A preserved Malakowturm and steel headframe from the nineteenth-century Zeche Prosper in Bottrop, now a listed industrial monument open for guided tours and events.
Zeche Prosper — Schacht II stands in Bottrop as the surviving pithead structure of the second shaft of the historic Zeche Prosper, one of the oldest and largest coal enterprises in the Ruhr. The shaft was sunk from 1871 and began production in 1875 beneath an exceptionally large and elaborately designed Malakowturm, a masonry shaft tower with polygonal corner towers, battlements, and round-arched windows in red brick. Around 1900 a steel headframe was inserted within the tower; this was later replaced by a Koepe-strut frame that remains in place.
Schacht 2 was incorporated into the Verbundbergwerk Prosper-Haniel in 1974 and production ceased when the shaft was abandoned and backfilled in 1987. The Malakowturm was listed as a protected monument in 1984 and the steel headframe followed in 1987; since 1988 both structures have been designated together as a single Baudenkmal. In 2004 the ensemble passed to the Stiftung Industriedenkmalpflege und Geschichtskultur, which prevented its demolition.
Since 2014 a viewing platform on the headframe has offered views across the coalfield. The site is now open to the public for guided tours led by the Stiftung, with regular tours also offered by the Ehrengarde Prosper-Haniel Bottrop e.V. It uniquely combines a surviving Malakowturm with an intact inserted headframe, with no equivalent ensemble surviving elsewhere in the Ruhrgebiet.
The Zeche Prosper was founded in 1856 when members of the Waldthausen, Hammacher, Haniel, Huyssen, Morian, and Grillo families established the Arenbergsche Aktiengesellschaft für Bergbau und Hüttenbetrieb, named after Duke Prosper-Ludwig von Arenberg who held the mining rights over the area. The first shaft, Schacht 1, was sunk from 1856 in Batenbrock to the east of Bottrop, with coal first raised in 1863 by a workforce of 315 and a coking plant established in the same year.
In 1871 sinking of Schacht 2 began in Batenbrock, 2.5 kilometres northeast of Schacht 1. The shaft was equipped with an exceptionally large Malakowturm — a masonry shaft tower in the fortress tradition of the period — which was completed in 1873 and came into service as a separate production installation in 1875. The tower is approximately 18 by 18 metres at its base and over 30 metres high, built in ring-kiln brick tapering towards the top and finished with battlements and four polygonal corner stair towers. Its façades are divided horizontally by string courses; the lower portion is dominated by large round-arched windows, while the upper portion carries two rows of three round-arched windows, with the central windows framed by shallow pilasters beneath triangular gables. A rectangular panel near the top carries the inscription PROSPER II.
A second coking plant was established beside Schacht 2 at the same time. A connection was driven to Schacht 1 and production from the shaft reached 1 million tonnes per year by 1890. Schacht 3 was sunk beside Schacht 2 from 1893, establishing the Schachtanlage Prosper II as a double-shaft operation.
Around 1900 the Malakowturm received an inserted steel headframe, which projected above the tower. This was subsequently replaced by a Koepe-strut headframe. In 1903 a further coking plant entered service on the Prosper II site. The Prosper group was consolidated into named sub-units: the original Schachtanlage 1/4/5 became Prosper I, Schacht 2/3 became Prosper II, and Schächte 6/7 became Prosper III.
After the First World War and through the ownership changes of the interwar period the Zeche Prosper eventually passed to Rheinische Stahlwerke AG. In the later operational decades Prosper II served as the central preparation site. Schacht 8 had been sunk on the Prosper II site from 1917, entering service as a production shaft in 1921. The combined Prosper output in 1953 stood at 3.1 million tonnes per year across all Prosper installations, with 1.6 million tonnes of coke produced annually and close to 12,000 employees in total at Bottrop.
In 1974 the Ruhrkohle AG merged the Zechen Prosper, Jacobi, and Franz Haniel into the Verbundbergwerk Prosper-Haniel, and Schacht 2 of the former Prosper II came under this combined operation. The Förderberg, a 3,653-metre inclined conveyor tunnel on a 21 per cent gradient, entered service in 1986 on the Prosper II site and thereafter transported coal to surface without requiring a conventional winding shaft; Schacht 8 and other Prosper II shafts had already been backfilled in 1986 as the Förderberg rendered them unnecessary.
Schacht 2 was abandoned and backfilled in 1987. The Malakowturm had already been entered in the Denkmalliste in 1984; the steel headframe was added to the protected register in 1987, and since 1988 both structures have been designated together as a single Baudenkmal. In 2004 the ensemble was transferred to the Stiftung Industriedenkmalpflege und Geschichtskultur, which thereby secured it against demolition. In 2014 a viewing platform was installed on the headframe, opening panoramic views over the former coalfield. Regular guided tours are offered by the Stiftung on Sundays. Weekly tours are also provided by members of the Ehrengarde Prosper-Haniel Bottrop e.V. on Thursdays. Civil wedding ceremonies can be conducted in the tower. A non-commercial climbing installation operated by the Bottroper Sportbund is also present. The site is described as the only surviving ensemble of a Malakowturm combined with an intact inserted headframe in the Ruhrgebiet.