Former Ruhr coalfield colliery preserving the youngest surviving Malakowturm in the region, built in dressed Ruhrsandstein masonry and listed since 1979.
Zeche Brockhauser Tiefbau was a hard coal colliery in the Sundern district of Bochum, formed on 1 April 1873 through the consolidation of five older drift mines — Friedrich, Preußischer Zepter, Treue, Ignatius, and Diebitsch — whose origins in the coalfield stretched back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A new deep shaft was sunk between 1873 and 1875, reaching the third level at approximately 200 m depth and its final depth of around 350 m by 1878. Above the shaft a Malakowturm was erected in 1874–75, constructed in rubble masonry with dressed Ruhrsandstein quoins and brick-accented window arches.
Peak output of 42,920 tonnes per year was achieved in 1880 with a workforce of 185. In 1886 the colliery passed to Zeche Carl Friedrich Erbstollen, which thereafter worked the remaining coal reserves while using the shaft as a ventilation shaft from 1898 until final abandonment in 1912, when the shaft was backfilled. The surviving Malakowturm, the only one of its type constructed in natural stone masonry, has been a protected monument (Denkmal A 020) since 1979.
A new roof was installed in 2015 following a fundraising initiative by the Knappenverein Schlägel & Eisen Bochum Stiepel-Dorf 1884.
The coalfield at Sundern in what is now the southern Bochum district had been worked for centuries before any deep shaft operation was established. By the eighteenth century several drift mines were active in the area, and in the early nineteenth century a number of these had begun to develop their own shaft workings. In 1873 — on 1 April of that year according to the announcement subsequently published by the Königliches Oberbergamt Dortmund in the Amtsblatt für den Regierungsbezirk Arnsberg — five existing collieries were consolidated under the name Zeche Brockhauser Tiefbau.
The constituent mines were Friedrich (concessions of 1752 and 1856), Preußischer Zepter, Ver. Treue & Amsterdamm, Ignatius, and Diebitsch. A total of 1,000 Kuxe were issued, divided among the contributing mines in accordance with the consolidation agreement.
Following the formation of the new colliery, work began almost immediately on a new communal deep shaft. The shaft was begun in 1874 and brought into operation in 1875. Over it was erected a Malakowturm in rubble-stone masonry, the quoins formed of dressed blocks of Ruhrsandstein; the window arches were emphasised in brick.
This tower, completed in 1874–75, was already the last of its kind to be constructed in the Ruhr at the time it was built, as iron and steel headframe structures were by then displacing the masonry tower form for engineering reasons. It remains the youngest surviving Malakowturm in the region and the only surviving example built in natural stone masonry. The shaft reached the third level at approximately 200 m depth and attained its final depth of around 350 m by 1878.
Peak annual output was recorded in 1880 at 42,920 tonnes, with a workforce of 185, and the principal purchaser of the coal was the Henrichshütte ironworks in Hattingen. Market difficulties led to a change of ownership in 1886–87, when the colliery was acquired by Zeche Carl Friedrich Erbstollen (Stiepel/Weitmar Mark). From that point active coal winding at Brockhauser Tiefbau ceased, with the remaining reserves in the field worked by the new operator via its own workings.
The shaft was converted to use as a ventilation shaft to serve the combined operation. In 1898 it was fitted with a mechanical ventilator. Coal extraction in the field was completed in 1904, and the shaft itself was finally backfilled in 1912, ending all operations at the site.
After closure, the Malakowturm stood as an increasingly deteriorating ruin. By 2013, plant growth and penetrating water had caused visible structural damage, leading the Stiepeler Heimatverein and the Knappenverein Schlägel & Eisen Stiepel/Dorf to launch a fundraising campaign for a new roof. The tower was designated a listed monument (Denkmalschutz, A 020) in 1979.
In 2015 the new roof was successfully installed through the joint effort of the Knappenverein Schlägel & Eisen Bochum Stiepel-Dorf 1884 and the Stiepeler Verein für Heimatforschung. The tower is accessible today via the road Am Bliestollen in Sundern, and forms a station on the Bergbauwanderweg Lottental-Stausee-Stiepel-Rauendahl as well as part of Themenroute 16 (Westfälische Bergbauroute) of the Route der Industriekultur.