Zeche Hugo is a former coal mine located in Gelsenkirchen, Germany (relatively near Düsseldorf). Established in 1873 the mine continued to operate until 2000, at which time the coal seam under Gelsenkirchen had been almost fully exploited. At it’s height in the 1960’s it employed 5000 and excavated 3.5 millions tons a year. It operated out of 8 shafts and eventually reached a depth of 1200 metres.
Zeche Hugo is famous for its large hall of ‘bird cages’, officially known as ‘Kaue’, they were used to hold workers clothing and possessions during their shifts. As the mine worked into the latter half of the 20th century, a large proportion of the workforce consisted of immigrants, mostly of Turkish descent.
We turned up here in 32 degree heat dressed in true exploring attire… all black! We made our way to the site which looks like it’s being used as a builders yard now as there were stacks of bricks and other related construction bumph.
We stood a while and observed, couldn’t see much going on but the main gate was wide open, as was what looked like a newly installed metal door on the side of the building. It was too hot to go jumping fences so I decided to wanter straight into the main gates, down the drive and into the door. We made our way inside and could hear the sound of music playing on a radio so there was obviously someone around. We’d already spotted the “bird cages” from outside so knew which floor to head for. There were lots of new internal metal mesh doors which were open but would otherwise securely lock the way through. We eyeballed an open window at ground level on our way through the building in case of escape.
When we entered the main room, I was pretty disappointed to be honest. Probably not really worthy of a report but there’s a story to tell and a few snaps so what the hell. We set about taking pictures being absolutely silent so as not to disturb whoever was in the building below. Nobby headed up to the next level to try for a different angle and while he was upstairs, I walked around a corner only to see 2 guys at the other end of the room who then spotted me. There was a bit of a chase and we almost outwitted them but an accidental clout with a tripod into some metal lockers gave our position away. The guys were fine and let us out and then Nobby carried on getting some snaps and made his way out afterwards.
