Goodbye
Why do I post such a sad image some days before Christmas?
This big cross is standing on the Haniel heap in Bottrop, one of the biggest man-made hills in Germany. It was blessed by pope Johannes Paul II. several years ago when he visited the coal mine just next to the hill.
No chance for any future pope or any other person to do that again. The Prosper-Haniel coal mine was closed today. That was the last active coal mine in the Ruhr area. After some centuries of black coal mining, no mine is left in the whole country of Germany. Some mines are open as museums, but none is still digging coal.
An important day for the Ruhr area which grew up to one of Europe's biggest industrial regions in the time we had hundreds of mines here.
Goodbye
Why do I post such a sad image some days before Christmas?
This big cross is standing on the Haniel heap in Bottrop, one of the biggest man-made hills in Germany. It was blessed by pope Johannes Paul II. several years ago when he visited the coal mine just next to the hill.
No chance for any future pope or any other person to do that again. The Prosper-Haniel coal mine was closed today. That was the last active coal mine in the Ruhr area. After some centuries of black coal mining, no mine is left in the whole country of Germany. Some mines are open as museums, but none is still digging coal.
An important day for the Ruhr area which grew up to one of Europe's biggest industrial regions in the time we had hundreds of mines here.