A guided tour of our visitor mine is one of the highlights of a visit to the museum. Equipped with a helmet, participants venture into a coal seam in Hettberg, learn how to use a mining hammer and pneumatic drill, and experience the typical ‘on-site’ atmosphere of a Ruhr region coal mine.

In 1990, the 130-metre-long old ‘Nachtigallstollen’ tunnel was converted into a visitor mine. Since then, additional old mining structures have been developed and made accessible.  An underground journey through time starts here. A mining face and tunnel excavation in the ‘Geitling 3’ coal seam show the typical working conditions of small-scale mining after 1945.