Former Dortmund-Derne hard coal colliery preserving the oldest surviving steel headframe in the Ruhr — a Tomson-Bock over Schacht II — as a listed monument in the care of the Stiftung Industriedenkmalpflege.
Zeche Gneisenau was a hard coal colliery in the Dortmund district of Derne, named after the Prussian military reformer August Graf Neidhardt von Gneisenau. The colliery's origins lie in the Bohrgesellschaft Union of Neuss, founded in 1855, which obtained concession rights over the Union fields in 1872. The Gewerkschaft Gneisenau received its building permit on 3 September 1873 and shaft sinking began that year, though severe water ingress in 1875 halted operations until 1882, when a Belgian-led takeover under director Eugen Tomson enabled resumption of works.
Production began in 1886. The Harpener Bergbau AG took over in 1891. Over the following decades the colliery expanded into one of the largest in Europe, incorporating Zechen Scharnhorst, Kurl, Preußen, Victoria and others into an eventual concession of 69.8 km².
The 1930 Tomson-Bock over Schacht 2, erected in 1885–86, is the oldest surviving steel headframe in the Ruhr and the last of its type on the European continent. The 52-metre Doppelbockgerüst over Schacht 4, installed in 1933–34, is architecturally unique. Production peaked at 4.2 million tonnes in 1974.
The colliery closed on 4 August 1985; the coke works closed in 1989. Both surviving headframes with their machine houses have been Baudenkmale since 1989 and are held by the Stiftung Industriedenkmalpflege und Geschichtskultur.
The history of Zeche Gneisenau begins with the Bohrgesellschaft Union, founded in 1855 in Neuss, which between 1858 and 1872 prospected eight coal fields that were consolidated in 1872. Following the granting of these Union fields, the Gewerkschaft Gneisenau received building permission on 3 September 1873. Shaft sinking commenced immediately, but on 27 March 1875 water-bearing strata were struck at 173 m depth and the shaft flooded within six hours, forcing operations to stop.
For financial reasons the work could only be resumed after the conversion of the Gewerkschaft into an Aktiengesellschaft and the takeover by a Belgian enterprise. Under the direction of Eugen Tomson — a Belgian engineer trained at the University of Liège who had come to Germany in 1872 and became Bergwerksdirektor of Zeche Gneisenau from 1882 to 1900 — work restarted on 1 June 1882. The mine floor (Schachtsohle) was reached at 383 m in 1886, and coal winding commenced.
In 1886 and 1887 the headframe and machine house for Schacht 2 were erected; the Tomson-Bock, a modified form of the English Bock type, was designed by Tomson himself and first erected in this form over Schacht 1 of Gneisenau in 1886. It became the standard headframe form for the Harpener Bergbau AG, which had 26 such frames erected over its various shafts. By 1890 annual output stood at approximately 230,000 tonnes.
In 1890 the coke works was brought into operation, processing the coal raised at the colliery. In 1891 the Harpener Bergbau AG took over the Zechen Gneisenau, Scharnhorst, and Preußen. Around 1895 the workforce numbered approximately 1,000.
In 1887 a firedamp explosion killed 15 workers; in 1902 an explosion of explosives on the colliery yard killed 13. In 1899 the Zeche Kurl was incorporated, and in 1908 the Gewerkschaften Victoria and Kobold near Lünen came under Harpener control. In 1903 a third shaft — Schacht 3 — was sunk; all three shafts received Tomson-Böcke of the same design, of which the one over Schacht 2 (built 1885–86) alone survives.
A modern Zentralkokerei was erected in 1927–28 to replace the older works, and was extended in 1929 with a large Gasometer. The ventilation shaft Grevel, sunk 1925–27 to serve Zeche Preußen and taken over after Preußen's closure in 1929, was also operated by Gneisenau. In 1930 a colliery railway was brought into service connecting the Schachtanlage Gneisenau to the Preußenhafen on the Datteln-Hamm-Kanal at Lünen-Süd; the harbour had been opened in 1914.
By the merging of the various subsidiary collieries, the construction of a fourth shaft became necessary; Schacht 4 entered service on 10 September 1932, and in 1933–34 the architecturally unique 52-metre Doppelbockstrebengerüst — a double-braced double headframe, designed to fit the cramped site — was brought into service over it, replacing Schacht 4 as the Zentralförderschacht. In the machine houses of Schacht 4 the original twin steam winding engines survive. In 1925 the Zeche Massener Tiefbau at Unna was incorporated.
By 1935, with 2,500 workers, output exceeded one million tonnes for the first time. During the Second World War prisoners of war were employed at the colliery, housed in a barracks camp on the Derner Straße. Allied bombing severely damaged the surface installations.
Production was resumed two months after the end of the war in 1945 and was continually increased thereafter. In 1963 an underground connection (Verbund) was made with the Zeche Victoria in Lünen, and the headframe over Schacht 3 was rebuilt with a Fritz Schupp-designed 68-metre concrete winding tower with automated skip hoisting, which replaced Schacht 4 as the central winding shaft. In 1969 the Zeche Gneisenau became part of the Ruhrkohle AG.
By 1970 the colliery, with 6,000 workers and over 3 million tonnes annual output, was the largest colliery in the Ruhr. In 1971–77 hydromechanical mining was tested in steeply inclined seams but proved uneconomic. The highest annual output of 4.2 million tonnes was achieved in 1974 with more than 6,300 workers, making Gneisenau one of the largest collieries in Europe.
The total concession at its greatest extent, incorporating Gneisenau, Scharnhorst, Kurl, Preußen I, Preußen II, and Victoria, covered 69.8 km². A coke-works explosion on 17 July 1974 killed two workers and injured 13 more and caused damage of 10 million DM, destroying a pipe bridge carrying 42 lines. Coal production was halted on 4 August 1985.
The coal from the Victoria 1/2 and Kurl 3 fields continued to be raised via the Zeche Haus Aden until 1991 and 1998 respectively. The coke works operated until its closure in 1989; the colliery power station closed in 1990. Schacht 4 served as an inspection shaft for the central mine-water pumping until 1999, after which all shafts were backfilled.
Of the large site, only two headframes survive: the Tomson-Bock over Schacht 2 with its machine house, and the Doppelbockgerüst over Schacht 4 with its two machine houses. Both were listed as Baudenkmale in the Denkmalliste der Stadt Dortmund in 1989. In 1995 both structures passed into the ownership of the Stiftung Industriedenkmalpflege und Geschichtskultur.
In 2006 a retail centre was constructed by Montan-Grundstücksgesellschaft mbH on parts of the former colliery land. The former colliery railway trackbed is now used as the Gneisenau-Trasse cycle and walking path. The Förderkreis Zechenkultur Gneisenau e.V. maintains the northern machine house of Schacht 4 and its historic steam winding engine as a publicly accessible industrial heritage site, open for guided visits and used as a civil registry office for weddings.