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German Mining Museum

In 1930 the Westphalian "Berggewerkschaftskasse" and the city of Bochum decided to set up an "Historical Mining Museum". The core of today's museum, which was built between 1935 and 1941, was created under the leadership of the well-known industrial architect Fritz Schupp, and originally housed in the buildings of a disused municipal slaughterhouse. In 1976 the " Bochum German Mining Museum" (as it was now called) was able to boast of over 420.000 visitors a year, thereby making it one of the most popular educational institutions in the whole of Germany.

A particular attraction is the mock underground coalmine, situated 20 metres beneath the museum itself. It is around 3 kilometres in length and covers around 20.000 square metres. Here visitors can get a good idea of the real working conditions in a colliery and become acquainted with the various mining processes and techniques. There are also demonstrations of coal mining using original machines.

The museum has a comprehensive collection of exhibits related to German and European mining history. In 1989 the permanent exhibition was extended with the introduction of a new section on "Women and Mining". Using written sources and rare pictures and photographs, this traces the history of women's mining work from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, and gives an impression of the considerable contribution made by women both above and below the surface to the development of a modern industrial society.