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In the wake of the Great War the coal mines of the Saar region were taken under the supervision of the national authorities and organised into a single parastatal enterprise. In addition to the mines themselves, this enterprise controls the coal processing, washing and distribution facilities, and manages its own fleet of rail wagons and barges. The enterprise employs more than forty-eight thousand workers in its mines, processing facilities and its administrative organisations.

The mines operated by the concern include:

Bergwerk Ensdorf – coal deposits worked since the 1730s, deep shafts first sunk in 1826
Bergwerk Jägersfreude – coal deposits worked since the early 1700s, deep mining begun in the 1840s
Grube Camphausen – deep shafts first sunk in 1871
Grube Frankenholz – formerly a part of the Royal Bavarian fisc, exploited since the 1840s
Grube Göttelborn – worked since medieval times, deep shafts first sunk in 1838
Grube Heinitz – developed in the 1850s, with the first deep shaft completed in 1859
Grube Hirschbach – coal deposits worked since the 1790s, deep shafts first sunk in 1853
Grube Kohlwald – surface mining from 1750, reopened in 1843
Grube König – opened in 1820, among the first of the Saar mines to employ deep mining
Grube Luisenthal – coal resources first exploited in 1731, systematic mining commenced in 1818
Grube Maybach – opened in 1871
Grube Nordfeld – opened in 1879
Grube Reden – first opened in 1846, one of the deepest of the Saar coal mines
Grube Rischbach – formerly a part of the Royal Bavarian fisc, exploited since the 1840s
Grube Velsen – opened in 1881
Grube Viktoria – opened in 1872
Grube von der Heydt – opened in 1850 under Prussian supervision
Grube Warndt – exploited since the early 1800s, systematic mining commenced in 1830

This coal mine, located near the town of Uebach-Palenberg in the Heinsberg District, was founded in 1910, with the first shafts sunk in 1912. A mining accident in 1913 slowed progress, but in 1915 the first coal was extracted from the mine. Coal washing and processing facilities were erected in the years following the Great War, and a workers’ housing complex constructed nearby. Production at the mine progressed in the postwar period, with 77,000 tonnes of coal being produced in 1922, rising to more than 700,000 tonnes by 1930. The mine presently employs more than three thousand workers in the mine itself, the processing facilities and in administration.

This coal mine, located north of the town of Alsdorf, was first planned in 1908, but uncertain markets and the disruption of the Great War delayed exploitation of its coal resources until 1921, when completion of the coking plant permitted production to proceed. The output of the mine is processed for coke and its by-products, which are supplied to the Ruhr industrial complex or to the metallurgical industry of France – half the shares of the firm are held by the Sociéte des Aciéries de Longwy. Present output of the mine is approximately one million tons of coal per annum, and a workforce of more than three thousand is employed.

This enterprise is the principal coal mining firm operating in the Aachen coal region, in western Germany near the Belgian and French frontiers. It was founded in 1834 and grew in tandem with the industrial development of the Ruhr iron and steel mills, as well as meeting demand for coal from domestic and other industrial customers. The firm operates numerous mines in the region – some of which have been linked underground – as well as processing and distribution facilities throughout the region.

Mines operated by the concern include:

Grube Adolf, Merkstein – first production in 1913
Grube Anna, Alsdorf – first production in 1854; operates one of the largest coking plants in Western Europe
Grube Emil Mayrisch, Siersdorf – opened in 1938, most modern of the concern’s mines
Grube Gouley, Morsbach – exploitation dates from 1817, acquired by the concern in 1907 and expanded
Grube Laurweg, Kohlscheid – first production in 1907
Grube Maria, Höngen – first production in 1848
Grube Reserve, Nothberg – first production in 1856, modernised and expanded in 1928
Zeche Graf Schwerin, Castrop – first production in 1872
Zeche Lothringen, Gerthe – first production in 1872
Zeche Sophia-Jacoba, Hückelhoven – first production in 1914
Zeche Westfalen, Ahlen – first production in 1900

The Zeche Ewald coal mine at Herten in Westphalia was first opened in 1872, and provided metallurgical coal to the growing industrial district of the Ruhr from 1877. Coking facilities were constructed in 1880, and the completion of a second large shaft in 1892 significantly increased the output of the mine. Additional shafts were completed in 1895, 1911 and 1912; at the time of the Great War the rate of extraction of coal was on the order of one million tonnes per annum. Production continued in the postwar period, with a seventh shaft being completed in 1928, which boosted production to 1,250,000 tonnes per year. Presently more than four thousand workers are employed in the mine, inclusive of workers at the processing and coking facilities.

Located near the Westphalian town of Oer-Erkenschwick, this mine was developed early in the Twentieth Century, with the first deep shaft being completed in 1902. Construction of a second deep shaft was delayed by seepage of too much water, but a third shaft was successfully sunk in 1904. Coal processing and coking facilities were constructed between 1909 and 1911, and the mine played an important role in supporting the national industrial effort during the Great War. The delayed second shaft was finally completed in 1919; in that same year a fourth shaft, which had been begun in 1913, was also completed. At the present time extraction of coal from the mine proceeds at a rate of approximately one million tonnes annually, and the works employ some four thousand five hundred miners and other workers in the processing facilities.

