MINES CONVERSION - Industrial Heritage Route

MONTAN.DOK/MINING ARCHIVE BOCHUM

MINES REQUIRE

An explosion, a headframe collapses spectacularly in a huge cloud of dust. But: "The closure of collieries is not the end of mining", was the optimistic message of this cinematic summary of the rationalization measures in the Ruhr mining industry since the beginning of the so-called coal crisis in 1972.

Demolition of the headframe of the Graf Bismarck colliery 2/6/9, shaft 9, in Gelsenkirchen on July 26, 1968.

FIMOGRAPHIC DETAILS

Producer: Dido-Film (= German Industrial and Documentary Film GmbH, Düsseldorf)
Client: German Coal Mining Association
Year of production: 1972
Language: German
Runtime: 10 minutes
Format: 35 mm light tone, color
Archive: Mining History Documentation Center (montan.dok)/Mining Archive Bochum

MOVIE INFO

GO TO CONTENT

The film begins spectacularly with footage of the demolition of the winding frame of shaft 9 of the Graf Bismarck hard coal mine in Gelsenkirchen on July 26, 1968. The mine had already been shut down in 1966 at the height of the coal crisis. However, such mine closures are not the end of mining, but rather part of comprehensive rationalization measures that have been used since the late 1950s to reduce costs and increase profitability in order to make German hard coal mining viable for the future. The thematic focal points in the film are then the operational concentration through the closure or merging of plants into composite mines, the streamlining of the costly route network and the concentration of mining operations as well as extensive mechanization and automation, among other things, in mining, expansion and promotion below and above ground. In addition to pictures from the mining operation, graphics illustrate more complex relationships.

TO FILM PRODUCTION

If "Bergwerke umrüsten" emphasizes the (technical) modernity and efficiency of German coal mining, the film's narrative style remains in the tradition of mining industrial and commercial films, with an objective, sober and thoroughly conventional style, albeit with colour, music, and animation sequences and the short comments were quite timely. A central topos was the staging of modern large-scale technology and here the depiction of the winding machine and the winding machine operator, in which the pictorial formula of the powerful machinery controlled by people in a clearly ordered and clean environment is symbolically condensed. The scene of the replacement of an old, hand-controlled by a new, fully automatic winding machine during operation and then the shots of a clinically clean-looking mine control room, in which miners in suits and ties operate modern electronics, fits in here seamlessly. At the same time, they form a counter-image to the underground world of work, which is characterized by darkness, cramped conditions and dust and which has essentially determined and still determines the public perception of mining and mining. It was precisely in these scenes that mining presented itself once more as a modern, future-oriented "high-tech industry" in "Mines are being converted".

BACKGROUND OF FILM PRODUCTION

The blowing up of the head frame of shaft 9 of the Graf Bismarck colliery in Gelsenkirchen not only represents the sometimes dramatic consequences of the coal crisis that has been going on since the end of 1957/beginning of 1958 for collieries, miners and the population (not only) in the Ruhr area. She also points to the inconsistencies of the unsystematic and uncoordinated rationalization measures, especially in the first decade of the coal crisis, which were intended to adjust the production capacities to the dwindling demand. The closure of the Graf Bismarck mine in 1966 was highly controversial and triggered considerable protests from miners and the population, as the mine was considered one of the most productive facilities in Ruhr mining. The founding of Ruhrkohle AG in 1969 as a unitary company was initially intended to remedy the situation in Ruhr mining. The decommissioning of the least efficient mines as well as comprehensive operational and industry-wide rationalization and concentration measures should ensure optimal use of the deposit and the highest possible profitability. As is well known, a lasting consolidation has not succeeded. Rather, the history of Ruhrkohle AG and later RAG AG was determined by a more or less permanent process of adjustment and downsizing in the German coal industry, which culminated in the closure of the last two producing mines in Bottrop and Ibbenbüren in 2018.