Former hard coal mine site in Oberhausen-Lirich where Schacht II, resunk in 1933 and active until 1968, served as a water management shaft until its filling in 2022.
Zeche Concordia - Schacht II was a hard coal shaft at Oberhausen-Lirich whose origins reach back to the foundation of the Concordia Bergwerksgesellschaft in 1850, the third Aktiengesellschaft in the history of the Ruhr coalfield. The original Schacht 2, sunk between 1856 and 1858 to a rectangular cross-section of 4.63 by 5.49 metres and reaching the Carboniferous at 80 metres depth, entered production in 1859. Equipped with the last Fahrkunst in the Ruhr, which operated until 1883, and later with a Malakowturm, the shaft served as a principal production outlet alongside Schacht 1 for several decades.
Coalwinding was suspended in 1928, the shaft filled and resunk in 1933 with a circular cross-section to the 9. Sohle, and a new headframe erected over it in 1938 when production resumed from depth. The mine was closed on 22 March 1968 by its majority owner, the Schering AG, despite mass protests and substantial remaining reserves.
The surface buildings and headframe over Schacht 2 were demolished at the close of 1993. Schacht 2 remained open for mine water management until 2022, when pumping was ended and the shaft filled to a depth of 650 metres.
The Concordia Bergwerksgesellschaft was founded in 1850 — the third Aktiengesellschaft in the Ruhr coalfield after the Cölner Bergwerks-Verein and the Hardenbergsche Kohlenbergwerke — by a group of investors drawn largely from the Haniel, Waldthausen, Flashoff, and related entrepreneur families, aiming to exploit several Grubenfelder on the Lipperheide west of the Köln-Mindener Eisenbahn. Franz Haniel is recorded as having influenced its founding and held shares directly from 1852. The company's founding statute explicitly listed the production of coke among its purposes, reflecting the primacy of the coke trade for Oberhausen's early iron industry. The registered office was in Essen with business premises at the Bahnhof Oberhausen.
Sinking of Schacht 1, named Schacht Haniel, began in 1850 near the future Oberhausen Hauptbahnhof. Schacht 1 entered production in 1854 and received a Fahrkunst. A coke plant was built in close proximity. The favourable economics of the 1850s led to the decision to sink Schacht 2 approximately one kilometre to the west of Schacht 1. Schacht 2 was sunk between 1856 and 1858 with a rectangular cross-section of 4.63 by 5.49 metres; the Carboniferous was reached at 80 metres depth and production began in 1859. The surface arrangement at Schacht 2 broadly followed that of Schacht 1, with a central Schachtturm crowned by a Zeltdach and Belvedere and flanked by identical side wings containing a water-pumping machine and, at the rear, a Kesselhaus, workshops, and a Kaue with washing basins. By 1860, with both shafts in operation and 530 employees, annual output had reached 83,326 tonnes.
In 1862 a Fahrkunst was installed in Schacht 2 — it became the last Fahrkunst to operate in the Ruhr coalfield, running until 1883. In 1876 and 1883 the Fahrkünste in both shafts were replaced by Seilfahrt, and both shafts received Malakowtürme with Seilscheibengerüste. A Kohlenwäsche built in 1860 was among the first in the Ruhr coalfield. From 1893 to 1895 Schacht 3 was sunk alongside Schacht 2. A western ventilation shaft, Schacht 6, was sunk between 1912 and 1916 approximately 1.5 kilometres from the 2/3 complex; although equipped as an independent Förderanlage, it operated as a Wetterschacht for the 2/3 complex. At peak capacity in 1913 over 5,500 employees were on the payroll, producing up to 3,500 tonnes of Fettkohle and 1,300 tonnes of Kokskohle daily.
The Concordia Bergbau AG fell into majority ownership of the Kokswerke und Chemische Farben AG (later merged with Schering) from 1926. In the economic crisis of the early 1930s it was initially planned to close the 2/3 complex after extracting the remaining Fettkohle. The decision was ultimately taken instead to deepen the field into the Ess- and Magerkohle reserves. To achieve this, Schacht 2 was completely filled and resunk with a circular cross-section, larger dimensioned. In 1938 a new headframe in Strebengerüst Vollwandbauweise was erected over the resunk shaft and production recommenced from the 9. Sohle. At the same time, following a Schachtbruch, Schacht 1 was filled and abandoned. On 23 April 1938, shortly after the headframe was put into service, a Gebirgsschlag on the 2/3 complex killed eight miners. The colliery survived the Second World War without major structural destruction. By 1950, following post-war reconstruction, output had recovered to approximately 1.3 million tonnes with 5,100 workers; the annual output reached its highest level of 1.6 million tonnes in 1965.
From 1980 Schacht 2 additionally supplied brine water to the Solbad Raffelberg in Mülheim. The Schering AG, having sought to exit the coal business, announced closure of the mine. Despite mass protests involving an estimated 35,000 participants — the largest protests in the Ruhr coalfield to that date — and unsuccessful negotiations to transfer the mine to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and other investors, Zeche Concordia was closed on 22 March 1968 with substantial reserves still in the ground. The Schering AG recorded large financial gains from the closure premiums, rising share prices, and the value of the cleared sites. Following closure the surface buildings were largely demolished; Schacht 2 and Schacht 6 were retained open for mine water management by the Deutsche Steinkohle AG. The headframe over Schacht 2, which in its 1938 Vollwandbauweise construction had survived into the 1990s, was demolished in January 1993 along with the associated shaft hall; the remaining buildings at the 2/3 site were demolished by the end of 1993 and in 1994. The Bero-Zentrum shopping complex and new residential development occupy the former surface site of the 2/3 complex. The structures of Schacht 6, including the 1911 Fördermaschinenhaus, are in use by the Theater an der Niebuhrg since 2006. Schacht 2 continued to operate for mine water pumping until the pumps were switched off at 22:00 on 30 September 2022. The shaft was subsequently filled to a depth of 650 metres and the site handed to RAG Bergbau und Immobilien.