Grube Lüderich Overath · Nordrhein-Westfalen · Germany

The documented history of ore extraction at the Lüderich spans approximately two thousand years, though the great bulk of its recorded output comes from the industrial period commencing in 1837. The Lüderich — whose name is interpreted as meaning the Lead-Rich — rises to 260 metres above sea level, making it the highest point of the northern Cologne Bay. The Lüdericher Gangzug extends more than four kilometres from north to south, with the ore zones up to 400 metres wide and comprising parallel ore veins up to 40 metres thick; the principal ore minerals are Bleiglanz (galena) and Zinkblende (sphalerite).

Roman mining of lead and silver ore on the Lüderich is attested from the second and third decades of the first century CE; ceramics and lead fragments found between the Bleifeld settlement and the Franziskaschacht in 1997 were investigated by Montanarchäologen from the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum between 2000 and 2005. Medieval mining is documented from a 1518 document of Duke Johann von Jülich granting permission to seek ore in 'unsem berge, der Loederich genant'. Industrial extraction from 1837 produced sufficient output from the surface-outcropping veins to attract capital.

In 1852–1853 the Belgian company Vieille Montagne progressively acquired control of the Grube Lüderich, operating its German holdings through the Gesellschaft Altenberg (also referred to as the Abteilung Bensberg), which was not a separate subsidiary but a division of the Belgian parent. Vieille Montagne was the leading global producer and marketer of zinc and made the Grube Lüderich its principal base in the Kingdom of Prussia. The Gesellschaft Altenberg developed the Auguststollen on the north side of the ridge as the main access adit from 1849, laid a rail track inside it, consolidated adjacent concession fields to form the Consolidierte Grube Lüderich by 1861, and invested in modern ore-dressing facilities. The ore preparation works in Overath-Steinenbrück, established in a former dye works at the Sülz watercourse, were expanded progressively from the 1850s; by 1890 a major ore preparation plant was operating at Steinenbrück.

The Hauptschacht was sunk in 1896 at the main operating point in Steinenbrück. In 1892 the Franziskaschacht, the fourth shaft of the consolidated mine, was sunk to 237 metres in Rösrath-Bleifeld; by 1910 it was handling 65,000 tonnes of Haufwerk annually. A total of 28 individual concessions and working areas developed around the Lüderich ridge in this period, employing approximately 3,000 miners.

In 1936–37 the old headframe over the Hauptschacht was replaced by a new and larger steel structure of the Bauart Dörnen 2 — a construction type pioneered in 1928 and representing a significant development in headframe engineering. A Fördermaschinenhaus of 1938 was built alongside. During the Second World War the mine was kept in production and expanded using Zwangsarbeiter; the number of workers who died is not recorded.

After the war, the mine entered a new expansion phase: in 1950 the Hangender Sommer — a previously unknown and very rich ore body — was discovered, driving output and workforce growth through the 1950s and 1960s. Workers from eastern Germany and later Gastarbeiter from Mediterranean countries were recruited to meet demand. Skip hoisting was introduced in the late 1960s, replacing earlier Förderkorb haulage. In 1975 the Grube Lüderich was one of only four surviving lead-zinc mines in the Federal Republic, producing 230,000 tonnes of Roherz with a workforce of 300 and contributing approximately 10 per cent of the Federal Republic's annual ore production. Ore production ceased on the Franziskaschacht in 1958; the mine's remaining workings were closed definitively on 27 October 1978, bringing 126 years of modern industrial mining — and approximately 2,000 years of ore extraction history — to an end. Total production across the industrial period was approximately 600,000 tonnes of zinc and 134,000 tonnes of lead.

Following closure, the Hauptschacht headframe — a notable early example of the Bauart Dörnen 2, predating all other surviving examples except the 1928 original in Bochum — was preserved as a listed Industriedenkmal. It stands as the Wahrzeichen at the entrance to the Golfclub Der Lüderich, which now occupies the former mine surface; the former Fördermaschinenhaus serves as the clubhouse. The Franziskaschacht headframe at Rösrath-Bleifeld was restored with funding from the NRW Stiftung and is recognised as the oldest surviving headframe in the Rhineland; it stands in the forest with a restored Förderkorb, sections of track rail, and a Grubenwagen at its base. The Schachtanlage at Steinenbrück also preserves the brick Schachthalle of 1939 and the Aufbereitung buildings in Steinenbrück.