherr von Diergardt in order to secure coalable deposits for the local ironworks. From 1907, a double-shaft plant with a coking plant was built that was unique in the Ruhr mining industry to date. In 1924 the group De Wendel from Lorraine took over the colliery. The French commitment ended in 1970 with the integration of Friedrich Heinrich into Ruhrkohle AG. But the Kamp-Lintfort colliery was not just beautiful: as early as August 1958, Friedrich Heinrich was the first colliery in the Ruhr mining industry to completely mechanize mining. In the 1980s, the first RAG control station went into operation. And in 1997, in the Girondelle 5 seam, a 1000 meter long longwall was prepared for production at a depth of more than 430 meters for the first time worldwide. The team set a world record here in March 20.262 with 1998 tons of usable daily output.

In 2002, the Friedrich Heinrich/Rheinland and Niederberg pits were combined to form the West mine. A short-lived arrangement: Mining on the Lower Rhine came to an end on December 31, 2012 with the closure of the West mine. In a good 100 years, well over 200 million tons of hard coal were mined on Friedrich Heinrich; 1993 million tons in 4,17 alone.

Since the mine was shut down in 2012, green areas have been redesigned and a zoo integrated for the 2020 State Garden Show. The colliery buildings are now used as residential units, artist studios and a university. Visitors can visit the winding tower, the training gallery, the miner's house and the town and mining information center. After its expansion, the Schirrhof will become a site