Zollverein Colliery and Coking Plant at Essen

The pithead at Zollverein XII colliery

For more than 140 years the coal mine "Zollverein" worked in the north of Essen. Under it there were 300 million tons of coal. From 1847 till 1986 22 million tons of coal were produced there. Now the winding shafts are closed and the old buildings are used for exhibitions.

The roof of the coking plant, site of the solar power station

In the coking plant, which was closed in 1993, you could in 1999 and 2000 visit an exhibition called "Sun, Moon and Stars". It was about light and energy. There were several levels you could go through. The first one was called "sunrise", the second one "sky stage". The windows there were covered by blue material and if you looked through them everything seemed to be red and brown. But even inside the building your skin glimmered red and brown, too. On the third level there was the exhibition "sun bunker". Here you learned how important the sun is for your health. The next level was called "ways of light". You could see the way from the sun to life. Every plant, every animal, every human being needs the sun to grow and to survive. In the level "open ends" you could see globes showing what pollution and wasting our water and resources do to our world.

The coking plant and the big wheel

In another part of the building a solar power station is being built. The visitors of the exhibition were able to buy solar cells to support the use of solar power. The attraction visited most was the "Sonnenrad", a big sun wheel. You could step into it and sit in a gondola. When we were there, there were technical problems and the wheel got stuck. The visitors got very excited.