Former Saar hard coal colliery at Saarbrücken-Klarenthal, operating today as an open visitor mine with listed 1915 headframe, preserved 1916/17 steam winding engine, and 800 metres of active underground workings.
Bergwerk Velsen is a former hard coal colliery in the Saarbrücker district of Klarenthal. Its origins lie in the expansion of the Grube Geislautern, which by the late nineteenth century had exhausted its workable seams near Saarbrücken. The Rosselschacht was sunk in 1899 as the founding shaft of a new mine; coal production began in 1904.
In 1907 the enterprise was renamed Grube Velsen after the Oberberghauptmann Gustav von Velsen (1847–1923). A second shaft complex, Schacht Gustav II, was developed between 1913 and 1917. Coal extraction ceased in 1965, when the mine became part of the Verbundbergwerk Warndt.
Gustavschacht II continued as a ventilation, manriding, and material shaft for the Grube Warndt until 2005. An underground training gallery, developed from a wartime air-raid shelter, served as the colliery apprentice training facility from 1945 until 2011. In 2000 the Erlebnisbergwerk Velsen was established in the former Lehrstollen.
The site was designated a priority heritage colliery site by the Saarland state government in 2013 and placed under monument protection in 2019. The building ensemble of Grube Velsen, including the 30.95-metre Dingler headframe of Schacht Gustav II (1915) and the 1916/17 twin steam winding engine, is described as the only almost completely preserved colliery complex from the era of the Prussian Bergfiskus.
The predecessor enterprise of Grube Velsen was the Grube Geislautern, which had operated in the Rotweg area of Saarbrücken since around 1750. As the seams at the Rotweg site neared exhaustion in the late nineteenth century, trial boreholes located further coal in the Rosseltal. In 1899 the Versuchsschacht II at Kleinrosseln was developed as the Rosselschacht and a new mine was formally established.
Initially the shaft was equipped with a timber headframe; in 1906 an iron braced lattice frame was installed. The Ostschacht (later Ludwigsschacht) was angehauen in 1902. Coal production began in 1904.
In 1907 the mine was renamed Grube Velsen in honour of the Oberberghauptmann Gustav von Velsen (1847–1923), who gave his name to both the mine and the local settlement; in the same year the Rosselschacht was renamed Gustavschacht (later Gustavschacht I), and the mine gained rail access via the newly constructed Eisenbahnlinie Fürstenhausen–Großrosseln on 1 July 1907, a line built specifically to open up the Warndt coal. From 1913 the mine was expanded according to its original design as a double-shaft operation. The Annaschacht, named after the deceased wife of Gustav von Velsen, was sunk from 1913; from 1920 it was redesignated Gustavschacht II.
The Doppelschacht Gustav II received a German braced lattice headframe of steel lattice construction by the Zweibrücken firm Dingler in 1915; the frame stands 30.95 metres and was reinforced again in 1936. The 1915 Dingler headframe is designed for double hoisting, with two symmetrical rope lines. A matching double winding engine house was constructed for Schacht Gustav II, containing two separate winding machine rooms of equal dimensions, with the sandstone facade articulated by pilasters and arched windows with elegant external staircases.
In the right section of this building the original twin-cylinder compound steam winding engine made by the Dingler-Werke Zweibrücken in 1916/17 survives in working order. The machine, designated Dampffördermaschine Gustav II-West, is the oldest surviving winding engine of the Saarbergbau. It was fully overhauled in 1986/87.
A small part of the mine workings was used as an air-raid shelter for the colliery workforce during the Second World War. In the post-war period this area was greatly expanded to serve as a Lehrstollen (training gallery), where apprentice miners from 1945 until 2011 received systematic underground instruction in machinery, safety installations, and mining vocabulary using genuine equipment and experienced Lehrhauer instructors. In 1958 Gustavschacht I was converted from cage to skip hoisting (Gefäßförderung), substantially increasing hoisting capacity.
Between 1937 and 1939 Gustavschacht I was deepened to its final level, reaching the fifth Sohle at 843 metres depth. In 1965 the Grube Velsen lost its independent status and became part of the Verbundbergwerk Warndt; coal extraction was thereupon ceased. Gustavschacht II continued in operation as a ventilation, manriding, and material shaft for the Grube Warndt, carrying the underground workforce of the wider operation.
Gustavschacht I was backfilled in 1978 and its headframe subsequently demolished. In 2000 the RAG reduced its training activities and established the Erlebnisbergwerk Velsen in the former Lehrstollen buildings, enabling public visits. Gustavschacht II continued as a working shaft of the Grube Warndt until 2005, when the Bergwerk Warndt/Luisenthal operation was finally shut down; the shaft was then partially backfilled.
The underground Lehrstollen continued to operate for training purposes until 2011. In 2011 former miners formed the Erlebnisbergwerk Velsen e.V., a registered non-profit association, to continue the tours that had been operated by the RAG and to save the stollen from a threatened concrete backfill. The association pached the bergwerk from the RAG for a symbolic price of one euro, assuming responsibility for maintenance and all ongoing costs.
In 2013 the Saarland state government commissioned an expert report which identified Velsen as one of four priority heritage sites for the documentation of the history of the Saarland hard coal industry. The building ensemble of Grube Velsen, comprising the Gustavschacht II headframe, the double winding engine house, the winding equipment, pithead baths, the administrative building, and the Zechenhaus, is the only almost completely preserved colliery complex from the era of the Prussian Bergfiskus. The former Gustavschacht I winding engine house survives as a repurposed heating plant.
The Erlebnisbergwerk Velsen today offers guided visits to approximately 800 metres of underground workings on three levels, featuring functioning machinery including the only blind shaft in Germany with a pneumatic Koepescheibe (friction disc) winding machine. The underground installation has been placed under monument protection (Denkmalschutz) as of 2019. Original railway vehicles including former colliery locomotives are used for visitor transport on an above-ground rail network.
