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Maximilianpark

Reserves of coal induced the Maximilian Steel Works (Maximilianhűtte AG) in Sulzbach-Rosenberg, to start mining-activities in Hamm at the beginning of the 20th century. The company began work on sinking two shafts in 1902. But the new colliery proved ill fated. Constant flooding made the pit construction very difficult. In 1907 it finally attained its goal when coal seams were reached at a depth of 634 meters and the Maximilian colliery began to extract coal. Unfortunately, further numerous mishaps prevented the regular mining of significant amounts of coal. The worst disaster was a powerful gas explosion in 1908 when four miners were killed. After a large number of further floods and gas explosions it was finally possible to begin mining coal systematically in 1912.

In 1913 the Maximilian colliery yielded over 100,000 tons of coal. More than 1,200 miners worked on the site and were housed in the Maximilian Colony housing estate. A new railway line ensured that the coal could be dispatched to the outside world. The next step in the construction of the colliery was the addition of a coal processing plant. In 1914 a coking plant was added to the colliery site for the first time.

The economic viability of the colliery did not last long. As early as 1914 water surged with incredible force into the top level of the mine. Several pumps were used to combat the invading waters. However the available pumps proved incapable of dealing with the ever rising masses of water, especially since they suffered from a huge of amount of erosion from the salty and carbonated pit water. Furthermore the total prohibition of railway freight transport for civilian use in the First World War meant that the vital spare parts for the pumps could not be supplied, and production was stopped at the mine after barely two years. The flooding was so bad that it even reached the surface plant. At the end of the Second World War the colliery site was used for a short while as a camp for former Russian prisoners-of-war and for workers from the East.

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