Former Essen hard coal colliery in Altendorf whose 1936 Deutsches Strebengerüst over Schacht Amalie and adjacent shaft hall were listed as Baudenkmale in 2021 and are retained amid ongoing mine-water pumping.
Zeche Amalie was a hard coal colliery in the Essen district of Altendorf, developed as an annexe installation of the Zeche Vereinigte Sälzer & Neuack. Its origins stretch back to 1839–40 when Georg Friedrich Wülbern drilled for coal in the Altendorf field and a small shaft was brought into operation in 1843. The Gewerkschaft Amalie was formally founded in 1849, and between 1850 and 1854 Schacht Amalie 1 — the canonical Schacht I — was sunk at the Helenenstraße/Pferdebahnstraße and fitted with a Malakowturm.
A second shaft, Marie, was sunk between 1902 and 1906. In 1921 a cooperation agreement was signed with Friedrich Krupp AG, and in 1927 Amalie was fully absorbed into the Friedrich Krupp AG Bergwerke Essen alongside Zeche Vereinigte Sälzer & Neuack, becoming the Zeche Sälzer-Amalie. In the rationalisation of the Krupp mines, Schacht Amalie was backfilled in 1929 and re-sunk from 1930 to a diameter of 6.5 m.
The surviving two-storey Deutsches Strebengerüst in Vollwandbauweise was erected over the rebuilt shaft in 1936. Coal production was halted on 30 September 1966. Schächte Amalie and Marie remained open thereafter for mine-water pumping.
The headframe and shaft hall were listed as Baudenkmale in 2021; the site remains active for water management.
The earliest foundations of what would become Zeche Amalie lie in the mid-nineteenth century development of the Altendorf coal fields. On 4 September 1839 Georg Friedrich Wülbern applied at the Bergamt Essen-Werden for a prospecting licence. The sixth borehole struck coal at 17 Lachter (approximately 49.6 m) depth, and the second successful borehole in 1840 established the location of the future shaft installation.
The shaft Amalia was sunk and in 1842 the Carboniferous was reached at 74 m depth. In July 1843 production began, with the first level set at 117 m and the second at 159 m. Three fields — Ver.
Helene Amalie, Aline, and Catharina II — were granted in 1843 and consolidated as Ver. Helene Amalie on 22 April 1844, with a coke works being established in the same year. In 1846 the field Heiterkeit was acquired, and in the 1850s the further fields Ceres and Pluto were added; by 1858 the consolidated fields had an area of 5.37 km² which remained essentially unchanged until the 1920s.
In 1849 the Gewerkschaft Amalie was founded, with the Gewerkschaft Ver. Sälzer & Neuack holding the majority of Kuxe. Between 1850 and 1854 Schacht Amalie 1 was sunk in Bergeborbeck at the Pferdebahnstraße and fitted with a Malakowturm; this shaft served as the primary Förderschacht from the outset.
In 1853 — with Zeche Victoria Mathias — Zeche Helene & Amalie was one of the first two Ruhr collieries to introduce pit horses for underground transport on a systematic basis. In 1870 a further deep shaft named Helene was sunk, completing the colliery's expansion in that generation. In 1878 an underground connection (Durchschlag) between the Schachtanlage Amalie and the Schachtanlage Helene was established.
In 1895 the Gewerkschaft Ver. Helene & Amalie joined the Rheinisch-Westfälisches Kohlensyndikat; the two collieries were thereafter operated and extended as a combined installation. In the same year work began on deepening Schacht Amalie and the sixth level was established at 548 m depth.
Following the joint management of Helene and Amalie under a common directorate, between 1902 and 1906 the new shaft Marie was sunk beside Schacht Amalie, operating as an independent winding and Seilfahrt shaft. In 1910 a briquette factory for domestic coal briquettes was added to the Schachtanlage Amalie/Marie. Around 1914–15 the administration building was erected at Helenenstraße 110 to designs by the Essen architect Edmund Körner; the entrance portal retains elements of the original artistic design following wartime damage to the main structure.
Between 1922 and 1926 a small ventilation shaft named Barbara was sunk between the Schachtanlage Amalie and the Zeche Helene and fitted with a small winding installation; in 1924 it was complete and linked to the third level of both fields as a Wetterschacht. On 31 May 1923 a coal dust explosion killed 24 miners. In 1921 a cooperation agreement was signed between the Gewerkschaft Ver.
Helene & Amalie and the Friedrich Krupp AG; the colliery at this time employed 4,900 workers and produced 950,000 tonnes annually. In 1927 the colliery was fully absorbed into the Friedrich Krupp AG Bergwerke Essen alongside the Zeche Vereinigte Sälzer & Neuack. The Friedrich Krupp AG Bergwerke Essen rationalised the combined operations; under the plan developed by Krupp, Schacht Amalie was the designated Zentralförderschacht, capable of winding 5,500 tonnes per day, and was thus to be rebuilt to handle the combined output from Ver.
Sälzer & Neuack (1,606 tato), Helene (2,025 tato), and Amalie (1,650 tato). Schacht Amalie was accordingly backfilled in 1929 and re-sunk from 1930 with a new diameter of 6.5 m. In 1934 the Zeche Ver.
Helene & Amalie was dissolved and the Schachtanlage Amalie was joined with Ver. Sälzer & Neuack to form the Zeche Sälzer-Amalie, with the Zeche Helene becoming a separate independently operated installation. In 1936 the rebuilt Schacht Amalie was fitted with the surviving two-storey Deutsches Strebengerüst in Vollwandbauweise, designed within the tradition of the classical Modernism as practised at the GBAG by the architect Paul Bauer, and the surface installation was simultaneously modernised in the same architectural idiom.
Both the Second World War and the postwar coal economy led to further changes: in 1957 an underground connection (Durchschlag) was established between the ninth level of Zeche Sälzer-Amalie and the ninth level of Zeche Helene. In 1965, following the closure of Zeche Helene on 31 July 1965, the Sälzer-Amalie operation absorbed the Helene shafts (Schächte Helene and Bertha) up to the ninth level at 975 m, raising the combined concession to 22 km². Coal production at the Zeche Sälzer-Amalie was halted on 30 September 1966 and the coke works Wolfsbank was closed on 6 October 1966.
After the closure, the Schachtanlage Barbara was backfilled and demolished. Schächte Amalie and Marie remained open and were used by the Deutsche Steinkohle AG for mine-water pumping for the surrounding collieries. In 1982 the headframe at Schacht Marie was replaced by a small auxiliary winding installation.
In early 2008 the colliery power station was demolished to make way for Krupp-Gürtel urban development works; on 17 May 2008 the 126-metre chimney was felled. The two-storey Deutsches Strebengerüst (Vollwandbauweise) over Schacht Amalie and the associated Schachthalle were formally placed under Denkmalschutz in 2021; at the same time the administration building was classified as erhaltenswerter Bausubstanz. The site continues to be used for mine-water management.