As a man of the first hour, Peter Iwinski has often been asked by us to give a guided tour of the Zollverein coking plant. The old coker can still paint the past in color, coal black of course, but also red-hot like the fires of the coke oven batteries. The coal was baked in 304 ovens until thousands of tons of coke and many millions of cubic meters of gas were extracted.

Iwinski vividly explains how the coke oven gas had to be extracted and cooled down, and how tar and benzene were filtered out. Those who worked on the furnace chambers back then were exposed to the forces of nature. "It was no walk in the park for the guys".

In the suction and compressor hall, where the gases are processed at the time, things were a little more moderate, dry but loud. "There was a machine operator here, two more over there." Iwinski points to a gas vacuum cleaner, which today looks almost like an industrial sculpture on the sparkling clean floor with underfloor heating. "We had six of them, three of which were always in constant operation."

1000 people in four shifts per day

"1000 people at peak times, four shifts a day" worked at the coking plant back then, explains Iwinski. They worked around the clock on the "white side" of the coking plant to process the coal. At weekends, Iwinski and his colleagues sometimes had to work 12-hour shifts.

If you would like to find out more or would like to take a guided tour to see for yourself the once loud and hot places of the coking plant: