Photos from the brown coal mining industry in Grossalmerode (Germany) !

Brown coal mining in Grossalmerode (Germany) !

The pictures in this page show you different impressions of the brown coal mining industry in the Hirschberg and the Faulbach colliery in the city of Grossalmerode in Hesse (Germany). As you can see, the brown coal was produced in an opencast mine and underground, as well. In my eyes the ancient and the newer photos are very interesting because they do not just show the development of mining in that region, they additionally document how the areas have been used after that the mining was finished.

My special thanks go to Stefan Bauer who has sent me these pictures on a CD. If you should discover yourself or one of your relatives and/or friends in one of the photos, and if you do not want that picture to be published here, please send me an e-mail and I will remove the corresponding photo.

Please click on the photos' small versions in order to enlarge them and to get the corresponding background information. ATTENTION: The pictures' explanations can now be found UNDER the large versions.


The construction of the colliery's buildings.	Where Hirschberg colliery's coal is loaded.	Faulbach colliery in earlier times.	This is where the coal was sold and loaded.


The workers of the colliery's Gustav tunnel.	In the underground pit foremen's room.	A man is moving a mine car filled up with coal.	An underground roadway in the 1950s.


Miners while extracting the coal underground.	The entire brown coal mine in Grossalmerode.	The conveyor is coming from underground.	A heavy machine with the conveyor in the background.


Brown coal and clay seams in the mining area.	A large lorry on the slagheap for the coal.	The slagheap after the colliery's shutdown.	The opencast mine in the year 1991.


In the Paradiesfeld opencast mine.	On the colliery's railway area.	This machine is used for building tunnels.	The pit foremen's house at Hirschberg mine.


A view into a bunker for the coal.	A bunker for the coal built in 1927.	The entrance to a new tunnel of the colliery.	Another entrance to a tunnel one year later.


Underground in the colliery's tunnels.	A fan for underground use.	A miner during a break in the colliery.	Short before a blasting.


In one of the colliery's processing plants.	The protection against firedamp explosions.	A special way of coal production.	A fork of an underground roadway.


Heavy machines are used underground.	Where the coal is passed to another conveyor.	The colliery's marsh and a strong pump.	In a roadway.


This machine has to build a new tunnel.	One of the colliery's main roadways.	Where the mechanic fitters work.	These miners are making some drill holes.


The wooden pillars for the miners' safety.	After that the tunnel was filled up.	The entrance during the process of filling up.	Where the tunnel's entrance has been...


The area is prepared for future use.	The last train with coal on December 13th, in 2002.	The colliery's former filling station.