Museum Industriekultur Osnabrück

Useful Information

Location:	Fürstenauer Weg 171, 49090 Osnabrück. From the north: A1 motorway exit Wallenhorst, then exit Vörden, turn right twice towards Osnabrück, after 2 km turn left onto Fürstenauer Weg. From the south: A1 exit 70 Osnabrück Nord onto the B68 towards Osnabrück, after 4.8 km turn right onto Fürstenauer Weg. (52.3150908, 8.0087927)
Open:	All year Wed-Sun 10-18. Closed Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Whit Monday, 24-DEC, 25-DEC, 31-DEC, 01-JAN. [2025]
Fee:	Dauerausstellung: Adults EUR 7,50, Children (16-17) EUR 5, Children (0-15) frei, Students EUR 5, Disabled EUR 5. Groups (10+): Adults EUR 5. Sonderausstellung: Adults EUR 7,50, Children (16-17) EUR 5, Children (0-15) frei, Students EUR 5, Disabled EUR 5. Groups (10+): Adults EUR 5. Kombiticket: Adults EUR 10, Children (16-17) EUR 7,50, Children (0-15) frei, Students EUR 7,50, Disabled EUR 7,50. Groups (10+): Adults EUR 7,50. [2025]
Classification:	Coal Mine
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:
Guided tours:	self guided, D=1.5 h.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Museum Industriekultur, Fürstenauer Weg 171, 49090 Osnabrück, Tel: +49-541-122-447. 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

1448	Coal mining first mentioned in a document.
1853-1856	Hasestollen built.
1870er	Two shafts constructed.
1889	Takeover of the mine by the Georgs-Marien-Bergwerks- und Hütten–Verein.
1898	Zeche Piesberg closed.
1945	Emergency mining on a small scale.

Geology

The Piesberg is called a "carboniferous outcrop", an elliptical mountain plateau 1.5 kilometres long and 1 kilometre wide. The surrounding area is around 100 m asl, while the plateau is up to 175 m asl, so it really is a ‘mountain’. This plateau consists of sedimentary rocks from the Upper Carboniferous (Westfal D), conglomeratic sandstones, mudstones, siltstones and interbedded coal seams. There are a total of 16 coal seams with thicknesses ranging from a few cm to 1.60 metres. The four thickest seams, Johannistein, Mittel, Dreibänke and Zweibänke, were mined.

The Bramsch pluton is rising magma, but it got stuck at depth and did not reach the earth’s surface. On the one hand, however, it led to a bulging of the layers and, on the other, the magma heated the surrounding rock as it cooled, leading to accelerated carbonisation. Anthracite coal formed in the area of the saddle axis, some of which contains only 1.9 % volatile matter. This is the most heavily carbonised hard coal in Germany.

However, in addition to the hard coal, ore formations also occur on the Piesberg. Galena, siderite and fluorspar or zinc blende, chalcopyrite and quartz occur in fissures. The coal also contained sulphur pyrite, which was washed out during processing and sold to sulphuric acid factories. A Zechstein wedge contained brown ironstone with an iron content of 34-66 % and was completely mined. In the Lower Buntsandstein, flaky iron lustre was found on the bedding planes and in druses.

Description

The Museum Industriekultur (Museum of Industrial Culture) to the north of Osnabrück is located on the Piesberg, a mining centre in the region. After centuries in which coal was mined in small quantities, coal mining developed into an economic factor and major employer. This was of course triggered by industrialisation, which created a customer and the necessary infrastructure for transporting the coal with the construction of the railway network. Two pits were built in the 1870s and the Piesberg coal mining industry flourished with over 1,500 employees. The main problem was dewatering, and the greater the depth, the greater the effort required, significantly reducing profits. Eventually there were serious water ingresses and when the miners went on strike, the Piesberg colliery was closed down in 1898. However, mining here was very complex, there were a large number of different deposits, not only coal, but also various ores. Mining took place both underground and in open-cast mines. And the quarry is still in operation today.

At the centre is the Museum of Industrial Culture, which actually consists of two buildings, the permanent exhibition Mensch, Natur, Wirtschaft (Man, Nature, Economy) in the north on Fürstenauer Weg, and the magazine on Süberweg, where temporary exhibitions are held. The two are connected by the 300-metre-long Hasestollen tunnel, which can be walked through. In the museum, a glass lift takes visitors 30 metres down to reach the tunnel. The site is extensive with numerous listed buildings. There are also viewing platforms, a narrow gauge railway, the Stüve shaft, a historic forge, the railway station today used by the Osnabrück steam locomotive enthusiasts and the former harbour on the Stichkanal. The entire site has been combined to form the Kultur- und Landschaftspark Piesberg (Piesberg Culture and Landscape Park).

The Haseschachtgebäude (Haseschacht building) is the main building of the museum and was built in 1871 with neo-Romanesque round arches. It is one of the most beautiful buildings of its kind in the whole of Germany. In addition to the exhibition, it also has functioning steam engines which are also put into operation on special occasions. These were responsible for mine elevators and water drainage. After the colliery closed in 1898, the stone industry used the building. The KRUPP rolling mill with reversing gear can be admired on the open-air site. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Villa Italia stood on this site, where almost 3,000 Italian seasonal workers recruited to work in the quarry lived from 1902 to 1914. However, this ended with the First World War. There was also a dark period: during the Second World War, from 1941 to 1945, there were three forced labour camps on the Piesberg. Soviet prisoners of war were used for forced labour in the Piesberg quarry.

The water, which was pumped out of the mine by the steam engine-driven pumps, was drained through the Hasestollen. It was therefore a water tunnel, also known as an adit, through which the water flowed into the Osnabrück city river, the Hase. However, the mine water was very salty and caused considerable environmental problems, another reason why the colliery was closed in 1898. The tunnel was simply abandoned and over time filled with many tonnes of sludge. It was excavated again in 1997 as part of the Expo 2000 project. Visitors are given a helmet and lamp and are then allowed to walk through the tunnel to the southern part of the museum on their own. From the former rails on which the coal was transported to the railway station and harbour by horse-drawn mine wagons no remains are left.

The main building in the southern part is the cavern and magazine, which is used for special exhibitions. The mine was taken over by the Georgs-Marien-Bergwerks- und Hütten-Verein in 1889. It had a washing hut built on the site of the colliery railway station, where the miners changed into their working clothes, showered after their shift and changed back into their own clothes. As usual, the clothes were pulled up to the ceiling with a chain. Later, a carpenter’s workshop was housed here, which repaired the wooden parts of the mine cars from the quarry.

A new coal preparation centre or coal washing plant was also built. The coal was crushed, cleaned and sorted in several steps using various machines. This building was also taken over and renovated and now serves as an exhibition space for the ‘Smart Enterprise Engineering’ research department of the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). The exhibition has not yet opened and is intended to combine industrial history and current research in the field of artificial intelligence.

The museum’s educational workshop is located in the former stables of the stone industry on the Piesberg.

Next to it is the oldest building on the site, the Bergschmiede (mining smithy). It was built as early as 1871. The smithy was mainly used to sharpen the miners' tools and repair broken mine cars. The building has been restored, but is used as a depot and is therefore not accessible.