Former hard coal colliery in Bochum-Wattenscheid retaining its listed steel headframe and converted pithead buildings as a mixed-use heritage and commercial site.
Zeche Holland was a hard coal colliery with shafts in Ückendorf (Gelsenkirchen) and Wattenscheid (now a district of Bochum). The colliery was established in 1855 when Dutch investors founded the Bergbau-Aktiengesellschaft Holland to exploit coalfields in the two communities. Coal winding began at Schacht I in 1860.
The Wattenscheid shafts were sunk progressively from 1873 (Schacht III), 1898 (Schacht IV), 1907 (Schacht V), and 1921 (Schacht VI). Schacht IV became the principal winding shaft at the Wattenscheid installation. The colliery reached its highest annual output of 1.7 million tonnes in 1969.
After an underground connection to Zeche Zollverein was driven in 1973, production at Wattenscheid was halted on 15 January 1974. Schacht IV continued in use as a transport and personnel shaft until the last symbolic coal wagon was brought to surface there on 29 December 1983. The shaft was backfilled in 1988.
The steel headframe over Schacht IV — a Deutsches Strebgerüst originally erected at Zeche Zollverein Schacht IV in 1927 and transferred to Holland in 1962 — survives as a listed industrial monument. It was fully restored between 2018 and 2019 and serves today as a public landmark and event venue.
The origins of the colliery lie in 1855, when Dutch investors — drawn principally from Arnhem — founded the Bergbau-Aktiengesellschaft Holland with the intention of working the coalfields Carl Reinhard, Adelbert, Hain, Anton Ernst, and Wupperthal in the communities of Ückendorf and Wattenscheid. The formal consolidation of these fields under the Holland name followed in 1861. Schacht I at Ückendorf was sunk in late 1856 to a depth of 68 m into the Carboniferous and began winding coal in 1860.
Schacht II was sunk to the same depth in the same year. A railway connection to the Bahnhof Gelsenkirchen of the Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, constructed jointly with the neighbouring collieries Vereinigte Carolinenglück, Hannover, and Rheinelbe, was brought into service on 12 March 1859; further connections to the Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft at Ückendorf (1867) and Wattenscheid (28 November 1876) followed. A coke works incorporating Germany's first by-product recovery plant — for the separation of ammonia and tar — was erected at the Wattenscheid installation in 1882.
In 1897 the colliery passed to the ownership of Zeche Nordstern of Gelsenkirchen, and was incorporated into the Vereinigte Stahlwerke in 1926. At Wattenscheid, Schacht III was sunk in 1873, Schacht IV in 1898, Schacht V in 1907, and Schacht VI in 1921. The pit-head buildings of the Wattenscheid installation received a significant architectural contribution in 1921 with the construction of the baths and administration buildings designed by the architects Fritz Schupp and Martin Kremmer.
These neoclassical brick structures, arranged around a three-winged courtyard, are the earliest known surviving work of those architects, who went on to design the Schachtanlage Zollverein 12 in Essen. A firedamp and coal dust explosion at the Anlage III/IV in September 1915 killed 14 workers. On 31 October 1925 a further firedamp explosion killed 18 workers and injured five; this was the deadliest mine disaster in the history of Wattenscheid.
The colliery was also a site of forced labour during the Second World War, and an inspection report from late 1942 records conditions for Soviet civilian workers at Holland in critical terms. Zeche Bonifacius in Essen was merged with Holland in 1966. The highest coal output ever recorded at the colliery — 1.7 million tonnes — was achieved in 1969, when the workforce numbered approximately 3,000.
In 1973 an underground connection (Durchschlag) was made to Zeche Zollverein, and the two collieries were combined into a Verbundbergwerk. Production in Wattenscheid was halted on 15 January 1974. The open shafts were retained thereafter as transport and ventilation shafts; the coal sales point (Landabsatz) at the site continued to be served even after the cessation of production.
Most surface structures at Holland III/IV/VI were demolished from late 1975. On 29 December 1983 the last symbolic coal wagon was brought to the surface at Schacht IV, marking the formal end of the connected operation. Mine water pumping was halted in 1988 and Schächte IV and VI were backfilled in the same year.
Schacht II had been abandoned in 1958, Schacht I in 1963, and Schacht V in 1935. The 22-hectare site of Schächte III/IV/VI on the Lyrenstraße/Lohrheidestraße was comprehensively remediated between 1991 and 1993 and has since been developed as a mixed area of housing, commercial premises, and open space. The protected Lohnhalle complex was renovated and extended in the framework of the Internationale Bauausstellung Emscher Park; the Lohnhalle itself has operated as an events venue since 1998, with an adjacent technology centre — the Technologie- und Gründerzentrum Wattenscheid — occupying the former office spaces.
The steel headframe over Schacht IV, a Deutsches Strebgerüst originally designed by Schupp and Kremmer and erected in 1927 over Schacht IV of Zeche Zollverein, was transferred to Holland in 1962 and remained after all other structures were demolished. The 'HOLLAND' nameplate on the headframe was taken from the demolished frame over Schacht VI. In 2011 the headframe was acquired by the Entwicklungsgesellschaft Ruhr (now WirtschaftsEntwicklungsGesellschaft Bochum).
Full structural restoration, costing approximately 2.8 million euros funded through urban development grants and institutional contributions, took place between 2018 and mid-2019. The adjacent machine hall was demolished in January 2015 as part of the same programme. Following completion of the restoration, the surrounding open space was redesigned as a public square, with works completed in June 2021.
A café and social venue, the Kumpeltreff, opened at the site in October 2021. Guided tours to the summit of the headframe, comprising 212 steps, are offered by Bochum Marketing. The headframe is one of ten surviving winding frames in Bochum and is a recognised element of the Route der Industriekultur.