This mining enterprise was founded in 1857 through the amalgamation of several smaller coal mines near the villages of Neukirchen, Vluyn, Niephauserfeld, Kapellen and Moers. In 1911 the firm sank its first deep shaft at Dickscheheide between Neukirchen und Vluyn, but production from the mine was delayed by the shortages of materiel during the Great War. Nevertheless the first section of the mine was complete in 1919, and the first coal extracted in 1921. Unlike many of the mines in the region, the coal extracted at Dickscheheide was suitable only for domestic heating use, and consequently demand for it was light in its early years. Completion of a briquette works in 1931, together with rising demand for heating coal, saw the firm enter a new era of prosperity. By 1938 coal was being extracted from the mine at a rate of one million tonnes per year. A significant amount of mechanised equipment is used within the mine, which employs more than three thousand workers.

The mining of coal in the vicinity of the villages of Herringen and Pelkum dates from 1874, when the pioneering entrepreneur Heinrich Grimberg open the first surface mines; these were not economically successful, and the properties in question were disposed of in 1900 to the de Wendel family of Lorraine, who began the sinking of two deep shafts in 1901. By 1904 the shafts had reached depths of up to 700 metres and the first coal was successfully extracted that year. By 1906 the mine was employing more than six hundred workers and annual production was on the order of 30,000 tonnes. Further investment followed and by 1911 the mine employed more than one thousand three hundred workers and production reached 375,000 tonnes. Facilities at the mine included coal washing and preparation sheds and railway links.

During the Great War the mine was sequestered as enemy property, and was administered by the Prussian Treasury. Control of the mine was returned to the de Wendel family in 1918, as provided by the postwar peace settlement. Despite the turmoil of such changes, growth of the mine continued. A third shaft was sunk in 1922, and in 1925 a coal-loading basin was constructed on the Datteln-Hamm-Kanal, which greatly facilitated coal deliveries to the Westphalian industrial district and for export. In 1926 the first of two serious accidents struck the mine, resulting in suspension of operations for a considerable period during which much improved ventilation shafts were constructed. The firm itself was reconstructed as a joint-stock company in 1930, though the de Wendel family continued to hold all of the shares. In that year the mine employed some four thousand three hundred workers and produced more than one million tonnes of coal. The introduction of mechanised equipment for mining and extraction has since reduced labor demands at the mine, and in 1941 it produced 1,100,000 tonnes of coal yet employed only three thousand four hundred miners.

This coal mine, located in Recklinghausen, has had a chequered history since 1856, when the first test mines were dug in the region. During the Gründerzeit vast sums were invested in the mining industry, but the exploitation of these coal reserves was delayed, first by disputes over mining rights, and then by the financial depression which followed the initial Gründerzeit expansion. It was not until the middle 1880s that progress could begin on construction of a deep shaft, and even this effort was plagued by gas explosions, which set back progress significantly. The first coal was extracted from the mine in 1886. In 1888 coking facilities were constructed at the mine, coke being in high demand for the steel industry of the Ruhr. By 1896 the situation at the mine had stabilised, and in that year nearly six hundred thousand tonnes of coal was extracted, and coke to the amount of 150,000 tonnes was produced.

Prior to the Great War two additional deep shafts were sunk and a fifth completed during the hostilities, despite the shortages occasioned by the hostilities. In 1916 the facilities were upgraded to include a coal tar distillation unit, increasing the firm’s output of chemicals required for war production. In the years following the Great War two further deep shafts were dug, increasing the mines annual output to approximately one million tonnes per annum. Insofar as possible, mechanised mining equipment was introduced to maintain worker productivity.

This enterprise was formed in 1927 as part of the rationalisation of the Ruhr coal mining industry. It operates two mines and joint coal processing facilities in the vicinity of Duisburg. These are the Zeche Diergardt, Rheinhausen-Asterlagen, founded in 1857, with an annual production of 600,000 tonnes of coal, and the Zeche Wilhelmine Mevissen, Bergheim-Oestrum, founded in 1913, with an annual production of 900,000 tonnes of coal. Most of the output of the mines is processed for metallurgical use with the coke by-products used in the chemical industry of the region. Total employment is in excess of three thousand.

This firm, located in the city of Wels in Upper Austria, was organised in 1919 as a farmers’ cooperative to revive the Austrian peat industry – both as fuel and as a soil amendment in agriculture. It introduced several innovations in extraction and handling methods, and was among the first firms to market peat on a national scale. It has since diversified its activities into timber harvesting and forest management through the acquisition in 1936 of the firm Welser Holzindustrie, and into brown coal mining through the purchase in 1941 of the Wolfsegg-Traunthaler Kohlenwerks.

The roots of this firm date to 1867, when the Froser Braunkohlen-Bergbau AG opened the brown coal mine “Ludwig”, which was later renamed as the Zeche Anhalt. In 1881 the Gewerkschaft Zeche Anhalt, the mine’s operating company, formed the Anhaltische Kohlenwerke in Berlin to raise additional capital and finance expansion. In the following years numerous other brown coal pits in the region were acquired, and in 1908 the concern moved its headquarters from Berlin to the city of Halle. In 1932 the industrial entrepreneurs Ignaz and Julius Petschek took over the majority of the shares and integrated it with their other mining interests – including the Werschen-Weißenfelsener Braunkohlen AG as well as the coal trading firm Verkehrs und Handels AG, serving as the capstone of their enterprise.

The company is active in the extraction and processing of brown coal in Anhalt and Thuringia. Among other facilities it operates briquette factories, coal gasification facilities, brickworks, and coal-fired power plants.