The only surviving double-Malakowturm installation in Europe, at Zeche Holland Schacht I/II in Gelsenkirchen-Ückendorf, now converted to listed residential and office use with a restaurant.
Zeche Holland Schacht I/II is the founding shaft installation of the Zeche Holland colliery in the Gelsenkirchen district of Ückendorf, and the only complete double-Malakowturm installation in Europe. Dutch investors founded the Bergbau-Aktiengesellschaft Holland in 1855 to exploit the coal fields Carl Reinhard, Adelbert, Hain, Anton Ernst, and Wupperthal. Schacht I was sunk in late 1856 to 68 m into the Carboniferous, with Schacht II following in the same year to the same depth.
The formal consolidation of fields under the name Holland occurred in 1861. Coal winding on Schacht I commenced in 1860, making this the start of what became one of the largest collieries in the Ruhr. A railway connection was established on 12 March 1859.
The twin Malakowtürme were erected over the two shafts between 1856 and 1860 and are connected by a central machine house; they were listed as Baudenkmale in 1986. Active coal production at Schacht I/II was halted in 1926–27 following the completion of Schacht VI as the new central production shaft; Schacht I continued in Seilfahrt use until 1955 and was finally abandoned in 1963. Schacht II was decommissioned in 1958.
From 2002 the listed ensemble was comprehensively restored and converted to residential apartments, offices, and a restaurant by a private owner.
The origins of Zeche Holland lie in 1855, when a group of Dutch investors founded the Bergbau-Aktiengesellschaft Holland, with the explicit aim of exploiting the coal fields Carl Reinhard, Adelbert, Hain, Anton Ernst, and Wupperthal straddling the communities of Ückendorf and Wattenscheid. The choice of the Aktiengesellschaft corporate form — unusual for a colliery at the time — was necessitated by the fact that Dutch investors were unfamiliar with the German bergrechtliche Gewerkschaft, which had no equivalent in Dutch law. This made Holland one of the few collieries in the early Ruhr coalfield to be founded as a joint-stock company.
Sinking of Schacht I began in late 1856 and reached the Carboniferous at 68 m depth. Schacht II was begun in the same year to the same depth. The formal consolidation of all fields under the name Holland was effected in 1861.
Coal winding on Schacht I commenced in 1860. A joint railway connection to the Bahnhof Gelsenkirchen of the Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (CME), constructed together with the Zechen Vereinigte Carolinenglück, Hannover, and Rheinelbe, was brought into service on 12 March 1859. A further connection to the Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (RhE) at the Bahnhof Ückendorf followed in 1867.
The twin Malakowtürme — originally of equal height — were erected over the two shafts between 1856 and 1860 and are connected by a central Fördermaschinengebäude. Together they create an ensemble that has been described as resembling a castle or Schloss. In 1861 the colliery grew substantially: the field was formally consolidated, the operation expanded, and output began to rise.
By 1882 the Wattenscheid Kokerei had achieved the first by-product recovery in Germany, separating ammonia and tar; in 1910 around 4,315 workers were employed across both the Ückendorf and Wattenscheid installations. As the colliery expanded through the development of Wattenscheid Schächte III (1873), IV (1898), V (1907), and VI (1921), the Ückendorf Schachtanlage I/II became progressively less central to the operation. Following the commissioning of Schacht VI as the new Zentralförderschacht in Wattenscheid in 1926, active coal production at Schachtanlage I/II was halted in 1926–27.
The two shafts were subsequently used only for Seilfahrt (personnel transport) purposes. Schacht II was finally decommissioned in 1958. Schacht I remained in Seilfahrt use until 1955 and was fully abandoned in 1963.
The 1921 Kauen- und Verwaltungsgebäude at the Wattenscheid installation — the earliest known surviving work of Fritz Schupp and Martin Kremmer — also belongs to the Zeche Holland complex but is administratively in Bochum-Wattenscheid. At the Ückendorf installation, the surviving buildings adjacent to the two Malakowtürme include the Werkstatt- und Maschinengebäude of 1885 and a Lüftergebäude of 1925 designed by Fritz Schupp and Martin Kremmer. The twin Malakowtürme were listed as Baudenkmale in 1986.
From around 2002 a private owner undertook a comprehensive restoration and conversion of the entire Ückendorf ensemble; the Malakowtürme, the central Maschinengebäude, and the other surviving buildings were adapted to residential apartments, offices, and a restaurant with wine trade, which opened in mid-June 2006. The restoration and conversion received the Westfälisch-Lippischer Preis für Denkmalpflege 2009 (Anerkennung) from the Land NRW and the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe. The ensemble is the only complete surviving double-Malakowturm installation in Europe.
The steel lattice Deutsches Strebgerüst that survives over Schacht IV at the Wattenscheid installation is a separate structure of a later period and belongs to a distinct site.