Zeche Consolidation

Zeche Consol

Useful Information

photography — Zeche Consolidation, Germany. Public Domain.

Location:	Consolstraße 1, 45889 Gelsenkirchen.
Open:	Southern engine house: All year 1st Sunday of the month 13-18. Werner Thiel Collection: All year Sat, Sun 12-18. [2020]
Fee:
Classification:	Coal Mine
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Zeche Consolidation Schacht 9, Consolstraße 1, 45889 Gelsenkirchen. Stiftung Industriedenkmalpflege und Geschichtskultur, Emscherallee 11, D-44369 Dortmund, Tel: +49-231-931122-0, Fax: +49-231-931122-10. E-mail: Initiativkreis Bergwerk Consolidation e.V., Tel: +49-170-1842162. E-mail: Stadt Gelsenkirchen, Referat Kultur, Tel: +49-209-169-9106. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1863	Sinking of the first shaft on today's Gewerkenstraße.
1873	2060 employees produce 366,000 tons of coal.
1915	Shaft 9 sunk.
1918	Start of coal production.
1922	Headframe and southern machine house built.
1937	Northern machine house built as a cubic brick structure.
1963	Twin Steam Engine Installed.
1987	Shaft 9 declared a monument by the city of Gelsenkirchen.
1992	Engine houses and hoisting machines declared a monument by the city of Gelsenkirchen.
1993	Colliery shut down.
2004	supervised by the Industrial Monument Preservation Foundation.

Geology

Description

The Colliery Consolidation, usually called Zeche Consol for short, was the economic engine of the city of Gelsenkirchen. Already in the 1870s, the Consolidation colliery was one of the most productive in the Ruhr area. One shaft after the other was sunk in quick succession. In 130 years, over three million tons of coal were extracted.

Shaft 9 was started in 1915, but due to the First World War, mining only started after 1918. In 1922, the winding tower was built as a two-storey double-brace tower still in half-timbered construction. As the full-wall construction method became established at the same time, it was the last of its kind and is one of the few still in existence today. At the same time, the southern engine house was built by the colliery master builder Heinrich von Bonin. The special feature of the engine house is the twin steam engine from 1963, the last steam engine manufactured by the Gutenhoffnungshütte (GHH) in Oberhausen. The northern engine house was built in 1937 as a cubic brick building by Dr. Ing. Hans Väth. In 1938 a twin steam engine from the Gutenhoffnungshütte was installed.

Four cultural projects were started at Consol colliery after it was shut down and renovated. One is the art installation in the northern engine house of Werner Thiel. The others are the Consol Theater, the music rehearsal center Consol 4 and the southern engine house with the mining museum of the IBC.

The Bergbausammlung des IBC (mining collection of the IBC) has the twin steam engine as the central exhibit. It has an output of 4,100 HP and a weight of 285 tons. The hoisting machine lifted payloads of approx. 12 t at 18m/s (65 km/h) from the shaft, which is over 1,000 metres deep. It is demonstrated live every first Sunday of the month.