Former Ruhr coalfield shaft site of Zeche Franz Haniel, where the distinctive double-strut headframe over Schacht 2 survives pending a decision on heritage protection.
The Schachtanlage Franz Haniel 1/2 in Bottrop was a coal mine established by the Gutehoffnungshütte (GHH) in the eastern section of its Neu-Oberhausen field. Shaft sinking began in October 1921 using the freezing method. A catastrophic water and quicksand inrush in Schacht 2 in September 1925 collapsed the headframe into the shaft, halting work for over a decade; operations resumed in 1938 and by 1943 both shafts had been completed.
The installation entered service in 1952 in a reduced form, with a distinctive double-strut headframe erected over Schacht 2. After ownership changes through HOAG and a union with Zeche Jacobi in 1965, the site became part of the Verbundbergwerk Prosper-Haniel under the Ruhrkohle AG in 1974. It served thereafter as a winding, materials, and ventilation shaft facility.
In 1987 a papal visit by Johannes Paul II took place at the site. The headframe over Schacht 1 was removed in 2002 and replaced by an inspection fitting. Both shafts were backfilled beginning October 2021, following the final closure of Prosper-Haniel in December 2018.
A campaign for heritage protection of the Schacht 2 headframe has been pursued but no confirmed listing had been secured as of 2021.
The Schachtanlage Franz Haniel 1/2 was established to develop the coal reserves of the Grubenfeld Neu-Oberhausen, a substantial field held by the Gutehoffnungshütte (GHH). Following a decision by the GHH's board in 1920 to sink a new double-shaft installation, work began on 31 October 1921 at a site on the Fernewaldstraße in Bottrop, near the boundary with Sterkrade and Osterfeld. The installation was named in honour of Franz Haniel the Younger (1842–1916), former chairman of the supervisory board of the GHH and grandson of the GHH's founding shareholder Franz Haniel. A bronze bust of Franz Haniel, sculpted by Professor Georg Kolbe of Berlin in 1941, was installed on the colliery forecourt and remains there.
Both Schacht 1 and Schacht 2, each with a clear diameter of 6 metres, were sunk using the freezing method and lined with cast-iron tubbings because of the extremely water-bearing overburden. Schacht 1 reached its planned final depth of 458 metres in early 1923; work on Schacht 2 began in summer 1922 and the shaft was sunk to 556 metres by July 1925. The last tubbing segment was placed in Schacht 2 on 15 May 1924.
On 25 September 1925, after the freezing pipes were withdrawn from Schacht 2, segments of tubbing broke at a depth of 75 metres, allowing a violent inrush of water and quicksand that filled the shaft to the level of the first level and caused the headframe to collapse into the shaft. The flooding also spread through a connecting drift to Zeche Jacobi, flooding all workings below the second level there. Emergency measures stabilised the situation, and a pressure-tight dam on the second level of Jacobi allowed upper workings to resume. No fatalities were recorded. The state authority, Oberbergamt Dortmund, subsequently filed a detailed report on the accident. The rehabilitation of Schacht 2 was not taken in hand until 1936; by 1941 both shafts had been deepened to their intended depth and were soundly lined with tubbings. The Second World War then halted construction work again.
After the end of the war, GHH's mining assets were transferred to a successor company. Construction of the surface installation was brought to a provisional conclusion by the successor. It had originally been planned that both shafts would operate as equal production shafts for a daily output of 9,000 tonnes, each to be equipped with a double-strut headframe, together with a coking plant and power station. In the event, the installation entered service in 1952 in a reduced form. The double-strut headframe was erected over Schacht 2 as the main winding shaft. Schacht 1 received only a small headframe for emergency man-riding. A power station was also built at this time.
The Zeche Franz Haniel developed successfully and was noted for its aesthetic design as an attractive landmark, with modern workers' settlements laid out in the surrounding woodland. Annual output at the time of the transfer to HOAG in 1957 was approximately 1.5 million tonnes. In 1952 all former GHH mines passed to the Bergbau AG Neue Hoffnung, which was itself acquired by Hüttenwerke Oberhausen AG (HOAG) in 1959. On 1 January 1965 HOAG merged Zeche Jacobi and Zeche Franz Haniel into the Verbundbergwerk Jacobi/Franz Haniel, with a combined field of 36.3 square kilometres on the boundary of Oberhausen and Bottrop; both pits remained separate operational departments with a combined workforce of 4,547.
In 1968 the Verbundbergwerk passed to the Ruhrkohle AG. In 1974 the Ruhrkohle AG consolidated Zechen Prosper, Jacobi, and Franz Haniel into the Verbundbergwerk Prosper-Haniel. The Schachtanlage Franz Haniel 1/2 thereafter operated as a man-riding, materials, and ventilation shaft facility within the larger combined operation. In 1987 Pope Johannes Paul II visited the Schachtanlage Franz Haniel during his second visit to Germany, addressing a gathering estimated at 25,000 on the subjects of threatened unemployment in the mining industry and the just distribution of work. Apprentices at the colliery had constructed a 15-metre wooden cross from mine-guide timbers for the occasion, which was blessed by Bishop Franz Hengsbach on Good Friday 1987 and later erected on the Halde Haniel. In 1990 the power station at Franz Haniel was taken out of service, requiring the winding engines to be converted from steam to electric drive.
In 1998 Bergwerk Prosper-Haniel passed from the Ruhrkohle AG to the Deutsche Steinkohle AG (DSK). In 2002 the headframe over Schacht 1 was removed and replaced by an inspection and man-riding fitting; the shaft remained open for ventilation purposes. The 7th level at a depth of 1,159 metres was inaugurated on 27 May 2011.
Bergwerk Prosper-Haniel ceased coal production on 14 September 2018 and was formally closed in an official ceremony on 21 December 2018 attended by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, marking the end of coal mining in Germany. Backfilling of both Schacht Franz Haniel 1 and Schacht Franz Haniel 2 with concrete began on 7 October 2021, with Schacht 2 requiring filling to a depth of 1,077 metres. After closure, plans for the 35-hectare Fernewaldstraße site provided for demolition of the surface buildings and redevelopment for housing and commercial use. Whether the distinctive double-strut headframe over Schacht 2 would be retained under heritage protection had not been definitively resolved as of the time of the shaft backfilling: both the CDU and SPD groups of Bottrop city council had given assurances of support for its retention, and the Regionalverband Ruhr was examining the possibility of preliminary listing.